AEW President Tony Khan: "Wrestling Is Hotter Than Ever"
With three shows topping the charts in the same week, AEW's Tony Khan is calling a new boom.
All Elite Wrestling president Tony Khan believes that "wrestling is hotter than ever."
Khan made the statement during a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, supporting his argument by pointing out that WWE Raw, SmackDown, and AEW Dynamite all ranked number one on their respective nights for the week commencing 3 May (h/t Wrestling Inc. for the transcription):-
“Wrestling is hotter than ever. This past week, to have three different wrestling shows ranked number one on their night, and to have AEW be a part of it, it’s huge. And it’s a great time for wrestling."
The AEW chief added that while it is increasingly difficult to pull a "splintered audience" in these days, he believes that a quality product will always draw viewers:-
"I feel like we were all there, part of the peak era of fandom, and now it’s a splintered audience. Things are very fragmented, it’s hard to get as many people to watch something as there used to be. But I believe that, and I see it first hand with the NFL and the great numbers we do, if you deliver a quality, compelling product consistently, people are going to show up and watch it. And that’s why we built an audience and we’re up year over year. And I feel like with the great card we have tonight and the big pay per view card ahead later this month, it’s a great time to come and join AEW as a fan.”
Last week saw AEW's Dynamite numbers decline following Blood & Guts' dizzying highs, with viewership sliding to back under the one million mark at 936,000 and a slip from 0.42 to 0.31 in the key 18-49 demographic.
Nonetheless, both P18-49 and P2+ are up since WWE NXT moved nights from Wednesdays to Tuesdays, eliminating AEW's closest competition.