Former WCW president: AEW's inability to produce big moments is hindering growth
AEW has had a string of major signings in the past few months. It began with Adam Copeland in October 2023. More recently, Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Mone were all unveiled as the latest star additions to the company.
Yet, for one reason or another, the star additions failed to draw a significant reaction from the fanbase.
According to WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW president Eric Bischoff, AEW's inability to create big moments is an issue that is blighting the company.
"Supposedly Tony Khan spent $4.5M a year to get Okada and look at the numbers," Bischoff said on his '83 Weeks' podcast. "Look at the audience; they did not respond. ... Same with Will Ospreay. They didn’t do that week before, and as a result, I think the debut of both of them — we’ve seen Osprey before, obviously, but he’s not full-time on the roster — that should have been a cause for celebration. That should have been a big deal. There should be something that’s done throughout the show to get us excited about that moment. And there wasn’t; nothing was done. Therefore, no one got excited and the ratings reflected that."
Bischoff has a point. AEW is landing major talents. However, most of those talents aren't well known to the broader wrestling community. Tony Khan is cornering his company to produce for the die-hards.
Unfortunately, that's not a recipe for success. He needs to find a way of making his product more accessible to the masses. There are too many matches with big names from lesser promotions, such as CMLL, where only a fraction of the audience understands the logic behind the booking.
Until Khan realizes that AEW can go to new heights by appeasing a more casual fanbase, the company will continue to struggle in the ratings and in ticket sales to live events. Creating good storylines is essential. It's what keeps people tuning in week after week. Figuring out how to incorporate the new talent into their own stories also needs to be worked on.
Just look at Jay White's tenure with the company to see how quickly you can become a mid-card talent after being heralded as a major coup.
If AEW keeps dropping the ball with their major free agents, they will eventually struggle to get them through the door. Khan's booking and appeasing the die-hard fanbase has got them this far.
However, if they want that rapid growth to continue, AEW must diversify its offering.
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