Kevin Wilson

Hot take as I watch the Braves game, I think if the game is so out of hand that the team behind puts in a position player to pitch, then the other team should have the option to call the game as over right then. Its just silly and its waving the white flag, just end the farce so there isn't a risk of injury for no reason.

I don't want to say he regrets it since it will still be a big crowd and its hard to argue any event with almost 50K people isn't great, but they announced 2024 All In soooo early and it never had the buzz because it felt like it was announced too early and doesn't feel as special. I know SS/WM are announced really early but those are more known entities and since they change cities it excites a different area. It would be cool if next year All In is in a new country and they start that as a new tradition.

I'm expecting the per year rights deal to be well over $100 million so I guess we won't know for sure what they'd have to make on youtube (hypothetically) to cover what they get from WBD (or someone else) until we get the final numbers. Not that I still think it would be a good idea so early in a company's existence but its all about the money either way. I'm just not convinced they could make $100 million a year themselves on Youtube with their current fanbase size, it would be a big risk I think they'd only take if they had no other options. Nor do I know if TK is even interested in running a wrestling show that isn't on traditional TV. With 2x more programming I assumed they were aiming for at least $125 mil a year for the TV deal. Its hard to say what their best course is for this year without knowing what WBD's offer is, hopefully we will know soon! Please soon.

Not to speak for anyone else but I think the big difference there is that all those you mentioned are incredibly massive, have 30+ years of building a fanbase/subscription base outside of Youtube (WNBA is in the deal with NBA so clumping them together), and also still have traditional cable distribution. I don't think AEW has the popularity or 'background' (or money) to take that type of risk. Maybe they will in five years but I'd have to see an example of a company less than five years old pulling $200+ million a year via Youtube before I'd consider it viable for AEW (since their expenses are currently $188 million a year, and they want to make money with this deal without making big cuts to contracts or production). Doesn't mean they can't utilize Youtube better, I agree with you there and hopefully their new deal will give them some flexibility.

Ha I feel ya, I saw multiple people on twitter quoting it so I just assumed it was an accurate quote. Which is dangerous, I know.

And even though TK speaks in hyperbole and can be a bit of a troll, I'm at least 55% sure these announcements relate to some type of TV or distribution deal: “We’re on the verge of the most important announcements in the history of AEW. There are multiple aspects. The arrival of these announcements is imminent. We’ll have big news that could come at any time. Isn’t that the best kind of wrestling surprise when you know something is coming and you want it and it’s exciting, but you’re not sure when it’s going to happen? You have that feeling it’s going to happen. The future of AEW is very bright." - Tony Khan (via TVInsider)

All a fun read, I've enjoyed the discussion. I don't think things in 2024 are quite where they should just abandon trying to get on cable as a (they hope) still growing company, cable is still huge nationally and the cord cutters that have Hulu Live, Youtube TV, SlingTV, Fubo, etc still watch AEW via "cable" channels (or the deals AEW gets from them). That's still how the vast majority of the viewing audience is used to watching weekly TV shows. I don't think we are at the point yet as a society to say that cable TV still isn't the best source of income for weekly TV shows and the best way to get major reach and still should be AEW's focus and goal. WWE just signed a five-year, $1.4 billion deal with NBC/USA for just Smackdown, and while AEW is no WWE in any measurable way there is still too much money in the traditional distribution method (at least for the short term) to abandon it. I do think WWE and NFL have the right idea to diversify, it would be great if AEW could have Dynamite on cable, Rampage/Collision on Amazon Prime, Dark back on Youtube. But I think AEW not getting a traditional TV deal for the next 3 to 5 years would be a major step down for them and seen as a disappointment, they still need not only the visibility but the perception that they are a successful growing company and not a fading one. Maybe by their next deal the momentum will continue to shift, I can't say what the viewing methods will be like in five, ten years. The last FFC report I saw (which is no doubt an estimate of course) says 7% of the population in the country still doesn't have access to high speed internet. That's a much smaller number than ten years ago and will no doubt continue to shrink. So for this one I still think AEW needs to stay on cable (if they can!) for the money and visibility, and go from there for the next deal.

I'm just of the opinion that rich people stay in trouble but get out of trouble much easier than us normies do, regardless of the situation. And its the type of case that Musk can probably delay eternally if he chose to. But I'm still glad she is doing it as even though I don't think they'll face any repercussions it may help others understand why it was wrong.

I don't know how realistic it is that she'd win as these court proceedings can take forever, they can claim they didn't know it was false and was going off something else, etc. etc. but anything that makes it stay in the news a bit longer and hopefully get some type of apology out of any of them would be nice. Even if she only gets some type of moral victory in the end of it, hopefully it will make people think twice next time. Don't forget that Elon Musk won the case against the man he called a "pedo guy" with absolutely no basis or truth to it, winning defamation cases is hard but she deserves something for what she went through.

I almost went to this show as I have family down in Hampton Roads I could have stayed with but with it being mid-week we decided against it. Its funny though as Young Bucks vs. Acclaimed was at the Fairfax, VA show and now they are back in VA and its.... Young Bucks vs. Acclaimed again! I know he didn't do it on purpose but it is feasible that fans in VA could go to both shows and see the same match they saw last time.

Its legitimately really interesting as Haason Reddick did say in interviews after the trade that was he cool playing no matter what happened (I can't find the interview to give the exact quote but that was the gist of it) and maybe that was the message he gave the Jets. One theory is that they offered him an extension that he found so insulting that he decided he wouldn't play for them at all. There was clearly some really poor communication at the time of the trade, or someone changed their mind later. Either way its hilarious.

I don't think you can as I believe codes no longer work. There are grey market sites selling keys to the game but without the store I believe there is no way to put in the codes so I think there isn't a legitimate way to play it unfortunately. If I'm wrong and codes can still be put in (should be easy to test, I just don't have a 360 anymore), kinguin has codes for sale for the game if you are ok with grey market sites.

I know they have two weeks this year between them instead of one but I actively dislike having two events so close to each other. Partially because its expensive to buy two so close to each other but it makes it harder to do a proper build but also harder for people to decide if they want to attend the show. There are a lot of different possibilities but will the champions from All In also wrestle at All Out? Last year they staggered it with only the Trios titles defended on both shows but with two weeks this year maybe they won't do that. All Out last year had a kinda meh PPV card but the Punk situation hurt it, it was mostly propped up by the great Takeshita/Omega match and damn good Danielson/Starks match (neither of which were title matches). I hope this year with the extra week they come up with a more interesting/meaningful card for it but I thought they'd start announcing or at least highly hinting at some matches by now.

Stop me if you've heard this before, but TK says that "the most important announcements in AEW history looming large now!". Not just a big announcement, or a great announcement, or a regular announcement, but the most important announcements. First of all, I don't think that's the proper (or at least best) usage of the phrase "looming large" as I assume he meant "fast approaching" or something similar but beyond that, it could be anything from a TV deal to announcing international dates to announcing the All Out card since he can be a bit full of hyperbole. Curious to see if he is just leaning into the meme or really does have something important coming to tell us, I've love for the TV Deal talk to end.

Not to get ahead of myself but I'm already excited for 2028 with the sports being added (or added back in). Baseball and Softball are back, plus Lacrosse and Cricket (I don't understand Cricket but knowing its popularity I'm glad to see it in there). Also, Flag Football! People will assume the US will dominate but Flag Football is a thing in Europe and it won't be NFL or College players I bet with it being so close to the season, so it should be fun to watch.

The US also needed that Gold to tie China in the overall count, for those that root for such things. And maybe now people will leave the high jumper alone that didn't do anything wrong.

What a way to end the Olympics, I feel for France coming so close to getting the big upset in their home country but... obviously I am glad the US won. A hell of a game though, both basketball finals delivered entertainment.

Steph Curry is just ridiculous, but France came to play so all the credit to them for hanging in there the entire game.

I know its hyperbole but it feels like every olympics since I was six years old the US Men's relay team has found a new creative way to shit the bed. But its a chaotic event, I know its not easy.

Maybe all Britt/MJF needed was a couple weeks to cool off and its a big ol nothingburger that the anti-AEW side of social media blew up into a big deal and its seeping into every corner of the Internet, to be forgotten when something else interesting happens. Saying Ospreay should be suspended with zero knowledge on what he did or said is silly even on the usual silly scale of things posted here. More interesting is news of Fenix and Pentagon leaving for WWE that a few sites are reporting. I like to think of myself as a rational wrestling fan, mostly because I just see wrestling as a fun soap opera to follow that I make fun of half the time, but honestly my reaction is "good for them." I love the Lucha Bros and I'll miss Fenix's random matches but they have been in AEW since the beginning and if WWE is offering them something AEW isn't (more money, dream matches, WrestleMania, etc.) and they are interested in going, I'm happy for them and I'll still root for them all the way. The reality of the situation is, for however long AEW exists, we've reached the stage where WWE and AEW are going to trade wrestlers. There will be a variety of reasons for that but its just going to happen, whether it be due to money or opportunities. Personally, I'm excited about seeing some new match-ups and anyone that watched wrestling in the 90s knows this is the way it goes, there will be roster changes both ways. Its a healthy environment for the wrestlers and I'm all for it.

The Men's 100 is such a crazy race since they all are of course stupid fast and its so short. I didn't think Lyles won in real time but I can't be expected to tell with my naked eye that he won by .004 seconds. Amazing.

As always, this thread isn't just for the DVDVR League, but any fantasy-related chatter! Yahoo opened the league automatically and I forgot, but for those in the DVDVR Pay League we are a full-go for another exciting year. I sent an email and posted in the Commish Notes how to pay but its the same as always. If you were auto-signed up and no longer wish to play, just let me know and I'll find a new player. Yahoo made a few changes that on paper I find interesting (7 team playoffs and playing two opponents per week, no idea how that works) but without a Yahoo Message Board its hard to chat with people about it to get opinions as only like ~5 people in the league check this forum. So I am not going to make any changes since they are too major, maybe next year when we have more time to digest it. Last year I fell out of the top two for the first time since 2019, so I will have my revenge!

Arn Anderson being like "I pulled some strings and have friends to get you some help" and its the two guys that Cody just teamed with a few weeks ago against the Bloodline was pretty funny. I don't know why the Arn bit was necessary but its always nice to see him anyway.

My main issue with the show was just match structure/booking. The wrestlers are talented and the "meat and potatoes" of the action was fine throughout the night (I think Logan/Knight was the best match). But almost every match had some screwy ending with interference leading to more questions than answers. Dom in Liv/Rhea, Logan's Friends in Knight/Paul (normal though for Paul matches), Tiffy in Nia/Bayley, Seth/Friendship Bracelet in Drew/Punk, Finn in Gunther/Damian, and Everyone in Rhodes/Sikoa. And the problem is most of those matches, I knew and the crowd knew as WWE has become predictable so everyone was just waiting for it to happen. I don't have an issue with some matches on any given card having shenanigan interference endings, that's wrestling. But when throughout the card the focus is more on who is on the outside (When is Dom turning on Rhea? When is Finn turning on Priest? When is Roman returning? What is Tiffany going to do?) and not the wrestlers in the match it just takes away from what the wrestlers are doing. WWE isn't usually this bad with it so hopefully its more just a series of situations all happening at the same time, but it took away some of the fun of the show as a whole.

AEW has enough real drama without "social media sleuths" (what a cursed phrase) inventing more. In this case with an extra dose of "who cares" since its their personal life that has nothing to do with the AEW product. But I'm not surprised drew was the one to bring this into the thread, very on brand.