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#16241 |
( ._.)
Posts: 14,176
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WWE already fumbled Rusev
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#16242 |
Skibbidy Lock Jaw
Posts: 88,564
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And they'd be glad to do it again
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#16243 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,300
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I think Starks will get more concentrated focus on him in WWE, especially given he’s gonna have two big backers in Cody and Punk. But for all that people seem to think the WWE grass is greener under Triple H than Vince, it should also be said that it’s an era with not only very few potential top spots (almost always the case in WWE), but with PPV cards being the shortest they've ever been. There’s just far fewer opportunities to get actual high profile bookings in the first place.
Is a Ricky Starks or a Miro walking into a PPV match when the World Champion didn't even get booked at the Royal Rumble? Not only not booked in a match - he didn't even appear. There's not really a role you can slot Ricky Starks in to that I don't think they have someone else filling to the same or even higher standard. They have a stacked main event picture, and a decent amount of people they clearly see as the future prospects. If/when WWE bring him in, I'm sure he would be featured prominently at first, everyone will talk about how AEW "dropped the ball" with him and how now he's going to be booked like a real star. And then quietly forget about all that when he misses four or five PPVs in a row, and settles in to around the same level he plateaued at in AEW. I’d expect a good NXT run from him, who knows on the main roster. I’m wishing him well, he’s a great talker, good look, decent wrestler. Not sure his ceiling is as high as it’ll be promoted as being. |
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#16244 |
CodeBot Engaged...WOAAHH!
Posts: 9,769
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And there he is! Absolute
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#16245 | |
Posts: 61,463
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Quote:
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#16246 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,300
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Good for Starks. Keen to see what he does in NXT.
They've gone out of their way to not say his name, even the YouTube videos say "The NXT debut that shocked the world". My immediate takeaway is not that they're giving him something from the NXT name generator but rather that they're emulating the Scott Hall WCW debut. You know who he is, but you don't know what he's here. |
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#16247 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,300
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Ricky Starks is his real name (well, Richard Starks, but nicknames fall under the same issue), back in the day that would cause a bit of a legal roadblock from WWE since you can't trademark a real name and they wanted to own it. Jade Cargill kept her name. Brian Pillman Jr. didn't but it was his own idea as he deliberately wanted to do something totally different rather than get a standard second generation gimmick.
He debuted so insanely fast after his release that I could buy maybe they're still sorting out the backend legal/IP stuff but I'd assume in due time he's Ricky Starks and this was a clever workaround in the interim. |
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#16248 |
Skibbidy Lock Jaw
Posts: 88,564
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Could be either or. Not like the name Ricky Starks is particularly known or anything..... I guess neither was Jade Cargill, but from what I have gathered she was a "bigger deal" than Starks ever was.
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#16249 |
Posts: 61,463
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It’s probably just to drive interest. They’ve known he’s been coming in for a long time.
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#16250 |
3 Dicks Out For Trips
Posts: 29,702
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They need to get Danhausen next.
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#16251 |
Posts: 61,463
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Danhausen for EVOLVE/co-hosting Halloween Havoc with Shotzi.
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#16252 |
Posts: 61,463
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Lol Bubba Ray Dudley questioned the importance of 5 star matches and Dave Meltzer tried going off on a tirade about ECW never being profitable and drawing a crowd above 5500. Find someone who fights for you as hard as Dave fights for AEW.
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#16253 |
Spammy Certified
Posts: 46,110
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Saw a weird segment on Reddit where the woman heels refused to leave the ring when this face, Rosa went to mke the save
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#16254 |
Posts: 61,463
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Haven’t seen it, but could be more petty backstage bullshit.
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#16255 |
Posts: 61,463
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We’ve seen a lot of men jump ship for greener pastures. What happens when some of these women have their deals coming up and they look at the lay of the land? Mercedes Mone has creative control and has literally dropped a video where she stooged herself off as a mark for herself (she mocked the idea of going back to WWE “to lose”). She gets paid obscene amounts of money to lock down the division and mean nothing as a draw.
Why wouldn’t you ask for Sasha Banks money? She doesn’t draw any more than Kris Statlander or Willow Nightingale. The locker room is a mess. Britt Baker might be gone but it’s possible the problems still exist. Why wouldn’t you score points with the more professional entities and sign with either WWE or TNA? The best chance Tony has of keeping these women is by either paying them insane amounts of money or WWE and TNA reject some of the talent because they’re more valuable as faulty torpedos in AEW’s own sub. |
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#16256 |
Posts: 61,463
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Just saw the Rosa/Bayne/Ford stuff. That was unprofessional as fuck. Looked like Bayne & Ford were trying to bury her. Shits all over the entire product and the fans who still pretend to enjoy it.
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#16257 |
Posts: 61,463
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Apparently AEW doesn’t do production meetings.
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#16258 |
Posts: 61,463
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Ryan Nemeth is suing AEW and CM Punk. It’s absolutely hilarious. You have to read it.
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#16259 |
CodeBot Engaged...WOAAHH!
Posts: 9,769
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Man he took some SERIOUS shots at Tony in that lawsuit. All the stuff people have been saying for years, Shad funding AEW to keep Tony contained and away from the real businesses, Tony being a fanboy mark, Tony not looking out for his employees, just good shit!
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#16260 |
Posts: 61,463
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His deep admiration for Punk (bordering on obsession). He says Tony was heartbroken when Punk left AEW.
Oh, and Tony running the football teams into the ground makes its way in there. Alienating players and the like. |
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#16261 | |
CodeBot Engaged...WOAAHH!
Posts: 9,769
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#16262 |
Posts: 61,463
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It would make sense. Have you ever heard Tony Khan say anything smart, insightful or witty?
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#16263 |
( ._.)
Posts: 14,176
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Christopher Daniels caught punching himself on camera to spread his blood for a shot.
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#16264 | |
Wrestling Marks Rejoice!
Posts: 10,166
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Quote:
Anyway, simply assuming you aren't just trying for internet snark points and actually making a point instead of being facetious; one: Yes, according to Meltzer... though not exclusively. He's just usually the loudest. He has their ear. and two, it isn't so much "everything means nothing". It was more about how the downfalls and snare traps AEW finds itself pulled into are generally explained away by apologists. Apologists who are in-house people who can actually DO shit about it instead of shrug off any attempts to fix said issues. Apologists who attend the shows and tapings because they are balls deep in the sunk cost of wanting to be there when the ship gets righted so they can scream to all the doubters "I told you so!" and stay willing to torture themselves in the meanwhile with settling for mediocrity or below just to somehow spite WWE in their minds. As I stated before, the thing about the ratings isn't so much about how ineffectual ratings are. It's about how those numbers are ONLY being important when they benefit AEW, and then those exact same numbers can be "ignored" when AEW is clearly at a loss... and then that loss is hung on any number of extravagant excuses outside of the one common factor of the product just not being good and needing improvement or direction or actual marketable, pushed talent they don't squander potential in or overhype even when nobody is buying in except the hardest of the hardcore "SiCkOs" that Tony crowed about and included himself among. |
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#16265 |
Posts: 61,463
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AEW is not good for the wrestling business. Well, cleaning it up might leave a nice smell and some benefits. The WWE ID program, for example. But a lot of the things that are being spun into positives — wrestlers being paid way too much money, too many fools being given too much freedom, bad content being generated every week — is an overall detriment to wrestling. I enjoy wrestling, so I want it to be better off.
Plus it’s fun to point out the lies and the schadenfreude as people come around to the light side is nice. |
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#16266 | |
( ._.)
Posts: 14,176
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#16267 |
CodeBot Engaged...WOAAHH!
Posts: 9,769
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Why is competition good for the business when it is against WWE, but when WWE runs Saturday Night's Main Event on the same day as Small In, they are evil?
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#16268 |
( ._.)
Posts: 14,176
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No who said that?
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#16269 | |
Posts: 61,463
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CM Punk is a monster for trying to get Colt Cabana off AEW shows. It didn’t even turn out to be true — more Observer/Young Bucks slander — but Punk was the devil for that. Mercedes Mone is allowed to go and bully House of Glory announcers. Tony can throw a fit about New Japan’s commentators. AEW had every advantage in the world, except being good. |
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#16270 |
( ._.)
Posts: 14,176
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AEW is the drizzling shits but that doesn't change that competition is good for business.
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#16271 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,404
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Objectively there is no competition. Great Value knock offs arent competition. You only buy them if the real product is sold out. Thats a consolation not a competitor
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#16272 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,404
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And meanwhile WWE is completely exposed. They gained nothing by going to netflix. They were drawing the maximum number of potential viewrs on cable. But AEW isnt about to bring in anyone new. And thats gotta be the name of the game for growth. You have to pursue non-wrestling fans. Every wrestling fan is apparently already watching. And there's not that many of them.
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#16273 | |
Posts: 61,463
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Quote:
I disagree that Netflix has been bad for them. And I think there are wrestling fans that aren’t back to watching current weekly wrestling. WWE have set the wheels in motion with things like the WCW Vault. But bringing back certain fans is going to take time or be nearly impossible. AEW has reached its maximum appeal, in my opinion. There doesn’t seem to be a significant YouTube appetite for it, so streaming isn’t great for them. |
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#16274 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,404
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When i saw exposed i mean their ratings didnt change. Theyre brining a comparable number of people as they were. Conventional wisdom for the last 5 year minimum has been the cord cutting millennials have never had cable in their adult lives and many teenagers live in households that have never had it.
Which is to say these people have not had any avenue to watch Monday night raw some in their lifetime. So by removing the gate keeper it would be reasonable to assume the ratings would automatically grow since 99.9% of cable owner have netflix and not vice versa. Netflix certainly assumed that. But instead whats happened is roughly the same number who were watching are watching. So the migration happened. The raw viewers simpley booted netflix. No one was being gatekept. There's still some foreign markets that havent migrated yet so the number should still grow a bit but its still the same number of apples going into the bin. Give or take obviously. There's been some gain but its fairly minor. Given the debut's numbers we know there's audience that was willing to watch but after week 3 they were long gone and not coming back. So that has to be the marketing question going forward: how do we reach that audience who was curious but quickly passed on what was on offer. Now we're in full agreement that AEW sure as fucking shit has not single goddamn clue what the answer to that question is. But it is the question WWE should be trying to answer In my opinion is a broader less hardcore product. Which is to say AEWs solution is even further in the wrong direction than anyone realizes. Theyre making a push for the die hards die hard product. There's a hard cap there and i think the WWE netflix deal has exposed just how hard that cap is. Meanwhile AEW is at a separate cap altogether. Theirs is the one TNA used to enjoy: the "hey, its wrestling. I'll watch any wrestling" cap. AEW couldnt draw less if they paid their workers to fling shit at the front row. Theyve reached the bottom. |
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#16275 |
Skibbidy Lock Jaw
Posts: 88,564
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I could see Wrestlemania doing big numbers for Netflix maybe. I think that most people realize that everything else is just kind of meaningless filler... but Wrestlemania, I feel like that "name" means something to both lapsed-rassling fans and even non-rassling fans.
The lapsed ones might watch just because they already have access to Netflix. Non-rassling fans might see a notification that Wrestlemania is live and check it out due to curiosity. Weekly shows, yeah, they will pretty much always have a hard cap. |
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#16276 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,404
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I hope mania crushes it
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#16277 |
Posts: 61,463
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I always figured Raw would do about the same on Netflix domestically as it did in cable. Wrestling fans weren’t likely the ones cutting cable. It makes sense that a lot of younger people don’t have access to cable, but there’s network TV, the internet and piggy-backing off other services. I don’t think the audience of people going “Man, I really want to watch Raw but I just can’t until it is on a streaming service” was ever that high. I don’t think that’s the market Netflix is going after.
Subscription-based models are often about retention. They’re probably getting around 3 million globally for Raw, 800k for NXT, another 1.5 million for SmackDown, tens of thousands for classic content and then you’ve got the current PLEs — what? Another 1.5 million? Not necessarily unique viewers, but a healthy base that overlaps with other initiatives. The numbers could also be way higher over time too. |
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#16278 |
Posts: 61,463
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Oh there’s also that thing where Netflix metrics gathered are for accounts vs. how cable approximates viewers. I haven’t look too far into it, but when Netflix says 3 million or whatever, it could be 1:1 but even 1:4 in some cases when a family is watching or something.
I’m interested to see how the data Netflix gives WWE affects their programming. You’d imagine that over time, trends and patterns would become even more prevalent than they would on cable. If we see someone odd pop up a lot more than would seem usual, or a big star is somewhat downplayed — it would be interesting to know if the data reflects bizarre interest or disinterest in that person. I mean, cable has the minute-by-minutes, but you are still counting on a real-time navigation of that, hangovers from segments, lead-ins, etc. The same is true for Netflix, but people can more readily go and find someone, re-watch something, that sort of thing. |
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#16279 |
Posts: 61,463
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Saraya is the latest to want out. She basically came out and said she had pressure put on her to make her anti-WWE comments at the start of her run.
It goes to show that Tony’s money eventually leaves people feeling unfulfilled. |
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#16280 |
CodeBot Engaged...WOAAHH!
Posts: 9,769
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My favorite AEW trope is "WOW look what we did, we started from scratch!".
Yeah, from scratch, with an unlimited budget and no need to ever turn a profit. Tony and AEW really want us to praise him because he has a rich daddy that lets him spend money. AEW still trying to act like they are new and exciting, yet they can't even beat NXT anymore. The whole thing is a literal larp of Tony Khan being a successful business owner. Whatever goodwill AEW had at the start is long gone, and at this point anybody who pretends otherwise are just playing make believe with Tony Khan. |
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