Tonight AEW Collision debuts on TNT. Wrestling podcasts and social media has been a mix of enthusiasm and pessimism towards the third weekly show. There are valid reasons for the concern. Saturday has been viewed pretty lousy day for advertisers—especially within the Warner Bros broadcasting system.
Will AEW Collision Hit It Out of the Park from the Debut?
Wrestling shows have always been a strong vehicle for advertising partners because there’s always some varying interest in it. It’s not a form of entertainment and athletics that absolutely falls off and it’s marketable.
Also of concern is the two-hours during Saturday prime time. Again, it’s not the strongest day for viewers during the week. Fortunately, AEW Collision has no direct competition from WWE on Saturday. The promotion just has the night to itself much like Wednesday nights.
Finally, we’ve seen this progression before with WCW Thunder and it didn’t go well. One two-hour prime time show a week is great—not perfect, I’ve always personally preferred one-hour. WCW did amazing business for over a year with varying hours on one show.
At the time, there was also a two-hour minor TV show on Saturdays—which used to be the primary show—as well as two one-hour minor shows on syndicated TV. A second show wasn’t necessary and I’m on the fence as to if it’s necessary with AEW.
Of course, the company has a lot of talent and two prime time shows to get everyone on TV and stories popping. I’m intrigued by the concept of a brand split just to see the distinct roster make ups. However, AEW Rampage probably could’ve been moved to Saturday and either renamed or just left as is.
Also, what becomes of Rampage? It’s not really necessary as a prime time show where stuff actually happens. Does it move in time slot? Does it become the Dark show—which means it will definitely be bumped to later in the night.
There’s a little stuff that might need to be moved around on the TV schedule. As for if it’ll hit it out of the park on the debut: I believe as far as buzz and content, AEW Collision will deliver. Seeing who will be on board for the debut show, Tony Khan might just have an interesting top-to-bottom card.
Just remember: delivering on the debut is hard but the challenge is keeping it up each week. Also, television was very different 25-30 years ago. Numbers were bigger then and networks are more flexible with the numbers now that viewership has taken a hit to digital and streaming.
Do you believe AEW Collision will be good debut or will it flop out of the gate? Let us know down below!
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