When AEW burst onto the scene in 2019, it was a fresh new challenger to WWE. After years of stagnation under Vince McMahon, much of the wrestling community had grown tired of WWE’s commitment to sticking to a certain formula. Matches were predictable, often boring, and lacked the physicality of The Attitude era.
AEW’s brash approach to in-ring production and penchant for violence quickly made it the second-largest wrestling promoter in the world. However, since Paul Levesque gained more power within WWE, the company has experienced a massive resurgence and is arguably more successful than it has been in over 20 years.
This resurgence has come at the expense of AEW, whose television numbers and ratings have steadily declined over the past two years. According to Dave Meltzer in a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the decline in popularity and viewership has become a point of discussion in the AEW locker room.
“In some cases, it’s better in the dressing room,” Meltzer wrote. “I think the difference is that most people get along and most people like Tony Khan, but there are concerns about viewership and popularity that didn’t exist in the past. In the dressing room, people generally get along.”
A major turning point for AEW came nearly a year ago when CM Punk was suspended and eventually fired for a backstage brawl with Jack Perry at All-In In London. Punk eventually returned to WWE, taking his diehard fanbase with him. This move damaged the AEW brand in many ways and accelerated the company’s decline in popularity.
Simply put, there was far too much drama behind the scenes, so Meltzer provided an update on the current harmony in the locker room. Still, concerns about the company’s popularity are valid. AEW hasn’t cracked the 1 million viewer mark in over a year and has rarely reached 800,000 viewers.
Of course, if the premier wrestling product experiences a massive upswing, other companies will feel the trickle-down effect. AEW needs to continue to evolve its offering, hire smart wrestling people and stay the course. Eventually, it should overcome the current doldrums and start attracting new fans.
How Khan will get that message across to the affected employees remains to be seen, but for now, there is no doubt that when it comes to wrestling promotions, AEW continues to be “the best of the rest.”
