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JohnnyJ

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Everything posted by JohnnyJ

  1. For me part of the mystique of wrestling is even accepting it's a work I do not understand how the performers put themselves through what they do. I'm in my early 40s and have a largely sedentary lifestyle. Over time I've accumulated a handful of chronic injuries which will affect me for the rest of my life. I can not imagine what it must be like for someones body to take such a pounding on a nightly basis. More details will come out but some bodies are not made for this kind of trauma. As far as Bray, I look at him as a really toolsy performer who was his own worst enemy. Undeniably compelling and magnetic persona who could not be controlled and given too much creative freedom.
  2. Right. It's the distinction between having issues in the workplace and having issues with the state of wrestling media. Yes, wrestling media is a ridiculous echo chamber starved for content. If you are suffering from it, it's not going anywhere. Just log off. Reading between the lines, whatever the contract is between Punk and AEW, each side kind of understands they are stuck with each other. It feels like a couple in a bad marriage with both knowing it would cost too much money to divorce.
  3. I like Bix but a life of constantly being reminded of the time I forgot to take out the trash in 2007 would put me over the edge real quick.
  4. This reminds me of that old Treehouse of Horrors episode where Homer and Bart get on a plane to evacuate the Earth and think they're going to be saved only to learn they are on the same plane as the Tom Arnolds and Pauly Shores of the world and headed right for the sun. Overall, I am thrilled. WBD is showing a big commitment to AEW which means years of great matches and an alternative to WWE.
  5. AEW is very watchable even if not compelling and I do appreciate that they are trying to elevate young talent. A lot of eventual main event talents had starts and stops to their eventual rise. Talk to me in three years, not today about the value of giving a jungle boy or guevara a chance in a main event feud. WWEs issue for years has been an overreliance on established main eventers and nostalgia. This is an indictment of NXT. Despite all of the hoopla around the facility, they cannot make anyone. The one person who they are trying to make just looked like Fandango at mania. At least AEW seems to be aware of the fact that there's going to come a day when the current crop of main eventers are gone. And lets not forget that WWE has been basically unwatchable since 2014 which is why the niche for AEW exists in the first place. Almost ten years of pushes to nowhere, very little getting over, and trying to fill the hole John Cena left behind. Does WWE know how to put together a giant event better than just about anyone else in sports or entertainment? Yes, you need to give them that. But then there's the rest of the year.
  6. The problem with all of the ratings arguments, etc. is cable is a dying platform. The fact that pro wrestling can still bring in some kind of audience is what makes these properties so valuable. Traditional tv is not how a lot of people are receiving their content. Higher ratings are always better, but there's a reason why major tv companies from Warner Brothers to NBC/Universal to Fox all want in on what is supposed to be an industry in the middle of a decline. Take a look at AEW ppv numbers. Even when cold they are consistently bringing in around 150k buys on a show with 800-900k viewers. The conversion numbers only make sense in the context that there is a larger audience than what the ratings reflect. The same argument can be made about WWE. The Raw before Mania had 1.8 million viewers. WWE then brought 160,000 fans in over two nights of Mania. I'm sure these were a lot of the same fans but we're still looking at between 5-10% of the viewership showing up.
  7. First, I think he’s already resigned. Second, AEW owes a decent amount of its existence to how much WWE underpays its talent in relation to their value to a billion dollar company . And on top Tony has deep pockets. Third, MJF has a really good thing going. No house shows. Making 40-50 appearances a year. Wrestling a handful of times. I understand that there is cache attached to being with the WWE but there’s a lot to be said for not being on the road 200 days a year.
  8. The filmmaker was a complete nobody. His film work was a step above school board meetings so it's not so surprising why he was enamored with Teddy. His issue was nobody cares about wrestling stuff outside of the wrestling bubble. When I was in college I used to go up to Toronto to see bands. One time I was trying to grab a bite before a show and stopped into some Canadian fast food pizza chain. They had a series of Bret Hart themed extra value meals and his picture was all over. It confirmed everything I ever thought about how big Bret was in Canada.
  9. Here's my anecdotal story about the death of WCW/ppv numbers. The audience at the time was much younger than it is today and ppvs were really expensive. My friend group was divided into three categories, (1.) the few diehards, (2.) the ones who got into it due to the wrestling boom, and (3.) the people who just enjoyed having a get together on a Sunday night. We would pool our money together to buy ppvs. The diehards wanted to watch everything. WCW put on a bunch of ppv stinkers and gave away just about everything on free tv (remember that Goldberg as hot as he was was really a tv attraction, not a ppv attraction) The tide had shifted and the boomers moved from WCW to WWF when Austin/Rock got molten hot. Over a relatively short period of time only the diehards wanted to shell out money to watch WCW ppvs. I was stuck watching screenshots of WCW ppvs in real time on web sites like lordsofpain.net. This was not going to be reflected in the ratings because the fun of the monday night wars was switching back and forth. More eyeballs on wrestling meant higher ratings all around. By 99 I was in college and the boom was over. There were still WWE people floating around but there wasn't a single casual wrestling fan I knew who would be caught dead watching WCW. It was me alone in a dorm room watching nitros and listening to wcw live.
  10. Do we have a reliable narrator on the Sting conditioning issue? Has it ever been confirmed by anyone other than the Bischoffs/Hogans of the world?
  11. A side point is Vinces Mom just passed last year at 101. We've seen him recently looking kind of rough and assuming he's on the verge of hanging it up. I'm sure in his mind he isn't going anywhere for 25 years and wants to die at his desk.
  12. There is something poetic about a cutthroat businessman eventually alienating his wife, children and those closest to him. For all of the success Vince had, he's going to be a lonely old man sitting on a pile of money.
  13. It's pretty wild that the Bucks were regarded as major merchandise movers when AEW started and are now non-factors.
  14. Arent almost all of them tanking in some way? It seems like all of these content producers saw what Netflix was doing and made the assumption that if they threw some money at a streaming service, they could replicate it. Even Disney Plus which is in just about every household I know isn't profitable. It does not look like the model actually works. It seems like with rights fees it's all about timing the market. WWE got very lucky with their last round and landed peak tv rights and streaming rights fees. The landscape has already changed a lot so it should be interesting to see what happens. What should be interesting is what happens with AEW. They've spent the last few years building up the roster/product for a tv/streaming deal which may not actually exist.
  15. The randomness of AEW was working until it wasn't. It's as simple as that. For a time it did feel like amidst the chaos there was a big picture plan. Due to so many personnel issues/injuries the randomness has sort of lost its appeal. It just feels like a promotion without a direction.
  16. AEW is running the old WWF model with no house shows so it's not all that difficult to piece together how they are doing. Rights fees are relatively low and probably don't cover their overhead. Live tv costs a fortune. My understanding is Raw/Smackdown have traditionally been a money loser/break even. AEW probably makes solid revenue from the ppvs but who knows how far that money goes. I doubt if they are losing money it is because of personnel decisions. A couple million dollars here and there doesn't matter. They need a better revenue stream to be a long-term viable company. It can be a new tv deal, a streaming deal, a video game deal, etc.
  17. I know there were reasons, but I still can't wrap my head around a.) why Vince wanted to get rid of Bret and b.) why the title was on Bret at survivor series if he was exiting the company. Bret in WCW reminds me of some of the AEW signings. If someone is available, you would almost be a fool not to sign him. That being said, there was never any plan or vision for him in the company. There were already so many top guys with massive egos who had the boss's ear. As a teenager, Wrestling with Shadows was truly mind blowing. I had never seen anything like it.
  18. Sometimes sh*t gets really out of hand. That's life. You can choose to own it or choose to play victim and lawyer everything up. Punk is the guy who never had to grow up. A real life Peter Pan. Everyone keeps on making excuses and exceptions for him because he has certain intangibles that you can't teach. The funny thing is all of this will somehow make Adam Page, a guy who I feel like comes off as too nice.
  19. Rumor is in the home Renee hides any sharp objects like she has a toddler. Mox still got some color using a rubber spoon.
  20. It's important to keep in mind that the way we view wrestlers through a body of work didn't exist when they were actually wrestling. Outside of very small circles, there was no wrestling criticism. It would be inconceivable to 1987 Ric Flair that his matches would be collected and debated. From that perspective, why shouldn't Flair go to the same well over and over again if that's what works from a drawing/engagement perspective? What else matters to 1987 Ric Flair? Which brings us to Bret. Bret was at least a generation ahead of his time. He was the outlier. When you start comparing other wrestlers to Bret just about everyone looks bad.
  21. I sat through the Helwani interview. The questioning for the subjects TK wouldn't touch were usually prefaced with an acknowlegment by Helwani that TK wasn't going to talk about it. I don't think the questioning was out of bounds, but realistically, I don't know what Helwani thought was going to happen. In reading Helwani's comments on the interview he seems to suggest that TK had something to gain from the interview (not sure what that is) and Helwani was owed some non-public info (no one is owed anything). TK is a tough interview subject he's going to steer the interview towards the subjects he likes. (old wrestling/success of AEW) The head of the second largest wrestling company in the world gave you a lot of time. He even extended the interview on his own. Probably not the best bridge to burn
  22. Konnan had a particularly tough fall from grace. Imagine telling 1999 Konnan that two years later he'd be working independents and never reach the mainstream (does Impact count?) US market again. Maybe it was the sing-songy stuff doesn't hold up. (Road Dogg had a similar fall)
  23. My pet theory is in the last year AEW ran into reality. The business side had a honeymoon period/initial growth phase. I'm sure internally there was the expectation that paying big money and bringing in top names was going to bring them to the next level and lead to higher ratings, revenues, etc. Even before Punk spontaneously combusted, hiring Punk/Bryan barely moved the needle. They are basically where they were before, and this may just be what rating are going to be. While there is nothing to be ashamed about being a viable no. 2. promotion and cable ratings leader, I'm guessing the company is not meeting its projections. From a personnel side, in the last year, outside of arguably MJF, no talent has made the jump from the mid-card to the main event scene. You have the homegrown talents who have now been positioned as the future for several years with no path to the next level. Then you have the former WWE talents who were either disgruntled or underutilized in WWE and have joined AEW only to find themselves in the same position. A bunch of talents coming to the conclusion that they arent going anywhere fast. Along with the booking issues, you have a promotion in a holding pattern.
  24. I try my best to keep wrestling away from my kids. They're just too young. The only exposure they've had is going to a nxt spot show a few years back on the coconut loop because some things are more important than being a responsible parent. Last year we were flipping through the channels and AEW came on. My son wants to watch. I tell him we can't watch because it's fighting. Very matter of factly he starts explaining to me that wrestling is not actually fighting and "sometimes as a man you just need to wrestle in your underwear."
  25. I guess I'm the only one who likes Sammy. He's a little lost at the present, but I like his offense. It's fast and a little sloppy. There's a degree of danger. He's toolsy and still waiting to put all of the pieces together. Andrade to me is a legend in his own mind. It's good to be confident but he seems higher on himself than anyone else is. The result is he is going to be disgruntled wherever he goes because no one seems to recognize how great he is. Generally, I'm just bummed over all of the AEW backstage stuff. Stop ruining my good time.
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