AEW has made big strides with television viewership over the past several weeks. AEW Dynamite has been surging, even topping WWE Raw in the 18-49 demographic on a few occasions. Dynamite vs. Raw is not an apples-to-apples comparison. The shows air on different nights, but AEW’s momentum is undeniable.
Eric Bischoff knows a thing or two about competing with WWE. The former WCW President addressed Dynamite beating Raw on the latest episode of his 83 Weeks podcast.
While fans like to analyze and debate the ratings trends, Bischoff says the opinions of TV executives and advertisers are the ones that matter.
“I think if you’re an executive in a media buying company or advertising agency, I think [the 18-49 demographic] matters, to the rest of the world, it doesn’t mean two sh**s.”
Fighting Mike Tyson’s Kid
Bischoff then discussed how AEW had no competition on the nights it beat Raw in ratings, while Raw was up against Monday Night Football.
“AEW on Wednesday night with no real competition for 18-49 gets a higher percentage of a demo than Monday Night RAW going head-to-head with Monday Night Football, where the vast majority of the 18-49 year olds that watch wrestling also watch football.
It’s like me getting into a fistfight with Mike Tyson’s kid and coming out on top of that. I’m just making this up, and if he did or he does, and I were to mop the floor with that 16-18 year old kid, that’s like me walking around saying I beat the sh** out of Tyson.”
Eric Bischoff also talked about the Wednesday night wars between Dynamite and NXT. He explained how it wasn’t really a fair competition as it was AEW’s best lineup going up against the development squad of WWE.
He also mentioned how people who were very excited to compare the ratings of Dynamite and NXT do not compare the ratings of Rampage to SmackDown which is a more direct comparison because they are on the same night.