6 months ago
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AEW/Ricky Havlik
Swerve Strickland made history last week when he captured the AEW World Championship from Samoa Joe at AEW Dynasty. During the episode of "AEW Dynamite" following up the pay-per-view, the decision was made to have Strickland wrestle and not speak, holding off until "AEW Collision" later that week, which would benefit from a large NBA playoff lead-in audience. On a recent edition of "Busted Open Radio," co-hosts Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray debated the merits of that decision.
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"I would've loved to have heard from Swerve Strickland [on 'AEW Dynamite'] as opposed to him just wrestling a cold match, though the match was good," Dreamer said. "[On] 'Collision,' Swerve's promo ... did like a 1.3 when [in the] ratings. ... So that business decision that all of us said we would've liked to see on 'Dynamite' happened on 'Collision' and it did better. Then all three of us are technically wrong, correct?"
Bully responded by taking issue with Dreamer's premise that the viewers were actually paying attention to what Strickland had to say on "Collision." Those viewers dropped off rather quickly throughout the first quarter, and it's possible it just took a few minutes for many homes to realize it was time to change the channel.
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"How much of that Swerve promo went into the eyes and the ears of the AEW fans?" Bully asked.
After both men acknowledged the other had made good points, Dreamer said that the success of a promotion generally comes down to the decisions of the owner, which is Tony Khan in AEW's case. The satellite radio host shared his belief that Khan succeeded with his gamble in holding off on Strickland's promo until "Collision," despite the fact that the overrun viewers may not have been AEW fans.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
