Niners Fan in CT

I never used by wrestling figures to do anything other than wrestle. But I obviously used all of my other action figures as wrestlers. Snake Eyes was a belt holder. Mr. Sinister had the title for a while etc..

It's just a unique time in the business. Bad Bunny is more athletic probably than anyone would expect but he's a life long wrestling fan and Hunter has said many times that Bad Bunny takes the training at the performance center seriously. They are also hiding any weaknesses he may have. Same thing with Logan Paul. He's a super athlete. He also goes to the performance center and trains. He also wrestles primarily in matches that have a lot of shit going on. These guys are having good matches and it's great to see but they are also receiving the mid 2000s Edge booking. Does anyone remember when Edge used to almost never have a straight up singles match? It was all plunder.

EXCELLENT Show. Man, the Puerto Rican crowd was on FIRE all night long. The Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest match with all the guest appearances was some fantastic stuff and probably should have ended the show. CARLITO!! Iyo vs. Bianca was a fantastic match as well. Finally, Iyo was able to go out and have a star performance. She's so awesome. Felt really awesome for Zelina to have her moment with the crowd. Cody vs. Brock was ok I guess. The blood added a little something to it. I'm not mad at the finish I suppose, it reminded me of Cena escaping Umaga the first time. Edit: Had the wrong year there.

It's just insane. You can discuss the live TV ratings or the lack of attendance in one show in middle America somewhere and do your concern trolling about it but any attempt to spin the record-breaking ticket sales for ALL IN is going to be completely lost on me. What AEW has accomplished with this is mind boggling. If you can find a negative in it, then you certainly, clearly trolling and/or have an agenda.

At their earnings the other day, they discussed how HBO Max is now a profitable venture and how big that is for WBD moving forward. They seem to be moving in the right direction and the cost cutting they've done has paid off. I believe upfronts is in a week or so, we'll find out just how invested they are in AEW then but from everything I've read they are doubling down on it. They have Dynamite, they are keeping Rampage and they are adding the heavily rumored/confirmed CM Punk show on Saturday nights called "Collision." There's also rumors that they are going to be having AEW do business with Max. Some have speculated that they may stream "ALL IN" on the platform. I still think it will be a traditional PPV but the fact they have not announced how you can watch it yet leads me to believe some conversations are happening.

That's definitely the most mind boggling thing about it to me. Somehow AEW pulled a WWE. For years haven't the higher ups at WWE been saying "the brand is the star of our shows" and to some extent they are right, although there have been some performers to where it definitely feels like they are draws. But yeah, AEW pulled a WWE. The BRAND itself just sold 60,000 tickets to Wembley Stadium. How in the hell the brand is that strong, I am not sure and sure as hell could not have predicted it.

Hey everyone, I didn't know DEAN off the boards as many of you do but he was a great guy in all my interactions with him on here and I have loved my time posting with this community. I donated what I could at this time. I pray for his family and everyone who has lost a dear friend/family member.

Not to turn this into a boxing thread but don't people remember Mike Tyson before prison? He was a DRAW by himself. It didn't really matter most of the time who the opponent was, I was young at the time but I just remember people saying "Tyson fight this weekend!". It was an event. That's what Joshua and Fury were in the U.K. It doesn't really matter if the opponent is a "journeyman", they are the draw and people know what they are getting. They will see their guy defend the title. To circle back around to AEW... there hasn't been a match announced at all. People can speculate that Ospreay or ZSJ are going to have a big match there or CM Punk is going to be there or Omega is going to fight this guy or that guy or there will be guest appearances like Mercedes or whatever... it's all speculation. Nobody knows.

I read that WrestleMania IV and V the tickets were basically bought by the casinos to get people in Atlantic City and the gates were pretty big because the tickets were so marked up. WrestleMania V did a big buy rate as well off the back of the Mega Powers exploding.

Clash at the Castle was sold as a huge deal... first time they had run a proper "big show" in the UK since 1992 and I believe it topped out at around 55000, right? It wasn't a complete sell out of the stadium in Wales. It was a big number though. So, I don't think it's just that they were starved for a big wrestling show. Maybe European fans just identify more with the style of wrestling they expect to witness from AEW?

Someone take me through how this happened. I'm 5-years old. So WCW did 41,000 for Goldberg vs. Hogan and they were red hot. They were selling out arenas, the TV ratings were bonkers, the merchandise was flying off the shelves. Everyone had an nWo t-shirt. Obviously AEW in the U.S. isn't as hot as WCW once was. I know ratings don't mean everything, a lot has changed but everyone knew people who were watching WCW during that period. They were household names. Did WCW top out at 41,000 just because of the market? Atlanta? Was it because of short notice? It feels like all metrics would suggest that WCW should have been able to have sold out stadium shows. WWF had done it. Some Japanese promotions had done it.

I want to see the Panthers vs. Kraken. Rats and squids.

I'll bite. While I agree that the whole Pillars thing has been a fail and nobody cares about it, AEW is currently facing the stiffest competition they have in a long time. The NHL Playoffs are doing good numbers and the NBA Playoffs are doing the best numbers they've seen in YEARS. So, I think there's other factors at play. If your reply is "but WWE did.." listen SD! is doing great numbers but it's also on network TV. People who are cord cutters aren't going to be watching sports on cable because they don't have cable. Also, you say the sky is falling but is it really? Forbidden Door sold out in a day. Wembley Stadium has sold 50,000 tickets in three days. They are about to do a MASSIVE gate at that show. The brand isn't suffering too badly. They just need to tighten up some of these stories they are telling.

50,000 sold. Jeeeesus. I thought 35K-40K would have been spectacular for them. Now it's looking like they may do north of 60K or more. Insane numbers. I hope Tony still puts a really good card together. I don't think 60k+ want to watch Sammy Guevara.

I was thinking Ospreay and ZSJ would have spots on the show and they might but there's some big matches they can put on there. CM Punk vs. Omega would be a big fight feel. CM Punk vs. Bryan hasn't happened in years, that would feel like a big deal too.

I thought the Enzo/Cass shit was hilarious. I guess I wouldn't say it was "good" but we had pretty good seats so I filmed the whole thing and we were laughing like crazy back at the hotel room. Taven winning fucking sucked though, spot on.

Huh? I was at the NJPW/ROH MSG show. It was a great time.

https://twitter.com/WorldFightFans/status/1445893688614346752

Jesus... 35K is a tremendous number for that presale. Everyone called him crazy but Tony did it.

Forget the AEW vs. WWE discussion for a minute. If you haven't watched Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom, go do that. Then get ready for NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 30. Then get ready for NJPW Resurgence in a few weeks.

So Bianca's year+ reign is going to end because she was drafted? That would suck..

I think Cody with the new belt makes him and the new belt look really bad. Will most people care? No of course not. He'll continue to sell a shit load of merch and life goes on. But is it poor writing? Yeah, absolutely. He needs to beat Roman. Furthermore, when he cut the promo about his Dad never winning the WWE title, he was talking about the WWE title. He wasn't talking about a new title. His father was several times over the NWA champion. This is about the title his Dad never won.

The actual "Draft' was a joke. Minimal effort. Felt very much like a McMahon produced feature. No rhyme or reason for most of what was happening. Hunter says "they are deliberating in the back." Who is? Adam Pearce? Teddy Long? Who are making these decisions. Well, we never find out who or why. Also, Cody being drafted to RAW. So then tell me, How is he going to "finish the story" on a show where Roman Reigns is not? I was all for giving them a chance to see where the Cody thing goes but it's just looking like a huge blown opportunity. Business is great right now so I guess it doesn't matter to most but I like the shows to make some sense and have proper payoffs and it's starting to feel like the old WWE is back.

Did Bret Hart ever have a singles match vs. Marty Jannetty?

I don't know if Mercedes is winning that tournament (I guess I would assume she is) but my initial thought is the belt is being made specifically for her so she can carry around a NJPW title to different promotions and Hollywood red carpets without having to wrestle a heavy schedule in Japan. That's my guess. If she had signed a lengthy deal then maybe they just keep the IWGP title on her. I could see Mercedes getting her wish to go wrestle down in Mexico some and then possibly appear on Forbidden Door and/or All In.