Official WWE/ECW/WCW/TNA talk, or whatever v2

[Ozy_Flame]

Did they announce any matches for next week?

Yes, you in a Tony-Khan-on-a-pole match against the Young Bucks for the ROH Trios Championship

[trackercowe]

I thought Tony Khan can't travel anymore after the Bucks vicious attack... no way can he survive a five hour private jet flight to Edmonton.

The storyline doesn't pass the smell test. He can't fire the Bucks because of their contracts... what about Perry and Okada? Having the Bucks all over Dynamite is an interesting plan. I guess we'll see what happens to the ratings in the upcoming weeks. This week should get a bump because of Omega... but longterm I think the ratings will take an even further dip.

[CaptainCrunch]

In terms of the Bucks Perry vs Tony storyline, I can't get into it, I've seen it done before, and the opener to the story line was just so lame.


We'll see if it does anything interesting down the road.


I don't know what the status is on Mercedes, but they just really get her into the ring where she's excellent, because her mic role, story building is terrible.

[d_phaneuf]

More shows in europe please

This Crowd is incredible

The fact they are keeping the bloodline super relevant without roman or rock is great as well, very good tag match and loa coming in was fun

[SuperMatt18]

European crowds are so much better...hockey, soccer, wrestlig...doesn't seem to matter what it is

Also I know the companies like to make more money....so they will do bigger stadium and arena shows.

But really smaller arenas (10-15k) are the best for wrestling and get you the best crowd reactions

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

European crowds are so much better...hockey, soccer, wrestlig...doesn't seem to matter what it is

Also I know the companies like to make more money....so they will do bigger stadium and arena shows.

But really smaller arenas (10-15k) are the best for wrestling and get you the best crowd reactions

Puerto rico was excellent last year, I am guessing they go back whenever bad bunny has some time

Only north american city that comes close is Montreal

[d_phaneuf]

The smaller venues I agree as well, it's kinda shy AEW was so hot right off the start since they started smaller

[trackercowe]

Love Punk name dropping Gordie Howe on Monday Night Raw... he also chirped the Leafs haha.

"Not like how I'm a choke artist"....

[trackercowe]

Exceptional Raw tonight. A few excellent matches. In particular Dragunov/Ricochet and Gunther/Sheamus. High quality stuff. Also Jey Uso is incredibly over, I wonder if they have the stones to buy that world title on him.

[Muta]

That Dragunov / Ricochet match was terrific - that was a free PPV quality match right there!

[trackercowe]

Here's the lineup for Dynamite on Wednesday:

AEW DYNAMITE PREVIEW (5/8/2024)
* TNT Champion Adam Copeland vs. Brody King
* Orange Cassidy vs. Trent Beretta
* Mariah May vs. Harley Cameron
* Swerve Strickland & Christian Cage face-to-face
* Serena Deeb to speak
* Chris Jericho & Big Bill in action

The one match I would like to see is Cassidy vs. Trent, but what I've seen Jericho, Edge, Christian a million times before. AEW needs to remain fresh, having old WWE guys fill up most shows doesn't help. Nothing on this card screams $100+ in value to me.

[Ozy_Flame]

Were you planning to attend? I'd be surprised.

[SuperMatt18]

I think it does seem fair to be a bit disappointed in that card.

Orange Cassidy is the only guy that that feels like "AEW" to me, and Swerve too I guess. Mariah May and Harley Cameron will be fun for what it is but I'd be shocked if they got more than 5 minutes of TV time either.

Copeland, Christain, Jericho, Big Bill, Serena Deeb...feels more like a 2010's WWE show than an AEW show.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Were you planning to attend? I'd be surprised.

Yup, was going to take a few friends and check it out. Mostly if Take or Ospreay were in action. Knowing that the majority of the talent is on the shelf. AEW often has good wrestling, but there is nothing that excites is on that card.

Strange booking to have Edge face Brody King knowing that he's just going to face Black in the future anyway.

AEW is in trouble. They have already had a few international television deals cancelled due to "lack of interest". Khan is banking everything on that television renewal deal, which may not be what he expected.

[SuperMatt18]

It's a bit weird for AEW because they have been bit by the injury bug with Cole, MJF, Omega, Hangman, Darby and others.

But at the same time they are still struggling to put on a consistently weekly product with Okada, Danielson, Ospreay, Jay White, Swerve, Copeland, Samoa Joe, Moxley, Take####a, PAC, Castagnoli, Eddie Kingston etc available to them.

And they don't even seem to utilize some of the mid-card guys like Garcia, Starks, Yuta, Rush, Guevara, Hobbs, Rey Fenix, Penta, as heavily as they did when they were really putting on great shows week after week.

I still think they have a great roster, but the booking has become more bad WWE / WCW over time IMO. Also think they need to figure out a way to have their roster appear week after week, it's too hit or miss on who you are going to see each week.

[Ozy_Flame]

You can get tickets in Edmonton for as cheap as $31. Where did you come up with a $100 benchmark?

Also, what financials are you referring to that would make AEW in trouble? The company just recently received a $2B valuation from Forbes the other day. Yes they need a 2nd TV deal, but no, not having one doesn't put them 'in trouble', unless you know something we don't. WBD is currently negotiating an NBA deal, and has put AEW as 2nd to those negotiations.

[trackercowe]

I see them as $46 usd each. Are you looking through Ticketmaster, or another site?

The 2B valuation is laughable. If you check the sourcing for that number it was basically purely speculative (mostly Dave Meltzer numbers). It's not worth anything close to 2B. It's a private company, so there's no way to know the actual value of the company. It's lost money year after year.

DAZN cancelled their multi-year television deal after one year due to lack of interest.
https://www.ringsidenews.com/2024/04...erperformance/


As did TelevisaUnivision and its multi-year television deal.
https://tjrwrestling.net/news/aew-lo...-year-tv-deal/


Dynamite ratings are down, as are Rampage and Collision. They need to put up a big number for their next deal, but why would Warner Brothers offer an improved deal to a show that's not keeping viewers? Especially when as you said renewing the NBA deal is their top priority.

[Ozy_Flame]

Tickets are $31 on Ticketmaster. It's right there. Why did you think they were $100+?



Also, Omega will be in Edmonton tomorrow so that should bump those ticket sales.

There's context here to the DAZN decision, and AEW wasn't the first promotion to get #### treatment from them (DAZN Italy/TNA). Did you know?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1784694552764252625

[CaptainCrunch]

I found all kinds of old WWE arena shows from the mid to late 80's, that had feud matches between the Harts and the Rogueas. Jake and Rick Rude, The Powers of Pain and Demolition, and the debut of a fantastically athletic masked wrestler named the Dark Angel (Owen Hart).


If anyone's interested I can post some links.

[Blaster86]

Are they, like... suspicious websites? If not, share! If so... share... in PM


As for AEW's valuation/international TV deals, I don't put much stock in the 2B valuation or the international TV deals being a sign of their current situation. They're still on FiteTV and doing quite well there. DAZN is a ####ing tire fire at the best of times and I can see people having a choice between DAZN or Fite and quite eagrely picking not DAZN.