All Activity

Picture in picture ads are mostly to overcome DVR fast forwarding. Ad folks would rather deal with a partial screen ad than having their ad skipped via fast forwarding, since people still have something to watch of their show or they may miss it if they don't sit through the picture in picture. The 30 second ads during football/basketball are just folks trying to make more money by selling more ads.

That's Hat? Well, shit, everyone has a life offstage.

Most medications are just a bit above "shady mesothelioma lawyer" level. Basically saying that your audience is old enough to justify advertising a medication they may need to them. /me googles Peyronie's disease ... though I suppose age doesn't factor into that.

what does it say that MTV Classic runs the "I'm at the nail salon, I'm at the grocery store" DoorDash commercial and the "Fish don't have toilets" Aquasana commercial at least twice an hour? also, not sure how good the data is, but how does "picture in picture" impact ratings drops during commercial breaks? I'd think it reduces the drop at least somewhat or else it's a waste. Also, do advertisers care if their ad isn't on the full screen?

Where do ads for Peyronie’s disease meds fall on that spectrum?

I think the interesting thing to do is see the quality of products you're seeing during the commercial breaks. Are you seeing ads for common products or niche products? For example, if you're seeing ads for sodas or fast food or cars? You're probably doing okay. If you're seeing ads for mesothelioma settlements from a shady lawyer, you might be in trouble.

And that's an interesting game to play. If AEW gets reup'd, are we going to see less Mox and Brody getting mega juice, the women getting color as well, and bloodbaths in general just so AEW looks more appetizing?

Getting Collision off of Saturday Night could be helpful for the sake of tapings for ROH or Rampage. Although it might make Rampage look worse if they're openly alternating between matches taped at Dynamite and Collision Or hell, give Rampage to ROH so that it has another reason to exist. As for Collision going head to head with Smackdown.. that feels like the sort of fight that AEW would prefer to not have because while Smackdown's viewership will drop going from Fox to USA, it would still whip the shit out of Collision if Collision tried to go head to head. So if Collision is on a Friday night, then maybe Rampage lands as a taped Saturday night show instead. Another winner of Collision leaving Saturdays? the talent that wants to take indy bookings on weekends that has chilled out on that during Collision

If it's most cost effective to do so, yes, and that's the thing people need to be concerned about. Remember, this is an ad game. If you get a better return on investment re: rights fees/ad sales by running movies than you do running pro wrestling, someone who slashes budgets as much as Zaslav is going to run the movie. The amount of ratings literally don't matter. If you're getting $50,000 in ad sales on a $25,000 movie, and you're getting $120,000 on a $100,000 wrestling show, you're getting $5,000 more to run the movie. If it draws a tenth of the audience of the wrestling show, that doesn't matter. All that matters is the balance sheet at the end of the month.

I believe Meltzer was speculating on Twitter (in response to a question) that losing the NBA frees up a weeknight for Collision on TNT, instead of Saturday nights. Running Tuesday-Wednesday, or Wednesday-Thursday would also cut down on expenses. WBD could move Collision to Fridays to go against Smackdown on USA.

Re: good WCW PPVs post-1998, I remember really liking Spring Stampede 1999. I also really liked WCW from October 2000 until the closure. There was a lot of younger talent in the mix getting reps and positioned as important (the Natural Born Thrillers, Three Count, Jung Dragons, EZ Money showing up during the last couple of weeks as Jason Jett and getting an undefeated streak). If WCW had survived, they would have been just fine with the way they were lining things up.

Butker was in commercials 2 years ago when KS was trying to pass a question about if their state constitution allowed for abortion. So none of this is really a shock. When it comes to athletes and political things, I work under the premise that quite a few of them have their own opinions which can differ from mine. As long as their stuff doesn't get in the way of on-field stuff, it is what it is. Mike Sweeney was a lot nicer when he was opposing stem cell research in 2006 when it comes to KC area Super-Catholic pro athletes. At least I feel more confident in saying that Sweeney has less strongly held opinions about Vatican II than Butker might

And in other idiotic NFL player news:

all the first run programming on Cable probably doesn't mind that we don't get to see the ratings numbers for rerun programming

I can't see WBD letting go of AEW. I mean what are they going to put in those times slots? Run The Meg another couple of times a week? Seriously though, AEW does pretty well for them and I can't see WBD letting them go unless Tony does something stupid and over values their worth or something.

I don't really trust WBD enough to just assume the best here, and the TV Deal is sort of the elephant in the room I guess it's a good sign that people are keeping their mouths shut about what is/isn't happening

WBD has never included AEW as part of their sports package. Always talked about it in terms of their entertainment programming. I don’t think WBD is intentionally getting out of sports (though Zaslav’s tightwad tendencies might get them out of sports anyway), but even if they do, I don’t think that includes AEW.

The new Fall Guys update is a pile of shite. Too many crappy user-made "Impossible Level LOL" levels. The whole point of it is it's an easy, casual game. Now it's an annoying, infuriating one. STUPID.

Things I Remember from NWA WrestleWar 89: Last week, I thought "I'll watch WrestleWar next week" because I thought it was on May 14th (it was on May 7th). Then the cable had a fuckup during the day last week so I didn't watch anything. Then today I looked around and couldn't find the show because I was looking for "Music City Showdown" instead of "WrestleWar". Great start to proceedings. Pretty confident this was one of the 1980s NWA cards that was actually available for rental at the local video tape store so I've seen this card many years ago. We start off with the anthem from the Oak Ridge Boys (there's more Oak Ridge Boys that was cut out of this broadcast). The Bass guy didn't find a spot to solo during the Anthem. The US Tag Team title match is no longer hair vs hair because the board wants them to settle that on their own time or some excuse. What do they have to fight in the parking lot with a hair vs hair stip (man that actually would be an interesting concept). Also Lance Russell is around to do backstage interviews. Muta beats Doug Gilbert to start off. Junkyard Dog isn't there due to "reasons beyond our control" (translation: he didn't wanna job). Doug Gilbert looking like a chubby Robert Gibson. Eddie shows up to offer support. Muta misses a moonsault where he lands on his feet. He wins with a moonsault. Man, Gary Hart kinda towered over Eddie Gilbert. Butch Reed beats Ranger Ross. Man this would be a main event in any county fairgrounds in the South. Reed is the greatest pro wrestler to ever attend the college I attended (beating out Chuck Palumbo and Wrath/Adam Bomb). Ross is there with representatives of all the military branches to make sure he sucks up to everybody. Teddy Long is at ringside and he makes sure to show why an unemployed referee is allowed to hang out at ringside (He's a visitor). Reed wins with his cool looking shoulderblock Dick Murdoch beats Bob Orton in a Bullrope Match. I don't remember much of it. Orton and Gary Hart beat up Dick Murdoch postmatch. I'm not sure either of these guys were in the promotion for much longer. Murdoch looked very pink in the postmatch beat down, which probably isn't a new thing for him once he gets drunk enough. Dynamic Dudes beat the SST. I don't remember too much about this one either but the crowd really did pop for the Dudes winning. I'm sure it gets worse for them later but I wonder how much of the history of the Dudes was written by people who hated them. A dude named Shane in a skateboard tag team is something. Lance Russell talks to Lou Thesz, Pat O'Connor (and his magnificent accent), and Terry Funk. Funk not exactly on the same dress code as the other two judges. Michael Hayes beats Lex Luger to win the US title. Nice Zodiac/Booty Man forearm tassles on Hayes. This match veered between spots where Hayes and Luger were oil and water (a bad looking Russian Legsweep) and some good sequences too. Luger is referred to as a youngster. He's older than Hayes. Hayes is 30 at the time of this match, which should tell you to not drink alcohol. The finish surprised me because I somehow thought the finish was "interference and then a DDT" but the finish was actually "Terry Gordy runs out to shove Michael Hayes onto Lex Luger for the pin". If anybody was uniquely qualified to handle Michael Hayes limp lifeless body, it was probably Gordy because I can't imagine Buddy Roberts being able to help with that. Hayes talked about winning the title by himself and then won the title with help because Heels Lie. Sting beats the Iron Sheik in a few minutes to showcase Sting kicking some ass. Not sure how they put together the Iron Sheik and Rip Morgan unless they were just carpooling and took a liking to each other. Ric Flair won the World Title from Ricky Steamboat. I miscounted the number of women coming out with Flair twice until seeing he was with SIX women. I cracked up laughing at Ricky's kid coming out on a pony. That feels so much like a Bonnie idea. I'm sure the kid loved the experience. But holy hell, they really made Ricky have to fight to not come off like a candyass. Of course the match kicked ass. All of their matches ruled. They might have been able to put on a good match a few years ago when Flair was trying to die in the ring. Ric Flair doing forearms in the corner was interesting. The chops ruled. The Steamboat armdrag ruled. They had to explain why they weren't gonna do a top rope throw DQ. Tommy Young had a few spots that would get lesser refs grilled for "seeking attention". The judges were just sorta there, until later. Loved the "fall into the ropes to knock the other guy down" thing. The match sorta ended with a bookend finish to the Chi-Town Rumble with Flair getting the win with a slam counter. Also sort of an inverse finish of Wrestlemania 3. And then Terry Funk butts into the conversation post-match. Really how many real world disputes start with someone doing what Terry did? A lot. Terry wants a title match, Ric Flair notes "we have rules here, we have a Top 10, this isn't Nam". Terry is offended and then decks Flair. The craziest part of the piledriver is that look at Terry's hands. They're not locked. Also it's pretty crazy to drop a guy on their head on a table in 1989. If you're Ric Flair and you already survived a plane crash, you probably feel indestructible. And we're off to the races for the big program for the next 6 months. Gonna question having a special referee like Nikita Koloff who styles his hair like a Junior Road Warrior. Also, Joe Pedicino making an appearance. Road Warriors and Varsity Club turned into a schmozz. Did they make the women from the Flair entrance dress in Middle Tennessee State Blue Raider cheerleader gear or did they bring in actual MTSU cheerleaders. I guess Vanderbilt's cheerleaders were busy. Nikita ejects Sullivan quick. That turns out to not matter. Warriors hit the Doomsday Device. Sullivan and Spivey run out to beat up officials. The First Family beats the other Varsity Club tag team to close the show. Eddie is trying to take Memphis stuff onto cable TV. Missy is a babyface which had to seem weird at the time. Gilbert/Steiner win in a few minutes. The show after Flair/Steamboat felt like an aftershow. We close by hearing that the Varsity Club has been stripped of the tag team titles. That was a quick decision. Not sure what we got out of the VC not jobbing the titles. Also another look at the piledriver on the table.

I have probably said this a few times, but I haven't seen late '00-'01 WCW since original air, when I was watching WCW consistently again. I remember REALLY loving that stuff as well, and I'm very curious to see how it's aged or if I still enjoy it as much as I did. Maybe it's just nostalgia building this up in my head, but I would swear to you that Shane Helms chasing Chavo Guerrero Jr. for the Cruiserweight Championship is legitimately one of the great WCW feuds.

My favorite part was when he insinuated that the President wasn't a real Catholic, because he's too nice.

Remember when dating Taylor Swift was considered the dumbest thing involving the Chiefs.

Yeah. I strongly believe Willow needs to beat Mone in their first AEW match and have that be the catalyst for MM's full turn. Best thing for everyone involved, hopefully they see it that that way

My Twitter seems to be full of negative stories about Coppola, including smoking tons of weed during filming and trying to kiss female extras before some party scene.