Case in point: BOTB 3 saw a huge drop in viewership from the previous two. Fans just don’t care about these special episodes anymore, which I’ve been saying forever was going to happen if they didn’t raise the stakes.

They need to have more faith in their conventional product. Not long ago they were hitting good numbers, selling good numbers of tickets, with fewer special shows. I don’t understand the desperation to make everything a special. If he’s having trouble making money out of this operation he can bin about 60% of the roster and Dynamite won’t be affected.

If everything is special the nothing is special. And BotB 3 had weaker card then some rampages

Uncle Dave talks about it (I guess the cheques stopped) TK should be concerned, and should be a little smarter and perhaps very aggressive with contract negotiations in the future. As going to war with Vince in 2020-22 is one thing (actually there is no war, they're entirely two different products) and but going to war with Triple H, whose vision is much closer to AEW's is another.

These past two weeks, should be a wake up call that WWE can still be a exciting product and hence, if they really build some momentum in the Triple H era, in comparison AEW if they don't play the game well, they might be in for a world of hurt. If AEW talent has confidence in the WWE product, and Triple H particularly and its a possibility, the jumps up north my be devastating to AEW's future. There's only so many Ex-WWE guys looking for a cheque.

Don't we have a rating thread somewhere that no one cares about?

And OMG A MULTIBILLION DOLLAR COMPANY IS GETTING BETTER RATINGS THAN A NEWER WRESTLING FED!  STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES!  THIS IS SHOCKING!  

New smell has worn out time to produce results!!!

Feel for GCW. God they are not even on TV. Time to shut that shit down.

Aug 9, 2022 23:42:56 GMT c said:

Don't we have a rating thread somewhere that no one cares about?

Buddy, you've had 8 hour conversations with yourself in the politics thread, so, if you want to talk about content no one cares about...

WB/Discovery sent this out so despite the stagnant ratings the parent company is still happy being #1 on Wednesdays pretty consistently:

This is the one thing I wish WWE would learn from AEW. Each episode of RAW/Smackdown looks, books and plays out the same each week. There's no minor PPV level episodes anymore.

And, there hasn't been 30+ minutes given to a WWE Championship match on TV in what feels like years.

Aug 12, 2022 15:16:52 GMT RT said:

WB/Discovery sent this out so despite the stagnant ratings the parent company is still happy being #1 on Wednesdays pretty consistently:

What does WarnerMedia even know about running a television company!!!  Clearly if AEW cannot beat Raw, they should cancel it even if it is their best show most weeks!!!

PWInsider reports that Tony Khan stated right before his meeting today with AEW talent that AEW's Chief Legal Officer, Megha Parekh, sent an email to Stephanie McMahon & Nick Khan, warning them "not to tamper" with his talent.

Stephanie McMahon was quoted saying, "LOL."

AEW is well within in their rights given their entire roster is under no-competes as is industry standard based on WWE practices. Tony was made aware of this by people reaching out to guys like Miro and Claudio for details on their contracts, instead of contacting their agents.

If Tony did this shit to Vince, WWE lawyers would have had his ass in court so fast.

Following in her father’s footsteps, I see. Does she think it’s still the territory days and every other company is run by cokeheads?

Wait…bad example…

TK 2019-2022 : " [insert random WWE wrestler] is All Elite! "



TK August 2022 : " Please don't steal my talent.. "

Aug 25, 2022 3:57:52 GMT c said:

AEW is well within in their rights given their entire roster is under no-competes as is industry standard based on WWE practices. Tony was made aware of this by people reaching out to guys like Miro and Claudio for details on their contracts, instead of contacting their agents.

If Tony did this shit to Vince, WWE lawyers would have had his ass in court so fast.

What are you talking about? :lol:

This isn’t the NFL. WWE have all the right in the world to speak to people as long as they don’t actively encourage them to break their contract. There is no way Tony Khan would open this can of worms anyway, given the number of talents that asked to break their WWE contract and ended up in AEW when their no compete clauses expired.

I know it’s pile on Tony Khan season, but I’m sorry, this reeks of desperation. Understandably so, I guess.

No you actually cannot. That is not how no-competes work in US labor law. Anti-poaching cases lead to multimillion dollar settlements, and Vince was the one who brought them to professional wrestling, so they will not win any lawsuits in this area.

Same deal with Tony, until someone agrees to not renewal their WWE contract, and 90 days passes, he cannot contact them legally or anti-poaching laws hit.  So he cannot even make an offer to guys that WWE offers renewals too.  

And many WOULD LOVE to take WWE to court for anything they can right now, particularly an anti-poaching lawsuit.

What’s an anti-poaching law? I googled it and all I found were anti-poaching agreements between companies that are actually illegal.

I can’t find anything that cites the illegality of contacting a person under a non compete. If this is a real thing, I don’t understand how LinkedIn is a successful business. There’s nothing illegal about contacting someone for future employment. Non competes are there to stop Adam Cole showing up on Raw Monday, for example.

It is illegal in a lot of places as one old way to get a person on a non-compete to become a free agent, was a competitor contacting them, which then if they replied at all, would cause them to breach their non-compete. In industries were non-competes are common, anti-poaching laws come into play. The proper name is tortious interference with contract. Liability could include the entire contract of the wrestler contacted, plus estimated damages from removing that person from TV for the duration of their contract, plus punitive damages. It is serious shit to contact someone who know is under a non-compete while you are a competitor.

The way this shit is all in wrestling is you go through the person's agent, who is a neutral third party. And WWE knows this as they were the one who set the system up.

If you think for a second Matt Jackson wasn't on the phone every other day trying to influence Adam Cole not to re-sign with WWE, you'd be kidding yourself.

And if you think there wasn't and isn't countless other former and current WWE guys taking calls from AEW reps despite months left on their contracts, you'd be also kidding yourself.

And when you've just hired half of B&G era NXT, who would - and I quote Bobby Fish " would go to war for Triple H " - you should be a little worried.

The laws are fucking weird. So wrestlers can talk to others, and even make say shit like yeah come here you will make more, but the second an official rep does it that crosses the line.

Fact is, company people cannot contact guys in an official position, they have to go to the agents. I mean, if WWE had a problem with this shit, they should not have made it the norm in the first place.

And yeah, Tony is taking action as he knows damn well, some of these guys will want out and want out as soon as possible to return to HHH.  The wrestling war shifted hard and Tony was not ready for HHH to take over WWE.  He really needed Vince in charge and creative fucking over people to get his cheap talent.  Now he is kind of fucked and needs to REALLY start scouting hard as most talent he raided off, will want to return home.  

And it's likely a narrative he's spinning that he stood up to Stephanie McMahon.. knowing damn well Stephanie McMahon isn't going to waste her time acknowledging the dweeb's silly comment.

She will acknowledge his lawyers letter.

Jericho just implied on twitter he was contacted by WWE.

Aug 25, 2022 9:05:28 GMT c said:

She will acknowledge his lawyers letter.

Jericho just implied on twitter he was contacted by WWE.

Probably returning his call.

I mean, no one is going to willingly retire in AEW when they can go out after one final WWE run. It just would make no sense. Jericho goes out, it will likely be against KO at Mania.

Ross in hot water for comments on Dynamite

Per TBPress during the Ospreay/Aussie Open trios match, Ross said that they need to sign Ospreay. These comments come off Tony Khan laying down the law to WWE against contract tampering.
NJPW are now talking to AEW to see if they have indeed tried to acquire Will Ospreay behind closed doors and tampered with his contract.

Aug 26, 2022 3:06:01 GMT NATH45 said:

Ross in hot water for comments on Dynamite

Per TBPress during the Ospreay/Aussie Open trios match, Ross said that they need to sign Ospreay. These comments come off Tony Khan laying down the law to WWE against contract tampering.
NJPW are now talking to AEW to see if they have indeed tried to acquire Will Ospreay behind closed doors and tampered with his contract.

This is all so dumb.

Well they definitely should. It sounds like JR was just hyping him up. And it could be an unofficial way to show interest.

" It's not about titles and accolades " - Kenny Omega, (longest reigning AEW World Champion) supported by The Young Bucks (longest reigning Tag Team Champions) two weeks before awarding themselves the Trios Championship.

Sept 5, 2022 3:17:35 GMT NATH45 said:

" It's not about titles and accolades " - Kenny Omega, (longest reigning AEW World Champion) supported by The Young Bucks (longest reigning Tag Team Champions) two weeks before awarding themselves the Trios Championship.

Kenny has had some bad takes over his career and this is certainly one of them. On top of this, he was also one half of the first tag team champions, and uhh…his intro? Where he gets Justin Roberts to literally run down all his accomplishments?

Such a dumb thing to say.