>>13949082Benchmarks and expectations change. There is a certain point where overperformance turns into expected performance, and you can't just hand-wave dismiss any subsequent prolonged decline as "well, they were overperforming this whole time anyway so that makes it OK" - no, it's not OK.
AEW cannot expect a massive raise for 2025 based on preliminary expectations set in 2019. The company is not running in 2019 venues, it doesn't have a 2019 payroll, it doesn't have a 2019 amount of PPVs. They will likely get an increase from whoever, WBD or someone else - and AEW fan will take a victory lap if it's even 1% higher than the previous deal - but this is a company that very clearly is being run like Tony Khan Wrestling instead of the All Elite Wrestling of 2022ish that was routinely drawing over 1 million viewers, forcing WWE to re-chart their course.
