No one who isn't already watching AEW is going to be rushing to watch now because of Christian in 2021. Khan made it sound like a game changer, a ratings draw, Christian is neither. Why would anyone be all that excited for him now?
Him and Edge teaming up was the one draw, and that's gone. I don't want to see him main eventing AEW shows, it's a waste of a slot. He's a great worker, guess what, AEW has plenty of those already.
If you had the bloke come out as a surprise, the overall reaction would be ten times more positive. Khan is a promoter, I get the need to promote, make announcements sound exciting, but don't promote yourself into a corner you can't get out of.
It was the most TNA of moves, even down him having the same music! AEW need to be bloody careful with how they promote signings from now on.
The funny thing is when Christian came back he did actually do well for the ratings on that Raw. While Edge hasnt meant anything for the ratings.
Obviously you'd choose Edge over Christian as he's a bigger star. And part of the reason Christian does have star power is because Edge is being pushed as the royal rumble winner and a main event at wrestlemania this year. But its funny that actually Christian has done well for WWE's ratings when he has been there a few times, while Edge has surprisingly not meant much. And when he went down to NXT they still did poorly, whereas when Sasha and Bayley and people like that went down to NXT they did well.
And this is a continuation of the point. I've looked at the ratings data and I listen to people who its their job to look through it and inform. So I will know that Christian did well for his segment and Edge's segments havent been doing as well as we'd think for someone having a return and being treated as a huge star.
I wouldnt know this if I didnt look at the data or listen to people who do look at the data. I'd assume that Edge is a bigger star so he's going to draw more people to watch tv. I'd be out of touch with reality, just so I could make whiny posts about Meltzer
Here's the summary from the newsletter the week Christian was on Raw
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Raw on 6/15 averaged 1,939,000 viewers, the best number for the show since 4/6, the Raw after WrestleMania, which did 2,100,000 viewers. It even beat the 5/11 show’s 1,919,000 viewers which was the show where Becky Lynch announced her pregnancy.
The keys appear to be the PPV bump in the first hour, but also retention through three hours with more angles and talking, less wrestling, and the show-long tease of Christian’s first match in years, Ric Flair appearing live and Big Show returning.
The audience was up 11.6 percent from last week, but in 18-49, the number was identical. The key to the growth was a huge increase in teenage girls and a huge increase in those over 50, plus retaining the over 50 viewers over the three hours far better than usual, which likely ties in with the focus on older performers and Flair, who is a historically big draw to that group, plus Show and Christian who haven’t been around. I don’t believe Christian himself is going to be a ratings changer since Edge hasn’t been, but the show was built around Christian wrestling, whereas Edge never teased an actual television match.
Raw was 12th overall for the night, with the news audience being way down from the past three months. It was fourth among non-news shows. In 18-49, Raw was fifth overall, and beat every news show.
The first-to-third hour overall drop was 7.3 percent, much lower than usual, largely due to a much lower than usual drop of over 50 aged viewers. It also fared better than it has in a long time when compared with last year at the same time, with a 13.2 percent decline in viewers and 25.4 percent drop in 18-49, which in both cases is far better than the show has done in recent months in comparisons. The key was promoting the entire show around a WWE title match (under tag team rules no less), a women’s title match and Christian’s first match in years, so they did keep the audience third hour, particularly those over 50, at a better clip than usual.
The overall first-to-third hour declines were 14.0 percent in women 18-49, 11.6 percent in men 18-49, 12.6 percent in girls 12-17, 27.2 percent with teenage boys and 5.2 percent over 50. The latter is a great improvement over usual while the teenage boys tuning out was far greater than usual.
The first hour did 1,982,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,996,000, the first time since 3/9, the last show in an arena, where the second hour gained viewers, which historically happens most of the time during a normal summer. The third hour did 1,838,000 viewers.
The show did a 0.31 in 12-17 (up 19.2 percent from last week), 0.29 in 18-34 (down 9.4 percent from last week), 0.77 in 35-49 (up 4.1 percent from last week) and 0.95 in 50+ (up 15.9 percent from last week).
The audience was 62.3 percent male in 18-49 and 45.9 percent male in 12-17.
Titan Games on NBC on 6/15 did 3,794,000 viewers and an 0.7 in 18-49, with the viewers down 2.5 percent and key demo down 12.5 percent from the prior week. The show was the highest rated show on TV in 18-49 and third overall trailing two reruns on CBS. NBC was the only network running first run programming.
Smackdown on 6/11 did a 1.35 rating and 2,065,000 viewers (a low 1.27 viewers per home), the best numbers for ratings and viewers since 4/17. Most likely the increase had to do with the long build for the A.J. Styles vs. Daniel Bryan IC title match as well as lack of competition since every other network show was a rerun.
The keys are that far more homes watched, but they were single viewer homes, and older viewers than usual.
Smackdown won in 18-49 at 0.5 (655,000 viewers, basically the same as the 656,000 the prior week with the lower overall audience). It’s the same number it’s been locked at for weeks. It also won in 18-34 at 0.3 and tied with a 20/20 rerun for first in 25-54 at 0.7 as well as won in all male demos.
The total audience was up 4.1 percent from the prior week and the rating was up 6.3 percent. .
Last year in the same time slot, FOX had U.S. Open golf coverage which did 2,601,000 viewers and an 0.5 in 18-49, so 20.6 percent overall and the same in the demo.
The Total Divas on 6/11 gender reveal episode (Nikki & Artem are having a boy; Brie and Bryan, well, they refused to go along with Nikki’s plan of revealing at the party) did 693,000 viewers and an 0.29 in 18-49, which showed huge interest.
In 18-49, it was No. 8 for the night, and No. 4 in its time slot, and aside from news the only show that beat it head-to-head on cable in 18-49 was Real Housewives of New York at 0.42.
The audience was up 68.6 percent overall and 70.6 percent in 18-49. I guess Raw needs to advertise Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins’ gender reveal for a one night rating boost.
The show did a 0.14 in 12-17 (up 55.6 percent), 0.21 in 18-34 (up 75.0 percent), 0.37 in 35-49 (up 68.2 percent) and 0.19 in 50+ (up 46.2 percent).
The audience was 29.3 percent male in 18-49 and 22.1 percent male in 12-17.
It was not good news for Matt Striker. Striker was eliminated from “Labor of Love” on 6/11. That show on FOX did 912,000 viewers and a 0.2 in 18-49. It was the least watched show on network television both in the demo and overall.
AEW on 6/10 did 1.30 viewers per home. That’s much lower than usual, so it was a normal amount of homes watching but viewers less watching together, which has been the company’s strong point."
So thats the level of detail he's going into and informing people about. Thats news, not opinion, although he is trying to logic why the numbers might be up or down in certain parts of the show. Obviously that part is opinion based on the data
" because its bizarre, but I wont make a big deal of it for a week like it means WWE will be cancelled. Because next show it'll be something else thats dumb or doesnt go right and they'll still be around and the biggest wrestling company