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Touching base on the WWE/WCW question you were asked, obviously it worked out for Vince but when WCW took the lead and all Vince more or less did was shrug his shoulders and keep going at the pace he was going back then with no Attitude era as we now know it, what would have happened? Would WCW not take all those God awful risks they did toward the end that made them just look as foolish (IE the infamous Poke of Doom between Kevin Nash and Hogan, bringing in Vince Russo, making David Arquette their champion, making the NWO bigger than it really needed to be, etc etc) and still be in business? Would Vince had sold the company when he still could get money from it before it was to late? Would WCW still be around and be the king of the hill taking more and more of WWE's wrestlers as needed? I think if WWE was EVER going to be run into the ground and been wiped off the face of the planet, so to speak, that would have been the time save for the Attitude Era.
WCW was still somewhat viable as a TV product when it went under but AOL didn’t want it, so it was banished. Unless they were doing business that they did at their peak, they probably still would have been sold. If Vince never did the Attitude Era? I can’t say what would have happened but my feeling is that the company would be in a much different, less financially strong place today.
Do you think that if The Rock came back now….instead of saying “…the millions and millions…”, he would be saying “…the thousands and thousands…”?
Good one! No, he would say millions because that is his schtick but your point is well taken.
Does Vince McMahon need to change when AEW gets so much praise (and rightfully so) for doing all the right things in terms of booking and still can’t stay above 1 million viewers on TNT? It seems that Vince McMahon still maintains a decent rating during today’s days of much lower ratings across the board. And he keeps making big money deals…even with the horrible promotions with Netflix. Maybe Vince is just not meeting our needs.
You hit the nail on the head. Vince wouldn’t change anyway, but everything you mentioned is why he wouldn’t if he were open to doing things differently. AEW gives its fans what they want, but they still aren’t coming close to WWE.
Which brings me to my next question: over time, considering the age demographics, does AEW develop loyal viewers that get older while still bringing in younger viewers, thus slowly increasing their ratings while WWE does the exact opposite, losing ratings as their older demographic sort of stops watching due to old age (I thought that was a pretty tasteful way of asking that…lol)?
Last I checked, the average age of AEW vs. WWE viewer was only a few years younger. Drawing younger viewers is every show’s goal now, now just wrestling. Young people have much different viewing patterns and habits than older people. Time will tell if either company can draw the younger viewers that they will need as current viewers age.
How many more viewers do you think AEW has when factoring in apps, people in the U.S. using VPN to watch the FITE feed, DVR and on-demand? And if it is harder to make advertising money on those platforms, is having a larger following in those areas beneficial to AEW?
After those numbers are added in, viewership rises. AEW knows people use VPNs to buy the PPVs. Do they care? Well, I am sure they would love to get the $50 buys but who knows how many of the people that pay $20 would spend that. You can’t say. And yep, ad rates are set based off of the overnight viewing so DVR usage does effect that. Obviously, they would prefer people to pay full price for PPVs and watch the TV in real time, but that’s life for them.
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