AEW recreated the exact same Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mike Tyson segment on an episode of AEW Dynamite on the 27th of May 2020. But what most people are wondering is why? Why did AEW blatantly copy one of the most popular segments of the attitude era using Chris Jericho and Mike Tyson? Even Jim Ross was at commentary saying “Jericho and Tyson!” the same way he said “Austin and Tyson!”. I have got two reasons why:
Mike Tyson is one of the most popular man alive
Almost everyone knows who Mike Tyson is. Even my sixty-year-old father immediately recognized the name “Mike Tyson”. He said that he was the World Champion, getting punched in the face by Mike Tyson is like getting hit by a truck. Obviously the name strikes a chord into the hearts of the casual viewers. Casual viewers who do not watch wrestling might tune in to just watch Tyson. They might end watching some of the other wrestling matches and might end up as a regular viewer of AEW Dynamite.
Getting back the lapsed fans
Mike Tyson and Stone Cold Steve Austin segment in 1998 was one of the most popular segments in wrestling history. Unlike today wrestling was immensely popular in the late 90s due to the Monday Night Wars (WWF vs WCW). But most viewers stopped watching wrestling as the quality of the product worsened and it got extremely cringy. But many lapsed fans from the 90s will immediately recognize the Tyson and Austin segment. AEW almost recreated the segment exactly the same with Jericho instead of Stone Cold. AEW did this so whenever a lapsed wrestling fan from the late 90s watches this they might wonder that they have seen this somewhere before. They will keep watching, in this way they will be able to get hold off some of the lapsed fans.
Did it work?
Of course, it worked! Chris Jericho and Mike Tyson segment got more than 3.7+ million views on YouTube, it was in the trending on YouTube for three days. AEW Dynamite destroyed NXT in the ratings even though NXT also put a great show. This segment was featured on the ESPN website. It sounds like AEW is setting up a match between Chris Jericho and Mike Tyson in the near future. Hopefully, AEW will be able to use this momentum to get more viewers.