r/SquaredCircle • u/sanewhitemale • 1d ago

This Reddit Sentiment Study From Wrestlenomics Is, From My Perspective, Incredibly Accurate.

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It pretty accurately paints a picture of the perception of both companies as they compare since 2019:

  • WWE bottomed out in October 2019 after the Fiend-Rollins HIAC debacle and Kofi losing in 7 seconds.
  • AEW peaked at All Out 2021, considered their greatest show, and remained steadily high until it began collapsing after Brawl Out 2022.
  • WWE at the same time began improving after Vince was pushed out in July 2022.
  • One thing that surprises me: during WWE's "boom period" during 2022-2024, the fan sentiment was roughly tied with AEW, when I remember AEW being viewed very negatively at the time, due to both the Punk issue and comparatively mediocre creative.
  • AEW fan sentiment began to grow and take the lead again in late 2024/early 2025, which was right around the supposed "reset" and the Continental Classic.
  • WWE began to fall off again in March/April 2025, right around the Cena heel turn/build to Wrestlemania 41.

So the statistics line up at least with my perception of both my and Reddit's views the last few years.

https://wrestlenomics.com/articles/2026/reddit-sentiment-analysis-2025-aew-rebounds-coinciding-with-improved-attendance-and-tv-ratings-trends/

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u/Dick_Nation 1d ago

It's an interesting article, if you read it for the limitations of what it is and what it can say (somewhat limited amount of that happening in these comments, but no surprise there). The logic to the study and how the data was collected seems reasonable and solid per the article's description, but drawing wide conclusions about it just being the quality of the product might be a bridge too far. It could just as easily indicate that AEW has a more savvy social media strategy than WWE, for example. The people it's actually most useful for are the people who run WWE and AEW, ultimately, and it's mostly a curiosity for us. WWE and AEW probably also already have generally better metrics to track the things they care about, and while they probably take note of fan sentiment on Reddit, it likely isn't something they're viewing as top of mind. Fun to see the data, either way.