10 Worst Business Decisions In AEW History
It must be said that AEW has been far more of a success than perhaps many believed it would be when it first started. Creating a professional wrestling promotion from scratch and building it from the ground up is a tough task, and no one since the death of WCW has managed to grow a company to the level AEW has gotten to in North America.
Through the big successes the company has had, selling PPVs, running Wembley Stadium, and attracting massive names in Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho, Edge, and more over the years, there are also some business decisions that ended up going against AEW.
10 Firing CM Punk
There is little argument that from a backstage and moral perspective, firing a troublemaker like CM Punk who sparked backstage fights and more was the correct choice. From a business perspective though, it has seen a decline for AEW.
Punk may not have been a massive needle-mover in terms of drawing, but viewership has seen a decrease, especially over on Collision. He was the biggest name the company had, and firing him has seen a negative business effect, even if Tony Khan didn’t really have a choice.
9 Booking Big Arenas In Advance
One of the recent issues that is being made light of is the half-empty arenas that AEW has had in recent months. It isn't a great look for the company, and it does suggest that interest is dwindling in the company as a whole. There has been a suggestion that AEW should book smaller venues, thereby making it look less embarrassing to have empty seats.
However, this is due to the company booking big arenas in advance back when business was booming. The drop in attendance wasn’t foreseen, but booking in advance has proven to be a poor business move for sure.
8 Fight Forever Video Game
The wait for AEW Fight Forever took… forever. The game was delayed, delayed, and delayed some more, and by the time the video game was actually released, interest had died right down. AEW should have waited until the game was closer to being ready to start drumming up interest because this long build led to an anticlimactic release.
People are not talking about the video game, and given the money that likely went into its production, it is hard to imagine that it has paid back all that well. Perhaps they would have been better suited to not having made a game at all.
7 AI Designed T-Shirts
This is a more minor point but the moral aspect of it makes it among AEW’s worst business decisions. At a time when creators and artists are struggling more and more for work, AEW made the decision to sell AI-generated t-shirt designs.
The designs weren’t even good, and the fact that their back was turned to many talented artists who could have designed far better t-shirts was a poor decision and one that didn’t shine a positive light on the company.
6 Tony Khan Having Full Reign On Social Media
Tony Khan wants to defend AEW to the grave, and that is admirable. However, his social media activity sometimes comes across as too childish, and the way he wars with WWE and doesn’t get anything back leads to AEW looking like the “minor leagues”.
In the long run, people may look down on AEW for this, sponsors may turn away, and talent might get tired of these sorts of antics. As noted by Fightful Select, “From what we understand, Khan doesn't clear his tweets with AEW PR for those asking.”
5 ROH On AEW Programming
Tony Khan’s purchase of ROH made sense given the extensive tape library and All In rights. However, he also wanted a TV deal for ROH, and to try and make this happen he implemented the brand on AEW television.
It was too much, and it led to lesser quality content and perhaps the worst stretch of weekly AEW programming in its history (though it was still decent). ROH failed to get a TV deal in what can only be described as a big business failure, so all this pushing of it felt like a waste of time.
4 Signing Too Many Free Agents
AEW has signed a ridiculous number of talents. Whilst it is good for those who are being paid, it surely can’t be good for profits. When you consider that names like Luther, Aaron Solo, Serena Deeb, Anthony Ogogo, Cole Karter, Lee Johnson, Tony Nese, and more have been contracted for years, it is a problem.
As hugely talented as some of those individuals are, many are not used or are hardly used, so AEW is not getting a return on their own investments. It feels like a waste of money to have so many talents under contract if they aren’t even being utilized properly.
3 Bringing Back CM Punk
Whilst it was stated that firing CM Punk was a bad business move, so was bringing him back in the first place, at least without a solution to the issues between him and The Elite. Bringing Punk back with a brand-new show in Collision when tensions were still high was a recipe for disaster.
This led to a snowballing of problems and issues which would ultimately lead to AEW not having a choice but to fire him. It all started with Punk being controversially brought back in the manner that he was. AEW should have worked harder on getting all parties in a room and sorting things out because bringing Punk back had an adverse effect on business in the long run.
2 Letting Cody Rhodes Leave
When looking at how incredibly Cody Rhodes is doing in WWE as a huge babyface and someone with drawing power, it can be looked at as a failure on AEW’s part to have not handled him correctly. The bad booking of Rhodes and opening the door for him to leave was a terrible business decision in hindsight.
Of course, things weren’t going well for Rhodes, but this was down to his booking. If Rhodes had been protected more and handled better, then he could have been a star and a draw for AEW for years to come.
1 Losing Out On Jade Cargill
Jade Cargill had the potential to be the face of the company. She could have been a major star who could cross over and bring in mainstream appeal. A lot of money could have been made with Cargill, but AEW just didn’t capitalize on this. She was inconsistently booked and wasn’t presented as the star she should’ve been pushed as.
Of course, there was still time for a change, but before that could happen, AEW lost out on Cargill to WWE. They missed out on a major asset here, and they only have themselves to blame, unfortunately.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKeoqqSowaa%2BjZympmenpL%2B0wIybrKyhnprAtHnDnpqiq5mku7R5wJ6uZqCZqMGwvtho