It's no secret that AEW has booking problems, anything good that happens is never followed up on in any way that makes you want to see what happens next or when you feel like you want to get behind a wrestler, they're suddenly cooled off and never sustain momentum. But even still, the decline in ratings defies all the reasons we were given for the fall of WCW, ECW and TNA over the last 20 years. AEW has had no finger pokes, no reverse battle royals, no haemorrhaging of talent etc and yet they keep falling. Even WWE did so many more worse things than we've seen in AEW to lose half their audience to the point they're at now.
How much of a chance did AEW ever have of increasing viewership past their current peak with any reasonable expectation?