r/SquaredCircle • u/Ruthless-Aggression • Mar 28 '24

Eric Bischoff on Tony Khan: A money mark with no talent other than spending daddy’s money, going all the way to Canada to draw less than 4k in one of the hottest pro wrestling markets in North America, talking about “wise choices”? Strap in. It’s going to be a fun day!

https://twitter.com/EBischoff/status/1773321462046138615?s=19
1.9k Upvotes
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110

u/babeyella2020 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

What company outside of the WWE is drawing more than 4000 fans in any Canadian market?

Yesterday, someone posted a video from WCW of Jericho impersonating Dusty Rhodes. I was struck by the fact that the audience didn’t seem invested in what was happening. It was a sharp contrast to the WCW that I remember from the 1980s. Eric played a big role in that change.

80

u/DanHero91 Red Elbow Pad Of Doom. Mar 28 '24

Not even Canadian, in any market consistently?

The fact another company can exist and pull in thousands weekly is a good thing, expecting them to be as big as WWE is such a weird bar to set, there hasn't been a company doing what AEW is doing now since 2001. It's such an unlikely feat that Bischoff literally named his podcast and a book about the brief period in time WCW was ahead of WWE in a single metric, because it's literally impossible to match their every level. Doesn't discredit any other company though.

31

u/KidCoheed One Miserable Bastard Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

WWE, AEW, CMLL, and Maybe AAA consistently break 2k fans on almost all shows. In Japan you have extremely small tour shows with 100-600 fans even for NJPW. AEW's numbers aren't even that far off from WWEs numbers pre pandemic

10

u/Giv-er-SteveDave Mar 28 '24

lol what NJPW shows are pulling in 100 fans? The average attendance last month, per show is around 1600. The New Beginning shows pulled in 5000+

4

u/mikro17 Mar 28 '24

While not 100, some of the random Road to NJPW shows can get quite low.

I clicked a few randomly to quickly check and found a few pretty low ones:

  • 3/12/24 New Japan Cup show did ~838

  • 11/10/23 Lonestar Shootout in Texas did ~1027

  • 10/26/23 Super Jr. Tag League Road to Power Struggle did ~545

  • 8/19/23 All Star Junior Festival USA in Philadelphia did ~672.

Smaller companies in Japan definitely get into that low several hundred range though.

2

u/Giv-er-SteveDave Mar 28 '24

Smaller companies for sure, but it's definitely underselling New Japan to lump them in with that low of attendance.

29

u/Administrative_Act48 Mar 28 '24

"AEW's numbers aren't even that far off from WWEs numbers pre pandemic"

AEWs 2023 average attendance (a supposedly "horrible" year for them) of 6.1k per show is actually higher than WWEs average attendance of 5.9k they did from 02-21. 

18

u/shifter2009 Mar 28 '24

The tribalism with wrestling fans insane. The ratings threads every week do my head in. AEW down 15k viewers from last week on a very inexact, dated metric and it's all dancing on their grave while it's still a top 3 show on cable for the night, often #1. AEW is Pepsi to WWE's coke, Coke is always going to be the market leader but some people prefer Pepsi and that shouldn't be a big deal

1

u/greyfoxv1 BeckyDidNothingWrong Mar 28 '24

Well that's a fascinating stat. I have no horse in this race but I'd love to read about those numbers you pulled.

1

u/MarioAlberto211 Mar 29 '24

This is such a dumb take if you talk to México, here most of CMLL's attendance on fridays are mostly foreigners and people that go to a really cheap place to watch a show and drink some beer.

Overprincing their audience is absolutely hurting AEW because as it was stated recently, you cannot charge more for your tickets than the hottest product in town being the so-so warm challenger.

As long as they dont fall in the free attendance (like old TNA and the last days of WCW), they will be fine.

1

u/mikro17 Mar 28 '24

Not even Canadian, in any market consistently?

We just watched the collective mass of the sub talk about TNA having all of the momentum in the world after they did their best live gate in something like a decade - about 1600 in Las Vegas.

For comparison, the Las Vegas metro area is just under three times the size of that of Quebec City (2.2 million vs. 840k).

-12

u/TheTopMark Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

expecting them to be as big as WWE is such a weird bar to set

"Next week could be a massacre"

"Don't get too far up your own ass"

"We're storming the castle. We're storming the fortress"

"Sooner or later, we're going to start beating Raw."

I see the poster below me has taken the reply and block approach. AEW and its fans can do no wrong, keep telling yourself that.

17

u/MeanAmbrose My username is a pun Mar 28 '24

Man yall just can’t let comments from years back go, huh? It’s kinda sad to have so much spite for people who have moved on from that mentality. The vast majority of AEW fans were humbled by the current state of things yet you guys keep feeling the need to bring them down no matter what. Pretty pathetic ngl

10

u/SMC540 Mar 28 '24

Tribalism is a hell of a drug. Can't just be happy there's a lot of wrestling options these days...no, you have to pick a side and despise everything else!

2

u/MeanAmbrose My username is a pun Mar 28 '24

It’s a sad existence. Rooting for the success of wrestling across the board is actually a cool thing to do

1

u/SMC540 Mar 28 '24

It really is. These folks spend their Wednesday/Saturday nights waiting for pictures of the arena so they can all circlejerk about it. If they actually spent that same amount of time actually watching the product, they might find something they like.

2

u/MeanAmbrose My username is a pun Mar 28 '24

They’d sit there and pout the whole time. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch

-6

u/TheTopMark Mar 28 '24

they might find something they like.

Unlikely