All Elite Wrestling gained huge popularity in 2021 with the signing of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and several other stars. However, the product’s popularity slowly declined in 2023 and AEW consistently received negative reactions from the Internet Wrestling Community.
AEW is currently following in the footsteps of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Recently, Chris Jericho responded to the criticism that AEW is going through an identity crisis.
Attendance at AEW shows has drastically decreased, and viewership remains between 800,000 and 850,000 for Dynamite. Viewership of Collision and Rampage has been under 500,000 for a long time.
Tony Khan appeared on the ROH Final Battle post-show media scrum, where he responded to the negative reactions that AEW received in the past several months. Khan said that his company consistently receives backlash, no matter what they do. Khan added that he doesn’t worry about it.
“To be AEW is to be under constant attack. You do a great show, and the next day, somebody’s saying something negative. If you do five great shows in a row, it’s negative. You break the ticket record for the most tickets ever sold for any wrestling show in the history of the world. Someone has something bad to say about it. At this point, I don’t worry about it. We just need to go out there and do great shows week after week, like we did. We were the No. 1 show on cable this week. On Wednesday, we beat every single show on TV. And we continue doing it.”