Well, it was said that Regal immediately regretted joining AEW. Citing a maturity issue.

Boy, he was right.

I can't remember who on here mentioned it, but what are Big Show, Henry, Gunn, etc.. all these veterans doing? Why were they hired, if they can't aid in leading the roster.

But it's not like anyone involved in any of these issues in AEW are teenagers, nor is it the 1990s and everyone is cooked on coke. These are all mature aged men, who seem to lack the ability to remain professional.

Punk "wouldn't shake Regal's hand because Regal was HHH stooge", yet he never had any problems with Regal in WWE.🤔

That would sound like some b.s. dirt sheets would want to spread in fear that Punk might actually go back to WWE, all while trying to soften the blow of AEW possibly killing the only market that'll still attend events (if setting up a 20,000 seat United Center for 5,000 people is selling out a venue😂).

No one was gonna step up to Punk after he attacked the EVPs of the company and threatened lawsuits. He sued his former best friend, for wrestlers best to let Tony deal with him.

Chicago was solidified as a top AEW market without Punk last night. People can keep trying to dismiss AEW but they hold the record now for real paid attendance.

Let’s at least wait to see how many tickets they sell in Chicago without Punk advertised. I suspect they’ll be just fine. They needed to cool it on the Chicago market anyway so this may provide Tony incentive to explore more, and that’s a good thing.

Yeah, they were over running Chicago for sure.

Reports coming out now that Punk tried at least twice to get back on WWE TV before AEW, the second time doing that sideshow, but was not allowed back on the actual wrestling show. Guessing post two backstage fights Endeavor will want nothing to do with him. UFC never has been cool with that.

Sept 4, 2023 14:41:47 GMT c said:

No one was gonna step up to Punk after he attacked the EVPs of the company and threatened lawsuits. He sued his former best friend, for wrestlers best to let Tony deal with him.

Chicago was solidified as a top AEW market without Punk last night. People can keep trying to dismiss AEW but they hold the record now for real paid attendance.

Tickets that had already been sold for a PPV weeks before are proof AEW will be fine in Chicago?😂

They already were tarping off 3/4 of the arena for a TV show. Remember how the first event sold well at Arthur Ashe Stadium, but the return show didn't as well?

The shine on the company's debut has been wearing off as the years go by. The only ones buying it's "greatness" are those that don't want to admit it's lackluster.

Got to be sad to be WWE and have your best show outdrawn by a lackluster company.

Reported Punk wanted to fight KO in the main event of night 1 of Wrestlemania. Only Punk seemed interested in the match.

Word is WWE legal is concerned about Punk and the choice may even be out of HHH's hands.

So, selling out Wembley Stadium is proof AEW is doing great in the States?

If WWE booked Wembley for WrestleMania, they'd sell out both nights in one week.

Likewise, WWE has filled up AT&T Stadium in Dallas. It'd be nice to see AEW do that, but they'd go with the American Airlines Center, and tarp off 1/2 the seats.😂

So putting Punk into more context only 1 other person was fired from AEW since inception and that was for being a violent rapist.

And after being fired Jimmy Havoc never worked another match.

Also how dangerous must Punk be when Tony was not even afraid of Leatherface running around backstage with a chainsaw?

Tony being scared for his life makes me think he must not have attended any Fulham vs. Millwall matchups when Fulham was in the EFL Championship.

Tony grow up a billionaire. He attended those games he has personal security. These people do not live like the rest of us.

Sept 4, 2023 9:49:35 GMT NATH45 said:

Well, it was said that Regal immediately regretted joining AEW. Citing a maturity issue.

Boy, he was right.

I can't remember who on here mentioned it, but what are Big Show, Henry, Gunn, etc.. all these veterans doing? Why were they hired, if they can't aid in leading the roster.

But it's not like anyone involved in any of these issues in AEW are teenagers, nor is it the 1990s and everyone is cooked on coke. These are all mature aged men, who seem to lack the ability to remain professional.

Never heard much about Paul Wight or Billy Gunn being leaders, and none of the three are in the same stratosphere of Punk’s elevated importance to AEW at the time. Sometimes an asshole is an asshole, and if you decide to make the asshole one of the most important guys on your team you have to deal with the consequences like him treating William Regal like shit. You have to have a strong voice on the top for something like this, and TK isn’t that.

For all the “Tony Khan did the right thing!” takes from this weekend, just confused how it’s not more about “why was he ever back?” Punk showed who he was a year ago, when he walked into a press conference and put on that show then got in a fight in the lockerroom. And then instead of reducing his status, requiring that he make changes to come back, they gave him more status and power in the company and enabled the Wembley situation.

Sept 6, 2023 12:38:23 GMT mikec said:

Sept 4, 2023 9:49:35 GMT NATH45 said:

Well, it was said that Regal immediately regretted joining AEW. Citing a maturity issue.

Boy, he was right.

I can't remember who on here mentioned it, but what are Big Show, Henry, Gunn, etc.. all these veterans doing? Why were they hired, if they can't aid in leading the roster.

But it's not like anyone involved in any of these issues in AEW are teenagers, nor is it the 1990s and everyone is cooked on coke. These are all mature aged men, who seem to lack the ability to remain professional.

Never heard much about Paul Wight or Billy Gunn being leaders, and none of the three are in the same stratosphere of Punk’s elevated importance to AEW at the time. Sometimes an asshole is an asshole, and if you decide to make the asshole one of the most important guys on your team you have to deal with the consequences like him treating William Regal like shit. You have to have a strong voice on the top for something like this, and TK isn’t that.

For all the “Tony Khan did the right thing!” takes from this weekend, just confused how it’s not more about “why was he ever back?” Punk showed who he was a year ago, when he walked into a press conference and put on that show then got in a fight in the lockerroom. And then instead of reducing his status, requiring that he make changes to come back, they gave him more status and power in the company and enabled the Wembley situation.

I was glad to see him back but as soon as I heard that certain people were banned from Collision shows, and that there had been no discussions between The Elite and CM Punk since the fight, I knew it was only a matter of time before something happened again. And to be fair, we all gave TK shit at the time for allowing this nonsense to continue. But time went by, Punk seemed to be behaving, he was starting a cool new storyline with his “real” world title…then Jack Perry had to start shit and Punk flew off the handle again.

I don’t blame Jack Perry, don’t get me wrong. Just like I said; it was only a matter of time. If it wasn’t Perry mouthing off it would have been someone else eventually.

Tony gave Punk a second chance in the dumbest way possible, which we all acknowledged but moved on from. I think people are giving him more credit than he deserves, but also, firing CM Punk before back to back shows in Chicago deserves a pat on the back. That is a wild move and it actually paid off. All Out was one of the best shows AEW has ever done.

Well, Collision ratings tanked. With 345,000 making it the worst rating yet.

Sept 6, 2023 19:26:11 GMT NATH45 said:

Well, Collision ratings tanked. With 345,000 making it the worst rating yet.

College Football kicked off Saturday. This was expected and had nothing to do with Punk being fired. Saturday nights are hell for shows like this during football season.

If anything the ratings were probably higher than they should have been because people might have tuned in to see what they did.

Sept 6, 2023 19:30:38 GMT RT said:

Sept 6, 2023 19:26:11 GMT NATH45 said:

Well, Collision ratings tanked. With 345,000 making it the worst rating yet.

College Football kicked off Saturday. This was expected and had nothing to do with Punk being fired. Saturday nights are hell for shows like this during football season.

If anything the ratings were probably higher than they should have been because people might have tuned in to see what they did.

It apparently started off at over 470,000.. then lost viewers after the announcement and by the final quarter, it was down to 250,000.

Yeah so everyone tuned in to see what they would do then put football back on after TK’s announcement.

They’re gonna hover around that 250k mark until football season is over. Maybe even lower. Turner doesn’t seem worried so whatever. I just hope the quality stays consistent. BC Gold, Hobbs, Miro, HOB, FTR, whatever women they decide not to put on Dynamite that week…been really good so far.

Sept 6, 2023 19:44:18 GMT RT said:

Yeah so everyone tuned in to see what they would do then put football back on after TK’s announcement.

They’re gonna hover around that 250k mark until football season is over. Maybe even lower. Turner doesn’t seem worried so whatever. I just hope the quality stays consistent. BC Gold, Hobbs, Miro, HOB, FTR, whatever women they decide not to put on Dynamite that week…been really good so far.

TKs announcement is going to be Jacksonville Jaguars v Fulham v Blackpool Combat Club in a triple threat, tornado tag, barbed wire, nuclear bomb death match....in 3 weeks on Collision.

Sept 6, 2023 19:52:33 GMT Jake said:

Sept 6, 2023 19:44:18 GMT RT said:

Yeah so everyone tuned in to see what they would do then put football back on after TK’s announcement.

They’re gonna hover around that 250k mark until football season is over. Maybe even lower. Turner doesn’t seem worried so whatever. I just hope the quality stays consistent. BC Gold, Hobbs, Miro, HOB, FTR, whatever women they decide not to put on Dynamite that week…been really good so far.

TKs announcement is going to be Jacksonville Jaguars v Fulham v Blackpool Combat Club in a triple threat, tornado tag, barbed wire, nuclear bomb death match....in 3 weeks on Collision.

" And we'll hear from [insert name of underwhelming midcarder here] "

Sept 6, 2023 19:52:33 GMT Jake said:

Sept 6, 2023 19:44:18 GMT RT said:

Yeah so everyone tuned in to see what they would do then put football back on after TK’s announcement.

They’re gonna hover around that 250k mark until football season is over. Maybe even lower. Turner doesn’t seem worried so whatever. I just hope the quality stays consistent. BC Gold, Hobbs, Miro, HOB, FTR, whatever women they decide not to put on Dynamite that week…been really good so far.

TKs announcement is going to be Jacksonville Jaguars v Fulham v Blackpool Combat Club in a triple threat, tornado tag, barbed wire, nuclear bomb death match....in 3 weeks on Collision.

You say that like it’s a bad thing

Wait a show airing in the Saturday night death slot is not popular? Bring me out my fainting couch.

Rating will be even lower most likely. Collision gonna frequently start to bounce times for the game too. Part of the reason ratings do not matter. Tony agreed to let the air time float as needed.

Ratings only matter when they're good.

He’s right though. We don’t know what the expectations are. If the network had any sense they would be extremely low during the college football season.

AEW’s ratings are fine and their value to television networks is probably still rising. The big issue that needs fixing right now is domestic attendance.

Rampage and Collision are both in time slots that the network used to move stuff they planned to cancel to. I doubt they give two shits what the ratings are. Seems what was most important was having a show that they could move to a random time slot if they had a game they wanted to put on primetime.

Also the competition is not WWE. For WBD the competition is playing an older movie. Like Rampage's lead in is Grown Up 2 and follow-up was Identity Thief. Post game talk is the lead in for Collision and the follow-up is Matrix Resurrection.

When a random movie beats Collision then there is a problem. Until they, WBD not gonna sweat the ratings.

Sept 7, 2023 7:44:12 GMT c said:

Rampage and Collision are both in time slots that the network used to move stuff they planned to cancel to. I doubt they give two shits what the ratings are. Seems what was most important was having a show that they could move to a random time slot if they had a game they wanted to put on primetime.

Also the competition is not WWE. For WBD the competition is playing an older movie. Like Rampage's lead in is Grown Up 2 and follow-up was Identity Thief. Post game talk is the lead in for Collision and the follow-up is Matrix Resurrection.

When a random movie beats Collision then there is a problem. Until they, WBD not gonna sweat the ratings.

Some of that makes sense, but I’d also assume that playing an old movie is considerably cheaper than producing a wrestling show so there’s probably some cost-benefit analysis there that involves some sweating. Is Collision live? Because I’d assume not for long.

Collision was set up to be mostly live, but if moved recorded. Another reason Tony gets ratings leeway.

There have been no rumors that the network is in anyway unhappy with the ratings either, just fan theories that AEW not doing WWE numbers means they are doomed. By all accounts the network seems pleased with the lower numbers, as they are far higher than most stuff in similar spots, and AEW giving them about 175 shows a years for a relatively low cost makes them still a bargain for WBD. Rumors are for everything, including weird side shows, and extra event several times a year, it is 240 million a year. About what they are paying for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom by comparison. Most TV shows come in at 1.5 million or so per hour long episode, so content is at a below industry average too, while being "new" content which gets top dollar ads.

Funky system if you compared it to solely WWE they are not doing well at all. But compared to general television, they are still getting fairly high network ratings at a pretty cheap cost. Which is likely why WBD always pushes them as one of the top performers on their networks.

Sept 7, 2023 3:20:39 GMT RT said:

Sept 6, 2023 19:52:33 GMT Jake said:

TKs announcement is going to be Jacksonville Jaguars v Fulham v Blackpool Combat Club in a triple threat, tornado tag, barbed wire, nuclear bomb death match....in 3 weeks on Collision.

You say that like it’s a bad thing

OH MY GOD WHAT IS TIM REAM DOING!?!

Ace Steel has been released reportedly.

Not surprising at all.

Sure Tony will gladly let both go to WWE now.

So three people fired by AEW so far:  Havoc, Punk and Ace.

Punk and Ace were also fired by WWE prior.