Is WWE Trying to Kill AEW Rampage? | SmackDown vs. Rampage | WWE vs. AEW

Is WWE Trying to Kill AEW Rampage? | SmackDown vs. Rampage #SmackDown #AEWRampage #WWE #AEW 0:00 WWE vs. AEW and the Friday Night Wars 1:57 SmackDown vs. Rampage: Tony Khan Hotshots Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki 2:55 Supersized SmackDown vs. AEW Rampage Predictions 3:45 SmackDown Viewership on FS1 vs. Rampage 4:46 WWE and AEW Ticket Sales, Hardcore Fans It’s WWE vs. AEW this Friday, and if you’re AEW—how do I put this…Here comes the Pain. WWE is set to go all WWE on AEW Rampage by counter-programming AEW’s dying Friday Night Flagship with a Supersized SmackDown on FS1. Since CM Punk’s return, which went gangbusters in viewership, Rampage has fallen off a cliff, drawing record lows every Friday night for seven straight weeks, including last week despite CM Punk wrestling. Uh oh. WWE still has a bad taste in its mouth after getting beaten handily during the Wednesday Night Wars, but this time around, it’s not going to be Uncle Paul’s Super Indy with The Undisputed Era and cast of small white wrestlers with very limited appeal. WWE is bringing out the big guns. Brock Lesnar. Roman Reigns. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks. Commercial Free. SmackDown is even advertising the payoff for what has quietly become one of its best storylines in Naomi vs. Sonya Deville, which is literally a feud about being black and overlooked in pro wrestling, a story as old as the median age of viewership in NXT. That joke could use some editing, let’s run that back. A story as old as Dave Meltzer. Triple H might have been the scapegoat for losing the Wednesday Night Wars, but in the Friday Night Wars, WWE’s taking a sledgehammer to an ant farm. Both SmackDown and Rampage set to also face stiff competition from the MLB playoffs and College Football. College Football is on fire in the ratings despite having—Cover your ears, Tony—Black athletes and Black superstars at every turn. Between sports programming and WWE coming for AEW’s whole life Tony Khan pulled a Vince McMahon and is now trying his hand at hotshotting by going head-to-head with SmackDown with a big-time, mainstream matchup between…Bryan Danielson and Minoru Suzuki?! Yes, a lot of men who already watch AEW are going to be really excited about that, but motherf----r you’ve got Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns on the other channel. If Bryan Danielson and Nick Jackson couldn’t drag Rampage out if its current slump, you think doubling down on catering to the hardcores will? See, this is what happens when you make a product designed to chase imaginary five-Star ratings. AEW’s really good at turning Dave Meltzer into Dave Moisture, but that’s not going get the women or black people the they need in order for this product to be considered cool. Still, Tony Khan is talking his stuff. Khan tweeted that he couldn’t wait for AEW to beat WWE’s A-Show. Who knows, anything can happen. But the the more I think about it, the less likely I think that is, and I think Tony Khan realizes that. Just days after his bold prediction, Khan told Moose and Maggie that it really isn’t about the competition. Prior to that, Khan took to Twitter and said he embraces the competitive spirit between WWE and AEW. He just wants a friendly rivalry. Four days later, Tony Khan said WWE Raw sucked on Monday. Ahh, friendly competition. I’ve been wrong before, and I could be wrong about this one, but I think Super SmackDown beats the Brakes off AEW Rampage. The math just isn’t on AEW’s side here. Rampage did just over 500,000 viewers last week. The last time SmackDown was on FS1, it did just over one million viewers. Facing some tougher competition this time around, let’s say—conservatively—SmackDown does 800,000. That means AEW Thunder will have to come up with over 300,000 viewers in the span of a week in order to beat SmackDown. Brother, that ain’t happening. Not on an Internet Wrestling Showcase tailor made for the male-dominated hardcore audience that already watches your show, some of whom abandoned it weeks ago. In fact, the only time in Rampage history that the show had a week-to-week increase of over 300,000 viewers was for CM Punk’s major return after seven years inside The United Center. So unless you’re booking a Miami Heat reunion in Hard Rock Stadium, the Friday Night War could get real ugly, real fast for AEW. Wrestling is very cold right now, as evidenced by AEW’s current struggle to get a second show off the ground, in addition to this week’s scary low ticket sales across both companies. WWE vs. AEW,wwe vs. aew ratings,aew vs. wwe ratings,AEW vs. WWE,SmackDown vs. Rampage,Rampage vs. SmackDown,Rampage viewership,WWE Supersized SmackDown,Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki,AEW Buy In,CM Punk Rampage,SmackDown 2.5 hours,SmackDown on FS1,SmackDown vs. Rampage results,wwe aew,wwe vs aew dream match,wwe vs aew 2021,vince mcmahon tony khan,tony khan,vince mcmahon walk,friday night wars,friday night wars rampage vs smackdown,wwe vs aew promo