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This company deserves the corporate death penalty. If you believe Meltzer's reporting on this, and you still support WWE with your money - you're a part of the problem at this point.

NJPW

The more apt comparison for AEW, if you're dead set on business models and boom periods from over 20 years ago, would obviously be ECW. All of this talk about stagnant growth (lol they've been on TV for a month and have consistently been in the top 10 for their timeslot but oookay) and niche audiences and whatever, there's your comparison. Maybe their ratings stay the same. Maybe it grows. Maybe it doesn't, and it drops to NXT levels. That's still at a level that TNT is happy with it. But some people on the internet aren't going to accept that, because they have this preconceived idea of this being viable competition for WWE. It's not. The talent has said that time and time again, but nobody really hears that (or thinks it's a joke or deflecting or whatever). You can't beat WWE. They won 18 years ago, ran a monopoly, stockpiled massive amounts of talent in the past 5 years, and brokered huge deals with corrupt governments and with television networks that grossly overpay for live content. AEW is the clear #2, and that's perfectly acceptable. It's an alternative, and obviously people are treating it as such. Entertaining the thought of people like Roman, Seth, Orton, etc. jumping is dumb. Could it happen? I mean, I guess, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Let's say it does, though. Does it matter? No. Did Hall & Nash jumping create buzz among wrestling fans? Yeah. What broke into the mainstream, though? It was Hall, Nash and some guy named Hulk Hogan who was the most popular wrestler of the last decade at that point and brought eyes to WCW way before that when HE jumped. Using these analogies and scenarios are so, so, so dumb in 2019. It's probably time to accept that wrestling just won't ever be popular like it was back then, and move the fuck on.

Karl Anderson's wife:

As someone who's not an MMA fan, I have to force myself to remember the Cain Meltzer is talking about isn't Glenn Jacobs.

Ya'll out here trying to apply Monday Night War era bullshit metrics to a company in 2019 that's been on TV for like 5 weeks. Wild.

TNT always posts the full match listings for the upcoming week. Here’s what’s scheduled for 11/6: Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) vs. Brandon Cutler Private Party vs Dark Order vs TH2 (Angelico & Jack Evans) Trent? (w/ OC & Chuckie T) vs Pac Shanna & Riho vs Emi Sakura & Jamie Hayter Hikaru Shida vs Big Swoll Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs Sammy Guevara & Chris Jericho

Obligatory:

I think there are probably going to be people conflicted who want to reject the wwe for staleness and/or moral reasons, but don’t end up liking the AEW style. they may just go away all together.

Yeah you have to remember this doesn't just affect the wrestlers and crew, it affects all of their friends and families who need them to be, you know, safe. They are endangering the mental, if not physical well-being of hundreds of people with this deal.

just for today, the world is a good place again we are going to be OK meow

Can we eat the rich yet?

George Kittle continues to be the coolest wrestling fan in the NFL. He's been doing the Cero Miedo taunt for awhile now, but now he's wearing these bad boys:

That's how we can work out the exact timing of what happened?

Good wrestling or whatever doesn’t excuse this kind of behavior, and supporting them with your money only further encourages said behavior.

Being a wrestling fan you become accustomed to the arrogance of conmen spinning you intelligence-insulting BS, convinced that you’ll buy it. But this ‘mechanical fault’ party line, parroted with no context in such a craven and evasive way on Smackdown (what mechanism? Is it travel related? If so, where are they travelling from?) combined with confirmation from Meltzer, Keller and others that it was all about a billionaires’ squabble over money owed, really takes the cake. The fact that the leader, who instigated this blood money deal and got them into this general and specific mess, then leaves his team (and by extension their loved ones) high and dry, without any certainty over what’s to come, without any clear communication of when they will be able to escape the very-much-not free country, just screams that this man’s judgement is completely out of whack and it’s time for Vince to move aside. Never mind the other well trodden stuff. We are used to seeing Vince use his talent contemptibly, like action figures to be abused and thrown away. The disregard for them as human beings has never been so disgustingly apparent. Apologies for the rant, I had but my tongue with the snarky ‘F Saudi Arabia’ comments but the whole thing is just too sickening.

Time Bomb is back, baby!

I don't agree with everything you said, but I love that you said it.

When you scorch the earth, you immolate yourself too. This is one of the few cases where the term is being used correctly. It sounds like Mercury considers office boy Greg to be such a danger to ROH's roster that he's willing to sacrifice his own career if that's what it takes to get rid of Greg (or at least change the way he does business). I do strongly suspect that ROH won't be in business this time next year, though. It's been run on a "minimise costs" basis for years, but the amount of revenue coming in has drastic go down since Jan 1st. With NJPW cutting ties (or at least loosening them greatly), and the draws they do have coming to the ends of their deals (and almost certainly leaving immediately afterwards) I don't see anywhere they can go.

DDT

and I think I am obligated to post this

"What is that plastic bag for tho, Terry?"

To summarize that Youtube clip - which is from the WON radio show this morning - WWE had not been paid for the Super Showdown Show (the last Saudi show) as of Sept 30. - The WWE received $60 million after Sept 30 but before Oct 31. (The implication from Dave was that the WWE wasn't paid until the morning of Oct 31 (EST) basically right before the investor call happened) - Money was definitely owed to the WWE and thus lead to Vince (in whatever happened) delaying the show to air live in Saudi Arabia. (Dave thinks it was about a 40 minute delay) - Talent knew that there was a showdown between Vince and the Saudis (the wrestlers are calling it a dick waving contests and that they were the pawns) - Talent was told there were mechanical issues. One person who contacted Dave said that they did initially believe it was just mechanical problems. HOWEVER several other people who were there contacted Dave to save the never believed the story - Reasons cited for not believing the story: presence of military police, why were they not re-routing to a different flight, it doesn't take over 24 hours to fix a plane - Dave said he had people tell him that they will never go back. He also said people told him they just can't wait to get out of the company. Meltzer did note again that who knows what will happen as time passes (and if people change their mind). He said he doesn't know if someone is going to step up and address management on Monday at RAW (this is what Karl Anderson was referencing in his tweet) - There are clearly people pissed that Vince left while they were still stuck. Tyson Fury was on the jet with Flair, Hogan and Jimmy Hart. It is not confirmed if the problems started AFTER Vince left or not but their are talent that does feel like Vince abandoned them. - Cain Valesquez was with the regular crew - Dave noted that there were "really really bad" stories from the first few Saudi shows that no one has shared publicly yet and that talent originally didn't believe but now after this trip, things are starting to make sense - Dave then brings up that basically if the talent doesn't unionize now its not gonna happen especially after seeing that if they all walk out, Vince will just replace them with NXT Talent and draw basically the same rating The rest of the clip is breakdown Smackdown and more specifically Brock going to RAW

I'm glad I have no idea what's going on.

Glad to hear Shanna has officially signed. Enjoyed her work with Shida.

I'm not saying that Chris Jericho is the best heel ever in pro wrestling (at least stateside), but I think he should be in that conversation at this point. The way this dude re-invents himself as a character and especially as a heel is amazing. His work in the Malenko feud, the Goldberg "feud" in WCW, the wear a suit and speak in monotone turn, his "wily veteran" act in AEW right now, all are top-notch. I didn't see the stuff with the scarf and the list and Kevin Owens, but it's been meme'd so much that I might as well have. He just has this great mind for characterization, and each run as a heel feels distinct from the last.

Fair enough At least I didn't stoop real low and call you Carlos Mencia. I would have been an asshole for that. A-S-S-H-O-L-E

Luigi's Mansion 3 is so good, y'all. There are too many great games out right now. I can't just focus on one.

Pretty much. It forces AEW to create their own stars or turn wrestlers they get from WWE into stars if they are going to achieve the next level of popularity. There's no shortcuts AEW can take like WCW could because of how WWE operates these days. Getting guys like The Revival and Rusev or whatever would be a nice boon to the quality of the show but won't make much of a difference at all ratings wise. Even somebody like Reigns wouldn't make much of a difference I imagine. Certainly more than the others but nothing game changing. edit: Just to be clear, I don't think Reigns would ever leave. Perhaps Orton is a better example. There'd be a bit of a bump but probably nothing substantial.

Full suit, complete with matching shoes.

They already are appealing beyond their core audience. The average BTE episode gets 2-3 hundred thousand views worldwide. A million people watch Dynamite just in the USA. Dark's view counts were just under a Million per episode last time I looked, which was a week and a half ago.

The main event reminded me of the Dustin Poirier/Max Holloway fight where it didn't take long to realize that one of these dudes hurts the other every time he lands and the other guy seems completely unbothered in return. Masvidal won every second of that fight in a way that I was surprised by, even though I thought he'd win this fight fairly easily. The first real exchange where he threw that elbow, followed it with a two punch combo and a head kick on the way down was just brutal, efficient, violence. Masvidal's strking game is at a couple levels above Nate's and it seemed like Masvidal knew it immediately. The thing that really surprised me was how inept Nate looked in spots where he's usually overwhelming. When he actually got Masvidal's back against the fence in striking range, he'd throw a couple shots, Masvidal would evade them, and then circle away. Nate would just kind of pause, like he never even considered that someone would move out of the way in that situation. Nate Diaz is a very good fighter, but he didn't show that he was better than Jorge Masvidal at any aspect of fighting tonight. The fight was stopped more "early" than early. Did anyone else see the blood pouring out of Nate's ear? He had taken a brutal beating and those cuts were terrible and clearly affecting his vision in the previous round. It was just a matter of time before one of the bombs that Masvidal was landing at will was either going to knock him silly, open one of those cuts up even more, or hurt him permanently. That fight felt like it ended at the appropriate time, but in the least satisfying way...kind of like Ferguson/Cerrone. It was to the point where we knew exactly what was about to happen and there was nothing Nate was going to be able to do to stop it.

Yeah, I don't need to see a rematch. I don't know why it would be different.

Hahahahahahaha That belt deserved that ending.

LOL

Double post. Oh well: From that week when Rich Swann decided skullets were the new hotness.

nice of Heyman to coincidentally leave the scene as a dispute involving money not being paid flares up