As one of the brightest stars in All Elite Wrestling, Wardlow has plenty of goals. He wants to win titles, grow into a genuine main-event player, and boost the company’s popularity. But “Mr. Mayhem” also has a specific objective; he wants to elevate AEW’s female viewership.
Ratings are practically the name of the game nowadays, and in an interview with Blake Oestriecher of Forbes, “The War Dog” described how he wants to be the reason AEW has more eyeballs on the product, both in a general sense and in the more defined range of the female viewership.
“I’m very in tune with numbers, and my main goal for AEW is, I want to be the reason we have more viewers,” said Wardlow. “I want to be the reason the female viewership goes up. I want to be the reason that 18-49 demographic goes up. I want to be the reason our ratings are higher,” Wardlow added. “I know I can’t do it on my own. It takes help from the other young talent. It takes help from the legends and the guys coming over, but I want to be one of the guys that are moving the needle for this company.”
Over the past several months, AEW has loaded its roster with top-tier names like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole, among others. Wardlow, a homegrown star, views the presence of these established names as additions that have benefitted the company, and he’s looking forward to the day when others who are “taking the backseat” will get the chance to shine.
“I’m very proud to say that I’m really an AEW original and an AEW homegrown [star]. I mean, nobody knew of me outside of the Pittsburgh/Ohio area,” Wardlow said. “Maybe a handful of people in Chicago where I worked, but other than that, nobody knew me. I think it was beneficial for me to build myself from the ground up in AEW.”
“I know with CM Punk coming to our company, that’s just a million more eyes on me also and on our company and on our product, and it’s only going to help us to grow,” said Wardlow. “And in the end, once we grow, the guys that are taking the backseat are going to start getting more opportunities. It takes some patience, but it’s also for the betterment of the company.”
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