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.

The last Smackdown show did 2.147 million viewers. With the majority of shows above 2 million for the year.

The 2020 average was 2.180 million viewers per episode, during a pandemic. 2019 saw similar numbers.

So, the sky isn't falling.

And up until last week, RAW was doing 1.5 - 2.0 million viewers per week. The September 27th episode pulled 1.709 million viewers as an example. The week prior 1.793 million. The August 23 Episode did 2.067 million.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.wrestlinginc.com/news/2021/10/wwe-smackdown-viewership-and-key-demo-rating-down-from-last-week-for-the-season-premiere/

SmackDown destroys everything and the only things that beat Dynamite and Raw are football and playoff sports. One of the biggest myths purported in the last 20 years about wrestling is that it’s dying. It ain’t Austin 3:16, but it ain’t dying either.

Tony booking Tay vs Santana for the Rampage Buy In is pretty hilarious. There's no way with all the talk about H2H ratings this week that's just a coincidence. :lol:

Oct 13, 2021 20:27:35 GMT Todd 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.

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.

Think he sees that most people who would watch wrestling on TV do not know who Suzuki is, but those who would watch online do.  This makes it a smart move.  


And meant to say two million is what WWE is struggle with.  Key demo for ads on smackdown is down to .5, which is near record lows.  And it really should be moving this way anyway since WWE moved a lot of it's audience to the WWE network which is unrated.  

Interestingly, both Smackdown and Raw made the Top 100 Rated shows in the United States across 2020 and early 2021 in the 18-49 demo.

variety.com/2021/tv/news/most-popular-tv-shows-highest-rated-2020-2021-season-1234980743/

Recap of all the matches leading into Rampage.

TL;DR

CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal
Lio Rush returned to AEW/Pro Wrestling after taking a mentorship course offered to him by Tony Khan. Rush has used that experience to help manage two of AEW's hottest prospects in Dante Martin & Matt Sydal. Lio actually lobbied for Sydal's match against Punk with a view that Punk has yet to take on anyone with Sydal's experience wrestling around the world and with a 21-9 record he's as strong an opponent as ever. Despite being away for 7 years CM Punk is just as sharp as ever. The only difference between the Punk of yesteryear and the CM Punk of 2021 is that he's no longer the voice of the voiceless and appears to be happy in AEW where he's being heard. The two aren't strangers and they actually aired a clip from IWA-Mid South circa 2005 in a back and forth match. This could be the biggest win in Sydal's AEW career, Punk is old and has to back up after a week yadda yadda yadda

America Top Team vs. The Inner Circle
Just a basic recap of the feud. Dan Lambert was an invited guest of Tony Khan but he took advantage of the opportunity and surrounded himself with America's Top Team one of the most intimidating units in all of combat sports. So it was refreshing when Jericho finally put Lambert in his place, but that has backfired somewhat since America's Top Team have run roughshod on him and the Inner Circle since. Excalibur gives a background on Dos Santos and Masvidal and they were kind of a big deal in UFC. Lambert speaks and basically sells it as Inner Circle coming into America's Top Team backyard and they're going to get their asses kicked.

Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny
Ruby reflects on her time in AEW and how her opponents have largely had support networks. However, she's on her own and she's going to have to scout these talents before the TBS Championship tournament is underway. The Bunny is portrayed as this unhinged character who is difficult to get a read on.

Dante Martin vs. Malakai Black
They're also previewing matches for Dynamite. Dante is awesome, Malakai is spooky and is most likely going to win this match.

Lucha Brothers vs. Andrade's Chosen Team
Another Dynamite preview - Lucha Bros. are awesome and they're undefeated. They're also versatile and their mat-work doesn't get enough credit. Andrade probably thinks he can pull one over the Lucha Bros but they've most likely faced the team before...I guess we'll find out on Saturday?

Bryan Danielson vs. Bobby Fish
Danielson loves Pro Wrestling, no you didn't hear me he LOVES Pro Wrestling. Bobby Fish is a similar cat to Danielson and he's also worked around the world, a win over Bryan on Dynamite would be HUGE (and incredibly unlikely).

Yeah...the last four previews kind of exposed how one-sided the booking was.

They aired a promo of Malakai where he compared Dante Martin to King Erysichthon, an overzealous king who killed a nymph placing a curse on his soul that led to him consuming everything, even himself. Malakai is going to beat him so badly on Dynamite it's going to follow him for the rest of his career, just like that curse haunted Erysichton.

Finally they had a graph with all the Buy-In Rampage matches: Garrett/Conti, Fish/Moriarty, Danielson/Suzuki.

What's all this nonsense about Lucha Bros being undefeated? They've lost a bunch of matches. Maybe not recently, but they are certainly not undefeated in AEW as a whole. They've lost to FTR, Hangman/Kenny and Young Bucks.

Oct 15, 2021 12:20:42 GMT Emperor said:

What's all this nonsense about Lucha Bros being undefeated? They've lost a bunch of matches. Maybe not recently, but they are certainly not undefeated in AEW as a whole. They've lost to FTR, Hangman/Kenny and Young Bucks.

This calender year*

God I hope they bring in outside talent for that Andre match and go with Los Mercenarios.

Santanna Garret is really bad . She's slow and telegraphs everything.

Oct 16, 2021 1:08:25 GMT dex02 said:

Santanna Garret is really bad . She's slow and telegraphs everything.

This was a disaster match by both, I can't believe they put these two against one another. I mean Conti half assed it here but still.

Get out here. It's Suzuki/Danielson time!

GOD!!! That was a pure clinic!

Damn this is REALLY old school Bryan tonight. Watching the match now and it is great.

Not sure this MMA guy in the main event is ready for ring time…

Damn Rosta lit Jericho up for real, looked like legit shots. Jericho probably gonna chew him up backstage for that.

Went out with the wife tonight. I told her I was skipping Danielson vs Suzuki for her so she better put out. She said “who are they?”

Divorce is tomorrow.

I’ll jump in when I’m all caught up with my thoughts. Saw some reactions already and I’m hyped.

Can't be doing that if your the white shirt guy on Jericho. That's a one way ticket to not coming back again.

That entire angle is so fucking stupid. As if they didn’t think at least one of the MMA guys would stiff someone. And why are all the big tough MMA “better than millennial wrestlers” running away when they still outnumber everyone?

Oct 16, 2021 2:55:59 GMT mikec said:

Not sure this MMA guy in the main event is ready for ring time…

Moreso why use them at all when they have amazing talent being left off the shows for lack of space...

I hate that group and do something else whenever they are on.  Great for making sure I get snack breaks during shows though.

Oct 16, 2021 3:04:29 GMT RT said:

Went out with the wife tonight. I told her I was skipping Danielson vs Suzuki for her so she better put out. She said “who are they?”

Divorce is tomorrow.

I’ll jump in when I’m all caught up with my thoughts. Saw some reactions already and I’m hyped.

Damn good match, on par with some of Dragon's best RoH work.  

Punk vs Sydal was pretty good as well.  

Suzuki v. Danielson for FREE!? This company won my heart today.

I haven't watched a full show of AEW in a while so I'm entering this as a blank slate with little idea of what's going on, but with that having been said....:

Conti v. Garrett - Mehhhh. 1/2*

An MMA angle - Wait, what? I've missed a lot since I last saw SCU apparently. Didn't know SS and Ethan Page were teaming together now. Not looking forward to Dos Santos in the ring. Nothing against him personally, it just doesn't always transition very well. Dan Lambert however does come off decently on the stick for a non-wrestling personality I must admit.

Fish v. Moriarty - Bobby's in his 50's but looks no older than mid-30's to me. Glad to see he's still got it. Weak and awkward cross-body stood out. I thought Lee bounced back nicely enough though and started flowing decently with the match. It wasn't anything special but nothing egregious either. Side note: Bobby's Danzig-esque theme song blows. **1/2

Danielson v. Suzuki: This is gonna be the tits. Great hype video before the match. AEW does a damn good job in that regard; can't convince me otherwise. Crowd was fun and super into it, as to be expected. Tests of strength bit with the chops/kicks and then back-and-forth punches later on was really fun. Good flow in this match with some great storytelling from two absolute pros. Loved it. ****

Punk v. Sydal - I can't wait till we get heel Punk. That of course is too soon to happen now but I'll be hyped whenever it does. He's just such a better heel. Fun little match here though, really; Sydal got in more offense than I had expected. ***

Soho v. Bunny - I've only watched a little bit of Ruby's work and I've only seen Bunny as a valet in the past. But honestly, it wasn't that bad. Soho's a decent seller, great expressionist. Bunny looks a little green but I've seen worse. And holy cheeks Batman, I see why she got that ring name now. **1/2

IC v. American Spot Team: Lame. Hope it's worth it and it gets more mainstream exposure for the company, but personally I'm just not a fan of this. The match was too convoluted, especially post-match. *1/2

Final thoughts: Decent for a B show outing but Danielson/Suzuki put this show on another level. Without it I'd rank it much lower. Would have liked Suzuki to get some TV exposure here but he's an internet darling anyways, so it makes sense having him headline the buy-in. IC/The Spot Team really dragged this whole show down for me though, I expect a little better from a main event, even for the B show. All in all though, not a terrible show. ***

Taz is a national treasure.

I really enjoyed Punk/Sydal. Wasn’t the crispest match I’ve seen but Punk’s psychology continues to be a breath of fresh air. I will say though that some of Punk’s aura has definitely vanished over the last few weeks. You’ll always have some of the shine taken off when I guy returns after 7 years and then settles into working every week, but they could have done a much better job protecting Punk’s star power here. Everything he’s done has been good, but it’s just felt so unimportant.

I also enjoyed the wild main event. Crowd seemed hot for it and I enjoyed Lambert getting crazy heat. Jericho looks like he’s dropped a bit of weight.

The women’s match was not particularly good and I’ll echo what everyone else has said about Soho which is that she has the weakest looking shit in wrestling. It doesn’t even look like it tickles. Great music though.

Oh and on the buy-in, it was a very good match and easily the best thing Suzuki has done on his holiday to America. The match peaked at 98k on YouTube so it probably averaged around 75k. Make your own minds up whether it was worth keeping it off TV to counter SmackDown.

One part of it being kept off TV that so many are overlooking is after all of the hype this match is getting, people can go watch it now. If it was on rampage that would not be the case for most people.

Watched Danielson/Suzuki this morning and loved it. It was everything I hoped for. The pop when Suzuki knocked Danielson out with that elbow was so good.

Suzuki looked amazing too. Easily his best match in some time. And Danielson looked like his old American Dragon self again. If he's in the G1 next year...holy frick.

I'm not sure when I'll get around to watching Rampage but I will. Got a busy weekend. Definitely want to check out Punk/Sydal. Sounds like it was far better than anyone expected.

Oct 16, 2021 14:32:07 GMT c said:

One part of it being kept off TV that so many are overlooking is after all of the hype this match is getting, people can go watch it now. If it was on rampage that would not be the case for most people.

Buy-In is about to crack 600k views as of this post. Bet it does at least a million before the weekend is over, possibly more if people watch Dynamite tonight and hear about it.

Oct 16, 2021 7:11:22 GMT Todd said:

Taz is a national treasure.

I really enjoyed Punk/Sydal. Wasn’t the crispest match I’ve seen but Punk’s psychology continues to be a breath of fresh air. I will say though that some of Punk’s aura has definitely vanished over the last few weeks. You’ll always have some of the shine taken off when I guy returns after 7 years and then settles into working every week, but they could have done a much better job protecting Punk’s star power here. Everything he’s done has been good, but it’s just felt so unimportant.

I also enjoyed the wild main event. Crowd seemed hot for it and I enjoyed Lambert getting crazy heat. Jericho looks like he’s dropped a bit of weight.

The women’s match was not particularly good and I’ll echo what everyone else has said about Soho which is that she has the weakest looking shit in wrestling. It doesn’t even look like it tickles. Great music though.

Punk has to get into a big angle and stay there for a bit. His stuff with Darby and Sting was a great start to bringing him back into the fold, but this flavour of the week shit needs to stop soon.

If it's up to me I have him kick Dan Lambert in the face and feud with America's Top Team. He'd get a tremendous pop for putting Lambert to sleep and the MMA stuff is right there for the taking. Lambert can call him every name in the book and talk about his failed UFC run and Punk can find a partner to fight Sky & Page with. Run that feud all the way to Full Gear. It would be money.

Oct 16, 2021 17:43:49 GMT RT said:

Oct 16, 2021 14:32:07 GMT c said:

One part of it being kept off TV that so many are overlooking is after all of the hype this match is getting, people can go watch it now. If it was on rampage that would not be the case for most people.

Buy-In is about to crack 600k views as of this post. Bet it does at least a million before the weekend is over, possibly more if people watch Dynamite tonight and hear about it.

One of the few matches that will be in MotY talk that you can stream without pirating or paying for.  Since I am WAY behind on ZSJ in Japan this is likely my MotY unless I catch on those matches.  

Also for people who are more casual fans, this will be their introduction to Japanese style matches so I expect a lot of people sharing this.  If you only watch television feds, this may have been the stiffest match they have done in a long, long time.

Oct 16, 2021 4:08:49 GMT RT said:

That entire angle is so fucking stupid. As if they didn’t think at least one of the MMA guys would stiff someone. And why are all the big tough MMA “better than millennial wrestlers” running away when they still outnumber everyone?

UGH, this storyline is useless.