A_K

Yeah, Cole and his kicks looked frankly ridiculous. Basically prodding at that guy with his tiny-limbed super kicks. RE: Jade -- UFC champs like Jones or Khabib would go year(s) without showing weakness against inferior competition. There's no reason to try and give her a narrative 'weakness' for the sake of it in a vain effort to get over some nobody at her expense: find some more women talent that actually merit being in the ring with her & physically/athletically could be perceived as threats, and go from there.

Rico's problem is he was probably a little too old by the time his release rolled around .. what, roughly 45, at a time the fed were trying to reposition youth for the future. Within the next 6 months, the WC/IC/USC would cycle across Shelton Benjamin, Orlando Jordan, Carlito, Cena, Batista .. guys like Cade & Murdoch + La Resistance getting tag title runs .. all of whom would have been in their early-to-mid 20s. Pretty obvious emphasis on youth, and that's likely why Rico went. He'd be pretty much done with the industry shortly after.

Danhausen's is an amusing lower/mid-card novelty act. Liked his interactions with Regal: harkened back to the Tajiri/Regal vignettes which were amusing at the time. Not sure why they'd have him against Hook rather than with Hook - but we'll see. If they want to lean into that whole anime-like vibe with Hook, have Danhausen as his tag-along who constantly gets in over his head and needs rescuing by the nonchalant partner. Yes, for the poster further up, the Sting-dressed-as-Sting was great. Vignettes-within-a-match like that get nice pops.

Darby is a superstar with a very clear concept/image/story. Andrade is a muddled mess of various storylines clumsily put together (from the Chavo stuff to the Vicky stuff to the Pac stuff to the Hardy stuff all in a 9 month period). They need to seriously go back to the drawing board on presenting him as a singles star: Darby going over is right decision.

They changed Yuta’s gear. Good stuf - the blood pattern is a little on the nose but suits his physique so much more, and he’s still a really young guy so will bulk out like Danielson/Moxley. Whoever it is they brought into the company to improve the visual/audio presentation over the past 12-18 months should be lauded. Not a single gimp mask in sight.

P.s. — Roman is at the start of his mainstream-exposure arc. As the late 21/early 22 “Tonight Show” appearances attest.

No - hence they’ve changed their recruitment process. As with any business, the idea that the “brand” trumps “content” is a nice idea only in the very short term.

ROH would have been far more fitting an acquisition for WWE than AEW. Let’s see how it goes, but ROH as mentioned previously occupies an existing niche. I 100% appreciate (and agree with) the concept that the tape library is an asset (the $ value - who knows), but as a promotion it will not grow their exposure into untapped markets. WWE, conversely, would have received Indy-legitimacy (if interested in that conceptually after NXT tail-off). AEW has less shine as being “niche leader”, and just becomes part of pack. ROH as worked narrative point in AEW (see Outsiders ‘invasion’ angle; WCW->WWF) would also have made sense. As it’s own corporate structure? Confusing decision.

Interesting time to have the discussion actually, as Netflix just lost another 20%+ a few hours ago. So that is around $200 billion of their value wiped in 6 months (they're now lower than the worst depths of the covid market crash). Streaming was seen as 'easy money' for so long (just package footage, stick it on a platform online & hey presto you're golden) - that's all going to change as the entire value perception changes. So yeah, tangent point, but probably also worth bearing in mind as it pertains to how AEW (or anyone for that matter) tries to sell historic footage in future. Critical content will be king .. fluff will not fly.

Meltzer's not really a journalist as such in the classical sense, he's a mouthpiece for people who are kind to him or do him favours or leak him information. He's on video saying as much: "If you're not going to be nice to me, I'm not the kind of guy who is going to be nice to you". Hence Austin/Rock at X-7 doesn't have 5* (or any of the Smackdown 6, for that matter for those who prize the technical stuff as mentioned further up thread), and Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus/Christian Cage vs. Adam Cole/Nick Jackson/Matt Jackson does have 5*. That understood, its not hard to rationalise as a matter of 'taste', or anything else at all really.

I think going forward streaming companies are going to be much more selective & restrained on what content is purchased and when. Netflix share value is down 50% in 6 months; upstart stream companies like Fubo are down as much as 85%+ in a year. It’s going to be a harder sell in future, and dependent on eyes on the content / subscription levels. But that’s a different conversation for a different time. AEW has a hard core audience that makes up a large chunk of the repeated viewing (need only to look at what high % of the 1 mil or so ppl that are its audience have bought PPvs) and will probably buy whatever’s sold them (at least for the time being) - but building a wider-appealing streaming product from YouTube TV footage won’t be an easy sell to most.

I didn’t say you did - in fact, I didn’t even quote you. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who shares the sentiment - hence the collective twilight zone. For the guy who’s suggesting Chris Jericho/ Brock Lesnar are same ballpark of draws - I’ll have whatever you’re smoking. AEW has occupied a very clear niche, and absorbed practically every viable Indy-origin talent on the market. Since the Punk/Danielson summer debut pair (absolute apex of that talent-type), ratings have only gone backwards, and last week show was actually a YOY fall despite the hurrah about how good the TV output is. For all they’ve added, the number of eyes on the product aren’t a million miles away from when the original batch of talent were running the screen & they’re back to 50% less views than SD! (led by a guy who can’t draw - figure that one out). So, commercially, it probably remains to be seen as to whether that is really the commercial ‘solution’ for Connecticut at all. They’ve been in a malaise, that’s for certain, but no proof yet the development talent alteration adds to it.

Do you think people pay WWE streaming subscription fees to watch re-runs of Velocity & Sunday Night Heat?

AEW Dark, Elevation, Rampage .. and none-brand—affiliated ROH is the developmental arm? Hmm. Let’s see how that goes.

Yeesh - Brock’s never drawn in PW, Roman’s not a draw period, and Kevin Owens - not Steve Austin - was the highlight of the main event. Twilight zone.

You think Chris Jericho & Rey Mysterio have had comparable drawing power to Brock Lesnar, that Roman isn’t a mega draw & that its “correlation rather than causation” that the biggest face-of-the-industry draws of the past 25 years produced by their system are stud-athletic types of a certain build & stature? Ok - probs worth stopping conversation there, I don't think there's room for agreement.

Especially when the artistes don't make him any money. By far the most consistently successful product from their prior-format NXT system was the women, who were performing basically completely without precedent and have been epoch defining in their own right.

It’s also worth noting that someone like Flair came into the business in the mid-70s, where the point is that in the 90s/00s the industry as a whole became a lot more athletic, and that’s really where you see the homegrown mega draws for them starting to come almost exclusively from stud-athletic backgrounds. You line up Cena, Rock, Brock, Roman, Angle all coming in at a similar age from a similar(ish) path on a similar(ish) route of development and analyse the commercial impact they had relative to the other way and .. yeah .. why wouldn’t you go back to that way of working?

Well, it proves that the tried-and-tested formula for the mega draws over past 2 and some decades (emphasis on mega draws, of whom there have been very very few) has been to recruit from athletic background at v young age direct into WWF/E farm system. E.g Brock, Rock, Cena, Goldberg (for WCW), Roman. Which is .. the path they seem to want to return to, which they strayed from (probably since OVW declined if being honest?). There were a lot of “theoretic” draws they were going to uncover from the indys but .. yeah .. not really much tried-and-tested proof of that working out. Some contemporary draws have obv. come from those non-athletic indy backgrounds (Punk; Danielson), but not really industry-defining draws (at least, for any sizeable amount of time) & certainly not WWF/E farm products (hence, perhaps, the messy divorces and contract disputes) they can build a generation of the business around. A guy like Bronn Breakker (for example) is really just them going back to what worked so exceptionally well commercially for them before. Contrast Bronn, Brock & Roman (for example) who were stud-athletes taken direct into the farm system with a guy like Brian Cage (for example) who while being a “big guy” has to my knowledge no discernible athletic pedigree and went straight to the Indys. Levels to the game.

Brock, Angle, Rock, Cena, Roman, Goldberg .. hell even Austin had some college football experience before the knee injuries. The biggest WWE/F draws of the past 20 years have almost unanimously come from some sort of athletic background .. makes a lot of sense why they’ve gone back to that well at a time of company lethargy

WWE only had 1 5* match ever? Not enough Bucks/Cole vs Jurassic Express & Christian in the archives I guess.

They bring someone from outside the industry in. The concept that only someone who has been an actor in this television show can direct the television show is .. well .. different. Cinema franchise refreshes demonstrate the importance of outside perspectives. For all their subsequent faults, Bischoff + Russo's respective commercial success at WCW/WWF came on the back of one having started in corporate sales, and the other having owned a video store & as freelance writer (or whatever the fk it was that Russo did). Networks being networks, at some point there will likely be pressure to bring outside voices in.

The belt definitely goes on to Punk. Last week saw viewership down YOY (despite the - expensive - additions). Tomfoolery of the slot moves from late-spring/early-summer aside, they'll be at a push increase viewership going forward at this point. 10%+ viewership off the peak of last summer on the debuts - and demonstratively he has been their biggest draw, who isn't getting nay younger. Its a growth game; retracing won't be seen as cool. They'll shake it up to avoid stalling.

They have so, so many interesting routes for the TV title. Don’t go near Ethan Page - that is not the answer. Scorpio Sky & Page race is run unless as tag team. They can rebuild all the titles but Tag, TV & dare say even Heavyweight have been a shit show in terms of storylines for weeks / months. Sammy can be an interesting champ but he needs to develop & breathe away from the Jericho & ATT stuff. Heavyweight .. it’s time for Summer of Punk.

Words out my mouth. He looks so skinny in those tights; they’re terribly unflattering. I thought maybe he was just tiny, but he’s billed as 6 ft “, so presuming he’s even close to that then yeah, the gear creates a negative illusion.