AEW - MAY 2023

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Two hours of Michael Jordan vs The Gambler in the ring shooting dice. 

[odessasteps]

Presumably, you also wouldn’t want to get on bad side of Spectacor or Ticketmaster Live or Livenation or any of the people in that industry, who could make your life difficult in the future. 

[Ace]

1 hour ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Two hours of Michael Jordan vs The Gambler in the ring shooting dice. 

What's Charles Oakley doing?

 

[TheVileOne]

3 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

If they run United Center without Punk announced and they aren't confident they have him, and people buy tickets expecting the surprise again... that could be trouble. If he's not gonna show, they either need to say so outright or switch venues. Daily's Place is such a severe downgrade, it's definitely the funniest possible replacement to debut your new alleged A-tier show.  

So messy. Everyone else can be tired, but it's very funny.

This is worse than the time they let their top draw sign with the E. 

[AxB]

Ben Carter?

[John from Cincinnati]

When was Cody ever AEW's top draw? 

[Casey]

36 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

When was Cody ever AEW's top draw? 

December 2018 when it was just Cody, the Bucks and Hangman?

[username]

So forgive me I feel like I've been a bit slow on the uptake the past couple days but based on the current reporting on this whole Punk/Steel deal something just struck me during the day, sorry if it has been mentioned/talked to death already.

The current reporting/belief is that Ace Steel was hired back several months ago (basically a couple months after he was fired) in an at the time stay-home role that maybe was intended to become a back on the road one (at least until I assume legal got looped in).

Apparently very few people were aware of this fact until this past week or so.

Tony Khan has been reported to have been having extension talks with Kenny Omega and The Bucks for the past however many months (believe since near the start of the year).

 

...If those are all true then that makes it seem like there is a pretty good likelihood that Tony Khan was trying to get The Elite signed to new contracts before they found out Ace Steel was back. If that actually is what happened... that would be such a severe breach of trust that I don't know that a relationship could be salvage? I always assumed it was more likely than not they were staying in AEW and while probably bothered they were mainly playing for money/whatever perks they wanted, I don't know if I believe that anymore.

[Jenalysis]

5 hours ago, Sparkleface said:

Must not make bottom surgery joke must not make bottom surgery joke must not make bottom surgery joAHHHHHHH

JOKE'S ON YOU BUDDY I TRADED MINE IN YEARS AGO HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA

 

Today is three months since I traded mine in.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Jenalysis

[Peck]

On 5/17/2023 at 6:34 PM, For Great Justice said:

Yeah I was gonna say that I pray I never have to find out what my own personal hell looks like, but a CM Punk / Bryan Alvarez / Bix Twitter war is surely the closest thing to it. 

This is all just an elaborate rib on DEAN with his hatred of 3-ways. 

[jaedmc]

I haven't been keeping up with the news since like Monday... a lot has happened this week.

All I really wanted to know was if AEW ppvs would be on HBO Max. Instead I have to read 12 pages of Punk vs. Alvarez vs. Bixenspan. Sometimes this company is hard to get into.

[Kevin Wilson]

11 hours ago, username said:

So forgive me I feel like I've been a bit slow on the uptake the past couple days but based on the current reporting on this whole Punk/Steel deal something just struck me during the day, sorry if it has been mentioned/talked to death already.

The current reporting/belief is that Ace Steel was hired back several months ago (basically a couple months after he was fired) in an at the time stay-home role that maybe was intended to become a back on the road one (at least until I assume legal got looped in).

Apparently very few people were aware of this fact until this past week or so.

Tony Khan has been reported to have been having extension talks with Kenny Omega and The Bucks for the past however many months (believe since near the start of the year).

 

...If those are all true then that makes it seem like there is a pretty good likelihood that Tony Khan was trying to get The Elite signed to new contracts before they found out Ace Steel was back. If that actually is what happened... that would be such a severe breach of trust that I don't know that a relationship could be salvage? I always assumed it was more likely than not they were staying in AEW and while probably bothered they were mainly playing for money/whatever perks they wanted, I don't know if I believe that anymore.

While we will probably never know the exact details, I'd be surprised if the EVPs didn't know that Ace Steel was back working from home. Maybe they are the ones that didn't want him backstage again, who knows, but there isn't any indication that The Elite weren't "one of the few" that knew, in fact it would be really surprising to me if they weren't and him working from home was the deal.

[TheVileOne]

43 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

I haven't been keeping up with the news since like Monday... a lot has happened this week.

All I really wanted to know was if AEW ppvs would be on HBO Max. Instead I have to read 12 pages of Punk vs. Alvarez vs. Bixenspan. Sometimes this company is hard to get into.

Only All Access is going to Max, no PPVs. 

[Ryback Hates Bullies]

On 5/19/2023 at 2:32 AM, Casey said:

TK works with Megha on legal in two different sports areas and is also an EVP, I highly doubt they went ahead and hired Ace back before going through the proper channels. I think it’s more likely that they hired him back, talent got wind of it, and TK changed his mind on the parameters of his employment to mitigate said blowback - but Punk wasn’t having it.

Yeah ultimately the job of legal is to facilitate the leadership - whilst there is potentially a 'truth to power'/'protect the business' aspect to this; the reality is that they provide the risk analysis, and ultimately leadership decides. One of their jobs is to make the best legal case that can be made for the action that leadership decides, or wants, to pursue. If no case whatsoever can be made, then yeah it may put members of the legal team in a compromising position with regards good standing as lawyers - but such a black-and-white situation rarely occurs, unless your boss is Elon Musk or something. They're unlikely to point-blank refuse to greenlight the rehiring of Steele.

It all sounds like an almighty mess. I'm probably not going to watch Punk matches, but I'd quite like to go back to enjoying most of AEW. It's a bit challenging right now, though the elimination of YouTube programming is, for me personally, as responsible for that as anything else right now.

Edited May 20, 2023 by SprintingFromAmerica

[Zakk_Sabbath]

3 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Only All Access is going to Max, no PPVs. 

 

3 hours ago, jaedmc said:

I really wanted to know was if AEW ppvs would be on HBO Max

2 hours ago, SprintingFromAmerica said:

It's a bit challenging right now, though the elimination of YouTube programming is, for me personally, as responsible for that as anything else right now.

You guys have no f'n idea how quickly I was ready to give WBD/Max my money to have Elevation, Dark, ROH, PPVs and the TV archive in one tidy place. As things stand now, Dark/Elevation are gone, ROH is an extra tenner per month at a time where that's kind of a tall ask for myself and many others, and as far as PPVs go, let's put it this way: I realized business was down a little once I was actually able to stream them on B/R without issue

[Casey]

I haven’t paid full price for an AEW PPV since like… Full Gear 2021? VPN + Fite is a godsend.

but yeah I was ready to resubscribe to Max if they announced all AEW content was moving there. But since Xfinity seemingly no longer gives “free” access to it… that’s a no from me, dawg.

[Norwegian Rudo]

9 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Only All Access is going to Max, no PPVs. 

We don't know that. All Access is all that has been announced, but we have no idea what the (assumed) new deal means.

Honestly, if the PPV earnings in a recent Observer are close to true (slightly more than $10 million a year) I don't see any reason from either side that they wouldn't go the Max route.

[John from Cincinnati]

10 hours ago, jaedmc said:

All I really wanted to know was if AEW ppvs would be on HBO Max.

No news on that front, but there may be some wisdom to not saying anything until after Double or Nothing (or Forbidden Door if that’s being offered on traditional PPV). 

[hobo joe]

Tony gonna fuck around and lose Punk, Kenny, and the Bucks

[Casey]

A “source inside AEW” told Graspody that what Meltzer said about Daily’s Place being the backup location for Collision’s first episode is false.

Hmmm, didn’t someone in AEW management used to work there?

[StevieNippz]

Count me in as someone who is continuing to miss Dark/Elevation. B/R is garbage but now that my internet is better I can at least stream the PPVs. I don't have cable though and would love an easy, non VPN way to catch up on Dynamite and the other Turner shows. Those YouTube shows kept me up to date on the storylines and had awesome commentary, I'm missing Taz/Ex

[TheVileOne]

 

1 hour ago, Norwegian Rudo said:

We don't know that. All Access is all that has been announced, but we have no idea what the (assumed) new deal means.

Honestly, if the PPV earnings in a recent Observer are close to true (slightly more than $10 million a year) I don't see any reason from either side that they wouldn't go the Max route.

Nothing has been announced as such. PWInsider also shot down all the me TV deal reports.

[JLowe]

The amount of hot takes based off nonsense rumors is wild. I guess it’s because I follow enough college and pro football that I’ve learned a little to know who knows shit and who doesn’t and who is getting fed bad info either to float trial balloons or out sources. Even credible sources can get worked.

[TheVileOne]

3 minutes ago, JLowe said:

The amount of hot takes based off nonsense rumors is wild. I guess it’s because I follow enough college and pro football that I’ve learned a little to know who knows shit and who doesn’t and who is getting fed bad info either to float trial balloons or out sources. Even credible sources can get worked.

So who knows their shit and who does not?

[The Green Meanie]

5 hours ago, hobo joe said:

Tony gonna fuck around and lose Punk, Kenny, and the Bucks

I'm willing to sacrifice the former to lose the latter.