Major reason for a "lot of negativity" in AEW - Reports
A recent report has indicated that there is much negativity backstage in AEW these days, and the reason for it might have come to light.
All Elite Wrestling has had a roller coaster of a year. The promotion has seemingly seen everything from Collision's massive debut and All In London's success to declining ratings, poor ticket sales, and the departures of stars like Jade Cargill and CM Punk.
On the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer claimed that the negative feeling backstage stemmed from the December 2, 2023, edition of AEW Collision, which hosted one of the smallest crowds in All Elite Wrestling history.
"I think some of that stems from the show Saturday night, which obviously was a very poor crowd. It's interesting because there's a lot of negativity while, at the same time, the company's grossing more money by far than it ever has [in] the last couple of months. It's been very, very successful in that sense. As far as turning [a] profit, that's a very different story. As far as the value of the company (…), there are economic aspects of the company that look really good. But there's still this feeling [of negativity]. (H/T WrestleTalk)
Meltzer noted that AEW was far from number one right now and wasn't as competitive as 18 months ago.
"Understandably, in wrestling, it's always 'who's number one', and they are far from number one right now. They were a lot more competitive in things like television ratings and attendance and things like that 18 months ago than they are now. So it's kind of just a really interesting thing where you've got a negative perception. Which usually comes when the economics are bad, but the economics are not bad right now (...), but they're still worrisome right now in the sense that when you look at the future, and you look at the upcoming shows - you don't see shows that look like you’re gonna be drawing big crowds in too many places." (H/T WrestleTalk)
AEW is actually doing better financially now than ever before
Despite the negative feeling backstage, Dave Meltzer said the most surprising thing about AEW's situation was that they generated a lot of money. It is unusual because something like that rarely happens when the behind-the-scenes morale is low.
"Economically, they're doing much better than they were at that time [when they were competitive with WWE in ratings/attendance]. But, the perception is that they're not because the live shows [attendance] feed a lot of the perception, and the ratings do because they're the two numbers that people look at." (H/T WrestleTalk)
What do you think AEW can do to boost backstage morale? Let us know in the comments section below.