Many believe that WWE’s decision to move Raw back to a TV-14 rating is a result of the rise of AEW. Though Eric Bischoff doesn’t believe it to be the case.
The former WCW president talked about this potential change on the latest episode of his Strictly Business podcast. His co-host theorized that this change is related to the popularity of AEW.
However, Bischoff opposed this sentiment, mentioning that WWE is not losing market share to their competitor. He also shared his wild opinion on AEW’s TV ratings:
“It’s not like WWE is losing audience to AEW. AEW is flatter than piss on a plate in terms of television ratings.” said Eric Bischoff, “It is what it is and WWE is not losing market share to AEW, so why would they react to something that’s not affecting them?”
The former wrestling executive also said that anyone that believes AEW to be a legitimate threat to WWE is “delusional, and has taken ‘fanboyism’ to a terminal level.”
AEW has seen growth in the year-over-year audience every year since its inception. Their flagship program Dynamite has averaged around 950,000 viewers this year compared to the average of 891,000 viewers per episode in 2021.
Though with both Raw and SmackDown regularly pulling over 1.5 million viewers, there is no doubt that Tony Khan’s promotion still has a lot of catching up to do.
Quotes via WrestlingInc
