It was just announced last week that AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery have agreed to a new media rights deal, reportedly set to make the wrestling promotion profitable for the first time in its five-year existence. However, it's not all good news for AEW right now, as the company continues to struggle against declining ratings.
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Writing in today's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer assessed the situation that AEW currently finds itself in. The longtime wrestling reporter noted that both "AEW Collision" and "AEW Rampage" posted poor ratings in their regular timeslot, while "AEW Dynamite" performed abysmally with its brief shift to Tuesday night worse than previous Tuesday broadcasts.
"This will be the first time 'Dynamite' won't be in the top 25 for the night overall, nor will they come near the top ten for the week in the entertainment listings," Meltzer wrote.
Another area in which AEW is struggling is live attendance, which Meltzer stated is usually an early indicator for ratings. He believes the fact that the company stopped advertising most matches ahead of time has hurt attendance, and now with a bigger budget to work with, Meltzer hopes AEW will increase local marketing for its events.
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Ratings in AEW have been trending in the wrong direction for some time now, and the situation does not appear to be getting any better. Meltzer noted that one particular demographic may spell trouble for the promotion if things don't improve.
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"Across the board, they are hemorrhaging 18-34 viewers with numbers that would have been thought to be almost impossible a few weeks ago," Meltzer continued. "Unlike this past week, where there were very valid reasons for the numbers, this decline has been consistent since the end of February, and it's the key age group, not as far as television ratings, but as far as both building a future and boosting things like attendance and merchandise."
That demographic used to be AEW's strongest, and could sometimes even beat "WWE Raw" or "WWE SmackDown" in the ratings. However, this no longer seems to be the case.
While the new media rights deal is undoubtedly a strong positive for the company, there are complications that come along with it. AEW now has to justify its value to WBD, showing the conglomerate that they are worth the $555 million they're reportedly set to make over the next several years.
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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Wrestling Observer Newsletter with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
