Thibs

Agree. It still amazes me that after that pop he got on the go home show prior to Invasion, where he spent all show contemplating his loyalties at a dive bar, and then showed up and took out the entire Alliance, they still insisted on turning him right back.

Invasion angle should have shot them back to 1999-like highs.

The last line in your first paragraph made me LOL. I think there’s a misconception that it was just the edgy stuff. I think it was more of the episodic storytelling along with the edgy stuff. It wasn’t the same in the mid 2000’s, despite the Katie Vick and whatever else. I don’t think its a bad thing and I even understand why they’re doing. Just saying that Cody walking around acting like a big shot in a high school gym is eye roll inducing for me. I appreciate your point though and can see how other people won’t see it that way.

Had the product stayed the same and people still left in droves, you’d have a point. But it changed. And people left. It would be like a pizza restaurant changing all their recipes and products, and then losing business, and the owner throwing his hands up and saying “Idk, I guess people just got tired of pizza. The culture’s moved on ??“.

It doesn’t exist because wrestling started catering to the minority with the loudest voice.

Sure, the people that already watch won’t begrudge. But if your run of the mill wrestling fan hears of this new AEW, YouTube’s them and sees Cody in his suit pandering in front of 200 hardcores in some sweatbox somewhere... ehhh..... doesn’t exactly match up with this notion of this big new company backed by a billionaire. And again, I get that’s pretty much the only thing they can do at this point.

I get why they do it since they don’t actually have show yet.... but all this stuff they’re doing in high school gyms and reck centers in front of 200 people isn’t doing them any favors, perception wise. Makes Cody and Co. come off as thinking they’re a bigger deal than they are.

Yes, that’s undoubtedly the #1 reason.

Some of publications you mentioned have already covered AEW. I don’t think they’re gonna get over the top mainstream coverage (as in BREAKING NEWS) but I do see a potential Turner deal making a splash. Who knows though, you might be right. We’ll have to wait and see.

Wrestling being in the Turner networks for the first time in almost 20 years would be pretty newsworthy and give them a big amount of mainstream attention. For a startup, that can’t be a bad thing. But no, you’re not wrong that obviously people would think of it as poetic justice if they land on the former home of WCW.

I think POP was available but only on higher tiers. Although I firmly believe that Impact’s product over the last year has been boring AF hence most of their audience not watching anymore. I’m just speculating but I think TNT is available on the basic tiers. And then strictly from a PR perspective, TNT would obviously give them a huge amount of buzz based on their history like you mentioned.

So the ticket announcement party this week will be held at the pool at the MGM Grand Hotel. Given that there’s a bar in every corner of that pool, I wonder if hammered Jericho shows up.

Russo didn’t have anything to do with that. That was Dixie trying to play hardball and Viacom telling her where she can go. WGN wouldn’t really fit the “big time” tv deal that everyone is saying.

What else could that be other than TNT/TBS? Its not a network deal like FOX. USA obviously isn’t an option. Idk that ESPN would fit that bill. I don’t see what else it could be.

Hahaha. True, true. To be fair, when he made the TV comments he didn’t seem like he was on the sauce.

Idk I mean I doubt they’d be putting this much hype behind it if that was the case. Jericho might be a drunk but he’s no stupid. I don’t know that he would have made some of the comments he did if a serious TV wasn’t on the table.

You’re about a year off.

Yes, it was in late summer/early fall of 1999 leading into the Goldberg feud. Sid vs. Goldberg was fun and better than it had any right to be. I wish there were some legit monster wrestlers today.

via wrestlinginc. One of them has to be Turner.

Yeah I remember hearing that story. It’s definitely crazy that he doesn’t have some kind of position in the business.

Yep. And considering most of these guys need to get better at telling a story in the ring, he’d be a perfect pickup.

Apparently Penta and Fenix aren’t exclusive and are going to continue working other places. Hope that’s an outlier. If they wanna be a large company on the level of WWE, you can’t have your talent working everywhere else.

Probably Joey Ryan. On a different note, I wonder if they could maybe bring in someone like Bret Hart as an agent/finish guy. He’s got way too much to offer to not be in the business.

Jericho says they’re exclusive. But he might still be drunk. EDIT: Meltzer says none of them drink so I guess he wasn’t.

Hopefully they get a character unlike in Impact.