"They take away the freshness and go back to 800k" - Jim Cornette on the biggest reason why AEW's ratings are dropping
Wrestling veteran Jim Cornette recently opened up about AEW's declining ratings in recent weeks, saying the company must hold back its top stars from being exposed on TV every week.
This week's edition of AEW Dynamite drew the lowest ratings for the company since May, with only 898k viewers tuning in.
The sharp decline in viewership is sure to cause worry for AEW's higher-ups, who will hope to see the flagship show's numbers bounce back soon.
AEW Dynamite last night on TNT:
861,000 total viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.31 (406,000 viewers)
📊 More demos & analysis: patreon.com/posts/59443433 https://t.co/ruHsqhJuvr
Speaking on the latest edition of his podcast Jim Cornette Experience, the wrestling veteran went into detail, explaining why AEW's ratings have dropped. Cornette stated that Tony Khan's promotion tends to overexpose its top-tier talent by having them on TV every week, thus taking away the freshness aspect.
"People have taken me to task on Twitter saying, "Cornette, ratings have gone down even with your boys, Punk and Danielson on the show." Well, I have kind of said they are making them less special now, and over the last 4-5 weeks they have down again from 1.2 million to 800 thousand. They put themselves in a position where once something works be it somebody on TV or whatever, they hotshot a couple more weeks, and then they take away the freshness and go back to 800k," said Jim Cornette
Jim Cornette cited CM Punk's example to explain AEW's dwindling viewership
The veteran manager added that AEW relies heavily on debuts to pop up its ratings. Cornette believes that one can't have debuting stars show up every week on TV, which leads to the ratings going down.
“The Best in the World” @CMPunk and @theleemoriarty face each other on this week’s #AEWDynamite.
If victorious, Punk extends his streak to 8-0.
For perspective, @The_MJF won 12 singles matches in a row before earning his first AEW World Championship match. https://t.co/84HFeVMlFt
He then cited the example of CM Punk, saying the former WWE star shouldn't be wrestling every week on AEW Dynamite and Rampage. Jim Cornette stated that AEW should hold back and book Punk to wrestle only once every three weeks to maintain the aura and hype.
"I have been saying this for months, it's a pattern. New talent, big name, hotshot deal, 1.2 million, and then they drop back again because you can't hotshot every week and have a surprise debut every week. And if they had held back, hold it back so Punk only wrestled only once in three weeks. You're gonna be upset hearing a Punk promo? No! Instead, they use it up, and they are back where they started from. And then they bring in the next one, and ratings are back up because it's not the matches it's the debuts that are usually brand new in the company," said Jim Cornette.
One can only hope that AEW's declining viewership is only momentary and that its numbers will be back over the million mark soon.
Do you agree with Jim Cornette's assessment of AEW's ratings? Sound off in the comments section below.
If you're using quotes from this article, please credit the Jim Cornette experience and give a H/T to Sportskeeda.