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Dax Harwood Hits Back At Ex-WWE Talent Over Collision Criticism

By Lyle Kilbane • Published 6th July 2023
dax harwood tag team title

AEW Collision launched to great fanfare in June as the company brought back CM Punk into the fold but since then ratings have dropped and dropped some more leading to Dax Harwood simply asking for fans to give the show a chance.

While the ratings for the debut episode of Collision were comparable to those of Dynamite, the show hasn’t been successful in keeping that viewership, losing over 200,000 viewers in its second week. The July 1st ratings were grim once again, dropping to an average of 452,000 viewers and a 0.13 rating in the 18-49 year old demographic. Brandon Thurston notes that these figures are nearly identical to the latest Rampage ratings.

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In response to a comparison of the three weeks of ratings, former WWE star Jonathan Coachman took to Twitter with criticism of AEW President Tony Khan’s booking strategy for the show, writing:

“Tony is buying way to much into hard core wrestling fans and not paying attention to what actually works in entertainment. I would have started more social and tic tok content before ear marking tens of millions and cutting your talent roster in half. Saturday’s are for house shows and PPV. Period.”

Coachman followed up by responding to a fan who pointed out the drop in ratings saying:

“Kyle what do I know. Been out of the business too long. You don’t know AEW fans. You’re an idiot-just watch Tony will show you. Let me repeat myself for those except Kyle who clearly listened m- wrestling shoes do not work on Saturdays. Never have. Never will. Now you all can try and come up with something else but try and understand some of us who are in the business kind of know what we are talking about. All that said I would never float about being right and an entire fan base being wrong. Not my style.”

Now AEW Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood has responded to Coachman saying that it takes time to build a brand and asking for the former WWE star and other skeptical fans to simply give the show a chance:

“Hey Coach. We’re trying to build a brand. It will take time; we understand that. Hopefully you do too! This roster absolutely loves wrestling. Like, an entity. LOVES it. I know you probably can’t relate to that. Will this Saturday night tv show endeavor work? Who knows. What I…

“…do know is, we’ll all work our asses off to MAKE it work. I hope you, & people like you, give us an opportunity to show you, professional wrestling IS alive. I know you know how Monday nights work, but maybe you’ll give us more than 3 weeks to make this work. If not, you’re..

“…more than welcome to tell me I’m wrong. What I’m not wrong about is, wrestling fans love wrestling. And we’ll always work to make them proud. Give us a chance.”