"It's a bigger deal for them” - Cody Rhodes opens up on the WWE/AEW rating war
Cody Rhodes believes the ratings war is a bigger deal for WWE than it is for AEW.
In the recent head-to-head on Friday night, AEW's Rampage drew more viewers in the 18-49 demo than WWE's SmackDown. This was the first time since 1998 that WWE lost out to another promotion in viewership ratings.
On The K&C Masterpiece of 103.5 The Fan, Cody Rhodes had an interesting response when asked about this:
"It's a bigger deal for them," Cody Rhodes said. "I don't mean to sound bullish or anything like that, but if they were under the impression that they were going to win in that key demo... there are people in the industry, non-wrestlers, people who have never even stepped in the ring, who are leading [WWE] down a business path while the business isn't there. We're an alternative, they're the juggernaut of this space, we're the alternative brand."
Hour 1 of the show 10/20/21
-What Cowboys do we still need to see more from?
-Did drafting Tua set Miami back?
-AEW superstar Cody Rhodes
Listen here: audacy.com/1053thefan/pod…
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Cody Rhodes thinks Tony Khan has done a phenomenal job
The last time such a shift occurred in professional wrestling was back in the mid-80s, according to Rhodes. He believes the key reason for this is that AEW continues to give the fans everything they want, and gives Tony Khan a lot of credit for it.
"The last time there was this type of shift, was in the mid-80s when WWE was taking every territory because they were making a better product and they deserve all the praise they did. But it's definitely an unreal time. If the fans are choosing us and not the others, we have to make sure we give them everything they want and continue to give them the promise of a wrestling company led by wrestlers. And Tony has done such a great job in terms of doing that, really led the ship in a great way."
They’re all in use. He and Vince were geniuses at creating psychological - crowd interactive concepts(ie survivor series, war games, etc)
Some of them were not original ideas, but instead where taken from the territories pre-tv days and marketed extremely well twitter.com/DjSpanky843/st…
What do you think of Cody Rhodes' comments? Do you believe WWE cares more about the demographic numbers than AEW does? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
Thanks to Fightful for the transcription of this podcast.