As we head into the new year, much of the status with All Elite Wrestling remains the same. The Khan-owned organization aired its Christmas edition of Dynamite this week prior to the Worlds End pay-per-view, a show that will ask fans to pay for more content just a week after the Ring Of Honor Final Battle event, this weekend with the finals of the Continental Classic tournament and a four-way match for the AEW world title as the major selling points. As much as the numbers for the Wednesday show have slipped in recent months, dipping below 600,000 viewers the past few weeks, the lower number that will be garnered for the holiday episode can more or less be discounted because most typical viewers didn’t have the chance to watch wrestling with the busy holiday schedule.
So, while the individual rating for this week will be moot, the fact that the go-home edition of television that was used as a final push to sell the pay-per-view was seen by a minimal audience potentially has a major impact of the buy rate for Worlds End this weekend. More than anything, it seems like the notion to schedule a pay-per-view just days after Christmas was misguided, as Tony Khan seems determined to get his wrestling project to the monthly PPV schedule that became the standard in the late-90s when pro wrestling was significantly more popular than it is now.
Aside from the potential pitfalls of scheduling an event so close to the holidays, the numbers outside of the Christmas episode suggest that the viewing audience simply isn’t invested in a convoluted tournament format since the previously mentioned ratings of below 600,000 viewers took place during the bulk of the Continental Classic. As I’ve said before, the tournament is nothing more than Tony trying to book his version of the New Japan G1 tournament, but also as I said previously, it’s a format that American audiences aren’t familiar with, and the point system is just too inside baseball for the TBS audience because it’s not a format that is usually associated with professional wrestling in the United States. Furthermore, the general sports landscape in America doesn’t run tournaments with that type of format either. As far as the mainstream sports, American fans are familiar with the specific wins and losses for a team or competitor to advance or not. Sure, there are ties in soccer formats, but keep in mind, there’s a reason soccer isn’t as popular in the United States as it is in other parts of the world. When the NFL playoffs start in a few weeks, the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t going to play The Baltimore Ravens over the course of four quarter to end in a draw. The MLB, NBA, and NHL even with the best of series format have a definitive winner for each game.
The bottom line is, American fans aren’t used to a tournament with a point system, and the ratings for the AEW shows reflect that. Let’s not forget that this was also the case when Tony ran the inaugural tournament last year so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the numbers slipped this year as well. One of the many disconnects of the Continental Classic is that it held matches over the span of the entire All Elite line-up, including Rampage, which wasn’t renewed as a part of the new Warner Brothers Discovery TV deal so clearly, the majority of the audience didn’t see at least some portion of the tournament matches that would’ve impacted the standings prior to the finals. It’s no surprise that Rampage was booked like the C-show and most fans don’t watch it so if I had to guess, I’d say that most of the viewing audience for Dynamite considered the Continental Classic a bunch of random matches until the tournament final. Can anyone realistically say that they were invested enough to tune into a show to see if a competitor was going to get more points for a win or if they had to settle for a draw?
Even more so, besides the convoluted format, the concept of “just good wrestling matches” was proven to not be enough to get the general public to tune into the tournament matches last year, which is why the numbers slipped this year, too. Don’t get me wrong, there’s undoubtedly a diehard demographic that can appreciate the work rate matches and it’s definitely impressive, but it’s important to keep in mind that when a show is on national television, the shows must cater to a broader audience.
This might sound repetitive, but it’s still true, the general public is drawn to pro wrestling by the characters and the storylines. If high spot wrestling on its own was going to become a major draw on a national level, TNA would’ve done exponentially better with its original run on Spike TV than it did nearly two decades ago. Again, don’t get me wrong, the athletes are incredible and they deserve a lot of credit for their efforts to work those dazzling spot fests each week on TBS, but the harsh reality is that the selling point for the readers of The Wrestling Observer newsletter doesn’t translate to the main stream audience.
We’ve seen the Tony Khan makes it a priority to win The Obsever’s “booker of the year” award, but unless the award includes a cash prize, does it truly matter if the other metrics of the organization declined?
Outside of Kyle Fletcher winning, the Continental Classic victory probably wouldn’t do anything for Okada, Ricochet, or Will Ospreay. The reason being that those three should all be involved in something more important than a tournament with minimal momentum. This is just my two cents, and Tony is a billionaire so what do I know? But, in my opinion, Ospreay should be the guy that is touted as the franchise player for All Elite Wrestling, and his stellar skills could be presented in a more progress manner as the true representative of the AEW brand. In some ways, Ospreay could be what AJ Styles was to the early era of TNA in terms of representing the brand. With the amount of cash that Okada was paid to leave New Japan and move to America, he should be in a more prominent spot. Instead, he’s positioned in a secondary role and his work in the ring is lowered to that level. Hey, if Okada can make that type of cash and mail in the vast majority of his matches, good for him. Ricochet is in danger of becoming a lame duck in AEW, as his mic work is so cringe worthy that it’s possible that the audience is going to sour on him.
The world title match, at least from my perspective is an example of lazy booking. Instead of scripting a compelling rivalry for the championship, putting a four-way match on pay-per-view is an artificial way to schedule a main event. The Jon Moxley title reign and the faction around him have been completely flat, and as much as the audience might be waiting for some shocking reveal as the payoff, it looks a lot more as if Moxley steamrolling everyone is only a set up for another return of The Elite to AEW. Does anyone want to see a retread of The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega being shoehorned into that role again? They were positioned like that after the CM Punk debacle a few years ago, I just don’t think it would have the same impact again.
The rest of the card is undistinguished at best. Nobody wants to anything to do with the MJF and Adam Cole storyline. It’s doubtful that anyone cares what Thunder Rosa is doing or wants to see her get a run with the AEW Women’s championship. Any momentum or cache that she had as a star was completely diminished at least two years ago. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Powerhouse Hobbs could be a great match, but it won’t be too surprising if Hobbs disappears from television again after the pay-per-view.
The biggest issue for this pay-per-view is that there’s a slapstick approach and a disjointed presentation. For those that want to make the comparison, when the WWE was building to the war games match at Survivor Series, they added a piece to the puzzle each week on television. It was simple, but effective. Most of the time, Tony Khan doesn’t seem to have the destination planned or know what the puzzle is supposed to be with the booking decisions that he makes week-to-week for the product. Is Molxey taking over the company or is there just not any credible baby faces to challenge him? It speaks volumes about the mismanagement of talent that with a roster as bloated as AEW, the argument could be made that the company doesn’t have many main event baby faces. I could be wrong, but I don’t think there’s enough at stake or the possibility of anything that we haven’t seen before that can justify the $50 price tag for this pay-per-view.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
