ediger

Uhhh... the exact same way anything else builds in popularity? Casual fans tune in, see something they like (Hangman) and tune in the next week. If they keep on enjoying what they're seeing, they become regular viewers. It's not exactly a new or difficult concept.
Also, the've been pushing a million nearly every week this year...
2020-01-01   967,000 2020-01-08   947,000 2020-01-15   940,000 2020-01-22   871,000 2020-01-29   828,000 2020-02-05   928,000  

Completely agree. He's the next big star in pro wrestling. He has so much going for him and I think AEW is juuuuust a big enough platform to have him take off. He could be what takes them to the next level as far as ratings are concerned.

My new weekly reminder that the hangman is about to be the biggest thing in professional wrestling

EDIT: NXT delayed due to not being in top 50.  They finished 55.  Drew 721,000 so not a bad number.  But AEW doubled them in key demo.
Looks like the momentum of main roster on NXT being over has sent their number back down.  Maybe the holiday break.   Great for AEW who seemed to be struggling to now have two weeks in a row near a million.  Last week was a great show, last night had a few stumbles.  Very curious for next week and what NXT does.
Consensus seems to be the  Brock angle will lead to an NXT guy facing him at WM so Brock on NXT would certainly juice the rating but he aint working every week and then he'll be gone too.  I'd say Vince ends up making an appearance lol

I like Butcher & Blade.  I think people looking for a reason to complain just dont like their names lol.  But they're a good mid card team.  
I really think Kenny was purposely cooled off because if you book him the way you *should*, then he has to be the top guy and that wouldnt give Jericho time to breath.  They're 1-1 against each other.  I always assumed the long term plan was circling back to that and having Kenny beat Jericho for the title (and then he'd have Mox who beat him, waiting for a big match too).  Although Im curious how they avoid having Mox win the title...Maybe they will.  Its tough.  I think they under-estimated how much the fans wanted to see Cody beat Jericho.  Im a sucker for heel champions and you push it and push it and make that babyface win really mean something, but....I dont know here (which is good, I dont want to be able to predict everything).
Brandi had a great promo awhile back.  A face promo where she spoke organically.  She is good at that "Chief Brand Officer" role.  If she has to be on TV, I just think its swimming upstream to have her play a character.  Im critical of Steph for doing that.  Brandi cant separate being Cody's wife, it just doesnt make sense and doesnt work.  

I don't expect great things from Luther or anything, but I've been a fan for a long time so it's just kinda neat to see him on TV. Maybe he'll be a decent character. Some sort of madman that you can use for the occasional violent spot. The only issue with that becomes that all these factions seem to have a non-wrestling, non-speaking enforcer. Eventually that gets tired. At some point you're going to have to have Jake Hager & Wardlow wrestle or ditch the idea of just having them around. If Luther is a short term thing, I think I'll like it more. I'm always game for bringing in new guys just for a quick run to keep things different.
Brandi, yeaaahhhh... it's bad soap opera acting. I could see her having a "it was me, Austin!" moment with the Dark Order. I hope not. I think the Dark Order has the most potential out of the creepy angles and the past two weeks seemed to get that back on track a little bit. The Butcher, Blade, Bunny thing tends to get lumped into the creepy thing by a lot of fans. I don't quite see it that way. There's no supernatural or cult stuff going on there, those are just a couple of tough SOBs with a total babe valet. Then again I hang out with a lot of metalheads and punks so that **** isn't that weird or creepy 😛. Really though, you'd find people like that at Wellington's or Ozzy's when they were open. Maybe it's weird to some people but I feel like there's waaaay more people out there that could identify with them than Dark Order or Brandi's deal. Either way, they should get them talking or get some vignettes going to define that a bit better. Although they could go the creepy route and bring in Allie's friend Rosemary from Impact (depending on when her contract is up) and get another Winnipegger in the mix.
Kenny is really ramping it up and so is the crowd. It almost feels like the AEW audience was just waiting for full-on Kenny to really get behind him. Like they weren't sure what to make of his first few months. I can't speak to his mindset but if there's any element of "I'm a VP and I don't want to look like a spotlight hog", I hope he gets past that. He's the most talented person on the roster and having him at full-flight would be a boost to the company.
Page, Sammy, Jurassic Express, MJF & Darby Allin are a great core of young guys to have coming up. They are all well on their way to being legit stars. I want to reach through the screen and slap Sammy Guevara every week and I couldn't be happier about that. His matches are real good and when he talks or even just looks at the camera, I forget about that and just hate his ****** face. MJF has that quality too. His matches don't standout as much but he plays that character incredibly well including during the matches. I shouldn't be amazed by that guy in ring, he should be cheating and locking in sleeper holds for 15 minutes. It's the simplest formula in wrestling. Good guys give the fans what they want to see, bad guys try to keep that from happening. MJF works that formula tremendously.
I agree about Daniels but I think he's serving his purpose along with Kazarian in getting Scorpio Sky over. 
Almost forgot, I'm really digging PAC in AEW. He's a dude I would not want to mess around with.

Pretty good episode tonight. Good start production-wise. Hangman and Omega got to do their entrances while the crowd was hot from the show open before the ring announcer introduced them. Also announced Private Party after the recap played. Little things that make the show seem smoother. Ref was enforcing tag rules pretty strictly during the opening match. Not as much during the later tag matches. They're getting better in that regard. Side note, Kenny might want to go in for the back cupping a few days earlier next time 😆.
Dr Luther made his debut. I don't care that he's 50-something, it's kinda cool to see him on national TV. Unfortunately he debuted during a dud of a segment. The Nightmare Collective stuff is kinda clunky. Brandi's mic skills are not up to snuff for the leader of a stable. 
Sammy G/Christopher Daniels had a bit of a weak ending but I liked what followed with the Dark Order coming in and trying to recruit him while he's down. Evil Uno can cut a good promo so getting him some mic time is a good thing. They should have done this sort of thing for weeks/months before the big swarm. Build it up with a few guys trying to take over and getting beaten down, making them angrier and more bitter. Use that to fuel their recruitment drive until they have the sheer numbers to be a force. Then you do the swarm and reveal that a couple of the creepers are big names. Maybe guys from NJPW sent over to take down AEW or whatever.
The MJF promo started while they were in split screen. That's something they need to avoid. The ending segment with Jericho and Moxley was weird. It felt like something earlier in the night ended early and they were left with too much time but the guys in the ring didn't get the memo until they were down there. Lots of dead air. Really strange for a segment containing those two.

Completely agree. Okada/Naito match had a similar feel to it. Both guys were just spent at the end with nothing left to give. When they did muster up the will for one more move, the crowd was insane.
I agree about AEW too. If I have 3 complaints about the in ring product with AEW it's the lack of selling, the timing of top rope moves (guys standing around too long waiting to take a move) and the overuse of some moves. I imagine a lot of this has to do with the lack of TV experience on the roster.

I think too, that WWE has a very specific way of working which is why almost everyone, no matter how good, is sent to NXT to "learn" the WWE way.  They dont care much about the live crowd, its TV.  But great workers will adjust based on the crowd. Way more emotional.  I keep thinking of that spot in a long Omega/Okada match where they were on their knees barely able to lift their arms but trading punches and Kenny was nearly in tears.  amazing.   Makes you feel its real.  WWE is so wrestling-by-the-numbers.
And before I come across as an Elite homer, one thing that drives me nuts about some guys in AEW is lack of selling.  My gf laughs every time we watch but Im constantly yelling at the TV to "effen sell!"  The modern style is very lucha, to not sell after the moment of receiving heat.

The long matches in NJPW feel like they're long because it's two evenly matches opponents giving it their absolute all. WWE always seems to play up the favourite/underdog side of things which really doesn't play into long matches well. I suppose it also helps that NJPW guys generally have a decent amount of experience in long matches. Well, the top guys at least. But I'm not all that interested in watching Yano go for 60 anyway 😛

A few takeaways...
the two night thing is really good. Keeps each day a manageable length and keeps the crowd in it. Plus they had some matches on night one that set up matches for night two. Speaking of the crowd, they were RED HOT during the Okada/Naito match, particularly during the ending. Same goes for Jericho/Tanahashi. I love how long they'll hold submissions in Japan. The crowd in the US would be dead bu the Japanese crowd was going insane. The undercard for night two was much better but night one was still very good. Moxley vs Juice Robinson was very good but when Minoru Suzuki came out to challenge Mox after the match, I got chills. That is a match I NEED to see. While liking them as performers, I used to really hate Juice Robinson's look as well as Jay White's. Not anymore. Now I feel like I can get behind those guys. Stupid reason, I know, but whatever. Can't say the same for Zach Sabre Jr. Great wrestler, still don't dig the look. Goto/Kenta was another stellar match. Kenta looks primed for a big push. Overall, great show. In typical WK fashion, the main events and the semi-mains were all must see matches. Fantastic stuff in all of them.

A few takeaways...
the two night thing is really good. Keeps each day a manageable length and keeps the crowd in it. Plus they had some matches on night one that set up matches for night two. Speaking of the crowd, they were RED HOT during the Okada/Naito match, particularly during the ending. Same goes for Jericho/Tanahashi. I love how long they'll hold submissions in Japan. The crowd in the US would be dead bu the Japanese crowd was going insane. The undercard for night two was much better but night one was still very good. Moxley vs Juice Robinson was very good but when Minoru Suzuki came out to challenge Mox after the match, I got chills. That is a match I NEED to see. While liking them as performers, I used to really hate Juice Robinson's look as well as Jay White's. Not anymore. Now I feel like I can get behind those guys. Stupid reason, I know, but whatever. Can't say the same for Zach Sabre Jr. Great wrestler, still don't dig the look. Goto/Kenta was another stellar match. Kenta looks primed for a big push. Overall, great show. In typical WK fashion, the main events and the semi-mains were all must see matches. Fantastic stuff in all of them.

If you haven't seen the Omega Man documentary (as part of the Engraved on a Nation series), it airs tonight immediately following AEW on TSN 2 at 9pm.  Its fantastic, partially filmed here in Winnipeg (a lot of the sit down interviews were done here) and there are a few clips of PCW in Winnipeg (both archival and contemporary).  It really should have been a 2 hour doc as the 60 minute TV edit is much too short.
Kenny was unhappy they had to cut out most of the PCW footage so they edited it into the end credits.  For the US Premiere in Las Vegas last year, they actually added more of the footage of Kenny's return to PCW and additional remarks from Don Callis & Chris Jericho (sort of outtakes...with Jericho ripping Kenny for being from Transcona etc...really funny).  I wish AEW would "buy" the doc, I think its a great look at Kenny and Im surprised it hasnt aired nationally in the US yet.  Still to come, Im sure!
Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, tonight on TSN2!

Whoa 
 

Or have them attack people weekly (or every other week) so when they do come out on a big team, there is more of a bigger feel to it.  I was mostly angry that they sacrificed the elite for it.   It almost worked for them to have last week off...I think this show felt like a re-set.  

was intrigued by the Dark Order at first but Lucha Underground did stories like that like a million times better.
Let me know when the leader of the Dark Order kills the house band, makes a throne of their skulls, and presides over the ring like Thulsa Doom while Cody cowers in an undisclosed location.
****, I miss Lucha Underground.

I'm definitely in the minority but I didn't entirely hate the Dark Order takeover segment. At least the idea of it. Like if you just think about it without thinking about how it actually went down. The visual of this massive group of identical characters swarming wrestlers and overwhelming them is pretty cool. It's like something out of Batman. But somewhere along the line, the execution failed (those horrid punches and keeping the camera on them didn't help). Overall I'm ok with trying something you think might be cool, seeing it fail and moving on. Better than planning something you KNOW will suck and then spending 4 weeks cramming down people's throats and trying to make it work.

Now it makes sense. Should have assumed you were part of the Cult of Cornette or whatever they call it. That clown has proven himself to be out of touch and EXTREMELY biased time and time again. I don't give a **** how much experience the guy has, his opinions are utterly useless at this point. If he was in charge, he'd still be finding ways to put the belts on the Rock'n'Roll Express.
EDIT: And as TUP just mentioned. There's also the fact that he's like 80% character. At one point it was 100% but I genuinely think he's blurred the lines for so long that even he doesn't know where it is anymore and he's basically become his character to an extent.

I honestly think that the wedding segment from Raw will have an affect on a few people's decision making process. There has to be at least one person with a contract about to expire who saw that and thought "fuuuuuck this"

Heaven forbid someone who enjoys wrestling and has the financial means to start a company does exactly that. This stunner happened after the show went off the air. It was a bit of fun for the people who purchased tickets. The horror!
Besides, the use of the term "money mark" says it all. It's like getting called a snowflake. It's really hard to take a person seriously when those phrases start getting tossed around. Multiple times in this case.

Heaven forbid someone who enjoys wrestling and has the financial means to start a company does exactly that. This stunner happened after the show went off the air. It was a bit of fun for the people who purchased tickets. The horror!
Besides, the use of the term "money mark" says it all. It's like getting called a snowflake. It's really hard to take a person seriously when those phrases start getting tossed around. Multiple times in this case.

Tessa Blanchard would be a HUUUUUUGE addition to the AEW roster. She could be the back the women's division rides on. 

based on what?

I don't understand what's ridiculous. I'm curious about NXTs streaming numbers as well. If we want to compare total viewers, all platforms need to be taken into consideration. However, like Unknown Poster mentioned, there are more specific metrics that matter re: broadcast deals. I'm not sure what the streaming is like in the US for AEW, but in Canada they benefit from using TSN's streaming platform. Those viewers on TSN.ca will help AEW get a better deal next time. The Network actively takes eyeballs away from WWE's broadcast partners. Not that it's entirely a bad thing, it's just a different model. 

Do you know how streaming numbers work into everything? I watch Dynamite through TSN's website and I wouldn't be shocked if a majority of people in their 20s-30s are streaming as well.