Wasn't Khan rumoured to be the guy who pushed Triple H out in the first place? I have a hard time seeing them bringing him back if Vince is gone.
I think the big problem for WWE is that the networks largely like the product the way it is. Unless they really think they have room to grow with the 18-49 demo, they're probably not going to mess with the formula too much.
Khan and bucktooth mcgee, Kevin Dunn and Pritchard all worked to push HHH out.
The problem is even though we consider Raw and Smackdown ratings to be low, because like you guys, I went through the monday night wars with the huge ratings, Smackdown is still gaining a fairly consistent 1.6 to 1.9 million viewers, while Rampage is sitting at half a million.
Raw I think is 1.6 to 1.9 million viewers. AEW Dynamite is in that sub 1 million and isn't really closing that gap. So even though Raw to me is booked badly and boring as dirt, there's no motivation to change.
Neither fed at this point is in anything but what I would call stagnation. They've captured their audiences. Neither is growing or decling rapidly, so the formula doesn't change.
We can argue about house shows, but in this day and age, house shows don't matter, and the WWE makes money hand over fist with their TV deals, and their streaming network deal.
The only way that serious change will happen for WWE is if the ratings plummet and the "war" with AEW gets a lot closer.
For both Federations there's nothing new happening. There's some individual players that stick out, but for the most part the stories and booking are just a case of whatever, same old same old.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
To be honest, I'm genuinely surprised that Vince has continued to run the WWE for so long after taking the company public.
With all the ridiculous, off color, and sometimes distasteful (even in a non sensitive PC era) storylines the WWF used to run in the Attitude Era, all the drug abuse/misogynistic culture of wrestling still prevsding, the Patterson ring boy stuff through the 80s and 90s and 2000s (and that's the stuff we are aware of), the fact that Vince could seperate himself from that culture that he grew the business with and probably enjoyed in some regard, and run a straight and narrow public company, is pretty remarkable.
Sure he has lots of handlers, including his family, and the financial losses from stock sinking would be crippling if he had sponsors or networks pull out of their deals, but still, I figured it would be hard for him to change his spots.
I am sure this isn't the first woman he's paid off over the decades, for him or wrestlers, but under the public company spotlight, that cant be swept under the rug anymore to be redirecting profits to out of court settlements for affairs or abuse.
It sounds like Stephanie is taking over for Vince until the investigation is over.
You are correct. Interim Chairwoman and CEO through the current investigation. Sadly, Vince remains in charge of creative and will be appearing tonight on Smackdown "in character" to address his absence.
Guys like Vince McMahon shouldn't be running public companies. I'm sure the allure of all the money he made taking WWE public was appealing but I'm surprised he has been able to last this long. If I was a Director of that company I'd be asking for quadruple the normal Director's and Officer's insurance.
I don't understand why Vince is still involved at his age.
I mean, I do... it is a passion and he's been in control for decades and can't relinquish control but.... just retire. You don't need to make any more money. What else do you need to prove? Should have stepped back and retired over a decade ago.
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Dave Hebner passed away a couple of days ago and now Tim White passed away.
I remember meeting him in Toronto when I went to SummerSlam a few years ago when I was in line to meet Baron Corbin. He looked familiar but I wasn't expecting someone known within the company to be helping out with meet and greets so it didn't even dawn on me who it was until after.
I guess that would explain why he felt the need to shake my hand when I walked up and he took my belongings and put them on a table for after I took my picture with Corbin.
Catching up on Forbidden Door now…they should have just made Sting the interim champ. Guy looks like he’s having a blast and has been a lot of fun in AEW.
Orange Cassidy vs Will Osprey was match of the night for me.
Actually was a little disappointed in the IWGP title match…and then the ending was botched too
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 06-26-2022 at 11:22 PM.
Catching up on Forbidden Door now…they should have just made Sting the interim champ. Guy looks like he’s having a blast and has been a lot of fun in AEW.
Orange Cassidy vs Will Osprey was match of the night for me.
Actually was a little disappointed in the IWGP title match…and then the ending was botched too
Osprey and Cassidy was match of the night for sure
I think Cole may have taken a bad bump on the head right before that, I'm guessing he was supposed to take the rainmaker, then white comes in and takes out okada and pins cole
The tag match was a bit strange, if the injury was a work then cash really undersold the underdog part of it
Claudio was great, he should be great on wednesday for blood and guts too
I'm kinda amazed as a former hardcore fan how little I watch wrestling now. I don't think I've watched Raw or Smackdown in about 3 months. NXT since the shift from HHH to the disco ball.
I tried AEW but I can't get into the booking at all.
I'm probably going to cancel out on the network, though I love the vintage stuff.
I've occasionally spun into a PPV but even that's not happening a lot.
I look at the ratings, and I'm not I don't think alone as we're seeing slides on all the major companies.
Is Impact even a thing anymore?
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The potential is there for AEW to be really good IMO.
But I do think they need to try to keep things a bit more simple.
Their product really shines in 1:1 matches, and in 2 vs 2 tag matches. Focus on storylines and fueds where they give the talented wrestlers the time to tell a story in the ring and through promo. When they do that the product is really good.
Where I think they tend to fall down a little is when the let the product and matches bloat.
Too many triple thread or 4 man matches, too many 3-4 team tag matches, that end up turning into more of a spot filled match with big set pieces that are labeled and take too long to set up.
Part of it is necessary to build some of the factions up and have some of those storylines. But stuff like the three team tag match at forbidden door was unnecessary - FTR and United Empire could have had a great tag match, and really I feel like Roppongi Vice was unnecessarily put in the match.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Orange Cassidey vs Ospreay was the match of the night, it really was the only key match that was 1:1 where they guys were given time to tell a story in the match.
(Omega vs Tanahashi was 1:1 too I guess but really I don't think anybody was super excited for that and the outcome seemed pre-determined).
