Jim Cornette has commented on AEW’s apparent falling ticket sales after it was reported that the figures “do not tell a good story.”
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Dave Meltzer broke down the ticket sales for a number of upcoming AEW events, including Full Gear.
In the breakdown Meltzer noted that in some cases sales were four and five times less than they had been when the company previously visited certain markets and arenas. The report added that while 80% of all AEW pay-per-views sold out in 24-hours, Full Gear did not.
Speaking on a recent episode of his Jim Cornette Experience podcast, the legendary manager gave his take on the situation. Cornette suggested that now AEW has become a more established brand, it is seen less an anti-establishment, instead it’s looked at in more of a similar way to WWE, and this has lessened it’s appeal.
“But then slowly yes, people have started to realise Wait a minute, this fucking company. The alternative to the company funded by the billionaire that we hate, this company is funded by a billionaire. Ultimately with more money than the billionaire we hated Tony Khan’s father, because Vince don’t have the money Shad’s [Khan] got.
So my statement and we can go back… I said How long can this last? How long? How much money? And for how long? Can the diehards, get a ticket for every pay per view and fly to every big event? And every All Out and All In and this and that. That’s starting to wear off, because at some point with anything that is plentiful. You know, when you first get something that you really like and there’s not much of it and you’ve been starved for a while and boy here you’re going to make every effort to get that thing.
But then it’s plentiful and it’s available and it’s ongoing and you’re running lower on money and you got other things going on, that’s where you have to use that fan base that you start with, to subsist on while you make a bigger fan base while you expose yourself to a bigger audience while you try to attract somebody else into the tent.”
Cornette continued by describing AEW and it’s origins as the “world’s largest crowdfunding experiment.”
“So you asked about the ticket sales, it’s going to happen, it’s not new anymore. It’s not new that this other company besides the evil empire once run by Vince McMahon is going to run this big building in my town. They’ve been here two or three times now. So maybe I can start picking and choosing…
Didn’t we say that? The first pay-per-view All In, I said it was the world’s largest history’s largest crowdfunding experiment. There were so many people mad at Vince McMahon and the WWE and that company and the way they treated their favourite wrestlers that they wanted to will into existence an opponent, an alternative, a competitor. And those people that were really devoted to see that were willing to put their money where their mouth was.”
As of September 30th 9,779 tickets have been sold for Full Gear on November 19th, with a sell-out being “a little over 12,000.”
If you use any of the quotes from this article please link back to the original source with a h/t to Inside The Ropes.