News On AEW Revolution Pay-Per-View Numbers

Information about AEW Revolution pay-per-view numbers has been discussed, with a report explaining the impact of the recent UFC show.

For one reason or another, last Sunday’s AEW Revolution show will be remembered for years to come. One of the most anticipated wrestling cards in recent history, the night was capped off with Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley’s brutal exploding barbed-wire deathmatch.

As per Dave Meltzer, Revolution did very well on pay-per-view. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer stated that this feat is even more impressive considering Revolution took place the day after a significant UFC show.

Explaining that WWE usually sees a decrease in viewership when sharing the weekend with the UFC, Meltzer pointed out that it’s important for AEW to figure out what made fans tune in.

Here is the full quote:

“(Revolution) did very big on pay-per-view. It was the biggest one they’ve done to date, most likely, it’s not 100% the biggest, but probably will be the biggest by a wide margin. But right now, we’ll just say it’s probably the biggest because we don’t have any traditional television pay-per-view numbers. I don’t have any of those. We’ve got everything else, and it’s way above everything.

“So what do we learn from this number being well up from any show they’ve ever done, what’s the conclusion? Is it the bombs? It is the promise of a surprise person? Is it Sting? Because it was Sting’s first match in over five years and his first match in AEW. And Sting’s first match should draw, so it could be that. Omega/Moxley, obviously you’ve got to give credit to the main eventers, they’re part of it. And then the other one is Sunday rather than Saturday. They’ve done all the Saturday shows, they do one Sunday show, it does way better. Sunday is the traditional day for pay-per-view.

“And also here’s another thing when it comes to that number. The number is even more impressive because you were going the day after a big UFC. A normal UFC I don’t think would hurt too much, but it’s gonna affect it. A big UFC, we’ve seen with WWE, when you have like Georges St-Pierre, and this was the equivalent of… just beneath a Georges St-Pierre as far as numbers go. Or maybe right at, maybe right at Georges St-Pierre numbers. When you do that, the general rule when you have a big UFC, is WWE the next day would be down 15% from what you would expect them to do. It’s a significant drop. And (AEW) went in there on that, they also went against the NBA All-Star game, which is a big sporting event. The Oprah Winfrey interview and all that – I don’t think it’s a big thing but it’s bigger than most Sundays.

“I know that on Sunday morning people were talking about the Oprah Winfrey interview and the All-Star game were gonna hurt them a lot. And if it hurt them any, or if that UFC show hurt them any, and the UFC show probably did, you’re talking about an even bigger number. So something really worked. People were complaining they didn’t build things up big enough, but evidently something worked really big.

“When you’re talking about a pay-per-view at that level, there’s gonna be crossover (between AEW and UFC). The last stats that we had, which would have been 2019, there was a big crossover between AEW and Jon Jones fights. And this was the equivalent of a Jon Jones fight. Yeah, there was a crossover. It was a pretty significant crossover actually, so it still exists. I can’t say it hurt 15%, but it certainly would hurt more than 5% and probably push to 10, even if it’s down from what it was years ago.

“There’s no doubt they would have done a bigger number (without UFC), because you’re spending $70 on a Saturday, if you’re gonna spend $70 on a pay-per-view on Saturday, you’re not gonna be as quick to spend another 50 on the Sunday. If you had a free weekend and there wasn’t anything on the Saturday, you would be more likely to spend 50. It’s not like they’d have done 200,000 buys without the UFC, but it probably hurt 5-10-15,000 as far as total buys. So that’s significant.”

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UFC 259 took place on March 6. A day later, Sting was making his in-ring debut for AEW.

The final angle of Revolution fell flat, with technical issues robbing fans of the “explosion” that AEW claimed would follow the main event. Mick Foley has criticized AEW for providing storyline explanations for the segment, noting that he’d have preferred the company to admit the fault.

What are your thoughts on the above story? Let us know in the comments on Twitter or Facebook.

• revolution
• pay-per-view
• ufc
• AEW

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