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A_K

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Everything posted by A_K

  1. Pity you had to do this - but exactly. This is why I explicitly took my comment to DM this week of all weeks (also because that poster had already brought up something completely outside of online-comment-realm that I considered to be very inappropriate & disingenuous to be discussing on public threads) .. its a pity, it got dragged back into the public thread again right away rather than keeping to private DM, but c'est la vie, different levels of etiquette. As you mention, the block function is there for a reason. I'd suggest if someone does not like a normally-expressed supposition, they simply pass over it as they would in real life rather than injecting themselves into the conversation (as between my post and the different poster to whom I was replying - who I note is not one of those screaming profanities above ..) or being aggressive. My DMs are always open to a Mod if I'm writing something that's completely incorrect or vitriolic (outside of it simply being an opinion not agreed with). My comments in this thread were in response to a query on WCW Live Gate sales, in which I was effusive of AEW ability to sell in the UK (and that I was not surprised by it). My comment that I was not surprised they have sold well was leapt upon by a usual suspect. Damned if you do, damned if you don't .. Its great Wembley sold so well: they've clearly marketed very well. The comments are all there in black and white. As for the note above that I am 'defensive' .. I'm anything but .. if the uncouth mob-rule crowd want to throw out cunt, shitbrain, shitbrain cunt etc. rather than debate a point through calmly or simply avoid it, more power to them, I won't engage with it. Final comment (As I already said to the continued boxing digression .. this as it is not what the thread is about) .. DVDR has forever been a place of differing opinions & freedom of speech that people can check in and out of, there's no reason to reduce to herd-speak .. peace.
  2. Absolutely molten crowd. Running a lead-off segment large parts of which are not in English is a bold narrative decision. Makes the whole angle feel even larger than life. The product is as culturally/ethnically diverse up and down the card as I think it has ever been in its entire history at the moment.
  3. This is correct. Also to swing back around to a post on a previous page that "the strength of that brand is the fan mindset" - this is also correct. There exists a fervent anti-Fed mindset amongst swathes of the niche hardcore, to the point where we have terms like "Vincels" being tossed around, and language like "cunt" & "shitbrain" (which isn't remotely acceptable in any polite or civilised society, really, not least making the user sound quite low-IQ) & comparisons to far-right analysts like Tucker Carson is given legitimacy and egged on so long as it is used to amplify objections to statistical fact. "The strength of the brand" becomes a double-edged sword for some of supporting your favourite Indy darling, and at the same time getting one over on Evil-Fed lorded over by Toxic-Vince (sometimes by channelling a similar toxicity). This is, I think, still a hardcore-minority, and then you have the very casual PW fans sprinkled over the top. Again, does not diminish from the achievement of selling strongly in the UK. I'm still really curious how they marketed over there as, initial announcement on Dynamite aside, they hadn't put that much emphasis onto it during television / promo time. More an interesting observation on how the divide has become almost a quasi-political or ideological one, which transcends the gap in PW companies in a way that **actually** does not really have any historical precedent. Interesting reflection on general social divides.
  4. You're a very angry man. As I say, I have some magic beans to sell you. They'll make you more cheerful while you watch your 40 year old Russian titleless journeymen in "mega fights", I promise. Now, enough non-AEW talk.
  5. Absolutely none of those were mega fights. If you think Carlos Takam who had 3 losses on his record at 37, a 39 year old Kubrat Pulev & a 38 year old Povetkin in their first big title fights merit "mega fight" as journeymen opponents, then I have some magic beans to sell you. Heaven knows what you'd call Bud / Spence, Benavidez / Canelo, Fury / Usyk etc. But I digress - this is an AEW thread. The statistical facts related to the point are as stated in the initial post.
  6. AEW is at present a declining domestic creative property as measured over an 18 month period, with heavily receding domestic viewership and receding attendance figures. That is simply statistical fact. Once one accepts that fact, they can try to divine the reasons for this decline. My interpretation is because it is terribly scripted (from the Four Pillars to simply the comedic optics of having Adam Cole "restrained" by average Joe looking security guards all of whom tower over him, to simply take two instances from the recent episode) and inauthentically a 'meritocracy'. Others can draw their own conclusions, of course. Joshua / Povetkin sold 90k tickets. Fury / Whyte sold 90k tickets. Joshua / Takam sold 80k tickets. None of these were "mega fights". Clash at the Castle did c. 65k sales at higher prices in a city that has 5% the population of London and is far harder to travel to. So, yes, there are precedents. AEW doing very well to market and sell in a foreign market is not incompatible with a demonstrable creative + domestic malaise. This does not at all diminish AEW's achievement in the UK, as Impact for example never approached this level of ambition / execution, but it is not wholly unexpected (imo).
  7. WCW sold 25k tickets touring Australia during the absolute trough of 'fall 2000. Australia has around a third the population of the UK. As far as I recall there was no PPV associated (Nitro / house). To be honest I'm not too surprised how well this has sold: I'm sure there is some Khan-papering to an extent (actual attendance will be interesting vs supposed sales), but that said the UK is a population of almost 70 million people, all of whom are only 6 hours max. away from London. They extremely rarely get PW events, and there are enough legacy-Fed names involved that casual Fed fans will be in as well as the Dubya hardcores. PW fans can be a rabid bunch. I'm more curious how they marketed this thing. They've always had very strong production values (that was the huge standout vs. the respective TNA upstart period), interested if this extends to foreign marketing. Clearly they've done extremely well. Looking back to WCW, that 41k was in the context of a company who had been touring throughout the country week-to-week. That Atlanta show was not a novelty-entry into a new territory as it were. AEW domestic attendances have largely been in a declining trend (some notable PPV/Special Events aside) -- Kia Forum + Arthur Ashe for example both down 30% YOY on previous appearances. A 1 off in a territory that is smaller than Michigan but w/ 7x the population cannot be comparable w/ touring domestic market state-to-state week after week.
  8. It’s not a bullshit argument. Prior to facing Roman he had no pinfall wins at any champions from the past 4 years or so. His “Road to Wrestlemania” featured bouts against a bunch of low carders like La Knight or green rookies like Solo. He was number 30 at the Rumble. He had - quite literally - the easiest lay up to get to WM, and had no prior world title main event experience. Quite literally the epitome of needing more experience & adversity at that level against a talent who is narratively pitched as being as good as any to ever glove up.
  9. RIP. He had mentioned variously that he was in and out of hospital of late: reading through the Gofundme, and the extent of the adversity, its nothing short of inspiring that he maintained such an uplifting manner throughout. That is true courage. Another who must have first visited the old version of this forum as a small kid some 20 years ago (c. 2005); its stands as testament to one who was instrumental in creating it.
  10. Survey says .. one more win for the Vincels. In all seriousness, how the fuck did this guy wrack up nigh on $20 million in hush money payments. Absolutely and utterly absurd.
  11. Irrespective of being known by virtue of sharing PW hobby with online fandom, this is one extremely brave guy. Reading that list of ailments, I'm sure I'd have given up long ago. Complete & utter respect for the courage. Hope the little sent helps: great to see they are overall tracking above expectations. Thoughts and respect to the whole family experiencing and supporting through this.
  12. 775k in the week SD posts 2.5 mil. Who is asleep at the wheel of WBD, and how long until someone at the network figures out the house is burning and gives TK a polite knock on the door to punt Guevara and Perry straight out of Wembley arena and hire someone who can actually script a television show? Called the 700s as incoming in February but to get there in 10 weeks is overkill .. they've burnt 25% of the audience in a matter of months while the competition and their army of Vincels / dyed-in-the-wool Fox-viewers go from strength to absolute strength .. Bringing in another of the internet marks of the breed who thought Reigns retaining at WM would sink the Fed (reminder - SD just put up the strongest numbers this year without Roman even on the show) ain't going to fix the ship, uce.
  13. While you acerbically chase the alter-ego of me a few posts above, I'll do a quick log-out/log-in switch to relent here. After sleeping on it and considering the train of logic, I agree. It is a reasonable supposition that Smackdown are trending 25% higher w/ a monster demo than when they were on Fox YOY because they are now on Fox while AEW are trending 30% lower than when they were on TBS YOY because they are now on TBS. Further, I retract all prior analysis on the trajectory of AEW product & quality of their scriptwriting -- I will assign it variously to whining/cuntishness/being a brand or mind "not known for quality" as were my whims of the day. The avant-garde & high art nature of the television show simply, it seems, has been going over my head, compared with what's been cooked up by the dullards at The Fed which even a moron like me can understand. Now, on with the wrestling!
  14. Geez. SD recording 2.5 million viewers on Fox as opposed to 1.9 million viewers on Fox is because Smackdown is on Fox while AEW recording 800k viewers on TBS as opposed to 1.2 million viewers on TBS is because AEW is on TBS. Did I get that right? Hell, SD recording 2.5 million viewers in direct competition w/ NBA, Stanley Cup Playoffs & NFL Draft ain't nothing to shout home about because it didn't beat out The Masked Singer on Wednesday Nights. Come on bro, I expected better than that. Its almost more believable to run the line as some others are that WWE is only doing so well right now because it is lowest-common-denominator narrative for low IQ idiots as opposed to the high-art, avant garde offering that only 200k ppl watching Matt Hardy & The Firm on Rampage can wrap their minds around or the 750k odd people that stick around to see Brian Danielson running around with a screwdriver or Jack Perry being sent out there week after week like some weirdly coiffured sacrificial lamb.
  15. SD is up 25% YOY in viewership. AEW is down, whatever it is now .. 30% YOY on viewership. Do you really want to float the idea that the contrasting trajectories of the two over a prolonged period is even partially because of the platform? One is thriving and one is wilting while existing in the very same context they existed in before. I know that was a quick-draw post reply for you .. but as previous post hopefully inferred, WWE creative team have added objective, quantifiable value to the underlying. I mean, that cannot even be argued - it is all there in the numbers, all in black and white. They're thriving top to bottom. They're making new stars top to bottom and refreshing talent who've been with them for years (Sami; KO etc.) in entirely new contexts. To be honest, I'm not even really evaluating AEW in the context of WWE (although the contrasting fortunes over a long period of time now paint -- as above -- a very rotten picture that makes it so easy, and does away with the argument that the industry as a whole is just in an inescapable mire). AEW's work is just bad. How the same online community that would pore over the WON accounts of disaster-days WCW w/ hilarity somehow manage to convince themselves that Sammy Guevara + Jack Perry doing a mic job on national television that would make Evan Karagis & Shannon Moore blush while Daniel Bryan runs around like a slapstick character with a screwdriver and Jay White comes in on his debut to a parity-esque match with a 5 "5 guy who lines up all his moves like a Cirque Soleil acrobat for others to fall down like card soldiers in Alice in Wonderland is remotely acceptable for a national offering is just .. utterly beyond me. This stuff embarrasses the industry. Its just so, so bad.
  16. Looks like there was some good analytical conversation generated on previous pages: will circle back and read through tomorrow. Meanwhile: SD -- absent of Roman -- continues to absolutely smoke it, w/ 2.5 million viewers or +25% YOY. For all the whataboutery re: narrative decisions taken prior to & during WM, it continues to prove as was clearly the case at the time -- the outcome of the ongoing Bloodline saga is to have made a product w/ 6 or 7 bonafide main eventers at the top of the card, each with their own distinctive character and traits who can be rotated in and out of the grander story arc. Not 'hypothetical' main eventers or draws .. guys that 2.5 million people will tune in to watch absent of the number one guy being on the TV set. The creative team at WWE are making guys up and down that card superstars right now at a pace and consistency they haven't for going on 20 years prior. This is building a narrative-laden, story-driven roster with foundations. Venues are selling out for every show; talent are getting intended reactions up and down the card; vets & young guns can be cycled in and out while maintaining narrative flow. So when the contrite question emerges from the echo chamber of "you whine too much: what ever makes you happy?" .. actual quality output like this (& hot shows like WM) make me happy. The industry being reduced to carnival drivel on the other channel while guys with talent like Hobbs & Acclaimed are being blown to smithereens by a talentless fan fiction writer w/ zero governance or quality control living out his fantasy by virtue of his father's check book conversely does nothing for me.
  17. Who is whining, or writing in bad faith? Your ilk love to throw out the barbs in face of divergent opinions: I’ll file this alongside the fellow who called me a “cunt” in the main thread, proceeded to wander into the ratings thread and accuse of “cherry picking data”, then offer no counter point of view or statistics. I don’t mind though. I’ll simply repeat the question, given this is a wrestling discussion forum after all, and not one where we should all be precious about our hobbies being examined (after all, people were happy to throw and continue to throw vitriol at WWE management and creative personnel for years on years). Which nationally televised pro wrestling promotion in history has thrown up a weaker foursome in Jack Perry, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin & MJF to head their product? If any, who were the talent concerned?
  18. Even the previously-rabid AEW fans don't follow it closely anymore -- you're not missing much. The fan-fiction writer has gotten so bad that the booking is 100% up there now with latter-stages Russo WCW (start of New Blood / Millionaire's Club was unquestionably better than whatever segment one turns to in AEW at the moment) & Hogan-TNA. He earns some reprieve in some quarters still because instead of continuing stories week-to-week and compounding on their lameness, he seems to either just forget the workers ever existed and vanish them from television sets or debut a new toy-of-the-month to distract for a little while so people can't keep track. I'd challenge anyone to give me 4 names forming the top-of-the-card, World Title angle in the history of televised network-television more green (/outright terrible) than Perry, Guevara .. then the far-better but still not ready Darby and finally MJF who has to supervise it all.
  19. FTR Bald looks like he's eaten FTR Hair: he & Jarrett looked every bit the pair of 50 year olds falling out of the pub, grasping at air as they breathlessly roll around on the ground out there. Give him 9 more months to grow that gut even further and a white wig and he'll be ready for a second job at the mall. He was never the most athletic, but his conditioning now compared to a year ago against the Bucks, say, is an absolute embarrassment. Bad look.
  20. I like Punk. He's got more innate talent irrespective of his age than 80% of that roster put together. That said, he won't move numbers this time around. He may elevate them to 900k, perhaps even 1 mil on the first viewing to see how they play the Elite drama, but it won't last more than a week or two. This is scripted television drama, not live sport. The issue is and always has been with the script, not the actors: Punk had already pretty much cooled down last time around unless he had an interesting heel angle in the works of his own creation. They can trot The Rock out there and they'd still be dragged to the doldrums in short order by virtue of the actions & words the dramatists are being asked to recite on copy from the guy with a degree in finance from an OK-ish college, who if judged on meritoicarcy / body of creative work and not for having a billionaire dad to finance the thing probably wouldn't have even got a job interview at the Big Company in a similar creative role. Always good to see Punk back in the ring though. The charisma will never leave him.
  21. What data is being cherry picked, and what data is being ignored? Curious to see what is being over-looked / under-stated.
  22. I'm glad you're enjoying it buddy - more power to you (& anyone else who thinks they're putting on high quality television)! But if someone wants to post that they've demonstrated "a decent long-term booking plan" then yeah, I'm gonna have to let the facts get in the way. Now, back to the pro-wrestling!
  23. 50% of this weeks show was in the 700ks for audience figures. The overall viewing figure is being held up by the lead-in number, of whom 100k+ tune out within 15 minutes. RAW, televising an equivalent product, is running 1.9 million through their second hour. If that's not catastrophic given the divergence on proximities 18 months ago, how far down this rabbit hole do they need to go before internally they make changes? Even some of the ultra-niche watchers on this board have posted recently that they're checking out. They are in quick-sand. Network employees make bad decisions all the time that then need to be rectified down the track: that's nothing new. While ratings held up in the short term when Thunder debuted, it was the harbinger to quality decline & WCW falling out of track within a few months. New programming does not inherently signal an upturn in mid-to-long term fortunes.
  24. They've booked away 40% of their overall audience peak-to-trough & approaching 50% of their demo. It is absolutely catastrophic booking. TBS can give them all the television time they want: the numbers don't lie, and if they continue on this trajectory (which they will, without fundamental changes in management personnel), then it'll be whoever is building the network around this product & allowing these decisions to continue whose head goes on to the pike next (a la Kellner pulling WCW when he came in).
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