Another day. Another Eric Bischoff rant about AEW.
The WWE Hall of Famer has not been shy about criticizing All Elite Wrestling, and some of his criticisms are valiant, such as AEW’s struggles in the viewership department. AEW hasn’t hit the one million mark in nearly two years. The company has averaged between 500,000 to 800,000 in 2024. However, Dynamite seems to be settling in on the 500,000 - 600,000 range lately, which is a far cry from 1.2 million viewerships that watched the very first episode of AEW Dynamite in 2019.
It does seem like Tony Khan is taking steps to regain interest in the product again as it’s clear that AEW is cold, despite having elite names such as Will Ospreay, Swerve Strickland, and Jon Moxley on their roster. Last week's episode averaged 586,000 viewers. A sharp decline compared to the first week of December from previous years. In fact, below are the first week December viewership of AEW Dynamite since 2019 (courtesy of Fightful.com):
- December 4, 2019: 851,000 viewers
- December 2, 2020: 913,000 viewers
- December 1, 2021: 861,000 viewers
- December 7, 2022: 840,000 viewers
- December 6, 2023: 823,000 viewers
Though AEW secured a nice television deal, their decline in viewership has many people worried about the state of the promotion. Eric Bischoff said on his 83 weeks podcast that he believes that AEW is a “f**king failure”:
"It's a joke like everything else that comes out of AEW and especially Tony Khan's mouth, you can't take it seriously. I don't know between he and Dave Meltzer, I don't think we've seen goalposts being moved as frequently and as far as these two clowns continue to try to move goalposts to make AEW look like something other than an abject f*****g failure."
Bischoff doesn’t believe the ratings will get any better in 2025. Based on AEW’s downward trajectory in 2025, Bischoff is confident that Dynamite will go below 400,000 in May:
"I think the combination of the NBA Playoffs, the time of year — again hot levels — and the fact that AEW's been losing 20 to 25% of their viewing audience consistently for three years, I'm 95% sure I'm right that before May 15 there are going to be AEW numbers that are going to come in under 400,000 or in the 400s."
Hopefully AEW is able to bounce back in 2025. The key is great storytelling and consistency. Whether you love or hate the product, there’s plenty of jobs on the line and it would suck if so many talented names were no longer employed.