NoFistsJustFlips

In what sense? Selling tv ads are what the network paying them wants to be able to do. 1 million views on social don't keep their primary business partner and the ones funding the gravy train happy. It's a nice bonus. But raising consistant viewership is more important to AEW's overall health than having as many eyeballs on social see clips of a match or a promo. ETA: After re-reading I think I might have misunderstood the context. I thought you were saying they should say screw viewership and lean into getting as many social views as possible instead. Is that a wrong interpretation?

That's their deal. Best Friends always referred to each other that way. On social media and on TV. Dustin & Greg. It's not him trying to name drop shoot names he's just riffing on the deal they already do.

I hope Max & Netflix both report viewership in some way. Not too optimistic about them doing so tho. Probably just sporadic press releases when there's something they want to be known.

I think they've hit a point where the brand has a stink to it. (I know that sounds harsh. I still enjoy a lot of what they're doing but this is the best way to put it). They've done enough things that people don't like for long enough that what AEW is... is just not what a lot of people enjoy. I'd also throw in a little of WWE getting hot hurting them in. In 2019 they were the alternative to a tired Vince run company. In 2024 they're more Vince like than WWE is. WWE production has improved. Their storytelling is better. Their attendance. Everything. And then your top story is annoying people. Your booking style is annoying people. The over saturation is annoying people. It's just inertia. So much negative momentum steam rolling for so long has burned people out. There's no magic bullet to get their mojo back either. Once people check out it's reallllyyyyyy hard to get them back.

Its a title to only be defended on Dynamite because Dynamite is also called TNT? Lol The TBS title is only for people with IBS? Why does ROH, who doesn't have TV, have two TV Titles? The AEW title situation is so sloppy. It drives me OCD nuts. Only gonna get worse because you just knowwww they're gonna add a Max Title once they start streaming.

I'd much rather watch Jack Pery vs Luchasaurus than Jack Perry vs Daniel Garcia. As the PPV showed those two didn't gel very well, whereas the big man can toss him around and Perry could pinball for him and get creative comebacks based around sticking and moving. No sneaky arguments. No unpicking (unpacking?). Moving on because we've hit an impasse here, I have always head cannoned my own rational for World Titles. Sure one way to interpret it is that you have to go around the World defending the title to make it a world title. But in another sense isn't it still a World Title if you allow anyone in the world to challenge for it? Just like you could say only people from North America can Challenge for a North American title / only a Cruiserweight can challenge for the Cruiserweight title. I understand it's not the accepted definition. But to me it makes just as much sense if an indy used that as a rationale to call their title a World Title. And as Nikita pointed out above, AEW doesn't even use the Heavyweight qualifier with their title. Because weight classes are outdated in pro wrestling. Boom roasted lol.

AEW is bad at things, so instead of allowing for the fact they can get better at them if they work hard enough you just blow it all up for a new system? An unproven system. That seems really rash. I do agree with being a lesser than WWE isn't going to gain them ground. Being different than is. The only time a promotion has pulled ahead of WWE and become number one, it's because their stories *were better* than WWE's. But their presentation was vastly different than WWE's as well tho. The nWo stuff was miles & miles better than fake sexual assault accusations by Bulldog's wife to HBK. Cruiserweights were miles better than TL Hopper & Aldo Montoya. Etc. A world without HBK vs Undertaker matches was an obvious catch all for that style of match. Plug in whoever and the point is the same. Small pinball man vs giant monster man are some of the most entertaining match styles in wrestling. Taking that away is in no way addition by subtraction. It's subtraction by subtraction. Essentially you're positioning that your idea is better than what's established because it's new and different. Battledome was new and different. That Matrats trampoline wrestling was new and different. New and different doesn't automatically mean good. We'll never know for sure unless someone tries it. But I don't think the mental math adds up for anyone out there being willing to try it because it limits you to a niche of a niche instead of trying to draw from the whole available pool.

Intra-contininetal would mean you only defend it against people inside your own continent. Inter-continental would mean you only defend against people from outside your continent. So not quite synonymous with World, slightly more gimmicky. The champion would defend it only against people from any continent but their own... if you went with the literal definition.

I think secondary titles make sense in the sense that (in kayfabe) you can demand more money at contract time with more accolades. Like when Lamar Jackson is negotiating his contract, sure he hasn't won a Super Bowl, but he has been an MVP. So he's going to be able to ask for more with that accolade to show. He wants to win a Super Bowl but that's really hard. Here's a something you can point to that adds value to the resume that commands you more money. That's all mostly left unsaid with a dash of head canon. It should be said more often on commentary to give purpose to those secondary titles. But essentially it's like a passing title or a rushing title or MVP in football. It's not the ultimate goal but it's a nice step to show progress and worth.

I didn't realized that, thanks for coloring in how they do it. Essentially with the CMLL structure you still have all your storytelling options open for all but title matches. In that case it seems like a lateral move at best. You're just renaming a bunch of titles and limiting who can challenge for them. Is having Takeshita be a Welterweight Champion and only being able to defend against guys the same weight better than him being an International Champion and being able to defend against anyone? I don't really see a benefit. Legitimacy? Does it really add much legitimiacy when you have dudes fighting with their hands in their pockets? Less title matches? That may be a benefit to some I guess. Just don't see any reason why it'd be any better of a system than what's already established. I'm open to hearing arguments to it. Sell me on it. How is it any better? What are the benefits? (To the OP of the idea not directed ar you specifically).

Weight classes wouldn't work in the US. US wrestling is story telling and soap opera. Not simulated sport. UFC exists. Boxing exists. Why do we need a version of that with fake outcomes? It's storytelling using simulated combat. But it's really *just* storytelling at its core. Amd one of the most time honored stories is big man vs little man. You lose all of those. A world with no Shawn Michael's vs Undertaker matches is not a world I want to live in. No more squash matches & size desrepencies is boring. Like you can get away with having a single weight class that's segmented. But you wouldn't get away with keeping them separated entirely. Just seems like you're taking a lot of tools out of the tool box and artificial handcuffing yourself. And to what end? You're not going to get combat sports fan to watch. They don't want story. They want real fights.

I'm still calling shenanigans to get The Rock with the heels. I could end up being totally wrong of course. But Punk has some storyline thread. He makes sense due to the Heyman connection. Bronson Reed makes zero sense and has no story thread to connect him here. Rollins fucks Bronson up and takes him out when he's supposed to enter last. People think it's 5 on 4 now. They let a few minutes pass. Rock's music hits. He's the final entrant and pins Roman.

Spot was supposed to be skin the cat, headscissors Fletcher over, Ospreay in one smooth motion catches him as he comes over and drops to his feet in perfect position to hit a Tombstone on the floor. High degree of difficulty and they slipped and had to do a new setup. But was always going to be a Tombstone while standing on the floor.

Giants immediate future looks pretty bleak. They're more than just a quarterback away. So what do you do? Try and hit a draft QB, bring in a fee agent to start next year, and hope for the team to just click? Russell Wilson is on a one year deal. Justin Fields is a free agent after this year. I think Sam Darnold as well. Idk. I'm on board with getting rid of Daniel Jones I just don't see light at the end of the tunnel regardless.

Moxley angle sucks. I just don't like it. And I'm not feeling any aspect of it at all. It's just the same exact thing Mox has been doing for the last 3 years just with Mox wearing Kimpossible outfits. OC doing long promos is detrimental to his overness. Some dudes just don't need shoe-horned into long promos. Hurt Syndicate vs Swerve, Hangman being Hangman, Ospreay / Fletcher / Takeshkta / Ricochet are all things clicking with me. But at a certain point it's not enough. This is the first AEW PPV I'm thinking about not buying.

I have a feeling the Barkley from The Gaints signing was fully accepted right away

Why does anyone need added? 4 on 4 is perfectly acceptible for this story and honestly the only logical storytelling answer. No one outside this feud makes sense to be inserted here *unless* it's a swerve to have some sort of Rock interaction. Could have got there with mystery partners for both sides too and just not having anyone come out for the heels. But I digress.

They spent how many years building up the rifts and telling the story of the Bloodline vs Bloodline feud? If they just throw two randos in there that have no connection to that story two weeks out from the big war games match, it's a terrible decision. Period. Im not even open to hearing of any other opinions at this time lol.

I hate this talking point. WWE is the number one wrestling company in the world. Generally speaking the talent there are the best professionals in the world. You're saying really good pro wrestlers should not be hired just because they worked there first? So no Swerve Strickland? No Samoa Joe? No Bryan Danielson? There's only so many Darby & OCs out there (special guys on the indys that WWE haven't touched). It's reallllyyyy hard to scout and hit on those kind of prospects. I'm not saying don't do it. Definitely try. But this tired don't hire anyone from WWE talking point needs to die. It'd be like a fan of an NFL team getting pissed that they're hiring players released from other teams. Well do you want the best available pros? You definitely do. That's not the issue.

Said this in the other thread but this is tailor made for Seth & Bronson to take each other out before the match starts. 5th man buzzer hits for heels. Nothing. 5th man buzzer hits for faces and it's The Rock, who immediately turns. Only way it makes any sense adding anyone else to this match is to just take them away and create that surprise moment.

So you don't find it awkward and cheesy that Britt still comes out and hits her DMD deal then turns around to point at the pyro and there's no pyro? I'm not saying it's alone a reason anyone is tuning out. But what I am saying is it's contributing to AEW looking small time lately. Wrestling at this level is a spectacle. All professional sports are. NFL teams run to the field with music and lighting and pyro. MMA. Boxing. It's about creating a larger than life live event experience. And them going from having it to not having it makes them appear more smaller than they used to. You can say you're not 8 years old but that's just an old head thing to say. It's not 1982. And there were a lot of people that voiced opinions about missing pyro when WWE stopped doing it. Just like people still miss the sets tailored to events like they used to have. No, it's a not reason anyone switch from WWE to AEW in 2019. But funny how it suddenly reappeared in WWE when AEW did it. Because AEW entrances were looking more big time than WWE's were there for a minute. And now that has swapped. It wouldn't even be that much of a thing in my mind if AEW had not used as a tangible proof of alternative in all their marketing for so long when they were starting up. If you're the one beating that drum super loud, you look pretty bad when you decide to drop it.

Small nitpick not many probably noticed. But I have a disabled brother (CP). I get really anxious when crowd brawls end up in the disability seating section. Roddy & Archer are pros so I know they recognized it. But still wish they'd pivot away from that area with all the wheelchairs and walkers because who knows what happens if someone slips or security bumps over there because they don't recognize it. Just a risk not work taking.

He spray tans everywhere I'm sure, it's the sweat and friction of the knee pads that take it off. Spray tan is just a layer of stuff that sticks to your skin. It comes off pretty easy. I'd have a settled spray tan for days leading into a show and when I took my wrist tape off after the match the spray tan was gone. It came off with the tape.

There's a lot of things AEW was supposed to be that they've strayed away from. This is one fo those things I remember them beating their chest about. WWE stopped doing Pyro we're bringing Pyro back to wrestling. It been absent from TV for months now. And I'm not sure why. Really hurts the feel of the company.

I think it's pretty clear that...