10 Alarming Signs Over The Future Of The Pro Wrestling Industry
4. The Demo Is Closer To 49 Than 18
AEW Rampage used to boast the youngest median viewer across the "big five" North American weekly TV shows, and in what is an indictment before it rose, that number was already 46. It is now, per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, 53. This trend is not limited to Friday nights; the median age of Dynamite viewers has risen from 48 to 51. These numbers are now closer than ever to WWE's widely-derided median of 54.
Here's a heavily simplified account of how the wrestling audience has changed over the last five years or so:
WWE haemorrhaged countless fans through Vince McMahon's asinine and antagonistic booking - so many, in fact, that it was felt that the number was sufficient to launch the first mainstream alternative of the century. That was proved correct; the disenchanted horde migrated across to All Elite Wrestling, which probably explains why WWE crowds, despite being larger, are deathly quiet. The most vocal and passionate set started making noise for another promotion.
This isn't to say that there are millions of lapsed casual fans who'd love to watch more wrestling, if only that infernal Matt Jackson would just stop slapping his thigh, but neither WWE nor AEW, evidently, are doing enough to capture the imagination of the youth.
AEW has tried. They frequently push talent in their 20s, often at the expense of the elite talent in their 30s and 40s, and the World champion is 26. It isn't working, More on this imminently.
Tribalism is rife in wrestling. Those two tribes are the WWE fans who stuck around going up against the millennials and over who believe that AEW is more like how wrestling used to be when it was really hot.
For further evidence of this...