Pro Wrestling legend Lance Storm and Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com recently appeared as guests on a live F4W Twitch stream, where they answered a number of questions from fans.
A fan asked,
“Jim Cornette once said that AEW is booking wrestling for people who don’t like wrestling. While I disagree with his statement, it resonated with me. What do you think AEW has to do to not only attract more fans but also create new fans from people who aren’t already watching wrestling?”
Lance Storm then responded,
“I think it’s going to take time. I think it’s going to probably take a lot of patience, and then again, maybe, you know, I don’t know whether Shaq is going to be enough to do it or a Mike Tyson angle, something to bring more eyeballs to it.
There is also the possibility that with how fragmented entertainment is, that perhaps greatly expanding an audience isn’t something that is going to happen or at least happen very easily. I don’t agree that AEW books it for people who don’t like wrestling. Maybe it books it for people who don’t like Jim Cornette’s taste in wrestling.
I like wrestling and I watched this past Wednesday. Even though everyone else said this wasn’t their big show that was going to attract the numbers, I really enjoyed it because there was a lot of wrestling action on the show. There’s stuff I would do differently if I was completely in charge or building it to my tastes, but on the whole, there is a lot of good wrestling on the show and I enjoy it.
So, I don’t agree with Jim Cornette’s assessment per say, but, it takes a long time to build a loyal audience and I think with the internet and 10,000 streaming services, I think it’s going to be hard to build like, I don’t think there is a quick fix to get you to always get you to over a million or a million and a half. There are so many entertainment options right now that it is really hard.”
Bryan Alvarez then added,
“Jim Cornette has been in the wrestling business for decades everybody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that he doesn’t believe what he says or whatever. But, he’s a gimmick. If he gets mad at that, I’ll admit I’m a gimmick too, to a degree. So is Lance. He was less of a gimmick actually than the other two, but, the fact of the matter is, listen, and maybe he will get mad at me, but do I actually believe that Jim Cornette thinks AEW is a show for people who don’t like wrestling?
I’ve been a wrestling fan my whole life. I am a wrestling fan and I love AEW because I am a wrestling fan. If you don’t like the style of wrestling, if Jim Cornette personally doesn’t like that style of wrestling, more power to the guy. You can like whatever you want. But, I do like that style of wrestling so I like the show because I’m a wrestling fan and as a wrestling fan quite frankly, the show that doesn’t give me professional wrestling, it’s RAW and SmackDown.
So it’s a ridiculous talking point. God bless the guy, but I mean, come on. It’s ridiculous. But look, everybody is talking about it so he succeeded.”
Lance Storm then once again added, “Well he’s got a podcast to do.”
