After AEW’s recent live success in Oregon, Washington, and California, there is even more hype surrounding the company than ever. What does this mean for AEW and what other questions should we have about the promotion’s recent tour.
The AEW Hype is Real
If you didn’t believe it or thought that it wasn’t legit, I’m here to tell you that that it is. Wrestling is known to have some of the most dedicated fans of any entertainment brand.
The popularity of pro wrestling has been up and down over time recently. AEW hasn’t been immune to this either. Even through the ups and downs, fans of this young promotion have constantly rallied towards AEW’s live shows.
Looking at the attendance of many of their west coast show, especially on television, it seems like they probably underestimated how much fans want to see the product.
From me, this was to be expected. Whenever AEW goes into a new market and put their best foot forward, they always succeed. The only question left now is if the consistent live events and touring is sustainable for the company.
Can AEW Keep This Up?
That is the big question. The answer to this from the internet wrestling community is, “Of course! Tony has 500 billion dollars! He doesn’t care if he loses money!”
The answer from a reasonable wrestling fan is that I am not sure. It is possible for sure, but at this point, we have no data or previous information to lead us to believe that they can.
The only way that we would figure this out would be for AEW to try it. They would have to do it for a certain period of time, but I am sure that any city that they go to for the first time will do numbers.
That isn’t what we would need to find out. AEW would want to know that if, for instance, if they did two untelevised live shows a week on top of their two television tapings, would their ticket sales and crowds look the same.
If I had to guess, I would think not. Not to compare the two companies, but WWE’s live events aren’t even looking the best but it is something that they do to sustain interest in their product.
Using this to gage what AEW might do, the company with bigger stars, a better touring live event infrastructure, and over 30 years of consistently doing live events can’t do it, then there is no reason to think that AEW could.
What Would AEW Gain from Live Touring
The typical idea from fans about live events and touring is that the goal of them is to make money. This is not true.
The most important thing that you get from live tours and events is information. How many people would come to your larger events, what is your demand in certain cities and states, and what response your wrestlers get in the area.
Although live touring is an expensive way of finding this information out, it is needed by companies and is well worth the cost. For a company like AEW that is firmly in the number two spot but not very old, they need all of the data that they can get.
Growth is also important for AEW, so something else that they would want to know is the local demand of their product. This is mainly how many people that aren’t wrestling fans would attend their event.
This is important because companies the size of AEW and WWE don’t grow from the demographic that are wrestling fans because those people will most likely watch the product anyway.
The non wrestling fans are the ones that you need to convert into being your fans in order to grow.
