"That draws a much smaller audience"- Vince Russo explains why AEW lacks mainstream success (Exclusive)
Vince Russo recently explained the difference between the wrestling business that Vince McMahon Sr. started and how Tony Khan's AEW is carrying it forward now.
All Elite Wrestling has become one of the hottest topics in pro wrestling today. Within two years of its inception, AEW filled the void as a rival promotion that needed to go up against WWE, especially after WCW ran out of business. Even though Tony Khan's company yielded massive success in a short time, one often questions if they would be able to create a similar fanbase or garner mainstream success like WWE.
While speaking with Dr. Featherstone of Sportskeeda Wrestling, Vince Russo compared Vince McMahon Sr. to American Showman P.T. Barnum. He added that Vince McMahon then brought mainstream attention to WWF/WWE:
"It's this simple we were talking about this today, and I'm going to go to Vince McMahon Sr. bro. Vince McMahon Sr. was P.T. Barnum. Yeah, that's who he was. I'm bringing the sir of the fighting circus to town. Vince McMahon took over in his footsteps. Of course, mainstream TV became much more prominent, so he was still P.T. Barnum, we still had this circus," said Russo.
Check out the entire episode of Writing with Russo in the video below:
Russo then explained how the businesses of Tony Khan's AEW and Vince McMahon's WWE are completely different:
"But now we had to transition that into television, which he did. So let's look back at where this all started with Vince senior and go all the way to Tony Khan. Bro, these are two completely different businesses. This is not, they're not the circus, that's not the circus, with the characters and the color and that's not that. So you look at Vince senior, this is what professional wrestling is. This is the way he presented it. Vince junior carried that on. This is not that. And the bottom line is, whatever you wanna call that bro, performance art, whatever you want to call it, call it [whatever] you want. The fact of the matter is that draws a much smaller audience than professional wrestling," Vince Russo said.
AEW Rampage recently defeated WWE SmackDown in 18-49 demographic
AEW Rampage beat WWE Smackdown in the 18-49 demo during their 30 min head to head battle of Friday, Sept 15th 2021.
CM Punk vs Matt Sydal: 328,000
Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks + Lesnar & Reigns Contract Signing: 285,000.
👌Not bad for a T-Shirt company! https://t.co/8k2aysNuoJ
AEW Rampage recently beat WWE SmackDown in the key 18-49 demographic when they went head-to-head for 30 minutes. In the overall ratings, the Blue Brand garnered more ratings than AEW Rampage.
The news took the internet by storm as fans and wrestling veterans engaged in massive discussions on social media and podcasts, respectively. AEW may not be appealing to more WWE fans, but their swift rise in this business is appreciable.
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