It looks like the honeymoon period for Tony Kahn and AEW is over as news of unrest backstage as well as many starting to question Tony Kahn’s booking.
The complaints are valid as some decisions Tony’s made are very questionable, but he’s still learning and growing. Unfortunately, he also appears to have fallen into the comfortable complacency of AEW’s core fanbase.
Expansion is key for any business as a growing fanbase equals more reach and income. Word of mouth will keep bringing in more fans and so on.
The WWE was a perfect example of branching out as they pushed into the mainstream several times, and WCW did much the same during its heyday of the late 90s.
While Vince McMahon may have lost his touch for spotting talent and consistent story telling, but he continued to bring in big entertainment names to get people talking about the WWE and get more eyes on the product.
Eric Bischoff did much the same when he ran WCW, and between them we got the Monday Night Wars that was the greatest time to be a wrestling fan.
But in the end of the day if the product isn’t interesting to those new viewers, there’s no growth.
AEW’s staying in their corner
As we mentioned above, Tony’s happy to play to the core fanbase of AEW because that’s where he is, and it’s along the same lines of Vince McMahon’s methodology, though Tony’s far more open to ideas.
But he needs more checks in balances in place to help him run the different AEW shows, and he may be putting that into place. Only he knows for sure and we’ll find out after the fact.
A great way to look at this is in the Thrash Metal genre, in particular Slayer and Metallica. While Metallica branched out and grew into different styles, Slayer stayed in their corner and embraced what they were doing.
Both have had successful careers, but it came down to their own choices. But Slayer isn’t competition for Metallica because of the two different levels.
The comparison matches AEW and WWE, and Bischoff explained the competition dynamic on SHAK Wrestling, and he really hammered it home.
“Tony Khan refers to WWE not as WWE, but as ‘the competition.’ Tony. Wake the F— up. You are not competition. You have not taken any market share. Your audience is not growing on television. There is not even a comparison from a financial perspective in terms of revenue-generating conversation. So exactly how are you competitive if you’re not taking market share and you’re not even in the same conversation from a revenue point of view as a business? That’s the beginning and the end of the big competition conversation. You’re either taking market share or you’re not. You’re either equal to or closing in on your competitor’s revenue. And they’re not. They’re not even close.”
As long as Tony continues to cater to their core fans and not reach out, they won’t get to WWE’s level, but if he’s comfortable there and can make a living then it doesn’t really matter if he expands or stays in his corner like Slayer’s done.
Do you think AEW should expand, or are they fine where they are? Let us know in the comments below.
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