I’m sad to report that Jim Herd has passed away.
I know this won’t be popular, but I think his brief stint in wrestling should be reexamined a bit.
I did just that in today for @arielhelwani’s @uncrownedcombat
🔗 ⬇️
Back in December 2025, Tony Khan said AEW was “really closing the gap” on WWE.
The usual people laughed. The usual people took it as another chance to clown on Tony and AEW.
Fast forward to today. Here’s how the averages have moved since December (Rough averages rounded down):
WWE Raw (Netflix views) — 2.5M → 2.4M (−4%)
SmackDown — 1.1M → 1.2M (+9.1%)
NXT — 600K → 600K (0%)
AEW (excluding Max) Dynamite — 500K → 660K (+32%) Collision — 250K → 384K (+53.6%)
The clearest comparison is on TV, with Raw’s Netflix figures tracked separately.
Dynamite went from 100K behind NXT to 60K ahead. And even with SmackDown gaining 100K viewers, Dynamite gained 160K.
Collision added another 134K to its own average and has grown significantly.
So whether big or small, the fact is Tony was right 🤷🏽♂️
AEW is growing, and WWE is stagnant.
The real question is, why doesn’t this translate to weekly attendance?
#AEW #WWE
A truly underrated heel of the Golden Era, Honky Tonk Man got so much heat that he was pivotal in the babyface turns of Randy Savage (creating the Mega Powers) and Jake Roberts, he also made the Ultimate Warrior huge star 🥰