Mercedes Mooney made her debut for All Elite Wrestling on their main show, dynamite, last Wednesday. However, Big Business, the subject of the show, failed to produce big numbers and is considered a ratings disappointment despite Moné being the latest big-name free agent signed by company president Tony Khan.
But to blame Mooney is to make her a scapegoat for what remains AEW's biggest problem: Tony Khan.
Prior to Moné's debut, ratings were much worse for the March 6 episode of AEW Dynamite, which saw Will Ospreay appear in the main event and the arrival of New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kazuchika Okada. But even before that, ratings for dynamite It has been declining steadily for several months, and it has been more than a year since the show had a million or more viewers. Ticket sales, except for a few shows and pay-per-view shows, were very poor. It can be said that the company's perception has never been poorer.
Anyone who thinks that the arrival of Moné, Ospreay, or Okada will instantly change AEW's fortunes is sadly mistaken and does not understand history.
In 1994, World Championship Wrestling, then number two apart from WWE, like AEW is today, spent two months promoting the arrival of wrestling and entertainment icon Hulk Hogan. Although Hogan was more attractive in professional wrestling, it took WCW a year to become competitive with WWE and two years to beat the sports entertainment giant in the ratings.
In recent years, AEW has signed countless talents that many fans have described as game-changers, most of whom mocked WWE for releasing or transferring them. These names include CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Keith Lee, Adam Cole, Saraya, Adam Copeland, and Jay White, to name a few.
If these entertainers were luxury cars, they might be a fleet of Jaguars. However, having a garage full of Jags makes no sense if the owner doesn't have a driver's license, let alone know how to drive. Despite needing experienced creative minds to run the company, Khan stubbornly insists on booking AEW himself. Instead of embracing new ideas, he sticks to his beliefs about what wrestling fans, or at least his fans, want.
Additionally, Khan often over-hypes events and signings as important, only to lose momentum and shift focus to the next big thing. This pattern has been evident in AEW's recent re-rating system. Rankings were introduced at the company's inception, and determine the championship matches in each division. However, the system disappeared at the end of 2022. Khan announced his return in January, and although it was somewhat hidden, the rankings are now accessible on AEW's website.
Too bad they are From August 2022.
So much for this initiative.
While broken promises are nothing new for Khan, his failure to effectively promote and showcase talent is part of what is hurting the company. Relying on information leaked to wrestling websites, such as Mercedes Mooney joining the company, is not a sufficient marketing strategy. Instead of investing in creating vignettes and reaching a wider media audience, Khan assumes that everyone shares his level of wrestling knowledge and will automatically tune in based on tips from inside sources.
Recently, I've been fortunate to have two avid professional wrestling fans in my life, one of whom is an avid AEW fan. One day, he told me something that almost made me collapse in shock. He said he did not know who Okada was. By that he meant that he was not aware of his work in New Japan.
Although I was surprised by how little any regular AEW viewer knew about Okada, this revelation reaffirmed my belief in the importance of educating the audience about new or upcoming talent early. Not all fans follow wrestling news sites for in-depth coverage. They also don't watch wrestling from all over the world every day of the week.
The latest batch of dismal TV ratings attached to Moné, Okada and Ospreay do not accurately reflect their talent or star appeal, but rather the lack of publicity surrounding their debut. It's another reminder of Khan's mismanagement, which remains AEW's main obstacle.
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