Last week’s AEW “Dynamite” started off strong, averaging over 1 million-plus viewers for the opening three segments. Then came the showkiller: Brian Cage vs. Konosuke Takeshita.
According to Wrestlenomics, the 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET quarter-hour averaged 995,000 viewers. The Cage-Takeshita match came up at the end of that quarter-hour, then took up the first seven minutes of the 8:45-9 p.m. ET quarter-hour.
Which drew an average of, gulp, 849,000 viewers.
Viewers fled the show in droves, and didn’t come back.
The final five segments of the show, which was highlighted by a good main event that saw Samoa Joe regain the TNT title from Darby Allin, averaged 826,000 viewers.
Thanks to Cage-Takeshita.
Eliminator
Incidentally, Takeshita is set to be featured this week in a match with AEW world champ Maxwell Jacob Friedman, using the tired “title eliminator match” concept that makes no sense, the way AEW books it.
If you’re not familiar, lucky you, but here’s what a title eliminator match is: if the contender beats the champ, the contender earns a title shot.
See how dumb this is?
Shouldn’t it be, if the contender beats the champ, the contender wins the freakin’ title?
Eliminator matches only make sense if it’s two contenders squaring off.
Tony Khan, though, he loves eliminator matches, so much that he has not one, but two of them on Wednesday’s show.
AEW women’s champ Jamie Hayter will face The Bunny in the other one.
Don’t expect either to end with an upset.
Please don’t do what we think you’re going to do
The Acclaimed – Max Caster and Anthony Bowens – will defend the AEW tag titles against The Gunn Club.
The Acclaimed and their manager, Billy Gunn, are maybe the most over entity in AEW right now, so naturally the fear is that Khan is going to split the team and Gunn, rendering the millions of dollars worth of “Scissor Me, Daddy Ass” T-shirts that the company has gotten out there on the backs of fans heretofore worthless.
Intriguing six-man title match
Khan wants us to refer to them as trios matches. Sorry, not going to do it.
He’s going to have his six-man champs, The Elite – Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks – defend against Top Flight and AR Fox.
I don’t foresee a title change, but the story to this point – Top Flight has a recent upset win over the Bucks in a tag match – could get you to think that something might happen.
My two cents on six-man titles: guys the caliber of Omega and the Bucks shouldn’t have these belts, which should go to a stable, faction or undercard guys the likes of Top Flight and AR Fox who need something to help them get over.
Omega, last month, had what may be the match of the year in 2023 with his win at the Tokyo Dome Wrestle Kingdom supershow over Will Ospreay, in a showing that was easily his best performance dating back to the end of his New Japan run at the 2019 Wrestle Kingdom.
He hasn’t looked anywhere near as good in his AEW run as he did in his New Japan run, so that match with Ospreay was a revelation.
And the best he can do in AEW is hold one-third of the six-man titles?
Those belts are on those guys so that they can put somebody over. Again, don’t think it will happen this week, but …
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Chris Graham
