NoFistsJustFlips

This... is the most rational response in here. Yes, I'm jumping the gun a bit here. I could be full of shit by bell time. To be clear I wasn't comparing AEW vs WWE ticket prices. WWE's gouging is out of control and AEW is nowhere near reaching that category from my perspective. What I meant by jacking up ticket prices, is that tickets for All In 2023 were cheaper than All In 2024. All In 2024 was cheaper than All In 2025. Still reasonable unlike WWE. But the only reason they can claim these gate amounts are because they keep making the tickets cost more every year. They're selling way less of them at a higher price per head. Just speaking for me, I don't want to say it was unsuccessful. I want it to be super successful. And yeah honestly once you get to show week, I would love for them to paper it full. WCW's biggest houses at The Georgia Dome sold their most tickets ever... and they still papered. It looks way better. Full and loud. Loud and full.

Oh this is 100% stanning tho. Jacking up ticket prices to mask you are selling less isnt something that should be applauded. You can like and care about something and still be able to point out missteps and trends that arent favorable. All In has had exponentially less interest every year. The same thing happened with Grand Slam in Queens. 20k first year. 12k the next year. 6k the following year. Me pointing this out doesmt make me brain dead, you waving it away "because money" is brain dead. Maybe in 5 years we'll get to the point everyone is pumped because they sell one single $10 million dollar ticket to All In. Who cares that only one person bought a ticket, its the hIgHeST grOsSinG sHOw eVer.

82,000 ---> 46,000 ---> 20,000ish (so far) is a bad trend no matter how much money you get. You can be wildly profitable and still look bad. A 45,000 seater scaled to seat 35,000 only having 20,000 in there is a bummer even if they make more money than ever before. I don't think being bummed out the promotion you root for the most not being able to pack a house is some kind of hater take. I want them to make money. I want them to fill the building. I want the show to be enjoyable. I don't see a problem.

Seriously? Give me a goofy John Silver TNT Title run over any of the last year of the title. Jack Perry? Boring reign. Garcia? Boring reign. Adam Cole? So far boring reign. Not a knock on any of the performers. But a fun zany John Silver run (especially back when he was hot) would have been much better than what we've gotten.

We're both partially right with how we read the situation. I wasn't aware of the divorce issues so that probably is the biggest factor out of anything. My take on it was that had Hart been presented as a top guy and a big deal right out of the gate he'd be more motivated and fulfilled. I feel like he grew apathetic almost right away because he was presented just like 1996 Jeff Jarrett jumping was. An after thought. You put the belt on him early and show your commitment to him as an important part of the company you get better results.

WCW was all about fuck finishes. It never really mattered as long as you gave them something cool to go home on. Whatever dirty finish DQ beat down. Lights out. Lights on. Ultimate Warrior still shows up to work woth Hogan. Bret comes out on Nitro pissed off that he's been chasing Hogan forever and he didnt get the chance to win. Benoit comes out and talks about how much he's looked up to Bret but how Bret is soft and whiney now. And he's here to take him out. You pivot to Bret trying to elevate Benoit and having bangers in hopes of getting Benoit ready to be a Stiener challenger. The Nash booking aspect I didnt factor in. But hindsight makes that easy. Just don't give him the book lol. But for real Bret was never iver as a babyface the way they presented him. He immediately went into a fued with Flair, where even if Flair was heel he was a baby to the WCW audience against Bret. They forced a square peg into a round hole. He should have been heel. He was doing the best work of his career as a heel.

I disagree. If he had the sympathy everyone always points to, he would have been undeniable as the top face. Instead he just putzes around the mid card after a cold win over Flair in his first PPV. He ends up heel a few months later teaming with Hogan and no one batted an eye or cared. It took until Russo came in in late 1999 before they do anything of substance with him. And the timing just didn't workout because of the Owen incident and then his injury. But you bring him in as a heel, even if he gets cheered in his first appearance you just have him heel The United States in one of WCW's rural hotbeds and instantly he's heated up as a top heel. With Sting going over Hogan and getting a run as champion there's really no top heels for Sting to work with and a loaded face roster at this point. You get the belt on Hart after an extended 6 month story and let him work with those over faces. After the Sting feud you have Bret vs Lex, Bret vs Nash, Bret vs Macho, Bret vs DDP, Bret vs Goldberg. So much more to work with. This pretty much eliminates the opening for DDP to have a world title run. But him getting the celebrity matches with Hogan then using that to get a run at Bret where he falls, only makes Goldberg look that much better when he's the one to beat Bret. Even before factoring in the upcoming Owen incident, after he dropped the belt at the end of 98 I'd be turning him baby and building to a Hogan vs Bret match at the end of 1999. That's two years of Hogan out of the title picture. That's giving your ace a run (Sting) then new faces runs as champion (Bret & Goldberg). Then you build Steiner in the background as a monster during those two years, and he beats Goldberg clean as a sheet as we enter 2000.

In my opinion the idea was fine, its the execution that ruined it. Had you put Sting over Hogan clean as fuck, giving Hogan an nWo civil war to keep him busy and out of the main event would have made a lot of sense. But you gotta keep Sting a loner and champion, off defending against others at the top of the card. You also gotta keep the Wolfpac as Hall, Nash, Pac, Konan, and Savage. They kind of ruined the coolness factor adding in Luger and Hennig and crab facepaint Sting. Hart should have come in as a heel. Play off that he's such a dispicable person his last company screwed him over. Let him run with the same anti America character that was working on WWE and you run and extended Sting vs Hart program on top. Hart eventually wins and you move on to Hart vs DDP and Goldberg on top. All the while you keep the nWo relegated to their blood fued civil war. Once you get the belt onto Goldberg at the end of 1998 from Hart you get the nWo back together as a super group trying to stop Goldberg. Building to the first Hogan Goldberg match. And Goldberg retains. And keeps retaining. He mows through and annihilaties the entire nWo while you've been building new threats in the background.

I have a strong premonition that will be a surprise entrant in the Women's Casino Gauntlet. No real basis for it lol just a hunch

I got my wish, Women's Casino Gauntlet. I'll take a Men's one too, sure thanks lol. Hopefully TK has a cool surprise or two in mind for them.

The biggest show of the year is 19 days away. There's only 3 matches officially announced. That seems... odd, right? I know AEW is notorious for throwing a bunch of matches on the week of a PPV. But this is the biggest show of the year. This is the biggest building of the year. Why are they not locking in the matches early enough to promote promote promote? You wanna move tickets get a killer card on paper 6 weeks out with only 1 or 2 last minute additions. It's a really odd strategy to me, especially when you're having trouble moving tickets.

Why do I recall it being about a family member of Fox's that passed away? Was that a cover story for the real story? Or are people misremembering? I swear it was like his grandma's funeral he was adamant about not missing and had to back out of the show because of it.

Overthinking like crazy. The significance of Colt Cabana to Punk on the original pipe bomb was that Colt was his buddy that was let go. The significance of Claudio, Dolph, & Cardona is that they're all Cena buddies that got let go. Thats it. There's no Young Bucks thing there. Its just Cena inserting a few friend's names where the original friend's name went.

Hopefully Athena gets a match on the show. Especially if that was originally what was penciled in Im really hoping for a Women's Casino Gauntlet Match. I imagine there'd be a pretty loud reaction for her if she was a surprise entrant with it being in her hometown. I'd put her over too. Athena vs Mercedes ROH title vs AEW title at All Out or Forbidden Door. Lets add as many titles as possible to this gimmick.

144 in a 25? If that's accurate that should be an instant 3 months in jail in my opinion. You have no reaction time to adjust if something or someone runs into the street. They don't set streets at 25 unless its a residential area with a high chance of that happening.

Everyone has their preferences but I think old school battle royals like that are mostly phased out these days. Probably because its 20 minutes of punching and kicking. Or at least the first 15. Not much room to bump or hit any moves with 30 people in the ring. Everyone loves The Rumble, but how many people love The Andre Battle Royal ya know?

Three weeks from tomorrow Resurrection comes out. The trailer looks pretty fucking good too. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. Looks like the Batista / Dexter reunion / confrontation is happening episode one, right off the bat. The trailer sure makes it seems like Harrison is dragging a dead body and chopping it up. But I think its creative editing and he's butchering meat. Ill be posting thoughts on it here, wonder if anyone else is planning on watching.

I'd love to see a women's Stadium Stampede and get more of the women on the biggest PPV of the year. Id put the captains as Willow & Marina Shaffir, would make the most story sense. Or maybe do a Women's Casino Gauntlet instead if theyre not doing a men's one. That might actually be more fun.

I thought for sure FTR was gonna work Cope & Christian at All In but there's been no movement on that. So now I think they get a win with a Cope appearance after. Then a Christian save one they overwhelm him? Since All Out is in Toronto that's a likely spot for that match. Maybe they save the Christian turn for Forbidden Door? As for who FTR work at All In, I don't have any idea.

Comparing it to the OG Evolution they did what like 18 months before the turn? Something like that. I really do think 10 months is too short. By the time Rollins gets the belt (July at SNME / August at Summerslam) that only really gives you about 4 months to run with that group domination / top of the world feeling. I personally don't feel like thats enough time to make the audience start to feel bad for Bron when Seth starts belittling him. I also think waiting until the follow year's Mania would be too long. Thats about 22 months total. Sweet spot might be around Summer Slam next year. Would give it a slightly different feel than the Batista winning a Mania too.

Gonna have to assume its a neck injury from the finish of her vs Mercedes right? That roll up had all her limbs tied up and she spiked herself bad on her head with no protection at all. Straight DDT style. No one's fault, but even in the moment I was like fuckkkkkk that was a rough landing.

I also think the goal is to get to Bron pulling a Batista on Seth. But its too soon for this year's Mania. I know stuff moves faster these days. But Triple H loves that old school fill the balloon with heat style booking. You just keep building and building that heat and the bigger it is the bigger the star you make when he pops it. You just have to be careful because if it pops on its own because you go too long and people lose interest you just wasted a few years of programming. For that to work you kind of need a long period of dominance from the group. You also need enough time for them to go from top of the world to Seth belittling him behind your back. You need the fans to want the turn so bad they can taste it. And you only get that by heating Seth up for a longggg time.

Its not that deep. It isnt about who could or would be a good foil for Goldberg or who would better suit a title run. Not even about Netflix numbers. Its about heat. You really heat Rollins up by having him cash in and steal the title from Goldberg in his retirement match in front of his hometown and family. Im of the opinion that they are getting ready to really treat Seth like a big deal and get behind him. Heel leader of an important stable. New music. Heyman ranting about being the one to retire the man with wrestling's greatest streak just like his other client took the greatest wrestlemania streak of all time. Just a theory and totally could be wrong. But thats how I see it playing out. Triple H is from that old school NWA build the heat mold.

Is it not like super obvious that they're gonna put the belt on Goldberg as a shock feel good retire with the belt moment, just to get snatched away by a Rollins cash in? Then Punk vs Rollins 2 at Summer Slam can be for the World Title. Seems to me thats pretty likely, if not a total lock.

I dont think its a rights issue, I just don't think they want to copy WWE. When MJF renamed the International belt he used American Champion to avoid being United States Champion probably for the same reason. There was a Triple Crown for 3 months. Thats about the same amount of time I give the Unified Title. Unless they go full brand split (which I am in favor of), and use The Unified Title as the Collision top title. Otherwise, the title gets renamed probably by Forbidden Door.