August 29, 2022 Observer Newsletter: AEW & WWE momentum shifts, Clash at the Castle & All Out previews

The fortunes of WWE and AEW have gone in opposite directions in recent months.

WWE is doing great business-wise, with Raw at its highest point of the year and live show attendance up across the board.

AEW last week did its second lowest 18-49 number of the year and while live attendance was great in May and June, the last two months haven’t been as good, and aside from New York, Toronto, and Uncasville, CT, most cities are doing lukewarm. For much of the year, Dynamite was drawing larger paid crowds than Raw and just behind Smackdown. In the last two months, the numbers have not been competitive. AEW hasn’t slipped that much but has slipped some, and WWE has grown tremendously.

Some will attribute this to Paul Levesque taking over from Vince McMahon, and that would be fair to a degree. Ratings for Raw have been up a lot. Smackdown hasn’t been up nearly as much although the past two weeks’ numbers with football moving the shows really aren’t indicative of where things really are with that show.

Read this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter here.