Eric Bischoff made his thoughts known during the latest episode of 83 weeks as he talked about the TNA Against All Odds PPV event in 2011.
At the time, Chris Jericho had some interesting things to say about the match, which Thompson read a transcript of:
“I just think a company with that much talent should be doing better than they are. They’ve had the same ratings for the last three years. It is just unacceptable with the amount of talent they have there. I run my own business as well. I run the business of Fozzy. If somebody is not performing and we’re not getting bigger, then something has to change. I wish they would look at it that way instead of relying on the same old things and the same old people. They’ve been trying different things and something isn’t clicking. They’ve had the same million and a half viewers for the last three years. Just an outsider looking in as any business owner looking in. If you had the same return and the same result after three years, maybe you want to try something different to make it grow.”
This is when Bischoff shifted focus to AEW and how they’ve done so far with Dynamite on TNT:
“I think it’s going to come back and bite him in the a*s is what I think. Let’s be honest here. We both have a lot of respect for AEW and the people in it, but, AEW, last week they did about 800,000 viewers which was a high water mark for them over the past several months. They opened the door with 1.5 million viewers when they premiered and they haven’t been able to crack a million since, or if they have, it’s only been on one or two occasions. They’ve essentially flatlined at around 7 or 800,00 viewers on average for the last year and a half. That’s an observation that could, unless something turns around in the next 18 months, come back and haunt someone like Chris because quite frankly, AEW has flatlined. It’s been that way essentially for a year. That includes pre-Covid so there’s no Covid excuse built into the equation here. Going back to probably the second or third episode up until we are now, it’s basically 7 or 800,000 viewers and it has flatlined. What’s the solution there? What’s the problem there Chris. I love Chris. He’s a good dude. He’s a great dude and a good friend, but it’s easy to talk about the business that you’re not really in from a management point of view. It’s easy from the outside, not suggesting that Chris isn’t in the wrestling business in case people are dying to jump on something I say, but Chris has never run a wrestling business. Chris has participated in the wrestling business as one of the best performers in the last 20 years, but Chris has never run a wrestling business. When he made that statement, he was making it from the position of a talent, not an executive who experienced different things in the industry. It’s easy to have an opinion about something you never actually have done. It’s easy to have a theoretical perspective on something as complex as running a wrestling company and because you’re in the business in one way, you feel like your opinion is valid with regard to things you have no experience in, but it’s really not.”
For those who are curious, here is a list of the viewership numbers that AEW has done since premiering Dynamite:
10/2/19: 1,409,000 – premiere episode
10/9/19: 1,140,000
10/16/19: 1,014,000
10/23/19: 963,000
10/30/19: 759,000
11/6/19: 813,000
11/13/19: 957,000
11/20/19: 893,000
11/27/19: 663,000 – Thanksgiving eve episode
12/4/19: 851,000
12/11/19: 778,000
12/18/19: 683,000
1/1/20: 967,000
1/8/20: 947,000
1/15/20: 940,000
1/22/20: 871,000
1/29/20: 828,000
2/5/20: 928,000
2/12/20: 817,000
2/19/20: 893,000
2/26/20: 865,000
3/4/20: 906,000
3/11/20: 766,000
3/18/20: 932,000
3/25/20: 819,000
4/1/20: 685,000
4/8/20: 692,000
4/15/20: 683,000
4/22/20: 731,000
4/29/20: 693,000
5/6/20: 732,000
5/13/20: 654,000
5/20/20: 701,000
5/25/20: 827,000
6/3/20: 730,000
6/10/20: 677,000
6/17/20: 772,000
6/24/20: 633,000
7/1/20: 748,000
7/8/20: 715,000
7/15/20: 788,000
7/22/20: 845,000
7/29/20: 773,000
8/5/20: 901,000
8/12/20: 792,000
8/22/20: 755,000 – Saturday broadcast
8/27/20: 813,000 – Thursday broadcast
9/2/20: 928,000 – Wednesday broadcast
9/9/20: 1,016,000 – Wednesday broadcast
9/16/20: 886,000
9/23/20: 835,000
9/30/20: 866,000
10/7/20: 753,000
10/14/20: 826,000
10/21/20: 753,000
10/28/20: 781,000
11/4/20: 717,000
11/11/20: 764,000
11/18/20: 850,000
11/25/20: 712,000
12/2/20: 913,000
12/9/20: 995,000
12/16/20: 806,000
12/23/20: 775,000 – Late night edition
12/30/20: 977,000
1/6/21: 662,000
1/13/21: 762,000
1/20/21: 854,000
1/27/21: 734,000
2/3/21: 844,000
H/T to WrestlingNews.co