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I know nobody wants to say it, but, I think the crossover between AEW and Impact means Impact is on borrowed time. Could this be their one last ditch effort to stay afloat?
No one is saying it because it's not true! AEW offering to work with Impact is a no-brainer for them. They get exposure from a brand that has a larger audience. They would be crazy not to do it! It’s a great deal for them.
Is it true that WWE sends people to class to learn how to speak without their accent, if so, why?
They are an American product so if they prefer people talk in the best version of English possible. It makes sense. They even try to have people get rid of localized accents when possible. It's all in the name of having a more polished product presentation.
We all know HHH's comments a while back in relation to the company not looking to create individual stars, but in turn have the 'WWE' the star. If that's the case, why bring back Goldberg, Undertaker and John Cena at various points?
I think HHH’s comments are reflective of his father-in-law’s philosophy, not that of his own. But yes, the need to go back to the past for that very reasons, they don’t create new stars. It’s a philosophy of Vince McMahon’s that I have never agreed with. Unique stars draw fans. Sure, you have to deal with them financially, but they are who make you more money so it’s worth it.
Do you know there is a conflict of interest in how Cody and Brandi are booked in AEW? It feels very much like when HHH was accused by fans of having creative control and putting himself in major angles way back when. We have seen him do the stair chair shot with Shawn Spears. The belt whipping with MJF. He has the longest and most frequent TV matches. He was in the Brodie tribute angle despite not being the TNT champ (who wasn't even in it), cut the shoot promo on Jericho, for some reason was involved in the Sting debut despite Stings program since having nothing to do with him, sledgehammer to the HHH mock chair, involved in the Snoop Dogg segment and then to add to it not only does Brandi for some reason get a part in the Shaw angle, her face is plastered all over the AEW production trucks you see online despite her never having a prominent TV role in the past. The above angles are basically all the ones you would in advance anticipate views and buzz on, yet they all seem to be played by the same person and his wife?
He has a lot of say on his creative, for sure. Personally, I don’t think he has abused it. I just think he has a vision of what he wants to do and he makes it happen.
Someone reported that AEW's viewership on TNT is up significantly this year vs. last year, over 10 percent. This was in a report where the claim was that Raw, Smackdown and NXT viewership is down. Is that true?
We put the numbers up on the site, so let me take a look. There are only two weeks in this year so for 2021 they are averaging 712,000 viewers and a 0.28 rating in the 18 to 49 demographic. The first two shows of 2020 averaged 957,000 viewers and a 0.36 rating in the demo. So the answer is no to that question. I decided to look at November-December 2020 vs. the same time in 2019 to see if maybe that is what the person who wrote that was talking about. For 2020, AEW averaged 744,645 viewers and a 0.35 in the demo. For the same period in 2019, they averaged 806, 714 viewers and a 0.33 in the demo. Since I am not sure what the person was referring to I took the time AEW started, October of 2019, and went through the first two weeks of 2020. I did the same for October of 2020 and went through the first two weeks of this year. For their starting period they averaged 917,571 viewers and a 0.38 rating. For last year into this year, the number was 746,925 viewers and a 0.33 rating. I don’t know where the person got their numbers for AEW but they don’t add up to me. I don’t doubt that the others are down, but AEW is certainly not up. You can check out the numbers for yourself by clicking here.
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