“The Goal Was…”: Dave Meltzer Reveals Original Plan for Tony Khan’s AEW Dynamite to Be Considered a Success Amidst Ratings War With WWE

AEW has often invoked comparison with the world’s biggest wrestling promotion, WWE, since its inception in 2019. Especially regarding viewerships, we often see the two big juggernauts crossing swords.

While the ratings war is very much still on at the closure of this year, AEW Dynamite got a brownie point, after receiving validation from a veteran wrestling journalist.

Dave Meltzer put forward logic to side with AEW Dynamite in the face of an intense rating war

In these 4 years, Khan’s company has undergone various turns and twists, with many advancements and policies helping the cause. That said, it still can’t escape being at the critic’s gunpoint occasionally. Amongst the strongest brickbats, the one that has always been a recurring theme is the consistently low viewership numbers of Dynamite.

Despite being the company’s flagship show, it failed to live up to the 1 million viewership expectations. In 2023, AEW Dynamite averaged a 0.294 demo rating and 865,000 viewers, which is pretty poor compared to the last year. In October 2023, Dynamite saw its lowest rating since June 2020, when it was pitched against the NBA’s opening week.

But there’s a slight surge this week as it scored 843K/0.31.

Referring to that, Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer took a dig at critics who continue to hold unrealistic expectations.

He mentioned that he had a talk with people in the ad department and came to know that the ”goal was 500,000 and 0.20.”

So, the unreachable numbers emerge as merely an illusive thought as of now.

Read more:

Tony Khan Reveals the One Thing That Separates AEW from WCW

Meltzer was not wrong in lauding the current momentum of AEW Dynamite, something that has been shown through this week’s viewership numbers that gave a serious blow to Raw.

AEW Dynamite surpassed this week’s Raw in terms of viewership

The December 27, 2023, edition of AEW Dynamite emanated from the Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida. The jam-packed show brought out several riveting matches and storylines. In addition, Khan’s flagship show also featured two high-flying semi-final matches of the Continental Classic tournament.

As a result of all these attraction pointers, Dynamite saw a certain rise in the numbers. It garnered around 843,000 viewers, with a 0.31 overall rating.

It is even more astonishing that with these numbers, Dynamite beat this week’s WWE Raw record in a very rare occurrence.

Watch the story:

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What’s your take on Dave Meltzer backing up AEW Dynamite in the face of recent criticism over lower viewership numbers? Let us know in the comments