Jan 12, 2024 12:02:18 GMT Blindy said:

Yeah SAS has been a scumbag for a while and thinks he's hotter shit than what he really is. Doesn't surprise me.

I used to really like SRS. He’s become a keyboard warrior.

I don’t understand why anyone gives that douchebag money, or why anyone in the industry still talks to him. He’s been this way for years now.

It's true, AEW's rating are on a decline. The last thing they need is further distraction from their product.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe instead of booking his show like WWE2k on random, TK instead builds some dynamic and engaging storylines that come to a head on those key dates to ensure fans stick around.

Jan 12, 2024 16:45:23 GMT RT said:

I don’t understand why anyone gives that douchebag money, or why anyone in the industry still talks to him. He’s been this way for years now.

We got into a Twitter spat a few years ago. When he’s wrong, he lashes out like such a bitch.

Jan 12, 2024 20:24:02 GMT NATH45 said:

It's true, AEW's rating are on a decline. The last thing they need is further distraction from their product.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe instead of booking his show like WWE2k on random, TK instead builds some dynamic and engaging storylines that come to a head on those key dates to ensure fans stick around.

You’re making me want to start an AEW fan fic.

Jan 12, 2024 20:24:02 GMT NATH45 said:

It's true, AEW's rating are on a decline. The last thing they need is further distraction from their product.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe instead of booking his show like WWE2k on random, TK instead builds some dynamic and engaging storylines that come to a head on those key dates to ensure fans stick around.

The story of Hangman Page's falling out with The Elite and rise to the World Championship was some of the best story telling I have ever seen unfold in a wrestling ring, and it made Hangman a star for life. I know you aren't going to strike gold like that all the time, but they aren't even trying to do anything like it anymore. I don't understand why.

Jan 12, 2024 21:38:16 GMT RT said:

Jan 12, 2024 20:24:02 GMT NATH45 said:

It's true, AEW's rating are on a decline. The last thing they need is further distraction from their product.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe instead of booking his show like WWE2k on random, TK instead builds some dynamic and engaging storylines that come to a head on those key dates to ensure fans stick around.

The story of Hangman Page's falling out with The Elite and rise to the World Championship was some of the best story telling I have ever seen unfold in a wrestling ring, and it made Hangman a star for life. I know you aren't going to strike gold like that all the time, but they aren't even trying to do anything like it anymore. I don't understand why.

I know it was divisive, but the Omega/Hangman vs Young Bucks pre-match promo video is my favorite piece of content ever put out by AEW.

Hangman’s title win was great. I still really, really hate the way Kenny sold the final Buckshot (the stiff collapse). It made the story about Kenny finally being exhausted vs. Hangman just obliterating him with vicious selling.

Here's a ridiculous idea, instead of having a rant on social media about Jinder and then booking nepo baby Hook in a program with Joe to support your argument, perhaps.. and shit, just perhaps, fucking Swerve walks out instead and goes nose to nose with Joe.

And then, having lost in the Continental Classic, the arch sees Swerve prove his worth through beating everyone despite Joe's best intimidation tactics and soul crushing promos.

Fuck, I don't know.

Jan 12, 2024 21:51:42 GMT NATH45 said:

Here's a ridiculous idea, instead of having a rant on social media about Jinder and then booking nepo baby Hook in a program with Joe to support your argument, perhaps.. and shit, just perhaps, fucking Swerve walks out instead and goes nose to nose with Joe.

And then, having lost in the Continental Classic, the arch sees Swerve prove his worth through beating everyone despite Joe's best intimidation tactics and soul crushing promos.

Fuck, I don't know.

Well to be fair (to be faaiiirrrr), Hook called out Joe before Tony's rant. That had already happened. Tony reacted to the USA Network tweet about cagematch by deciding to drag Hook into the conversation for no reason.

And they kind of already did that on Wednesday. Joe addressed the crowd, then Swerve came in and said he took Hangman's spot and told Joe his days were numbered. Hangman heard his name so he interrupted and said that because of his beef with Swerve, he lost sight of what really mattered, the AEW title. He vowed to get it back. Swerve held up two fingers to Hangman to get in his head about beating him twice, but left the ring deciding to pick his battles. Hangman followed him out. Then when Joe was about to leave Hook entered and got in his face. Then they announced the match was official and Joe would be defending against Hook next Wednesday.

You take away Tony's little hissy fit and everything is fine.

-Hook should be worthy of a shot given his record. He's right to put the challenge out there.
-Swerve should be in the hunt and is right to remind Joe (and the world) of that fact.
-Hangman should be trying to get the AEW title back but acknowledge that his recent losses set him back.

Oh, and Joe even made a dig at Tony and other wrestlers during his promo, saying to keep their bitching off of social media or something like that, and to just step up so he can knock them down. Crowd loved it.

On the same show, Adam Cole addressed the fans too, and laid out their game plan. He said Roddy will be going after the International title, and Wardlow will make "them" the AEW World Champion "when the time is right."

I expect Joe will have a defence or two, then when Wardlow finally steps up, MJF will return to disrupt their plan and have a blow off feud with Adam Cole & his super friends. Then hopefully Swerve will step up and take the title from Joe so he can have a nice run before it eventually finds its way back to MJF/Cole/whoever.

To be faaiiirrrrrrrrr.

Jan 13, 2024 2:51:00 GMT NATH45 said:

To be faaiiirrrrrrrrr.

To be fair, they're coming off one of their most poorly received PPVs and they've just lost two of their biggest stars in MJF and Omega. One of their other 'stars' has been accused of predatory behaviour and their way of combating that is by blasting his music over the air.

They've had all this time and when it's all said and done, Samoa Joe and Adam Cole, their former competition, are now the major focus of the company.

If ever there was a time to up the ante, course correct and go with the flow - it was now. Instead we're dragging our feet so Joe can beat a guy that's been positioned as a novelty act. Nothing against Hook, he's still a genuine prospect, but whatever backlash Tony received (was there any? it seemed to me there was just a lack of interest) is due to how he's been booked since his debut against Fuego. It's like making a big deal out of a Big Show vs. Crash Holly title match instead of trying to get to HHH/Cactus ASAP.

WWE has been through some mighty peaks and valleys over the last 20 years, and I've argued this point when the booking as been at it's absolute weakest - like WWE then, AEW needs to tighten up.  They have some amazing talent, and they also have some absolute dead beats on their roster. To me, every show AEW produces needs to be home run to win people over. 797k for Dynamite is shameful at this point. The majority of segments and matches I see, don't have any care for. And I think most fans feel the same way. The big issue, like the WWE when it's at it's weakest, is the good roster is being spread too thin over 2 shows and a weird off-shoot ROH that no one cares for. And then the majority of the show is crap. If they took the best from each show and crammed it all into 2 televised shows a week, then they'd likely on paper have a fantastic product. 

Tony Khan announced tonight that AEW's going back to the rankings system.

Fans seem fairly mixed on this on social media. Some are happy that it may lead to more logical booking, while others are pointing out the past issues the ranking system faced. Namely that the rankings didn't reflect the on-screen product with odd placements and less known guys boosting their rankings on non-televised shows like Dark.

I think those in favour of a ranking system like it in theory. However we saw in practice that it was a hinderance and when the chips were down Tony would still rely on battle royales, tournaments and clustermuck ladder matches to decide his contenders.

Minoru Suzuki vs Edge on Wednesday.

That is a real thing that is happening.

Jan 21, 2024 5:14:38 GMT Big Pete said:

Fans seem fairly mixed on this on social media. Some are happy that it may lead to more logical booking, while others are pointing out the past issues the ranking system faced. Namely that the rankings didn't reflect the on-screen product with odd placements and less known guys boosting their rankings on non-televised shows like Dark.

I think those in favour of a ranking system like it in theory. However we saw in practice that it was a hinderance and when the chips were down Tony would still rely on battle royales, tournaments and clustermuck ladder matches to decide his contenders.

It was dumb and should have stayed gone. Tony is just trying to figure out with things from the past made the company more popular then it was today.

Quality of opponent needs heavy affect on it because 10 dark wins against unsigned talent should equal maybe 1 win over a low carder who is signed.

Can AEW hire this man back already?

Christ, Alvarez is still dirty on Punk.








Ps: Punk took the TV ratings with him too...

Da Meltz reporting this morning that he's confident Mercedes Mone is going to debut in AEW soon and that Okada hasn't made his mind up yet but the feeling is he is headed to AEW as well.

Of course this comes 3 days after Andrew Zarian said Mone has already signed an AEW contract. He broke Adam Cole and Will Ospreay signing as well.

Sounds like Okada is pure speculation at this point but I have to assume Dave has his sources. Tony probably giggling and writing checks in his office as we speak.

Curious if Mone shows up on Collision tomorrow night since they are head-to-head with the Rumble.

It felt like Sasha Banks left the WWE like 2 years ago and has just been riding this " OmGz, shez gunna dEbutz in A3W any day n0w! " since..

Jan 26, 2024 20:28:25 GMT NATH45 said:

It felt like Sasha Banks left the WWE like 2 years ago and has just been riding this " OmGz, shez gunna dEbutz in A3W any day n0w! " since..

Well to be fair she was supposed to last year then busted her ankle in a match.

I’m glad she gave WWE an obscene number and decided to stay the course. Her stuff with NJPW and Stardom was great and got cut short because of the injury. Excited to see what else she does.

Would be ridiculous for TK to debut Mone tonight, would tell the whole world it's more about spiting the WWE than it is actually making their talent the star of all of wrestling. She should be brought in for a Dynamite if not next PPV(Where she would debut wrestle) if AEW were smart.

At a night where Bayley could win and Naomi may return, why would Mone want to either overshadow or be overshadowed by her best buds?

I am not happy he is doing the cage tonight at all. Or Kommander vs Orange which was a match I was looking forward to. I love AEW, but it is the Rumble, he has to know many of us will not skip the Rumble for AEW. Even most lapsed E fans watch 2 shows a year, WM and the Rumble.

I will hunt down those matches later.

Mone I suspect will be at the Rumble hiding backstage or in the crowd. Her and her girls are tight as hell and sneak into the crowd for each other's matches all the time. Do not expect her to work tonight though as it sounds like she is still contracted to NJPW.

So apparently Dave on Twitter says AEW is valued at $2b. Apparently he got this number from a debunked article that one of the other Observer guys wrote. The same post claimed Fulham FC is worth $2.2b which is absolutely ridiculous, and probably closer to a tenth of that.



Is there any other example of this in sport or entertainment, where the consensus most-trusted journalist in the industry is so clearly and wholly full of shit?

I'm confused. Forbes said Shad Khan is worth 8.25 billion. The Jags are worth roughly 4 billion, so did the person that wrote the WON article just divide up the rest without checking?

A quick google tells you Fulham is worth about 300 million and that AEW was last valued at around 625 million based on their TV deal. That is expected to go up next deal, but until that happens we can only speculate, and it damn sure won't be anywhere close to 2 billion. MAYBE 1 billion. MAYBE.

So not only did someone just make up numbers but Dave went ahead and backed them up as fact. Cool. Good job.

AEW gets enough shit from WWE fans, bro. You don't have to go create more ammo for them. Idiot.

Jan 27, 2024 17:42:09 GMT Todd said:

So apparently Dave on Twitter says AEW is valued at $2b. Apparently he got this number from a debunked article that one of the other Observer guys wrote. The same post claimed Fulham FC is worth $2.2b which is absolutely ridiculous, and probably closer to a tenth of that.



Is there any other example of this in sport or entertainment, where the consensus most-trusted journalist in the industry is so clearly and wholly full of shit?

Was it even a year ago a bunch of fans fed him false information about Dragon Gate and he ran with it for months before somebody finally called him out on it?

That's the issue with Dave, unless he has a grudge he'll take everything at face value. I think he tries to remain as objective as he can but he can't hide who butters his bread.

Jan 27, 2024 18:00:34 GMT Big Pete said:

Jan 27, 2024 17:42:09 GMT Todd said:

So apparently Dave on Twitter says AEW is valued at $2b. Apparently he got this number from a debunked article that one of the other Observer guys wrote. The same post claimed Fulham FC is worth $2.2b which is absolutely ridiculous, and probably closer to a tenth of that.



Is there any other example of this in sport or entertainment, where the consensus most-trusted journalist in the industry is so clearly and wholly full of shit?

Was it even a year ago a bunch of fans fed him false information about Dragon Gate and he ran with it for months before somebody finally called him out on it?

That's the issue with Dave, unless he has a grudge he'll take everything at face value. I think he tries to remain as objective as he can but he can't hide who butters his bread.

The two best examples I can remember are both absolute comedy.

1) a WWE fan sent him a picture of a ‘commercial’ a house show regarding a hot new PPV event. It was just the ‘Intermission’ graphic. Dave ran the story - new WWE PPV Intermission.

2) someone photoshopped Okada coming to the ring over a World Cup winning goal at a German bar and synced it so that the moment the place appeared to go mental when Okada took his robe off. Dave ran it as legit proof of Okada’s star power.

He has no critical thinking skills. This alone makes him a terrible journalist. Good obituary writer, furiously hard worker, but poor journalist.

Jan 27, 2024 18:05:33 GMT Todd said:

Jan 27, 2024 18:00:34 GMT Big Pete said:

Was it even a year ago a bunch of fans fed him false information about Dragon Gate and he ran with it for months before somebody finally called him out on it?

That's the issue with Dave, unless he has a grudge he'll take everything at face value. I think he tries to remain as objective as he can but he can't hide who butters his bread.

The two best examples I can remember are both absolute comedy.

1) a WWE fan sent him a picture of a ‘commercial’ a house show regarding a hot new PPV event. It was just the ‘Intermission’ graphic. Dave ran the story - new WWE PPV Intermission.

2) someone photoshopped Okada coming to the ring over a World Cup winning goal at a German bar and synced it so that the moment the place appeared to go mental when Okada took his robe off. Dave ran it as legit proof of Okada’s star power.

He has no critical thinking skills. This alone makes him a terrible journalist. Good obituary writer, furiously hard worker, but poor journalist.

Holy shit, he ran the Okada meme as real news?

Mercedes Mone (or people close to her) have confirmed she will be back in the ring by March and “not for WWE.” She also plans to visit Japan but did not confirm if she would be performing.

When asked if this meant she signed with AEW they did not confirm or deny. When asked if she was signing with TNA they flat out said no.

Sounds like she is going back to doing what she did before her injury only actually show up in AEW this time. Makes sense if she returns in Japan since she has unfinished business there, but with a March return happening it would be cool if she made her AEW debut at Revolution.

Britt vs Mone at Revolution would be dope.

Dave got smacked down when he said the Escape the Cage match had the ending switched to escape rules because none of House of Black wanted to take the pin. Dave said this also was clearly a sign that they wanted to return to WWE.

Why he did not think the Escape the Cage match had escape rules from the start is beyond me.

Or why Black would end his Dojo that he spent a year settling up to return to WWE where he would have no time to train people.