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IS AEW AN ALTERNATIVE TO RAW, AEW PIGGYBACKING OFF OF RAW, BLOOD AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2021-04-05 10:00:00

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If AEW is an alternative to Raw, why doesn’t their rating go up when Raw’s goes down?

At this point I think that it’s pretty clear that if people see it as an alternative to Raw it’s not the people who tuned out of Raw this week.  From a booking perspective, AEW is no different than Raw to me.  There is no long term storytelling and they do things that insult the intelligence of the viewer, like QT Marshall sharing his love of his wife after just being in a storyline where he was trying bang The Bunny.  What would really be an alternative would be if Raw or Dynamite could actually book a good product.  Neither does it right now so both of their numbers are down.

Do you think AEW is doing their first ever house show on WrestleMania week to try and take advantage of Mania being about three hours away?

Of course it is, without a doubt.  This year’s Mania will draw about 25,000 fans.  Due to COVID, most of them will drive.  Jacksonville is on the way to Tampa for most people coming from the North.  If half of the fans going to Mania are driving south, it’s reasonable for AEW to expect that they could get some of them to drive down a day early and see their show.  I think anyone who thinks AEW chose that date to run their first choice without WrestleMania in mind, is naive.

If so, what about Cody’s statement that AEW would never piggyback off of WrestleMania and saying that would be WWE’s week?

I look at it the same way I look at their “we will treat this as sport” and “records will matter” statements.  They were things that I never expected them to abide by so they should have never said them in the first place.

My wife made me turn off AEW this week after all of the blood in the first hour (and before MJF got dunked in the toilet).  I didn’t argue with her since the show was not good.  I saw that the ratings were way down but also saw AEW fans saying that the show was great and they wondered why people aren’t watching.  Do you think they are missing the point?

They are fans so no, I don’t think they are missing the point.  They like what they like and they are not the owners, they are fans.  Now in the case of Tony Khan, I think HE is missing the point.  Eps and I talked about it a lot on Saturday’s show.  In short, he is marketing to the people that already love the product.  If he wants to grow the company and its audience, he needs to start marketing to people like you and your wife.

Jim Cornette’s greatest rival on screen was Paul E Dangerously.  Jim’s most legendary enemy off screen was Vince Russo.  And the man who’s been cohosting Jim’s podcasts and providing a good contrast/compliment had been “The Great” Brian Last.   So does this mean Jim Cornette needs a northeasterner of Italian or Jewish decent to be the Abbott to his Costello, to bring out the best(or worst) in him?

No, not at all.  Not even close.  He isn't fond of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Tony Khan and none of them fit your mold.

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