A_K
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Joined
Posts posted by A_K
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2 hours ago, Log said:
Serious question: does Meltzer even really "break" news anymore? All I ever see about him now is weird takes on shows and ratings ramblings.
Carny Dave will do Carny Dave. Snake oil salesman.
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Garcia beats Danielson. Swerve/Lee takes titles from Bucks. Moxley squashes Punk. Etc.
Creating “unpredictable” shock tv results is not and never has been the problem. -
Darby was a demonstrable draw for them. They've dropped the ball there big time but he's recoverable: he's magnetic. Jack Perry can't speak: they are going to kill him putting the spotlight on him like they are currently ("I hit him with my fist .. I hit him with a chair.."
). Perry tops out at novelty but over tag team level (think Too Cool) or low/mid card loveable non speaking cruiserweight. Guevara they've killed with WCW 2000 level booking - I mean they've really fucked his booking up. Of the 3 Darby is probably most salvageable with most upside, Guevara is variable .. Perry is just not going to work whatsoever with what they're attempting for him.
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16 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:
My numbers / years are a bit off. But my point is still valid using the contract documents released during Time Warner lawsuits:
Full site reference : https://sites.google.com/site/chrisharrington/wcw_contracts
Hmm ok. So the quality diminished as the roster became more bloated .. that number also includes enhancement / part time talent (e.g. pay exceeding 10k in a year), so yes the core permanent contract regulars was probably flexing at the 50-80 mark.
The AEW roster would be even larger if part-time Dark/Elevation talent were included (for example, Bear Country are not included in the 120 named roster on the site .. but I would assume they've cracked 10k in salary for AEW for example?). Interesting stats/viewpoint any way
Edit: Pretty wild that the full-time AEW roster right now is larger than WCWs ever was, even admitting for a 3 hour Nitro and 2 hour Thunder.
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12 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:
Just another instance of maybe me being happier with the booking philosophy of a different era here? But A.K. picked 98/99 WWE. That's a good choice to cherry pick what point he'd like to demonstrate. I'll do the same and cherry pick 1996 WCW. They had about 200 wrestlers under contract. They were super commercially successful during this run. Business was booming. You'd get the important people mostly every week or two. You'd get get your regulars that get in the rotation once a month or so. And you'd get these wacky dudes showing up you had no idea WCW even had under contract. It was the best. At least to me.
AEW could keep the exact same roster and utilize it more effectively if TK just quit using his rigid formula. Nitro would hit 8-12 matches a week in the 2 hour era. AEW has 6 matches every single Dynamite. There is no deviating from that number. It is 6 and it will always be 6. Only one of those 6 a week is a women's match. Literally go back and check results. It always has been 6 and it's always going to be 6. And that is farrrrrrr more at blame than the roster size.
TK is beholden to every match needing to be an epic. Throwing in a 5 minute sprint, or a 2 minute squash, or a story related indecisive finish once and awhile would make things far more unpredictable. You'd see more of the roster each week. Women could have 2 or 3 matches a week depending on that week's format. Everyone complaining about the roster size is missing the actual culprit. That stupid rigid format that has been run into the ground.
Mix. It. Up.Not to labour the point but .. source on this? Quick google check across a couple of different sites suggests 50 - 80 flexing dependent on time of year. I picked 98/99 WWE because it preceded 3 hour RAW, so most closely fits AEW TV time although is still an hour extra a week just on the 2 flagship shows, and also preceded the influx of WCW/ECW 'invasion' talent. There is no precedent for a roster the size of AEWs being employed for 3 hours of TV time a week that I can find.
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10 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:
Yeah I keep thinking about how two of the best-structured (I would personally say THE two best-structured) rosters ever were almost bizarrely small: AJPW in the 90s and Battlarts throughout pretty much it's entire run and the reboot in 2009/10. Both only really featured the same 12 guys or so every week with some rotating guests and were (for awhile) able to protect just about everybody by consistently giving guys midcard wins.
That said, obviously both of those companies had major issues about moving away from their top 2 or 3 guys as the years went on, but that's not inherently a problem with the roster size. I'm all for a small roster as long as the bottom rung is replete rock-solid if unspectacular workers like Tamon Honda and Masao Inoue and Ryuji Hijikata and Junji.com. AEW would have absolutely no issues with putting together a fantastic small midcard roster.
AEW could easily, easily pull together 8 signature main-eventer top of the card talents, then 12 upper card of whom 1/2 could rotate upwards into the top of the card 8, then 12 mid/lower card comprised of veterans and young(ish) high prospect talents to feud with each other + go over vets. Separately have 6 tag teams and 10 women. That gives you 44 .. add in a half dozen managers / trainers and you reach your 50. A roster size that can give you lots of fresh match ups while bringing in unpredictability as to who cycles up/down the roster. You then have 3 hours of television of week which you can fill with quality in-ring/vignette action.
I actually think Khan's biggest negligence by a huge distance has been the roster mismanagement .. it was a mad dopamine rush of adding more and more and more without ever slowing down and considering the detrimental impact.
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It's a really, really easy booking situation to sort out.
98/99 WWF (choosing this as a period of key commercial success in single-brand format prior to big WCW/ECW influx) had a roster of around 35-40 names across the male/female roster who would comprise Raw/Smackdown/Heat (5 hours national television).
A casual look at the AEW website roster shows they're topping 120 names across the male/female roster before you get to commentary/trainers with 3 hours of national television.
It's simply obscene. You cannot build a compelling, soundly-footed narration with this many names clouding the product. They would be far, far better if they cut literally half the roster, cut the Youtube product and focused very, very deeply on the national television output. Rampage ratings would be better for it. Dynamite would be much sounder in focus. Once you have those 40 or so names that you can build lower/mid/upper card around, then you can make the storytelling compelling. Right now they're onto a highway to nowhere as it is impossible to funnel a singular vision for where the company is at and where it is going. Absolute key first step. Then you come back down to 4 titles at maximum ever shown on television, and never let another title come on screen again. Build the value of the titles you have and start to attribute uniqueness again to the talent that are privileged to hold titles. Right now no title has any merit on AEW Television as there are simply far too many shown.
EDIT: They have one of the strongest rosters in any promotion in history, and the deep-value of the great talent they do have is lost by having far too large a pack around them. The hardest problem to ever solve in any company is talent-finding. They are in this grossly fortunate (almost unique) position of having great talent .. now just cut the chaff around them.
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Thanks all. I wouldn’t take much from that .. 10k attendance is still an OK number. It can’t be underestimated the financial strain on the public at the moment (there are some ridiculous stats out there, like credit card usage month-on-month increases being the highest in 25 years). There is going to be an impact on event attendances, there has to be. Tickets will go but not as easily as in 2021 when everyone was flush with cash.
I’d also be less concerned about “momentum being lost” now .. in reality momentum was lost 6-9 months ago, it’s just dwindled bit-by-bit until it’s become a noticeable public issue. More important is that they get the big picture booking back on track .. the PPV will tell a lot about that. Less easily addressable is that they have way, way, way too many titles. It’s really bad and I don’t know what they do about that readily. -
2 minutes ago, matt925 said:
Wow so almost 24 hours after the tickets were put out only a bit more than 100 were sold. Still over 700 left for a ppv in a way smaller building than the standard nba/nhl arena. I felt that double or nothing wasn’t the strongest card and neither is this, even though forbidden door was great. Throwing in new japan, roh, and an overloaded roster all at once and clearly not having long term planning, which they’ve always had in the past, has really led to a cooling off for the company. Crazy to think of the peak one year ago to now. They were firing on all cylinders a year ago. Maybe adding all this wwe talent has taken some of the unique identity of aew away.
I’d like to understand this so help me out. Tickets were released 24 hours ago? Only 700 tickets for the event? This can’t be right. Please can you clarify exactly what you mean in terms of venue capacity & supposed sales to date?
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3 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:
They're keeping O'Reilly off tv because his insistence on cupping to speed up his recovery has rendered him into a basically unrecognizable polka dot man
In all seriousness, the guy looked ludicrous coming on national television with those cupping marks. Absolutely ludicrous. He should be kept off until that’s addressed (whether he needs a shirt or whatever they do to address it)
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2 minutes ago, Jamal said:
I must be one of the few people that thinks the women's division is far healthier now than when Britt was champion. Now, we have a number of over women who would make a viable champion. As pumped as I was to see Shida last night, I would love to see Toni take it.
Shida is great (in every way): more TV please. You are right. Women division was barren during Britt run
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1 hour ago, Quantum said:
All the shoots are actually works, and all the works are actually shoots.
You haven’t met Sammy before. Loves a work. Even worked Pam into thinking he was marrying her. He’s a pro.
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1.2 mil viewers by end of year should be in play
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To give him his dues Khan really did turn Fulham around. They went from being a carnival outfit to be a well-run, competitive side with a clever manager handed the reins after some very dubious exec decisions previously. Gives one a lot of hope that he can get this horse back on track too
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23 minutes ago, Technico Support said:
Sure, but its also smug and arrogant. And it's not like you'll be back here apologizing to the people you were calling fools if it turns out it wasn't a work. You're just out here saying "everyone is dumb but meeeeee!!!" and it's insufferable.
Not at all - have always been extremely happy to have dialogue, and have never initiated a personal attack (I "like" a lot of posts, there are some interesting viewpoints).
As memory has it however, there was a certain crowd of posters who were happy to quote my posts around the forum (which pre-empted the path of the past 9 months -- from the Danielson/Punk signing momentum-then-fumble-period, to the unanticipated tv network travails as we move into inflationary-environment & end of free-money-VC period that has dominated past decade, to the switch ups that would eventually be needed) in a derisory manner. Well, there you have it. The inevitable mismanagement played out, now hopefully its behind them and they build back some momentum and positivity around the roadmap.
The "talent meeting" (need to be careful I don't get worked myself there, brother) is hopefully a segue into cutting the enormous amount of chaff that has allowed to gather under that roof. He has needed to get a grip on that company for almost a year now; time to stop letting the manipulative lunatics rule the asylum and get some big picture thinking back in place.
Danielson + Moxley (+ Regal as manager) vs. Punk + MJF. Fuck everything else. 4 bonafide superstars. No entourages. No gimmicks. No town halls. No silly spotfest 12 man matches or versions thereof. The "two man Power Trip" angle done right. There is your 3-6 month angle to reel the viewers back in. Hunker down, cut the carnival shit and circus acts and get some consistency going again. And get the tag titles on Acclaimed yesterday. And stop having seemingly every-other-act walk around TV with a belt of some sort (AEW/TNA/NJPW/ROH/ECW .. whatever the hell else is being worn on shoulders)
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9 minutes ago, Technico Support said:
Good to know that falling all over yourself to be the first to claim something is a work has made its way from r\squaredcircle to here.
Don't be sour: not my fault if you are taken in by performance-artists, actors and stuntsmen. If the company finally starts making the clever moves to get themselves out of the 6-9 month creative rut, good for them.
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8 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:
I'm not sure what's going on. On the surface it was cool as fuck to see the title match have nearly a flash KO if you will..
But the company as a whole: Punk supposedly unhappy, a rift backstage, Eddie Kingston suspended? Something not right with Thunder Rosa and that situation and there's still not an announcement on a main event for All Out.
It'll just be important how Tony navigates all this.
Don't get worked too much, brother
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If you have all been worked by a storyline CM Punk injury I demand every restitution in the book, and Khan can send me the check in the mail for having nailed where AEW'd be at & what they need to do 6 months ago. Khan, get that big company-wide marquee angle rolling brother.
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Was a good season until the last couple of episodes, then nosedived real quick. Utter garbage.
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This will flop hard. Matt Smith cast as "the most experienced warrior of his time"?. Good to see they've maintained the immaculate decision making process that informed the final few seasons of GoT
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1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:
AEW needs to be more focused on their own product and TV than worrying about ROH. Warner Bros. Discovery is making cuts and offloading shows left and right, that's including content they own and produce.
ROH should be on a backburner and not even a thing right now until AEW is well and fully established and gets its next TV deal sorted out through this ridiculous scam of a merger and a garbage scam of a streaming service.
On 4/19/2022 at 5:27 PM, A_K said: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.
The above was back in April. Trust me, I'm aware of the TV financial squeeze + plus white elephant that was the "streaming content value" .. I called it way before it was even on the radar of anyone else here.
When you have narrative content like ROH you utilise it narratively. There was value to drain from it in the context / mythology it granted to some sizeable talent they signed. Instead, they squandered the momentum of Punk / Danielson etc.; they have not used the IP at their finger tips in an intelligent or elegant way. ROH only has value as legacy-mythos: it has 0 value as 'start up' intellectual capital, it never ever did and never ever will. They had all those legacy story points to explore in a modern context .. and instead created convoluted (and inelegantly named) needless story points like "Blackpool Combat Club".
They needed to strip back all the added bullshit shows / Youtube nonsense etc. they had going on and create a smooth, single arc to get behind that could amplify the qualities of the young talent they already had. Instead, they are in a narrative-mire. Talent like Jericho (who have precisely 0 upside for the long term future) are still being devoted priceless minutes while others like Jungle Boy are being put in situations that amplify their weaknesses. Again, this isn't hindsight talking or 50/50 vision .. called this all out literally 6-9 months ago ..its going exactly as expected.
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10 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:
I think I'd prefer to wait patiently as the current ownership make their way thru all the insane workload and steps necessary to get weekly TV. Only judging by the two PPVS and the AEW product, but I think it'll be well worth this seemingly lengthy wait.
Have you seen Rampage’s ratings? They can’t juggle 2 shows, never mind 3. ROH will be an absolute bomb if it ever gets near network TV (which it won’t, by the way — quote me)
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44 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:
I'm not sure an ROH invasion angle would've worked or made sense. The amount of spotlight ROH continues to get in AEW makes no sense to me. ROH really had little value as a current brand and was largely irrelevant when Tony Khan bought it.
ROH angle leveraging the older superstars who didn’t get enough mainstream credit in their day for innovating & were forced to take over the world under a different sports entertainment umbrella vs the young AEW stars (pillars) who have had it easy with beautiful production off the bat and Khan’s $$$ guiding the way for them. Writes itself, gives angles to get the young AEW stars over with meaningful stakes, creates an overall narrative arc to the show that has been completely missing. AEW young stars go over because they haven’t succeeded where ROH couldn’t just because of the $$$, But because they’re that damn good.
You buy the ROH product, you contract the biggest names ROH ever had .. then the only real throw back you have is Punk coming out to Miseria Cantare. Bizarrely underwhelming use of the mythology & context
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Called the AEW decline pretty clearly earlier in the year to the chagrin of a few -- seems more & more voices are coming around. As I said at the time, I didn't do it for the larks. Despite running unopposed, I think they have possibly (maybe?) hit 1 m. once since March.
A lot of very bad decision making began to compound on itself. The clear way to go with ROH was obviously to leverage that IP into an invasion angle, considering the number of historic ROH 'greats' they have on the roster. ROH as a standalone has 0 value above that which AEW had already accomplished, and will continue to prove that it has 0 additional value above that which AEW has accomplished.
It has always been a very ADD-booked product veering wildly between angles being way too short or way too long. However there was always a new dopamine rush waiting around the corner so long as they had the NXT free-agents to plough through and with the Japanese/American indy product to continue to leverage. They've essentially introduced everything "new" that they can at this point, which means the time comes to actually build the foundations. Based on what they've done with talent over the past 12 months, nothing suggests the correct strategic thinking is in place, and given ratings have lost all upward momentum (when was the last time they had a weekly-YOY increase?) it seems to be showing.
EDIT: This Jungle Boy/Christian angle is also the absolute worse they could have done for JB. It is shining a light on how embarrassing his mic work is, esp when placed next to arguably an all-time-great mic worker on the other side
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AEW - SEPTEMBER 2022
in ALL ELITE WRESTLING
Posted
Kenny is dating Shida? Lucky guy.
Good to get Fish out. Another 30 or so releases and they’ll be cooking.