Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, Cody Rhodes, wrestling

Cody Rhodes Expects AEW to Expend Relationship with ITV in the UK

Published Sun, 08 Nov 2020 12:35:33 -0600

AEW's Full Gear 2020 PPV may be over and done, but will we ever run out of clickbait article topics gleaned from the media conference call AEW EVP Cody Rhodes participated in before the PPV? Seemingly not, as Cody talked during the call about AEW's plans for future expansion in the United Kingdom. According to Cody, AEW is doing great in the UK and

"Well, the goal of the goal of AEW from an executive standpoint, from where I sit, is always to expand. That's to capture international audience, casual fans, lapsed fans," Cody said during the call. Cody referred to data assembled by AEW's Chris Harrington, showing the company doing very well in the land of Bleeding Cool Rumoumonger-in-Chief Rich Johnston. "Chris Harrington put together an intense spreadsheet, and he color-coded it for the ones of us who didn't go to college, i.e., me, an intense spreadsheet on how well we were doing and how pointed the data was in terms of families and homes, in terms of 18-49, the actual youth of the United Kingdom and how plugged in they were. That type of success hopefully will beget more success and more penetration/presence when it comes to our great TV partner that is ITV."

A graphic from AEW shows the company's success in the UK.

Those numbers do seem impressive, considering AEW in the United States draws around 800,000 viewers regularly, though the television landscape in the UK is a little bit different. I asked Rich Johnston what he thought of it, and he both scoffed at the numbers and claimed to have never heard of AEW. He also said AEW is on ITV4, which he also scoffed at. Then he tried to convince me that Boris Johnson is to the left of Joe Biden. So take it all with a grain of salt, maybe? Anyway, Cody says AEW plans to expand in the future, both on ITV and with live shows.

"So those discussions, to be frank, have happened, and the discussion of us doing a show in the UK, that's a no brainer," Cody continued. "I know I'm not supposed to break any news, and ultimately, Tony Khan is steering the ship, but I can tell you flat out: we will, when the gates open, when the world is open again, we will absolutely be in the UK. And I don't think for just one show. There's too many markets, and you haven't wrestled… You're not a wrestler, in my opinion, until you wrestle in front of a UK crowd. There's nothing like it. They go a different way, and they go a very special way. So I'm really proud of that data. I'm proud to be partners with ITV.

"Our UK presence hopefully will have a great 2021," Cody concluded. "We're definitely geared and heading that way, and I can't wait to see what else we do on ITV."

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