Elsalvajeloco

It's not because they're both Jews, but he is the literally the hip hop Paul Heyman. Except he probably pays people on time and is somehow more divisive.

I guess this goes here: I am at work and this morning I choose to listen to yesterday's episode of Gil's Arena, which is Gilbert Arenas' basketball show as opposed to the rest of his content which is anything but basketball. DJ Vlad was one of the guests on the couch. I didn't expect him to bring up the whole Booker T/ Swerve ordeal. I definitely didn't expect him to mention the Chasyn Rance stuff. That shit caught me off guard. Vlad's platform is pretty big itself. Now, he is going on other big platforms to skewer Booker T.

From being potentially a victim of vehicular homicide to committing voluntary manslaughter in a matter of moments...life comes at you fast.

I think you may be overthinking it just a tad bit just because: 1. There are too many platforms (and I definitely mean too many) for different entities to go to and survive, if not, thrive in today's world. For WWE to have an actual monopoly, they would have to do the equivalent of a LF, CF, or RF covering the largest outfield in MLB by his damn self or a DB trying to cover 4 or 5 WRs at one time. It's an impossibility. I somewhat begrudgingly agree it won't stop them from trying, but it's still an impossibility. In this lifetime or the next lifetime. Too much ground to cover, and it's only going to get bigger. That and pro wrestling itself is not big enough or in demand enough in any market including the United States where people (networks and the like) would want it the quantities of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc. by one singular entity. Hey, maybe somehow crazy shit happens and it gets there one day. Point remains though it ain't going to be today, tomorrow, or the next day. Pro wrestling is just big enough where multiple businesses with one predominant company can do well enough that hundreds and hundreds of folks can be gainfully employed. That's it. 2. WWE, just like UFC, has been on a mission to wipe out all the competition for 20+ years. Guess what? Anytime one company disappears, four or five pop back up. All those companies go away? Seven or eight pop back up. It may not be in the spots where they're most needed or specifically replacing the old ones especially regionally, but they serve the endgame purpose needed usually: cultivate and develop talent and give them valuable reps. It wasn't until about ten years ago (coincidentally coinciding with the start of the class action lawsuit) that UFC stopped directly targeting competition. Why? They figured there was no need cause everyone else IS their developmental. You get rid of your developmental system, then when people get to you, they probably won't be ready for the next level. Vince try as he might wasn't successfully doing it just cause WWF/E was never on an island to itself. There were always people who either had the same amount of money as Vince or way more than Vince. The latter always pissed Vince off so he made himself the perpetual underdog, when in actuality he could always pick and choose when he was the cruel master or when he was good guy fighting the dastardly villain. It's the same way here with some of the buzzwords and verbiage as you likely notice from the old days except it's no longer Vince having to respond to Turner and WCW putting belt to ass in terms of ratings and buyrates. WWE is under immense pressure getting paid a bunch of money and on the largest platforms possible for visibility, and they have to respond in kind and show they're doing actual work to prove that they deserve to get those huge rights fees, sponsorship dollars, etc. They cannot sit back, relax, and just try to skate by. To be fair, it's going to be the same way with AEW cause they're getting paid too and expecting to get paid a lot more in future years. However, I am not sure if ANY of these moves have a direct correlation with what goes on with their competition to the point where any party needs to be concerned about what's going on. When Tony Khan is ready to move on from AEW, we will likely know. If the parent org for WWE decides, you know what? We can get significant value selling off different pieces, then, we will know. But until then? No one is going anywhere. The indies and some of these lesser companies now international...they've always been in flux. Just not enough to notice, on the verge of going out of business, or being in rough enough shape where it's probably the right move is to sell. Anything that's not the tippy top (i.e. WWE or AEW or CMLL or up until recently, New Japan) is like water. It takes the form of any container it's in. The unofficial job of those companies has always been to bend to the will of the demands of the industry. It not spelled out so explicitly. It's just that now that WWE or AEW or whomever is directly involved, then it seems like a cause for concern. It likely isn't. You will still be watching and loving wrestling in some shape or form (perhaps not as passionately, but YMMV). We have seen wars being raged and fought for decades, and people are still watching wrestling. For better or for worse.

Hey, if you kiss enough ass.... I mean look at Brian James.

There is about less than 1% of that happening. Man, I thought freebasing died in the 90s. Guess not.

Or...follow me now...it will be a giant money pit since they don't understand the actual economics of regularly running Mexico and they will reverse course inside of 3-5 years.

...except AAA couldn't make money for themselves.

I would think the reason why they purchased it was to try to fight some type of proxy war and spark a promotional war in Mexico, but you didn't need to purchase a dying promotion when you can just try to sign away CMLL's best talent when their contracts expire as you would now. Or just wait for the promotion to die. Tony's company has a relationship with the bigger company, but his inside track and inroad isn't that advantageous. They're not trying to build a presence in Mexico outside having talent appear on CMLL shows. This Arena Mexico show might just be a one off just to say he did it much like the Dome show was earlier this year.

It has to get settled first. If it doesn't go to arbitration, it could take years before the dust will settle. Vince might not be around then.

Your wife is giving you a pass, man. TAKE IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

When you actually think about, it's probably going to get buried under about at least 10 different news items. Just throwing a promotion out there: If they bought WOW from Jeannie Buss, it would probably get the same play cause AAA means as much stateside: zilch. If they announced it on Tuesday, it definitely wouldn't be buried in the news cycle cause WrestleMania would have passed.

Vince almost bought AAA in 1997. To do it 30 years later when the promotion is now in the doldrums is amazing. Guess you just gotta wait for the price to come down.

That ain't happening unless the Janel Grant stuff gets resolved fairly quickly through arbitration. Also, Vince looks like death warmed over now. I dunno if health wise Vince is up for even some type of honorary figurehead position. There is still too much that hasn't shaked out for a remote discussion of Vince coming back.

McGregor hasn't fought in like 4 or 5 years. Mayweather has had like 2 or 3 exhibition fights in the interim since McGregor's last fight. They've flown under the radar cause they're against like Tenshin (famed Japanese kickboxer and now boxer as well) and John Gotti's grandson, but they were actual things he trained for. Also, I think most boxing fans now don't really hate MMA like they did back in 2007-2009 back when it was MMA vs. boxing for real. Even guys like Teddy Atlas are covering MMA now and I would never thought a boxing lifer like him would talk about anything other than boxing. He's sincerely passionate about and willing to learn about the sport, which is quite nice cause he is obviously extremely knowledgeable.