Oct 9, 2021 21:18:08 GMT Emperor said:

CM Punk vs Daniel Garcia was great as expected. No surprises there. One point of criticism: 2.0 and Daniel Garcia don't really have a character. They randomly attack babyfaces, but their justifications just seem like spur of the moment thoughts with no real meat behind them. Daniel Garcia is young, and he's great in the ring, and he's getting great exposure in AEW. But to go to the next level he needs a real character, and he can use that character as a base to have a real meaty feud with someone, instead of these one-off showcases he always loses. He's fine where he is for now, but that's the next step.

I was drunk while watching the rest of Rampage. Wrestling is a little weirder when you're drunk. The moves almost seem slow motion. That's what I felt when I watched The Acclaimed vs Lucha Bros. About as mediocre as I expected, including a real dumb double Springboard cutter spot from Fenix. It isn't a Lucha Bros match without a move that defies all common sense. Lucha Bros win in what I consider to be a glorified squash.

Everyone talks about how great Ricky Starks is, and I used to be on that hype train, but when I really think about it...is he really great? Or just good? I'm leaning towards good. And the match with Brian Cage was just good. It was fine. But the FTW Title and Team Taz as a whole is just so meaningless. Who the hell is Hook anyway? I know he's been around a while, but he just kinda showed up outta nowhere and hung around team Taz. He never wrestles, but he's not a pure manager either. He's some kind of leech.

HOOK is Taz's real life son, Tyler. He's being trained by Cody Rhodes and Arn Anderson. He's very young and very green still, and was expected to have his first matches over the summer but for whatever reason they haven't happened yet. I assume it's one of two things:

1) He isn't progressing very well and needs more time to train.

2) He could debut any time, but because the internet decided to make such a big deal about him, they want to protect him a little longer and make sure his first match isn't a stinker.

I think that's why they scrapped CM Punk running through Team Taz. They didn't want his first match against Punk where he'd be so exposed.

AEW FEARS HOOK

Just when he's almost won people over, TK blows his load and states Rampage will beat Smackdown head to head.

Fast facts, last week's show drew 466,000 viewers. Friday’s episode of SmackDown drew an average of 2.034 million viewers.

Ok TK...

Rampage was always going to tail off because of the timeslot but to lose over half the audience it had in just a few weeks has got to be a bit concerning and clearly led to Tony walking back some of his bravado on Twitter!

My main interest lies with seeing if it causes a reaction in Punk's booking which clearly isn't working. His drawing power shouldn't be under scrutiny this quickly - booking him against low carders like Hobbs and Garcia (while resulting in some fun matches) clearly isn't resonating and they should look to put him into a proper program with an established star ASAP.

I don't understand why he's doing more on Rampage than on Dynamite. That's like Vince putting Steve Austin on Sunday Night Heat and leaving him off Raw. I get wanting to push the new show, but the circumstances around it make it impossible for this show to be a success. It's a horrible time-slot. Rampage has done well to get what it's got.

I suspect Punk has limited in-ring dates. If that's the case, he needs to come off Rampage altogether.

My take is they are using Punk to boost ratings on Rampage. It is an awful timeslot, so they are trying to pad it up.

AEW is doing AEW crap again though where only really one storyline had any emotional connection, and that is Page vs Omega, which any fans that they got in with Punk and Dragon likely will not be into. They need to be building up storylines, but for some reason AEW just is not. It is not just Punk that is booked badly, but the entire roster.

No one is above the title. Punk should come in and aim for the top. He is top level pick up you want to have him as the face of your company. He shouldn't be having 10+ minute matches with midcarders or lowcarders. He shouldn't be fighting on your b show at a horrible time slot. He should have come in fighting only big names at first and have one you want to go all in on pick up good wins on the same show then finally beats Punk.

I would have put Hangman on the back burner with all the hype around Punk or Bryan.

Personally I would have used him in a program with Cody then Cole and finally take the title off Omega. It will also feel like he fighting management. Few monthes down the line he takes his first lost to MJF and loses the title to him short after. Have Hangman be the one to finally save AEW from MJF reign of tyranny.

Just announced by Tony Khan, this Friday before Rampage goes live, The Buy-In will be live online for free and the show kicks off with MINORU SUZUKI vs BRYAN DANIELSON

Oct 12, 2021 21:28:07 GMT RT said:

Just announced by Tony Khan, this Friday before Rampage goes live, The Buy-In will be live online for free and the show kicks off with MINORU SUZUKI vs BRYAN DANIELSON

That will be AMAZING! WOW!

The Buy-In will be on YouTube streaming live at 9pm, and the other match announced is Bobby Fish vs Lee Moriarty.

Danielson vs Suzuki, commercial-free, FOR FREE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, TONY?

Gonna be a fun weekend with back to back special wrestling nights. Can't wait to see what else they do.

WWE wanted to run against AEW on Fridays, they are getting their wish.

Oct 12, 2021 22:17:38 GMT c said:

WWE wanted to run against AEW on Fridays, they are getting their wish.

Tony Khan is playing this so smart too. By having huge matches for free on youtube, he doesn't have to worry about stealing viewers from Smackdown. People can watch both if they want to, and their youtube shows are monetized. Then for that last half hour of Smackdown they just have to spend the whole youtube show advertising "hey, if you watch Rampage, CM FUCKING PUNK is fighting so y'know, change the channel if you want. Just sayin."

Tony Khan is an absolute menace. Man's got his face in a mountain of cocaine like Tony Montana.

I'm sure it will be a good match but I've been pretty underwhelmed with the NJPW cross-over thus far. Every NJPW guy they've brought over is in the twilight of their careers and they haven't been presented in a way that makes them feel like a big deal. It comes across more like Danielson is getting Moxley's sloppy seconds.

I'm not sure if it's wise to book Danielson like Punk and put him in a throw-away match. Right now he's scheduled to face Suzuki (on a B-show pre-show...) and Fish (Sammy's sloppy seconds) in these random bouts that have no logic tied into them as far as promoting his feud with The Elite.

Can we talk about the Rampage card as well? If TK really wants to go head to head with SmackDown shouldn't he book a stronger card? The only match that actually looks competitive is the 6-Man Tag match with The Inner Circle taking on Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky and Junior Dos Santos. Even that match isn't exactly one of the best they could have put together either and both Page/Sky are far from stars in the grand scheme of things.

Still fairly sure most people cannot just come and go from Japan, so things will still be slow. Once COVID restrictions drop I assume things will pick up since Bryan wants to work Japan again.


But yeah, if Khan wants AEW to grow, he needs to build stars and he really is not. The matches alone are not enough, we need storylines. Literally everyone on the roster under contract should have some storyline they are slowly progressing. Most of the roster though is random guy, who sometimes works with these guys, having a match for a random reason. Building up basically 4 or 5 guys is not enough, moreso when there are what 5 or 6 belts being defended in matches that often lack stories themselves.

Khan has the money to run a fed, but one thing in wrestling is certain, competition will rise. And with feds showcasing cards on youtube and twitch, the next fed could compete off TV and not be gated by a TV deal. He had several years, it is time to get his shit together on creative and booking. Toss money at Quack and Jacobs to help with characters, get in people like Gabe and DP to book the shows. Why spend so much on talent, when you only get a fraction of their worth due to shit booking.

I disagree with the premise that every segment or match featuring a particular wrestler should be connected with their #1 priority feud. It creates a rigidity in the product that leads to boredom, unless all the stories are incredible, which they realistically never will be.

As a fan of AEW I'm happy to see some variety. I'm happy to see Jon Moxley take time out of wrestling NJPW guys to have an intriguing exhibition against Daniel Garcia. I'm happy to see (in principle if not in practice) The Young Bucks defending their tag team titles against the top contenders while they are involved in a Super Elite vs Other Faction feud. I don't want to see two wrestlers paired together for months on end like they do in WWE, working a three month program where they do nothing but promo against each other and wrestle against each other. That should be a rare occurrence for a really special rivalry, not business as usual.

Thus I'm happy for Brian Danielson to wrestle Minoru Suzuki and Bobby Fish. The former is a mini-dream match and fan service, but what's wrong with that? The audience want to see it, but it's not a significant enough match that you have to wait for a PPV. Not everything Danielson does has to be against The Elite. After all, Hangman Page is next in line for a title match, and Danielson needs to build his win loss record to get in the title picture, so these matches make sense. Much better than seeing every variation of Danielson and friends vs Kenny and friends week in week out. My only qualm is having it on the pre-show, certainly feels more like a Rampage main event.

Do we know for sure that Tony Khan wants to compete with Smackdown? Apart from Punk's return, Rampage has never come across as a big draw show. It's been main evented a few times by hometown guys who are otherwise irrelevant, and blowoff matches for midcard feuds. Not every Rampage is going to be a PPV quality, nor should it be. It's a B-show, and it's being booked that way.

I'm in two minds on Suzuki. On one hand I'd much rather watch that match than anything on Rampage, on the other it's probably a fair indication of where Suzuki is at as far as star power and it allows Danielson to have more freedom. Suzuki is usually at his best when he's controlling the tempo and I don't think it's wise to present your best wrestler getting stretched by 50+ year vet who is well and truly in the twilight of his career.

Ordinarily I wouldn't care because AEW really doesn't care about their presentation. As long as everyone is having fun that's the key for AEW. However TK has thrown down the gauntlet and in my opinion exposed himself because he doesn't have that many stars or marquee matches to present. Suzuki/Bryan could have meant something but Suzuki has been so poorly presented from an AEW stand-point.

As far as what the issue is, if you're going to present Danielson as the best wrestler in the company you want to put him in the ring with guys who can go. Suzuki is very limited at this stage and Fish is average. I don't think you want to put Danielson in a forgettable match, so from that stand-point I actually have a bigger issue with the Bobby Fish match.

c you raised some good points but I'm willing to give AEW some more time before being too critical. The introduction of Punk/Danielson/Cole/Malakai/Andrade has really shook the company up and they're clearly just settling in. If we're having the same conversations by the end of Revolution then we'll try to start a groundswell to uncancel Quack.

Bray still likely coming into AEW too. The old WWE/WCW guys really want Bray there.

Has seemed like over a week since the last major signing...

Bray still has a month left it seems on his no compete. Impact deal has stalled it was reported and he was more friends in AEW.

Better story potential for Bray too, as stuff with the Dark Order writes itself basically. Have the Dark Order be huge fans of Bray but not the Fiend and work to keep the Fiend under wraps. Then when the Fiend does come out it will be a HUGE thing.

I'd rather that The Fiend go away forever, but I guess that's more down to how WWE booked him more than any issue with the character itself. Firefly Funhouse in particular ran its course in WWE, don't need to bring that back.
The Fiend is quite close to what Malakai Black and Abaddon are doing though...do we really need another one of those characters?

I expect Bray to go full Max Cady. So he comes in basically as a charming version of Wyatt Family Bray, but slips into a psychotic version of it at that closer to his WWE style but much more violent wearing some simple mask or something. Think what we will see is a lot more difference in the ring work rather than visual appearance. So normal Bray just a goofy southern who chills with the Dark Order, crazy Bray, a psychopath who cuts people up in the ring that the Dark Order is afraid of. I doubt we will see a demon Bray and whatever the normal gimmick is will be the focus.

Then again, he could just have rolled a totally new gimmick during the break that is as off the wall as the last two gimmicks. Should they not go with the Dark Order, Matt Hardy wants to do a lake of reincarnation gimmick with him and has some fun ideas for Broken Matt and Bray. Matt is really pushing for Bray in AEW though.


Black is a way different place than the Fiend. Black's goal is corruption and to make people lose faith in themselves. Abaddon does a horror gimmick, but not really a swapping gimmick.

Is Vince counter-programming though? Was it his idea or Fox’s idea to have a thirty minute overrun? I find it hard to believe Vince would counter- program a show that gets half a million viewers. I don’t know though.

Anyway I find the shitposting by Tony Khan quite funny tbh, adds to the spice of it all even though he’s probably going to look like a pillock when the ratings come in. I don’t get the YouTube pre-show at all. Is it supposed to take viewers from SmackDown? Does he not understand people can watch both simultaneously? Perhaps it’s to drum up interest in Rampage, but I question how effective YouTube is at drumming up interest in TV. Is there precedent for that working in wrestling? What a strange week.

Anyway, interesting match between Danielson and Suzuki. Hopefully it passes off as more than just a token strong style match, which is all we’ve seen from Suzuki so far.

Oct 12, 2021 23:19:41 GMT RT said:

Oct 12, 2021 22:17:38 GMT c said:

WWE wanted to run against AEW on Fridays, they are getting their wish.

Tony Khan is playing this so smart too. By having huge matches for free on youtube, he doesn't have to worry about stealing viewers from Smackdown. People can watch both if they want to, and their youtube shows are monetized. Then for that last half hour of Smackdown they just have to spend the whole youtube show advertising "hey, if you watch Rampage, CM FUCKING PUNK is fighting so y'know, change the channel if you want. Just sayin."

Quoting myself since I don’t think anyone read my post the first time and is talking about this pre-show like it is meaningless.

Khan is essentially running an hour long ad on youtube for Rampage that makes him money, doesn’t have to try to steal viewers from Smackdown, and keeps his current fanbase happy with awesome wrestling.

If a ton of people change the channel at 10pm EST, he wins. If they don’t, he still made his money and still has the fans that would be watching Rampage anyway.

He’s making very little money from showing it on YouTube. WWE earns $1.80 for every 1000 views it gets. It’s the fifth most watched YouTube channel in the world (another big L for the ‘wrestling is dead’ crowd) yet it’s a relatively small proportion of WWE’s revenue. There are two reasons for this. One, YouTube pays very little for the exposure they provide because they are so dominant in the market. Secondly, it’s harder to sell the advertising space for wrestling companies. WWE earn less per view than most other media accounts because it’s wrestling. Looking at Social Blade, AEW has generated somewhere between $400k and $4m revenue on YouTube since it’s inception.

TV as a whole is slowly being phased out by online-only content such as YouTube and Netflix. I have friends who don't have a satellite connection, they just use their TV as a recipient of casting YouTube/Netflix/Prime from their phone. So what Tony is doing makes some sense, using YouTube to deliver a lot of content.

Way AEW sees it, is this is a ad they are getting basically for the cost of Suzuki using otherwise signed guys who are already paid for. They already have the arena and crew for the rest of the tapings, so they are not really adding too many extra costs. Run it on YouTube and promote on twitter, and you have no extra costs for promotion, while getting some cash back on a long tail that will eventually pay for the show over time.

Oct 13, 2021 20:19:58 GMT Emperor said:

TV as a whole is slowly being phased out by online-only content such as YouTube and Netflix. I have friends who don't have a satellite connection, they just use their TV as a recipient of casting YouTube/Netflix/Prime from their phone. So what Tony is doing makes some sense, using YouTube to deliver a lot of content.

WWE is down to struggling to even retain a million fans these days, says of broadcast are near the end.  Very likely with the new ratings that will take into account streaming, streams will start to embed commercials at source and the streaming model will take over since they will likely get more cash from embedded stream ads than broadcast.

Oct 13, 2021 20:19:58 GMT Emperor said:

TV as a whole is slowly being phased out by online-only content such as YouTube and Netflix. I have friends who don't have a satellite connection, they just use their TV as a recipient of casting YouTube/Netflix/Prime from their phone. So what Tony is doing makes some sense, using YouTube to deliver a lot of content.

I don’t think he’s so much using YouTube as a vehicle for exposure as he is building a library of content. Content is king in today’s on-demand world, we’ve seen it recently with the Peacock deal but it extends far beyond wrestling into mass media. I read a report today that Warner want to take the library off him already and pay him a pretty sum for it. It’s pretty clear this cat knows what he’s doing.

That said, I’m still struggling to see the sense of putting a big match (it trended #4 in the US on Twitter yesterday) on YouTube on a Friday night and opposite the highest drawing wrestling program. But maybe he sees something I don’t. I heard 40% of tickets were still available so maybe that was a factor too.

Oct 13, 2021 20:23:19 GMT c said:

Oct 13, 2021 20:19:58 GMT Emperor said:

TV as a whole is slowly being phased out by online-only content such as YouTube and Netflix. I have friends who don't have a satellite connection, they just use their TV as a recipient of casting YouTube/Netflix/Prime from their phone. So what Tony is doing makes some sense, using YouTube to deliver a lot of content.

WWE is down to struggling to even retain a million fans these days, says of broadcast are near the end.  Very likely with the new ratings that will take into account streaming, streams will start to embed commercials at source and the streaming model will take over since they will likely get more cash from embedded stream ads than broadcast.

Advertisers will be the ones that decide when the change is made. As soon as advertisers are as happy advertising online as they are on television, and willing to pay as much, TV networks won’t be viable. But interestingly, there are still huge sums of money spent on TV advertising, especially for live content like wrestling. This is why both AEW and WWE have monster TV deals that eclipse what you might expect. Television shares a number of advantages over online advertising. It’s often shared, for a start. It also makes a bigger impression since most families have a 55’ screen these days and the sound fills the room. These are shortcomings that online advertising can’t overcome, though it has some advantages of its own (interactivity for example). So while you’re correct that this will eventually happen, it’s too early to consign television to the history books.