WWE's Combat Against AEW

Let's face it. The WWE has become stagnant in the past few years. But who care? Given that there are no real competing promotions out there, the WWE can do whatever they want. Or at least it seems like that's what they thought as their product keeps getting worse. That's why WWE's flagship shows of Raw and Smackdown have continuosly seen declining ratings. But thanks to the emergence of the new wrestling promotion AEW, the sleeping giant that is the WWE seems to have finally been taken off auto-pilot.

Unlike other wrestling promotions such as Impact and Ring of Honor, AEW (All Elite Wrestling) was able to bust out of the gate with a prime television deal on TNT. That, plus its strategically different approach to wrestling than the WWE (who doesn't even like to use the word "wrestling") has given AEW plenty of attention from mainstream news sources and fans alike.

Because of this, WWE has had to step up their game as well. First, the WWE tried to combat AEW by bringing its NXT show (which used to stream exclusively on WWE's online network) to the USA network during the exact same timeslot as AEW's show, Dynamite. WWE's original thinking was probably to nip any momentum AEW may have had in the bud by crushing AEW's Dynamite in the ratings. However, as you can see in the chart above, that plan backfired because it was Dynamite who ended up beating NXT in the ratings by a significant margin for five weeks in a row. So if anything, the head-to-head competition now makes AEW seem like an even more credible threat to WWE's stronghold on the market.

Seeing how NXT didn't get the job done, WWE then hired heads of former rival promotions to oversee their flagship shows. Paul Heyman, former head of ECW, was put in charge of Raw while Eric Bishoff, former head of WCW, was put in charge of Smackdown. The new leadership did seem to improve things a bit in terms of fan reaction, but it did not create any noticeable boost in the ratings. In fact, given that the change in management did not help, Eric Bishoff has already been replaced by long time WWE staffer Bruce Prichard.

One deal that WWE executed that did make a difference was to move its Smackdown program from the USA network to the Fox network. The key difference is that the USA network is a cable network which requires a cable subscription whereas Fox is a broadcast network that anyone with an antenna can access. So naturally, Fox has a much wider audience reach. As a result, the audience for Smackdown's Fox debut on October 11th experienced a big boost reaching almost 3 million viewers. As expected though, that number has fallen somewhat since then, but Smackdown's numbers are still notably higher than when the show was on the USA network.

Ironically, despite all these changes, it was simply a new storyline that has made the most impact in WWE's viewership. The NXT invasion angle that was introduced on the Novmber 1st edition of Smackdown has resparked interest in the WWE among wrestling fans who have been drifting away from the product. This is especially evident in NXT's ratings. From the October 30th edition to the Novenber 6th edition, the number of viewers jumped by 40.1% (see chart above). Although AEW's Dynamite still had a bigger audience during that same timeslot, the difference was a neglegible 1.1%. So now, it looks like WWE's NXT may be in a position overtake AEW's Dynamite in the ratings.

It will be very interesting to see what happens from this point. Even though WWE is still a juggernaut compared to AEW, its popularity has been on a significant decline over the last few years. So will all these measures that WWE is taking help re-establish the brand and crush AEW? Or will AEW continue its growth as the alternative to WWE that many fans have been waiting for? AEW has only been on television for six weeks so far, so it is way too early to make the call. But it will definitely be an entertaining ride as we find out if AEW can become the next WCW in its heyday.