Despite lucrative TV deals, business is not exactly thriving in AEW. Viewership is down but, crucially, so are attendance figures; wrestling is nothing without a live crowd and AEW is struggling to fill buildings (Grand Slam Australia has already moved from a stadium to an arena).
In November, AEW President Tony Khan finally pulled the plaster off by booking smaller venues. It's a necessity to avoid having to feature empty seats on television and the fact AEW will haemorrhage money if all those tickets remain unsold.
On the plus side, the shift to venues like New York City's iconic Hammerstein Ballroom has given AEW's shows a much different look and feel.
During a recent interview with Josh Martinez of Z100, Chris Jericho praised AEW for moving to smaller buildings but put a pretty blatant spin on what is ultimately a change no one in the company, least of all Tony Khan, will have wanted.
"I think the worst thing you could ever do is to kind of in any business overprice yourself or overextend yourself. We’re at a place where to go to some of the middle-size venues not in every city but in some of them, it’s a very smart move. For many reasons, but most importantly, just the vibe of the fans and like you want to put 10,000 people into an arena, and if you can, you do. If you’re down to 5,000 but you go to a 4,000-seat arena, it increases demand."
"It just makes the show that much more exciting, and it translates so much better on TV. I think right now, with all of the different choices that people have to buy tickets to go to shows, I think we’re smart to moving to some of these, like you mentioned, different-sized venues. Because it just makes it cooler, and we have always had the cool factor in AEW, especially when we started and then going into the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic."
"I think one way is the supply and demand. If you have this many tickets for sale and they’re gone. It just makes the product hotter and you can just continue to grow."
If there was a demand for the AEW product like the one Jericho talks about here, then they'd be selling out 10,000 - 20,000 seat buildings on a regular basis like WWE. Whether the company can turn things around remains to be seen, but at this rate, it feels like those crowds will continue getting smaller.
As for Jericho, it must kill him to miss out on WWE's red-hot run given that he's typically like a moth to a flame when it comes to the spotlight.
You can watch the full interview below.