So, I’ve found myself observing an interesting situation recently. I don’t know if any of this is interesting to folks or just ramblings, but I figure in a community which could use more content there could be some interesting bits and pieces in there.
Backstory: I went to the Dynamite/Rampage show last week in Edmonton and my Fiance’ came along since somebody else dropped out last minute. She’s never watched wrestling before outside of 30 seconds here and there when I’m watching. To my surprise, she’s become hooked on wrestling and has been watching every show with me since.
I figure since people on the internet are always particularly interested in discussing a promotion’s ‘casual appeal’, but it’s always hard to actually gauge what a truly casual fan would enjoy due to our perspective of being engrossed in the product so deeply, it might be interesting to hear what’s particularly interesting and not interesting to somebody who is well and truly going into this blind.
Her favorite storyline: She’s been absolutely all over the MJF/Adam Cole story - I think it’s accessible since you can tell the dynamic without any context. A reluctant bromance where hilarity ensues - I’ve found that the comedy angles, in general, hit the right beats and capture her attention whereas other areas of the show more reliant on background knowledge start to lose her attention.
Favorite wrestlers: She’s a big fan of Darby Allin, Adam Cole/MJF, Orange Cassidy, and Ruby Soho so far. I think the common thread here is these are all the people who have a really distinctive look or presentation. She always talks about how she thinks Darby’s entrance is the coolest thing ever.
Biggest surprise: Double J is a hit - I believe the quote is “Why is this old man so entertaining, he has no right being that good” when we were at the show
Other random insights:
- She’s more interested in the matches themselves than I expected a new fan to be - I always pictured lots of the angles would be where you hook people and the matches are where you keep them, but the crazy moves are seemingly what particularly draws her interest in the first place and the storylines are a bit of an afterthought
- Building on the note above that it seems comedy-related storylines hit well here, she’s very into the Jack Perry recurring storyline of him running from Hook. I find that interesting given how cold of a reception his first promo got from the more hardcore fans online
- Elite/BCC is doing absolutely nothing for her - not a huge surprise since the last 2 weeks of it hasn’t had much in the way of huge explanations on their history and has just been lots of run-ins. I believe the quote I got last night was “wait, so why is Kenny Omega your favorite wrestler again?”
- I was a bit surprised at how quickly a brand new person picks up everyone’s ‘shtick’ for the most part. You really don’t need any long-term context to have fun going along with the Acclaimed doing what they do or hating Don Callis for fun.
- Not a surprise here, but as a women she’s way more interested in womens matches and I can definitely see how AEW is missing out by only having the one women’s segment each week.
- Physique and ‘believability’ and whatnot of a wrestler doesn’t matter to her whatsoever. You often see people on the internet talk about how you might lose casuals if you have little guys getting wins over bigger guys because it stops being believable. I don’t think she noticed or cared about a big beefy guy once outside of being shocked at how tall Big Bill is.
- Video packages seem real good for helping with a new fan. Just getting 2 weeks of pretty simple but effective packages about Nick Wayne made her super excited to watch his match. They did a great job at filling her in as to why we should cheer for him and why he’s one to watch for the future
Takeaways: Not sure there’s anything we didn’t specifically already know - mostly that AEW can lose the casual viewers when they over-rely on the audience already knowing what’s going on for things and they might be leaving some long-term viewers on the table by not focusing enough on women’s wrestling. I suppose the extent to which comedy-related angles and gimmicks are over with her interested me. It’s no surprise they open the show almost every week with Orange Cassidy - his entire shtick is extremely digestible with little to no context.
If you have any other questions about things that didn’t get touched on that you’re curious about what a brand new fan thought of it, feel free to ask away.
Total opposite end of the spectrum, with similarities. I was a lapsed fan and came back when NXT was great and then lapsed again until I finally gave AEW a shot. I’ve been to a few live shows and watch regularly.
My wife gets the … “Privilege” of watching as I like to joke.
She tends to pay way more attention to women’s matches
She really appreciates that there are more body types like Athena/Willow/Darby/Keith Lee
She enjoys the more acrobatic stuff, and was asking me if Kenny was ok the morning after Forbidden Door. She really likes the choreography and doesn’t care about the realism. We also both agree that the occasional botch is a good thing as long as no one’s hurt becauses sometimes it looks more believable.
The biggest surprise though…
As soon as MJFs music hits she’s in the room, almost without fail.
I find it particularly interesting how MJF translates so well in both our cases. I always would have thought that he would have been much more of a ‘smark hit’ than someone who would come across well to brand new watchers. Exact same thing here, without having any idea who he is and even his history as a massive asshole (given her first exposure to him was when he was already into the ‘fake babyface’ role last week), the moment he’s on screen her interest is at 100%. His natural charisma and ability to work in any role (be it comedy, reluctant temporary face, serious heel, etc) must be really translating really well and it says a lot about just how special of a talent he is that he can capture new fans right off the bat while keeping his stuff interesting to the hardcores as well by backing it up with great in-ring psychology and whatnot.
Have you seen his Hey! EW interview? If not you and your partner should check it out absolutely amazing.
We did! Got quite a good laugh out of that one.