Official WWE/Pro Wrestling thread

[Anders]

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Claudio needs to change his music.

[Anders]

Jay Lethal should get his ROH music.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Jay Lethal should get out of my dreams and into my car.

[Anders]

You should drive to a show and ask him.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

You should drive to a show and ask him.

Oh gosh I'd just crap all over myself.

[Anders]

I think you could pull it off.

[numbers]

It’s because WWE’s ratings are not suprisingly getting better since Vince left, it’s not because AEW is doing poorly. This isn’t a competition, as much as everyone wants it to be. As long as AEW continues to pull a good rating, they will be fine. People have been predicting this doom and gloom scenario basically since the beginning of the pandemic and AEW keeps getting bigger and signing better tv deals.

[numbers]

TV ratings are not close to what they used to be, AEW draws like half of the rating TNA did at their peak but does way better on PPV than they ever have, and their tv deal is better than TNA ever had.

[Anders]

AEW ppv sales have been great up to now. I think everyone can agree on that. I love AEW, watch both weekly episodes (and some of the darks, bte, podcasts), as well as all the povs. I want them to succeed. I also think they are doing a lot of things wrong lately. Experts are saying that they need to keep the momentum going. Any business knows that no growth is never a good thing. Should expect at least a 10% growth.

[Anders]

This was funny:

[JuanHamm]

Do a lot of young people even have cable? I wonder how many people in the US are streaming it illegally or using a VPN to access Fite.

[Anders]

Piracy doesn’t help with ratings and income, although if there is a lot of piracy, it could speak to interest in live events etc. Interest in their live events have been down though.

[numbers]

AEW ppv sales have been great up to now. I think everyone can agree on that. I love AEW, watch both weekly episodes (and some of the darks, bte, podcasts), as well as all the povs. I want them to succeed. I also think they are doing a lot of things wrong lately. Experts are saying that they need to keep the momentum going. Any business knows that no growth is never a good thing. Should expect at least a 10% growth.

Define growth? If we are going by tv ratings, wwe has seen their audience consistently shrink for 20 plus years but now make more money than ever. I think all this BS about how they need to improve is just people creating a talking point for the endless number of podcasts and YouTube shows people do. AEW is far beyond where I think anyone could have reasonably expected them to be when the promotion launched.

[numbers]

Bischoff had nothing but positive things to say about AEW until they didn’t hire him, and he’s since been a troll. He has no credibility and his only success in business was decades ago and ended in failure. He has done nothing but involve himself in failed business ventures since.

[Mecca]

House of the Dragon had just under 10mil viewers and that was considered a huge turnout. TV ratings now compared to 20 years ago will always pale

[Anders]

That’s harsh on Bischoff.

House Of The Dragon was the highest ever premier numver for HBO I read somewhere.

[Anders]

AEW ppv sales have been great up to now. I think everyone can agree on that. I love AEW, watch both weekly episodes (and some of the darks, bte, podcasts), as well as all the povs. I want them to succeed. I also think they are doing a lot of things wrong lately. Experts are saying that they need to keep the momentum going. Any business knows that no growth is never a good thing. Should expect at least a 10% growth.

Define growth? If we are going by tv ratings, wwe has seen their audience consistently shrink for 20 plus years but now make more money than ever. I think all this BS about how they need to improve is just people creating a talking point for the endless number of podcasts and YouTube shows people do. AEW is far beyond where I think anyone could have reasonably expected them to be when the promotion launched.

Tony Khan has always been very active in talking about the importance of ratings, the importance of the key demo, he even talked about winning the Wednesday night was vs the WWE, and no podcasts had gone as far as callling it that. He often tweets about this stuff as well as talking about it in various places.

[Anders]

Here’s the current All Out card:

• Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho

• AEW Trios Championship Tournament finals

• Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida for the interim Women’s championship

• Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage

• FTR & Wardlow vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns

• Casino Ladder Match for a future AEW World title shot

• Swerve In Our Glory (c) vs. The Acclaimed for the AEW Tag Team championship

• Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

Apart from that, Moxley vs Punk is very likely.

[Anders]

Love it.