Now that DON 22 numbers are out, I thought I would revise this post I made. The PPV buys were going up year on year, before CM Phil. Let's compare numbers -
(2019)
DON - 109.000 - 113.000 (First Time)
AO - 101.000 (First Time)
FG - 100.000 (First Time)
(2020)
REV: - 100.000 - 105.000 (First Time)
(Pandemic shows)
DON: - 115,000–120.000 (Up by a minimum of 6000 or a maximum of 11.000)
AO: - 100.000 - 110.000 (Increase of 9000)
FG 2020 - 100.000 (No Growth)
>(2021)
REV: - 125.000 (Up by 20.000)
DON: - 135.000 - 150.000 (Up by 15.000 to 30.000)
All Out 2021 - (Punk's arrival - 205.000.)

We've seen the PPVs this year grow by about 10k. So if Punk is the draw, he "drew" only 45k extra buys and that's assuming people paid just for Punk and I wasn't applying the same growth from 2019 to 2020.

So that's the best-case scenario for Punk and it's only 45k - which is 5k less than what he brought in for his Main Event match against MJF FIRST TIME EVER - two months of build.

FG 2021 - 145.000 (an increase of 45K, which is great - but the draw here was Hangman vs Omega and the payoff to two years of story.)
>2022
Rev 2022 - (Big Increase here - 165.000 to 173.000. Increase of 50k. But again, Hangman is the Champion here.)

DON 2022 (155.000). Phil is now in the main event against Hangman.

DON 21 did 135.000 - 150.000. If the latter is true, then that means only 5k extra people brought the PPV from last year.

What's interesting here, is that DON 21 saw a minimum increase of 10k from Revolution 21. Meanwhile, Revolution 22 had an increase of 50k, but DON hasn't, nor did it grow (as DON from REV 21 did).

Looking at the pattern buys increased steadily, each PPV building towards the next one's overall number. But from Rev 22 to DON 22 that isn't the case.

So, what's the point here? 1, AEW was growing regardless of Phil. 2, Hangman was a legit draw. 3, for the amount of money CM Punk has been given and how he's treated by TK, 50k is laughable and he's not a draw.