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IS IT TOO SOON FOR CODY VS. JERICHO, IS AEW RAISING THE TIDE FOR OTHER PROMOTIONS, AEW BOOKING AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2019-10-29 10:00:00

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I love AEW. I think they are fresh and different. I don’t always feel like I know the end result of the match before it happens like I do with the WWE. PAC won matches I thought he was going to lose. I was shocked that Private Party beat the Young Bucks. I was even wavering in who would win Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin match because there was a moment where I thought they might play off the Cody Rhodes-Darby Allin draw and build on that for Full Gear and have Jericho still get involved in the match to continue the Cody-Jericho feud later. Even Moxley taking out PAC while they seem to both be feuding with Kenny Omega threw me off. Do you think AEW is benefiting off the newness of their product and that, over time, the match outcomes will start to become more predictable as we start to become more accustomed to the booking patterns? Are is AEW just better at creative than the WWE?

They are definitely more unpredictable than WWE, for sure.  But part of that is that they are brand new so they are establishing wrestlers to the fan base.  Everything is brand new, with no history behind it, so there is no established pattern for fans.  To me, NXT is more unpredictable in their booking than AEW is since they have history and it’s harder to keep things fresh after all the years of product.  With that said, I never thought Allin would beat Jericho, for instance.  So they are getting you to believe more than they are getting me to.  Time will tell what their booking philosophy is and we can make a verdict at that time.

Is the Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes feud a play off of the Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes feud? I see a lot of similarities in Chris Jericho’s title reign to Ric Flair’s early title reigns. I see a great Elite vs. Inner Circle War Games match happening in the future. And Cody, despite the board room attire, still feels like the every man compared to a lil bit of bubbly Jericho. Do you think they rushed this feud or do you think this feud has legs?  

First, I don’t see Dusty vs. Flair here.  I think that is a stretch.  As for the feud, sure they are two good wrestlers and if it’s booked properly it should be able to be sustained for a while.  Is it too soon?  I would say no. It’s a brand new product, one that has lost over 400,000 viewers in their original airing time slot from week one to week four.  I think they need to run their best stuff out there and try and stop the audience erosion. 

Can AEW benefit Impact Wrestling, NWA and MLW? I feel that we have always had alternatives to the WWE in the past, but no one paid any attention because those alternatives didn’t have the proper financial backing (advertising, contract offers, tv) to get fans to take notice. But AEW does and fans see an alternative to the WWE. Can AEW’s success lead fans down the rabbit hole to check out other alternatives? I haven’t seen MLW yet, but Impact has been really consistent and NWA feels fresh and innovative in its throwback style. I really want them all to succeed and hope there is a ripple effect when it comes to AEW’s success. Thoughts?

You’d hope so but as I said above, from week one to week four of AEW has lost 446,000 viewers, which is almost a third of what they drew the first week.  So I looked at the NWA show. The first episode did 507,000 views.  As of Sunday morning, the third episode did 181,000 views.  And that is for a free show on YouTube.  MLW has been around for a while and you have not watched it.  You are an example of AEW not carrying over to other companies.  I had hoped that AEW would bring a rise to the business overall, and maybe it will in the long run.  But right now, I am not seeing it.

Can the WWE learn anything from AEW in how they created a compelling secondary show in AEW Dark while WWE can’t ever make Main Event remotely interesting, from a match quality standpoint, despite so much talent on their roster?

Yes, what they can learn from AEW is that it’s much better to have two shows that bring in over a half billion dollars a year in revenue than to have to put a second show on YouTube for whatever advertising money they can get for it.  Seriously, sometimes fans don’t look at the business for what it is, BUSINESS!

The Jericho cruise runs during mid-week. And many AEW starts will be on it. Will they be doing Dynamite from the cruise or doing a pre-taped show that week?

I haven’t heard one way or the other as AEW has only announced dates into December.  It would be pretty odd to do a show from a cruise ship, though I wouldn’t be shocked to see some angles happen there.  My guess is that they will do a show and air some taped stuff as well.

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