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AEW is about to start a huge summer for the company. With it’s PPV this weekend, a new Saturday show coming, a tour of Canada complete with another Forbidden Door show with New Japan, and the upcoming show in England busting their sales records, this look good on the surface. However, with stories of soft ticket sales for the Saturday show, and ratings are down year over year,. The promotion is not doing as well as many think it could.
Since Top Ten Lists are a big internet thing and I watch all of their cable TV product, I have some observation on how they can tighten up the shows, improve the presentation, and grow the viewership. Your mileage, as always, may vary.
Treat each show like it’s someone’s first: When Stan Lee ran Marvel, he told artists and writers a few simple rules, one of which was to treat each issue as if it is someone’s first. Introduce the characters, explain the conflict, and set the stage so that the story matters to the reader. TV shows do this all the time. When you watch “Friends” characters use each other’s first names and explain the different relationships between the cast members even though that rarely happens in real life so that a new viewer knows who these people are.
AEW is inconstant with this, often leaving it to Excalibur to race through a quick introduction. When someone new is coming to the promotion, take the time to tell us who they are and why we should be excited. In the last few weeks, Miro and Thunder Rosa showed up to speak to Tony Khan, and they were name checked, but that’s it. Who are they? Why have they been gone? Why should we care that this big bearded guy has shown up? You are going to have 5 hours of TV time so you don’t have to go 100 mph the whole time.
Build to main events: The episodes of Dynamite that have done the best segment to segment ratings are the ones where the main event is the focus of the show. It is, after all, the Main Event. A video package showing the issue involved and the history leading to the match. A promo from each side. Commentary talking about how important the match is. It doesn’t have to be as over the top as the old WCW Nitro, where they talked about the main even through the under card, but the main event is what you are building toward. Make it feel important.
Why is it the main event? If it’s a dream match tell us why. Is it a title match? Hammer that home, by showing other title wins. It is a feud? Give us the history and why each side hates the other. Again, use your time to invest the viewer so that they HAVE to stay tuned in to see how this turns out. It also helps in determining what should be a main event. Is it something that can be built toward through the whole show, or is it just a spotlight on what will be a great match, because a great match needs emotional stakes for viewers to stay glued to their sets.
Give a reason for each match before the match starts: This is a pet peeve of mine, I guess, but there should be a reason for every match, even if it’s just “These athletes want to see who’s better.” I know that AEW takes a lot of inspiration from New Japan Pro Wrestling, and they fall back on “This will determine rankings in the future”, but it gives a reason to watch to see a winner and a loser.
Be deliberate about introducing new talent: For every introduction of Action Andretti, there are ten like the introduction of Danhausen. Action Andretti came is with a story: He was to be a tune up match for Chris Jericho and instead beat him. We then learned about him with promos and announcers going over his way into the company so that people have an image as to who he is. Danhausen, however, showed up and we were all expected to know who he is and what his gimmick is. AEW has YET to give any back story for him, why he acts and talks the way he does, etc.
We are expected to know him from the indies, his time in Ring of Honor and all the rest. As I pointed out earlier, you need to assume that when someone shows on Dynamite as a debut, we don’t know who they are and need to be told why we should care. Many of my friends who watch AEW don’t watch indies, Ring of Honor, New Japan or even the AEW You Tube shows. Take the 30 – 60 seconds to tell us who this person is, show some footage of what they can do, and give us the basics so we can root for or against them.
When MJF was introduced, everyone who knew him on the indies knew how great a heel he was, but he came in as Cody’s Friend and turned on him so we KNEW what a despicable bastard he is. Butcher and Blade came in, it was assumed we knew who they were, and to this day it makes it so they are just thought of as “generic tough guys who exist to put over baby faces.”
Quit allowing the press to be a part of the story: You would think this would be self evident, but more and more, stuff we see on the screen is a reaction to things said in the wrestling press. Backstage conflicts are causing issues in how the show is presented. People going to reporters to plant stories is causing further problems with talent, and in the end, it all falls like unneeded chaos that gets in the way of the on screen product.
Here is where I get blunt: Back when AEW was growing and selling out, I commented in my recaps and audios that we didn’t hear anything from the locker room. Once we start getting stories planted in the press, decisions being made because of press stories, promos that reference those stories, and so on, the focus is pulled off the show and into the drama. This is no good for any company ever, including entertainment companies.
When a story shows up that Some Guy is mad at Someother Guy, a supervisor should be pulling both of them into a room and working out the issue, and then reminding them that this passive aggressive stuff should have been left in high school. If a story gets out that Bob Goodmatch is being kept off TV by Frank Politician, you pull a meeting, explain what is going on and tell people this sort of backstage game will not be tolerated.
I work for a pair of big companies, and if I went to the press to put the mouth on someone, I would most likely be shown the door. AEW isn’t a party, it’s a business and it needs to be run professionally.
The next five suggestions will be up tomorrow.
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