Jeff Jarrett Compares Dennis Rodman's Recent AEW Appearance To John Cena's WWE Return
Jeff Jarrett believes that WWE is being very smart.
On the latest episode of "My World," the former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion said that WWE brought John Cena on to the Roman Reigns-less Friday nights, as well as WWE Payback, and the recent supershow in India, as a strategic maneuver to sell tickets to the events and boost the ratings, which is something AEW also dabbled in recently, bringing in former NBA star and WCW attraction Dennis Rodman to "AEW Collision" and All Out during the company's fraught days in Chicago, following the firing of CM Punk.
"[Dave] Meltzer put out a tweet and it said something to the effect, 'Dennis Rodman had zero effect on ticket sales and ratings,' and I kinda did a head-scratcher," Jarrett said, admitting Meltzer is right about the ticket sales, as Rodman was a last-minute addition and didn't have time to affect sales, but Jarrett says that the Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor is wrong about Rodman as a TV draw.
Dennis Rodman's Impact On AEW
"The ratings, the quarter hour he was in, was the only one out of the eight that was higher than the prior one," Jarrett explained, "so I'd say he moved the needle."
Jarrett also says that Rodman's appearance did tremendous numbers on social media, saying that he was impressed that a tweet on a late Friday afternoon generated 2.8 million impressions.
"We're talking about what's over and what's not over," Jarrett continued. "He made a difference in metrics on social media, which I believe translated to the Saturday night 'Collision' bumping their quarter-hour."
Jarrett says this is no different from how WWE used Cena recently.
"Cena, they purposefully put him on, advertised six-to-eight Friday nights to say, 'Tune in Friday nights, that's gonna help us get ratings,'" he continued, "but the ticket sales is black and white and the India deal, that gets into multiples of re-upping the contract."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "My World" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.