Pro wrestling is business largely driven by television ratings and rights fees. Flair says Punk and Bryan have had successful careers, but so far, they’ve failed to deliver for AEW where it counts.
“Well, if I’m looking at the ratings, I don’t know what they’ve contributed,” said Flair. “Yeah, certainly, as you said, they’re both big stars in the business. Both have had a lot of success, but I don’t know how to answer that question, because all you can do, as we do with football or any other show, is look at the ratings.”
Flair continued, “To me, that show should never do less than 1.1 million. If they get there once, and bring in all this talent, and go back, then there’s something wrong.”
What went wrong? some guy on here for years told me Bryan was a draw? I don't gets I bros?
Like it or not you have to acknowledge Ric Flair's informed opinion as he is objectively the GOAT.
Cameron Nelson
>What went wrong? They look like shit and wrestle really well. No one cares about that unfortunately
Carter Cooper
Punk and Danielson can't book the shows, or make the vast majority of the contracted talent lay out logical matches, or make the refs enforce the rules in matches they aren't a part of. Most of AEW's roster, almost literally every woman including that ugly ref? They don't belong on television. It's not the Punk and Danielson can't bring ratings up, it's that the rest of the roster drags ratings down.
Alexander Jones
I think they just are not as big of stars as their fans made them out to be. Punk also believes his own bogus hype. Remember when he tried to say him Bryan and Cole joining AEW was a big as nWo? that's delusional. He put his foot in his mouth and now the criticism is warranted.
Nicholas Ross
AEW feels like minor league WWE rather than an alternative product. TNA was drawing a higher rating in the early Spike days than Raw is able to draw today, when the feature was people like Samoa Joe and AJ Styles.
But eventually it became Angle, Hogan, Hardy, etc., a dumping ground for fired midcarders, booked and presented exactly like WWE. If I wanted to watch WWE, I'd watch it. AEW understood this on day one, with the sports feel and all that, but they've long ago lost it. It's just low budget WWE rejects now.
I'd also say that Punk's star power is long gone. He 1000% could have been (and should have been) the next Austin breakout mega star after his pipe bomb promo, but since then he's gone grey, lost weight, and made an asshole of himself on UFC. Nobody can buy him.
Adrian Mitchell
The booking also cooled both of them down instead of using the momentum they came in with to build on. That's not their fault.
Colton Kelly
If AEW were smart, they would have held Punk until Danielson was signed and they would have feuded right off. Having Punk face Darby was really stupid, because Darby looks like he would get destroyed by a kid in the audience. If I'm a casual fan and I decide to check out this new thing because of Punk, and I see some goofy skatefag, I'm going to laugh and go back to watching Paige's anal vids.
Cameron Flores
>but they've long ago lost it not sure if thats it, or maybe, just maybe, they never had it, fren...
Colton Morris
For me? It's not caring about ratings and merch sales. All I care about is being entertained and AEW is currently doing that for me much better than the alternatives.
Angel Johnson
Same thing could have been said about Flair, or any of the talent they brought in, in the late 80s / early 90s WCW.
Carter Richardson
>first-ever million-dollar gate
Stay RAPED WolfKWAB
>TNA was drawing a higher rating
And it still couldn't get more paying customers?
>WWE rejects
Bryan dumped WWE ya glowdrone
Asher Cooper
I remember people were saying Punk is "trying to shake the rust off" to explain all the pointless matches he was having when he came in. It's a TELEVISION SHOW. Imagine in another TV show if the actor had to "shake the rust off" for like 4 weeks before he did anything. I don't think it was anything to do with rust anyway I think it was just bad booking and Tony had no idea what to do with him. He thought just putting him in matches would be enough
Xavier Reyes
you type like a genuine manchild weirdo from the video games board
Ayden Morris
Punk and Bryan always deliver wrestling kino when they're on, it's not their fault. It's booker of the year and his collection of indie shitters that drive most people away with bad comedy and schizophrenic storylines.
Wyatt Green
the only people who worry about this kind of shit are e-drone concern trolls
James Powell
Take your age pills, cuck.
Jaxon Jackson
(You) type like a BITCH who got RAPED!
Justin King
>TNA was drawing a higher rating in the early Spike days than Raw is able to draw today, when the feature was people like Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. there's far more available options for entertainment even back then. youtube, tiktok, streaming services, etc. it's segmented so much that ratings even ram gets now is considered great. once they transition to the new ratings system (that takes streaming into account) later this year or next year, we should see increased numbers across the board.
Matthew Garcia
>Well, if I’m looking at the ratings, I don’t know what they’ve contributed
If TV overall goes down, but one product increases, what is that called?
Tyler Harris
I watched that media scrum and he said he didn't want to draw comparisons to Hall, Nash, and Hogan.
