Jan 22, 2024 12:56:52 GMT Big Pete said:

Am I the only one who sees this?

The only strike Kingston does well is the spinning backfist, the rest have always looked like a bad Kobashi imitation.

I can totally understand getting behind Eddie as a persona or a promo. However as an in-ring talent and winner of a pure in-ring tournament? Not buying it.

Those look super intimidating, I call them the "Yon-kahs Hamm-ahs". 

Reminds me of CM Punk's Muay Thai attacks in WWECW, including the exchange on CW Anderson that they showed in his titantron. I even said "Do those really hurt?" at the time. Looked like pretend fighting. 

Jan 22, 2024 14:40:52 GMT Blindy said:

Jan 22, 2024 12:56:52 GMT Big Pete said:

Am I the only one who sees this?

The only strike Kingston does well is the spinning backfist, the rest have always looked like a bad Kobashi imitation.

I can totally understand getting behind Eddie as a persona or a promo. However as an in-ring talent and winner of a pure in-ring tournament? Not buying it.

Those look super intimidating, I call them the "Yon-kahs Hamm-ahs". 

Reminds me of CM Punk's Muay Thai attacks in WWECW, including the exchange on CW Anderson that they showed in his titantron. I even said "Do those really hurt?" at the time. Looked like pretend fighting. 

Eddie Kingston vs. CM Punk vs. Shane McMahon - Triple Threat match.

MMAShane is on a whole other level, I still remember Brock giving him the death stare when he tried this shit in the Royal Rumble 2 years ago. Tried to even sandbag :lol:

Again with the bullshit ranking system? I've never enjoyed it or thought it was useful.

We need to get Tanga Loa in this fight.

www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/15jyqb9/njpw_g1_spoilers_tanga_loa_with_the_worst/

"He didn't get all of it Cole"

Jan 22, 2024 17:34:08 GMT Ed said:

Again with the bullshit ranking system? I've never enjoyed it or thought it was useful.

It will be TKs bread and butter until he hires another guy from WWE or NJPW or Jericho decides he needs to jerk off in a main event.

It is the kayfabe version of " paying dues " as opposed to organic booking.

Jan 22, 2024 12:56:52 GMT Big Pete said:

Am I the only one who sees this?

The only strike Kingston does well is the spinning backfist, the rest have always looked like a bad Kobashi imitation.

I can totally understand getting behind Eddie as a persona or a promo. However as an in-ring talent and winner of a pure in-ring tournament? Not buying it.

Eddie Kingston is a joke. I still don't understand why he's even there. It's like TK is so intimidated by Kingston he can't fire the waste of space.

Jan 22, 2024 19:54:32 GMT Emperor said:

We need to get Tanga Loa in this fight.

www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/15jyqb9/njpw_g1_spoilers_tanga_loa_with_the_worst/

I recall laughing hysterically when I watched that live. It looks like the video is playing in slow motion, but it’s actually not.

Cue 5 minutes of running the ropes and no selling forearms and you've got yourself a damn good NJPW match...

Eddie isn't good in the ring and those are especially bad chops. Which is why WWE wanted him to do promo classes so he can infuse some of his talking skills on better workers.

Jan 22, 2024 21:06:50 GMT NATH45 said:

Jan 22, 2024 17:34:08 GMT Ed said:

Again with the bullshit ranking system? I've never enjoyed it or thought it was useful.

It will be TKs bread and butter until he hires another guy from WWE or NJPW or Jericho decides he needs to jerk off in a main event.

It is the kayfabe version of " paying dues " as opposed to organic booking.

To me, a ranking system only works in wrestling if the booking is done around it, and even then, it can mess up storylines, which is what sells in wrestling more than anything.

It's kind of like when TNA got a deal with FSN, and had Impact feature scorebug and time clock graphics to fit in with other programming on the network. It seemed cool at first, until you realized how short a squash match is, when you have a clock running by it. It's something I never thought in a match up until that point, but after that, I couldn't unnotice it.😂

There are some "real sports" things that just don't work with wrestling.

Kosha Irby's first change will be AEW no longer running small markets. AEW will not focus on running large cities, NYC, Philly, LA, etc, and no longer run places Georgia or Louisiana. People getting their wish, AEW will get larger crowds, and most people will now have to fly to see AEW live.

If a place does not draw, they will not return.

Jan 25, 2024 19:47:37 GMT c said:

Kosha Irby's first change will be AEW no longer running small markets. AEW will not focus on running large cities, NYC, Philly, LA, etc, and no longer run places Georgia or Louisiana. People getting their wish, AEW will get larger crowds, and most people will now have to fly to see AEW live.

If a place does not draw, they will not return.

The risk (as always) is how many times can you travel to these markets when you have 104 live shows a year plus 6-8 PPVs.

Booking smaller venues should be in consideration as well.

Nope, fans complained too much about how empty things looked on TV, so either you can fill the arena or they are not coming. AEW will cut the amount of shows they run to compensate. This is what people said they wanted.

Jan 26, 2024 4:16:11 GMT c said:

Nope, fans complained too much about how empty things looked on TV, so either you can fill the arena or they are not coming. AEW will cut the amount of shows they run to compensate. This is what people said they wanted.

You’re not just coming back to just be absolutely full of shit, right?

One of the No. 1 things people have said in response to the low attendance is to book smaller venues. And you know that.

What are these guys doing over the next few weeks.. 3,000, 4,000 seat shows?

That's almost WCW 2000 levels

Jan 26, 2024 4:16:11 GMT c said:

Nope, fans complained too much about how empty things looked on TV, so either you can fill the arena or they are not coming. AEW will cut the amount of shows they run to compensate. This is what people said they wanted.

I don't understand the joke you're trying to make. Booking smaller buildings and going to markets they have avoided would fix this. Which is what they have started doing.

Yeah it's a year too late and we've all been asking for this because we all saw it coming but I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. We should be happy they are trying to right the ship before things get worse attendance-wise.

The size of venues people wanted to be booked do not exist in smaller markets. 5000 seat venues, about 20 years in the states started to die out when mid-level live music tours started to die out. There was just not enough profit in them. 2000 seat venues are still fairly common, but they will clearly appear as gyms on camera. They will not be able to support the stage, ramp or camera and light cage though. Most also cannot even support chairs and will need bleachers for the fans.

The choice for Tony always was big stadiums or local gyms. He picked the stadiums, everyone whined about how it looked on TV, so now people will just not be able to see AEW live if they are not in a prime market. For Tony the difference in running a big arena or a small one was negligible due to the discounts he could get filling in a gap in an arena schedule. So this was strikely about how the live audience looks on TV.

I know people seem to think all these mid size venue still exist but I literally watched almost every venue ECW and RoH ran in the North East close down one by one.  The ones that remain open refuse to book wrestling after problems in the past with ECW, CZW or other hardcore groups.

I also love this notion that Jarrett at no point considered booking smaller mid-sized arenas, just this complex idea is somehow too complex for someone with experience running live shows to figure out on their own.

Jan 27, 2024 16:26:17 GMT c said:

The size of venues people wanted to be booked do not exist in smaller markets. 5000 seat venues, about 20 years in the states started to die out when mid-level live music tours started to die out. There was just not enough profit in them. 2000 seat venues are still fairly common, but they will clearly appear as gyms on camera. They will not be able to support the stage, ramp or camera and light cage though. Most also cannot even support chairs and will need bleachers for the fans.

The choice for Tony always was big stadiums or local gyms. He picked the stadiums, everyone whined about how it looked on TV, so now people will just not be able to see AEW live if they are not in a prime market. For Tony the difference in running a big arena or a small one was negligible due to the discounts he could get filling in a gap in an arena schedule. So this was strikely about how the live audience looks on TV.

I know people seem to think all these mid size venue still exist but I literally watched almost every venue ECW and RoH ran in the North East close down one by one.  The ones that remain open refuse to book wrestling after problems in the past with ECW, CZW or other hardcore groups.

I love this notion you’re running with that “everyone whined.”

You can’t seriously believe filling venues 10-20% (if that) is a healthy sign for the business? Forget the fan photos of the emptiness, it’s throwing money down the toilet.

Full disclosure.

Its been a relatively pleasant month or so c and before we get to a point where you're battling several different people on several different fronts and things aren't great for you again, maybe perhaps for your own good, avoid comments that may be considered baseless and nonsensical. Otherwise, expect to be challenged on some of your realities.

Let's call it now and chill, before things start getting antagonistic and nasty.

Gotta say, RT does a great job building good will for AEW on here. Only for it to get ruined the last couple of days.

Had some time to kill before the Rumble, so I took a look at AEW's 2024 Dynamite schedule to see where they've booked to-date.

There's a smaller venue in every city that can host wrestling without being a "high school gymnasium" except Huntsville (didn't look for a Daily's Place alt for obvious reasons).



Now, I'm not saying every venue is available at the same time as the planned Dynamite, but it's very easy to see AEW is still booking based on attendance trends of 12-18 months ago and not the current product.

The WWF in the early-90s was smart enough to revert to small arenas when attendance dropped.

There's nothing stopping AEW from doing this except for ego, in my opinion.

*EDIT* Delvin Fieldhouse (not Field Venue) is 4,100, not "411."

Acknowledge it and adapt.

Move to the smaller venues, and then create a feeling like this is can't miss sort of stuff. The product doesn't have to be ECW or attitude era crash TV stuff, but creating a rabid sense of urgency and rapid pacing as opposed " here's Tony Schivone in the ring... " or " we're going to hear from... " and just book the best guys and the biggest stars you have throwing hands like their lives depend on it.

Jan 28, 2024 0:17:32 GMT NATH45 said:

Acknowledge it and adapt.

Move to the smaller venues, and then create a feeling like this is can't miss sort of stuff. The product doesn't have to be ECW or attitude era crash TV stuff, but creating a rabid sense of urgency and rapid pacing as opposed " here's Tony Schivone in the ring... " or " we're going to hear from... " and just book the best guys and the biggest stars you have throwing hands like their lives depend on it.

Exactly. That's all I'm saying. It's not being diminishing to AEW. 

I genuinely don't understand why anyone that wants AEW to survive would die on the hill booking large venues and them being largely empty is a good thing.

Jan 28, 2024 0:31:05 GMT KJ said:

Jan 28, 2024 0:17:32 GMT NATH45 said:

Acknowledge it and adapt.

Move to the smaller venues, and then create a feeling like this is can't miss sort of stuff. The product doesn't have to be ECW or attitude era crash TV stuff, but creating a rabid sense of urgency and rapid pacing as opposed " here's Tony Schivone in the ring... " or " we're going to hear from... " and just book the best guys and the biggest stars you have throwing hands like their lives depend on it.

Exactly. That's all I'm saying. It's not being diminishing to AEW. 

I genuinely don't understand why anyone that wants AEW to survive would die on the hill booking large venues and them being largely empty is a good thing.

Because AEW trades in Meltzer Bucks. ratings and gates don't matter..

Look, and it's not unique to AEW. You could make the argument 10 times over across the last 2 decades for WWE to run smaller venues than continuing to book and tarp off big buildings. The booking was trash for years in WWE and the live gates reflected it. Although AEW's panders to it core well enough, it's not growing it base or attracting new fans.

If you want 10k or 15k arenas, you need to attract casual fans and families to fill those seats. It ain't rocket science.

KJ I saw that 411 capacity and I was like HEY! It's not THAT bad.

We also have to keep in mind that some of these shows may have been scheduled months ago. It's possible they are going to adjust and just haven't been able to yet.

I know the shows in Canada they already announced are at the same venues as last year, but that's a bit different. They tour Canada once a year and they shouldn't have much issue selling tickets here. The Edmonton show still has quite a few left compared to last year, but fans have also got wise to the fact that they drop prices closer to the show, and I could definitely see a lot of tickets moving in the weeks prior. Everyone that went to the Edmonton show last year probably noticed that it wasn't a complete sellout and decided to just hold off. Those of us that wanted good seats already bought tickets. If you don't care about that then you just wait and save yourself $50-100

Jan 28, 2024 0:51:31 GMT RT said:

KJ I saw that 411 capacity and I was like HEY! It's not THAT bad.

We also have to keep in mind that some of these shows may have been scheduled months ago. It's possible they are going to adjust and just haven't been able to yet.

I know the shows in Canada they already announced are at the same venues as last year, but that's a bit different. They tour Canada once a year and they shouldn't have much issue selling tickets here. The Edmonton show still has quite a few left compared to last year, but fans have also got wise to the fact that they drop prices closer to the show, and I could definitely see a lot of tickets moving in the weeks prior. Everyone that went to the Edmonton show last year probably noticed that it wasn't a complete sellout and decided to just hold off. Those of us that wanted good seats already bought tickets. If you don't care about that then you just wait and save yourself $50-100

You're definitely right; venues can be booked 6-12 months in advance. And the issues really started around late summer.

My point is more ... hey ... they don't need to focus on just big markets. Instead, just book the right venues.

Several of those venues you listed were gyms or gym setups. And to run them would require an entirely different set of production since you cannot have high mounted cams with lower ceilings. Most also have bleacher seating rather than fixed seating. Tony runs these people will complain it does not look professional at all. Would look more like ECW than WWE, and he wants the polished WWE look. I am all for him running these small shows, as I think he could promoted one of the weekly shows as a more intimate wrestling experience, but I know if he did fans would shit all over it claiming this is proof he cannot run arenas.

The sole complaint against running the larger arenas was ticket sales were low, and fan footage showed the arenas were limiting capacity and had entire sections empty. This is why it is a fan problem. People wanted him to stop running these big arenas and now he did.

For those arenas here is the problem really:

Amstrong Campus is a college arena - many prohibit prowrestling shows with bans going back to the attitude era. If they do not it is perfect, but will need to compete with weekly events being held there from college groups so needs to be booked far in advance.

Gregory is 2400 tops in the annex gym - numbers listed for combined for all area.

www.utrecsports.org/facilities/reservable-spaces

Arizona Financial is stage theater setup that is really bad for wrestling.

www.visitphoenix.com/listing/arizona-financial-theatre/7448/

Expo in OK is great for wrestling.

Delvin Fieldhouse is bleacher seating.


I would be happy to see Tony run mid-sized arenas more featuring packed houses, but fixed seat mid-sized arenas suitable to wrestling were on the way out before COVID, then COVID just killed most of the rest of them. The ones that are college affiliated or gym based with the college ones having wrestling bans since ECW and the Attitude era.

Shit is not as easy as people make it seem to just run 5000-7500 seat arenas that can support the AEW production set, and ticket sale models.