In what can only be called an alarming AEW trend, it is similar to what WCW did from 2000 as they were struggling financially.
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If you follow any wrestling accounts on Twitter, you’ve probably seen the pictures from time to time. Specifically, those of half empty AEW arenas. People joke about how there aren’t any fans in the hard camera spots-that anything not on camera is effectively abandoned. And now, this alarming AEW trend appears to be getting similar to what WCW had in front of them in the year 2000.
Sure, Tony Khan will be throwing the new Warner Brothers/Discovery television deal out there as proof everything is good. Except, it may not be. Yes, having the new television deal in place is going to motivate Khan to change things up on the air. But, it does not change half empty arenas. At least, not unless Khan starts using the WBD money to purchase the tickets and give out to plenty of interested fans.
Poor Attendance Is Concerning
As the Wrestling Observer called out, the barely half full arena shots are a bit concerning. Specifically, the half empty arenas are seeing AEW approach crowd levels not seen since WCW was circling the drain pipes. Things in WCW went south in a hurry, and the sparsely attended shows, where empty seats outnumbered fans. That was a sign of things to come, and AEW appears to be emulating that alarming trend.
While AEW might have just secured it’s on air television future for the next few years, was it too late? The Observer is quick to set up a couple points. First, in spite of the horrendous attendance, the product is-in theory-better. The roster has crazy depth (maybe too crazy), and though the numbers don’t reflect it, the cage matches have been mostly among the best for any company thus far. Meaning, while attendance is way down and giving us an alarming trend, the outliers are themselves not showing issues to be fixed.
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