A_K

830k. Geez. Like a really bad fan-fiction. This guy putting Jack Perry & Guevara in as anything other than enhancement talents on a national television network .. Jesus.

It depends. The "platform" still definitely has the power to legitimise the "content". Roman, for example, coming across fairly-well in a tailored suit on Jimmy Fallon, looking suave and every-bit as though he could have wandered in off a Hollywood set. Perhaps not the typical "pro wrestler" perception. Equally, avenues like Barstool likely to have the segment of male audience who "grew out" of PW as it has been over the past 10-15 years, but may have their eyes swayed by the right sort of character presentation. It is a promotional-tour in the same way actors doing interview-circuits ahead of movie releases are. We know, for example, that there were 1.4 million people intrigued enough to watch AEW Dynamite #️1, with 2.3 million people watching PW on that night combined w/ NXT. So there is some dormant interest that is not being leveraged (only 1-in-3 of those eyes stick around to watch Wednesday night PW 3 years later), and the media circuit is a platform to amplify that if you have the correct presentation / narrative buy-in. AEW's problem hasn't been converting new-eyes, it has been that they have shedded those who have watched it by the hundreds of thousands and Wednesday-night-wrestling has lost 1.5 million viewers peak-to-trough.

Yes. He likes doing the media circuit (Barstool / Ariel Helwani interviews standout). I think he stands alone in AEW for this - aside from Cody who also courted the media and we saw how that turned out in terms of setting himself up to move over. Page as champion, for example, I feel had zero big media appearances or interview segments? MJF has never fetishised the product / declared an affinity with pseudo-combat sport Japanese style: he is very at home doing the WWE-style song and dance segments, and his ringwork could also fit with that. He can hardly be seen to have only the acerbic villainy to his bow when he is singing and dancing around in big-band segments. The biggest issue I think for MJF is that physically he just does not stack up in the WWE Main Event scene at the moment -- not a believable opponent against Brock, Roman etc and he'd have noticeably less physicality than the next gen guys like Theory + Bronn . He has an AJ Style build but without any of the athletic explosiveness .. gives up a few inches on the Miz even. That is going to be the biggest issue for him and one which he can do nothing to fix to be a top-of-the-card player there, in an org with so much emphasis on physicality. His ideal landing, I guess, would be as Y2J Jericho style character. Know your lane. You fetishise and enjoy a style of entertainment that has made narrative-decisions that predictably shedded 30% of its viewers in a year, hitting its demo number with a sledgehammer while the competition goes from strength to strength -- I get it. But please, do not wander into my comment-lane with your vapid fan-boy takes.

Will be absolutely amazed if MJF doesn’t wind up in WWE — unless they don’t want him. He is tailor made to that organisation, and given how ambitious he clearly is the Endeavor links are really what will give him the ramp to higher profile / breakout stardom. He will never get that opportunity under AEW roof (whether he can seize that opportunity at WWE is a different question - but it certainly presents greater shot at mainstream show business popularity).

Highest rated segment of the show aside from the lead-in. The Guevara / Jungle Boy pieces were clown-like, with Guevara's mic work especially almost painful to watch, so not surprising to see c. 7% of viewers tune out -- could easily be more. Seconded only by how bad the BCC segment was - which would also drop viewers into the final stretch. That said, while the figures are fairly pitiful given it was a Wrestlemania week where one would expect wrestling interest to be heightened, they kept the numbers more or less steady throughout, which is at least an improvement on dropping 150 - 200 k viewers from segment to segment as had been the case recently. Its a pity they still have zero plan for engaging narratives across the entire breadth of the show, but c'est la vie.

Can't be too critical of a talent who manages to get the crowd chanting "ADD, ADD" on a high school story. That said, beginning & end of this segment was definitely a flop. He did better work on his previous Long Island visits: crowd was in a weird vacuum for the rest of the show until they sort-of popped for FTR.

Not a chance WWE would be letting Dax Harwood into the company looking like that. Absolutely pitiful condition to return in. After watching even the low-card teams of Ricochet, Gable, Braun, Street Profits et al tear the house down on Night 1, there would be no place on WWE television for him regardless. Why anyone thought Jay White would have been sent or offered anywhere other than NXT is a little baffling too .. WWE main card roster is far too stacked right now, there's no place for him. MJF needs that editorial hand. The music-piece completely lost the crowd although he brought them back in with his storytelling work afterwards ("ADD, ADD, ADD"). Conversely Guevara's mic work was an absolute abomination -- there were crickets in that arena bigger than Kommander when he was speaking. Neither he nor JB are anywhere remotely near ready to be tackling a top of the card program. Will be curious to see how many changed the channel during his 'promo'. Wembley Arena could make partway some sense but Wembley Stadium .. one presumes they have ran analytics on forecast ticket sales but given there's a hard recession + credit crunch around the corner? Well, certainly a decision.

Sounds like a gimmick the would be envious of

You're arguing with a bunch of "intellectuals" who think Kenny Omega spending 20 seconds to actively roll from one side of the ring onto a table outside and flail around there while a 5 ft 3 midget in a 10$ body suit does acrobatics is the apex of wrestling storytelling & are utterly baffled as to how that carny narrative-style yielded half its demo number in a year. Let it go. p.s. - no LA Knight

Going to be v interesting to look back on this one in 6/12 months. Endeavour buying (perhaps literally) top of the market with a mound of debt & no other clear bidders at the table? V intriguing no mega cap technology / media company involved. Will be interesting to see what the story was re: Saudi interest

Does not need to "feel more important" for the individual Cody going over. Needs to be good for the overall narrative arc of the television show. This is the aspect people missed with AEW while they sent it into oblivion on adderall fuelled ADHD short-term booking. If Cody had gone over tonight, short of Roman going on leave-of-absence they had nowhere to go. Roman would have needed a rematch, and if Cody went over consecutively it buries a star they just invested years into at the top of the card. Not to mention neutering the other angles at play. This was the sensible move. They have just delivered quality-build after quality-build up and down the card. Usos will be brought into play when he is going to drop it for real. Time, as ever, will tell

Bingo. Somewhat amusing that the "long term booking!" crowd fail to see the wood for the trees on this. Was clearly the smartest way to go. Great avenues of character build for 7 top-of-the-card stars. The arc has been built brilliantly and methodically. All 7 are benefitting enormously.

Nah. That's not where its going The booking is great. That's why these guys are running multi-mil viewers in a hostile media environment while the other lot shed hundreds of thousands by the month. Roman is money. He'll drop the belts this year, but he wasn't doing it at WM. He put the company on his back and ran with it: did you really think they were going to let the AEW guy saunter in and take the mantle from him at WM? Please.

Called it. When you know, you know Did you really think they were going to let their franchise player drop the first pin to the AEW guy on the grandest stage of them all? Cody will take it - but not today.

Given the high jinks going on with oil states slashing production & just how easily inflation could boon again / interest rates on debt could go significantly higher, pretty miraculous that Endeavor will also be paying at least a 250-300% premium on the value of the company 2 years ago w/o factoring in the higher cost of debt. McMahon was probably licking his lips. Vince was a very savvy operator who knew the business inside & out, but Endeavor somehow have the inside track on how to crank more value w/ somewhat limited crossover potential compared to other possible synergies w/ other corps? Will believe this deal goes through once the ink is on the dotted line.

On what basis would an unscripted world of elite, weight-class based combat sports be unable to derive value commensurate to a multi-billion $ acquisition of a world in which deadmen can be controlled by urns, 5 ft 6 guys are known to become heavyweight champions fighting 7 fters to no contests, God is known to have been involved as a combatant & 35 yr olds run around in storylines pretending to be their identical brother … hmm, let me give that some thought. Or, better yet, perhaps you can tell me exactly what elements of WWE IP the UFC could leverage that wouldn’t deservedly be laughed out of the building? And yeah if you want to equate the ‘theatrics’ of boxing & UFC to the carnival scripted fantasy land of WWE then I’ve got some magic beans to sell you. Endeavor clearly have a plan to squeeze blood from the WWE story given how leveraged the debt is (whether it proves value or not time will tell), but in no universe is WWE closer to the combat/martial arts world than it is Marvel and Disneyland. It is a scripted soap opera with stunts thrown in.

Conversely, where does a Rhodes storyline go off the bat? Unless Roman goes on break, then there would need to be a rematch given longevity of the title reign. Does Rhodes really go over consecutively? On what basis would they just cut Reigns out from the title picture immediately while he remains an active talent? Seems consensus is that Rhodes goes over tonight, but I don’t think they’ll dispense with Roman’s nigh on historic reign at the first attempt so cleanly. We shall see.

Huh. Something of a weird bedfellow. Combat sports and essentially a theatrical/stunt company. The two are as alike as boxing & the MCU. WWE May be able to leverage UFC IP but UFC can do nothing meaningful with WWE. V interesting that Disney / none of the consumer big tech giants were in for it.

Yeah I think the bolded part is the problem for him. So many talented players coming out of or into new significant programs (fingers crossed for LA Knight) that he’ll have his work cut out for him to carve a niche outside of the Rey work. That said, suspect this Rey program continues through at least one more PPV before he eventually goes over. And speaking of going over, suspect that Roman wins tonight unless he is taking a break. Given Uso’s already dropped their straps there is some mileage in continuing the Bloodline story w/ Roman as only belt holder and as another poster mentioned Cody having to overcome some adversity. Could be a Wrestlemania 2000 redux where the belt gets dropped shortly afterwards at Backlash / Summerslam. With the ratings so strong, suspect they’ll want to squeeze every last bit of blood from this stone. Cody’s been part of this story for a comparatively small amount of time.

Dominic is a product of this very-well crafted story. He will fade (back) into obscurity over the medium-to-long term once this angle is done. Nothing very distinguishable in-ring/out-of-ring aside from the association with Rey (who even at his advanced age still looks far crisper in the ring). Does not diminish how excellent this chapter has been. History of the product is littered with talent who have one or two strong angles in their locker then little else. Will not be unusual. Still young, but physique alone lends itself neither to cruiserweight nor heavyweight profile. Suspect in the long run he'll find himself a little too far from his peers in either category. Contrarily, MJF is in a dumpster-fire of a setup where (not dissimilarly to Cody during his last 12-18 months) he likely has next to no editorial hand, with an absolutely hapless booker presiding over proceedings. Will be interesting to see how he performs once he eventually moves company; that said, there's certainly no basis for him cracking anything above mid-card in WWE at present.

Incredible is the word. Even the celebrity matches — which in bygone years would have been clunky, fusty, corny pieces — now have the likes of Logan Paul doing standing jumps from apron-to-top-turnbuckle and standing moonsaults, while the low card tag team fluff pieces have Gable germaning Braun then getting legitimate audience pops to catchphrases mid match, a comparatively very weak member of the roster like Dom Mysterio gets over by virtue of great character work and the top of the card bouts steal the show in every way. Their decision making in who you let go, who to recruit and who to build the company around has been completely vindicated. Wish LA Knight had something big to play with but c’est La vie.

The roster / promotion as a whole is absolutely ludicrously stacked with quality from top to bottom. Combined across nights this will be, what, c. 8 hours of event and top to bottom practically every single bout and vignette is fresh. Hyperbole is lame but for the first time in practically two-decades they have the depth of talent and storytelling that stands up there with any other period in the company's entire history. Athleticism, drama, comedy, youth. Remarkably strong build.

Happy to disagree re: taste - but they dropped viewers in the lead-in and following quarter of his appearance this week. There's no data showing Jungle Boy is a draw. Optics are bad. Casual viewers are tuning in to see guys who are giving up almost half-a-foot to their equivalents in the other promotion, without even trying to compare 'Jungle Boy's mic work w/ Roman/Rhodes/Zayn/Owens/Usos etc. They seriously fluffed Kingston + Wardlow who should be legitimate main eventers with ready-made storylines to run at the top of the card, and are now compounding it with the subsequent poor decisions. EDIT: Re: 'hot boys sell tickets' -- if the base ratings numbers have been bad for AEW, the demo has been absolutely diabolical. I think they may have literally slashed it in half year over year at this point? The youth are not tuning into this stuff. This is a kid running around the top of the card in Tarzan trunks w/ a crazy hairstyle. Kind of laughable, and not in a good way.

If Cole is bad, then 'Jungle Boy' doesn't even merit mention. Equivalent to WWF seeing Scotty 2 Hotty as the answer to their main-event ratings woes in the late 90s. Khan's propensity to double-down on bad decisions is just .. bizarre. Jurassic Express was fine in-of-itself as a comedy tag team: the Christian angle sunk like a led balloon, and none of those 3 have any place as singles talent on national television, never mind this far up the card. Compared to what's going on over at WWE it looks like they have a bunch of children running around the ring /talking on the mic - and not in a 90s WWF Triple H/Rock/Edge/Orton etc. manner.

Adam Cole would have made a decent WWF Lightweight Champion feuding with X Pac or Malenko on Heat or as a SD/Raw show opener in the late 90s / early 00s. He will never be anything more than that. Not to be scoffed at, as that position has its merits, but he will not be the driving force behind any company-wide momentum.