Why AEW Rampage Hasn't Quite Worked (Yet)
In 2020 AEW, crafted a longing for their product so deep that people desperately wanted to pay for it.
Fans were prepared to pay for t-shirts, pay-per-views, Fite TV subscriptions and - when they were permitted again - tickets. Having already extended Dynamite's deal with TNT, network executives were just as keen to put dollars down and presented the Rampage offer along with the flagship's eventual move to TBS in order to avoid constant sports-related shifts that have bruised the show's momentum almost every time.
You can't build an entire business on a feeling, but Tony Khan and his spreadsheet guru Chris Harrington are still trying to find a new sweet spot now that Rampage is a living breathing thing rather than a concept. AEW has built a reputation as a company that listens to its audience thanks to several key creative course corrections over the years, but it's likely that rationale, reason and data helped with this process. Hopefully they'll triangulate the figures that figure out why Fridays just aren't quite as fun a time as most people expected.
That's not to say the numbers that matter most aren't decent. But these aren't the only ones to consider.
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