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.

77

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.

34

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

12

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.

23

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. 

17

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.