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Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently lashed out at AEW and its owner Tony Khan for struggling to increase its audience.
AEW's flagship program, Dynamite, has been languishing around the one million mark in total viewership since embarking on a new era on the TBS network.
While Wednesday night's show made a promising start by cracking over a million three times in January this year, the program has failed to maintain its desired numbers for the following months. Last week, Dynamite drew 977,000 viewers, which was the lowest since the post-Revolution episode (March 9).
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Speaking with Chris Featherstone on the Writing with Russo podcast, Vince Russo asserted that there has been zero growth in the AEW audience since its inception. The veteran added that the same people are turning to the company's weekly show and pay-per-views:
"I am just so sick and tired about how great this company is doing when I've been saying from the beginning, you're not growing your audience," said Russo. "You're not. You have the same people watching your show every single week. There is no growth. The same people are attending the shows. The same people are going to the pay per views. The same people are buying the merch. There is zero growth." (02:27)
Russo also feels that Tony Khan and the company isn't making any efforts to increase AEW's fanbase. While the former WWE head writer knows the ratings won't matter much to Mr. Khan since he's a billionaire, every company will want to grow its audience:
"You guys have to increase your audience and no attempts are being made to do that. Now you know bro, again it all goes back to he's [Tony Khan] a billionaire. If they lose money, it doesn't matter (...) I understand that bro, money isn't a factor here. But my gosh bro, you would still think that you want to increase the audience." (03:38)
You can check out the entire clip from the podcast below:
Tony Khan is slated to make a "huge" announcement on AEW Dynamite
AEW and ROH owner Tony Khan will make a "huge" announcement on the upcoming episode of Dynamite.
While there's a possibility that fans might see another former WWE talent join the overstacked roster, some sources tell us that Mr. Khan could be planning a mega show between AEW and NJPW this summer.
But when it comes to Tony Khan, fans should expect the unexpected. The company's owner previously set the wrestling world ablaze by acquiring ROH.
Whether or not his upcoming announcement turns out to be landscape-changing remains to be seen.
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