I think what we've seen over the last year is that the amount of AEW fans who just watch AEW exclusively is a tiny minority. 2019-2021, when WWE was dogshit, AEW did well because it was the alternative to dogshit. There were other factors of course, the simple excitement of a new wrestling company that promises to do things differently, the possibility of ex-WWE talent to display their true potential after being held back, etc.
But WWE is not dogshit anymore, in fact the product is pretty good. As a result, the people have stopped caring so much about AEW, because Tony doesn't give them a reason to care outside of workrate matches. Not to mention that the vast majority of ex-WWE wrestlers who have actually improved since jumping ship can be counted on the hand of someone who had most of their fingers cut off in an industrial accident. The excitement is gone.
Then on top of that, you factor in the increase in the number of PPVs, without story reasons to justify these big shows. People just aren't going to shell out to see a technical dream match between two 5'3" NJPW guys.
