[AEW - MAY 2022]

The same reason why The WCW Invasion failed, they don't have a big enough roster under contract for it to happen.

You'd have to have a bunch of AEW people defect to ROH to even make a basis for ROH having a roster. Or else it's Gresham & Samoa Joe vs 118 AEW guys basically. If you have a bunch of AEW guys turn and defect to AEW is just feels inauthentic. Punk & Danielson are two of the most solidified guys in AEW (they are on almost every week). If you have them turn it makes sense in the context they started in ROH, but it also doesn't make sense because neither of them have been in ROH for like 15 years now.

Only way an actual invasion works is if there are two separate full and legitimate rosters to compete against each other. 24 younger unknown WCW plus Booker & DDP wasn't enough in 2001... and Samoa Joe & Gresham alone just isn't enough in 2022.

[Backlash X7 - 5/8/2022]

5 hours ago, Blue Dragon said:

Thinking the MITB matches could full on replace the Rumble matches. While the Day 1 PLE could replace the Royal Rumble PLE.

I don't think they would outright replace The Rumble. It's one of the oldest traditions / most over events they do. And with MITB in July this year, setting up Mania matches 8-9 months in advance with the way they change their minds is a recipe for disaster. But he had to have said that for a reason. Just a bizarre sound byte to leave in if there's no purpose for it.

I guess I could see them shifting The Rumble to a different month and taking away the winners getting Mania title matches away, but never outright replace it with Day 1. It's Pat Patterson's legacy. He was one of Vince's closest and best friends in the business. I just can't see Vince scrapping the concept altogether.

[AEW - MAY 2022]

55 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

So guys like John Silver and the Dark Order can finally win an AEW title. Death Triangle can win an AEW title. The House of Black can win an AEW title, and so on. It's a natural fit and adds a little extra spice to constantly booking six-man tag matches on the shows.

This is something we will have to wait and see on. Everyone is justifying trios titles by saying it will give the lower card stables something to do. And I kind of doubt that happens. They have already said the titles will debut when Omega is back. So at least in the short term, bank on The Elite vs Undisputed Era is your title feud. After six months to a year of that you have The Blackpool Combat Club involved. And so on. The point I'm trying to demonstrate is this isn't going to be used for the lower card guys. It's going to be given to the bigger names. Best Friends will never hold them. Santana & Ortiz and Eddie Kingston will never hold them. Dark Order will never hold them. House of Black might hold them... but not for like at least 2 years after the titles debut. If House of Black is still even a thing by then.

But that's okay. Not everyone needs to hold a title. Feuds and stories can still happen without titles involved. We're fast getting to Invasion levels of titles being around and it's just too much. 2 men's World titles (AEW & ROH). 2 women's World Titles (AEW & ROH). 1 women's midcard titles (TBS). 4 men's midcard titles (TNT, FTW, Pure, TV). 3 men's tag titles (AEW, ROH, AAA). Currently only 1 set of trios titles (ROH).

We're talking 12 active championships that get defended in AEW right now (plus the ROH six mans that exist but just haven't yet). When AEW debuts their trios titles that's 14 total titles. That's 21 total people holding titles. It's too much. When everyone is a champion, no one is a champion.

[Backlash X7 - 5/8/2022]

I'm kind of surprised to see positivity for this one. Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention.

I didn't think anything was bad or anything, but it felt like a house show to me.

WWE's main roster has 10 titles. Only 1 title was defended on this PPV. I can't follow the logic of that.

Or the logic of them building Cody as the purest of pure babyfaces and him pulling the tights to win.

[AEW - MAY 2022]

I at least understand the thought process now, even if I disagree with it. So thank you for explaining it better.

I do love tag team wrestling. Whether that's because the internet trained me to like them or not I can't say for sure. But loving The Rock n Roll Express, The Midnight Express, all the Horsemen combinations, The British Bulldogs, The Road Warriors, The Steiners, The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, & Demolition growing up when there was no internet lends me to believe I always loved and appreciated good tag team wrestling.

The over aching point you have about tag wrestling not evolving is not totally unfounded, but that's wrestling as a genre altogether. There's strict formulas for all match types. And then you can mix and match and play around with the tropes. But if you boil it down, whether it's single's wrestling tag wrestling trios wrestling wargames matches and even royal rumbles... it's all just shine heat hope comeback go home. Every single match ever. It's all very basic when you boil it down like that. I get if you just don't enjoy the tag formula. But singles matches are just as formulaic.

[AEW - MAY 2022]

14 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

I'd like to see AEW abandon the tag titles all together (use the ROH/AAA ones where needed), and separate themselves as a point of difference from WWE, knowing that they've spent the last twenty years trying to get rid of it, and would never fully commit to promoting it as their point of difference.

I think I misunderstand your post.

I'm with you that WWE doesn't value it's tag team titles or the tag teams in the division. But AEW really does value it's tag teams and the tag team titles. You want them to get rid of the top prize for a division they are clearly better at than WWE, to be different? They already are different by pushing tag team wrestling. Love The Usos. Love New Day. But WWE has a piss poor track record with the tag titles post Demolition. They could care less about tagteam wrestling. So make AEW stand out by... making them more like WWE? I don't get it.

I'm missing something here.

[Double or Nothing IV - 5/29/2022]

Fuck it, pulling for Gallows & Mercury vs Jungle Express for the Tag Titles. Straight Edge Society 4 life lol.

[Dynamite - 5/4/2022]

2 hours ago, chriskbrown50 said:

NBA playoff still draws decent numbers regardless of the matchup.  The real question which will may never know is how much more $$ can TBS charge for ad revenues in this slot versus what it could charge 3 years ago.  That's what matters. I read that the old Turner folks played a bunch of funny accounting with wrestling. Hope TK is getting some better insight.  That's is really the cost/benefit question. 

 

2 hours ago, Casey said:

Meltzer and Brandon Thurston both seem to think that Turner have a minority stake in AEW. So, yeah, they don't outright own them, but...

Is that something they say? Because that seems pretty far fetched. They got out of owning wrestling for a reason. Even a minority share would be beyond shocking. And it's not like The Khans need any financial assistance. Plus TK strikes me as the type to be very particular about who gets any type of power in what is ultimately his prized possession.

So with that in mind, I thought the going assumption was Warner pays a rights fee and keeps all ad sales. So what TBS can charge matters to TBS, but as far as AEW caring / profiting from it... it's a non-factor. Warner keeps all the ad money because they pay a rights fee. I was under the impression ad splits have kind of went the way of the dinosaur. WWE & USA / WWE & FOX don't do ad splits either. The networks pay a shitload for the programing. The ads are their way of making that money back and trying to turn a profit off of the programming.

[RING OF HONOR in 2022... in AEW]

I still think it's fucking dumb to do two separate but equal brands. I'm team developmental all the way baby!

But I'm also not out here saying it's a total failure and there's no plan in place and WTF how do you not have a TV deal yet loserrrrrr lol. I have criticisms but I'm also trying to be realistic. I don't think I've ever posted about a timeline or expecting when a TV deal could be done. Or insinuating just because a month has passed and we haven't heard anything yet that there was never a plan in place.

Maybe a distinction some don't see, but to me one is a reasonable criticism and the other is unreasonable.

[RING OF HONOR in 2022... in AEW]

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

Buying ROH without an actual plan in place for the ROH titles and brand was a massive mistake. Now they are just throwing ROH out onto AEW programming, and it's not working.

My man.... put that axe away. And settle down on the grinding lol.

I know we're in the lack of attention era in society. But TK has legally owned the company for... one day. I'm excited and jumping ahead too. But you need to chill with the gloom & doom over 'no plan in place' and 'its not working'. How quick do you think TV deals come together? How quick do you think TV deals come together when the only company you are legally allowed to do business with is going through a merger / acquisition? It's been one day on paper, and one month in actuality. And during that time Warner Media wasn't going to enter into any new deals. Discovery Warner Bros will take some time to get a deal done with.

He may have the world's most thorough business plan imaginable. But it's going to take a few months to take shape. The ROH brand bringing down Dynamite & Rampage is a valid criticism. Saying there's no plan in place and this acquisition was a mistake are not valid to say, yet.

[AEW x NJPW - FORBIDDEN DOOR - 6/26/2022]

Does 14,000 seem like a small audience for this building to anyone else? 1994 Summer Slam there had 23,000. I know staging is important and takes a huge chunk of seating. But with the obvious demand for this show wouldn't stream lining all that and fitting in the biggest house you can be the call here? Like the Arthur Ashe setup.

Like damn. The show is called Forbidden Door. Cut the entrance down to an LED Door like they used at MSG for WM20. You don't even need a big screen over the entrance. Everyone will have sight lines to the tron hanging down from the ceiling in the center. LED Door entrance with just the same LED ramp from Arthur Ashe and you could fit in 20,000 I would think.

[Dynamite - 5/4/2022]

In another universe that ROH Women's Title match gets treated like Buff vs Booker and ole TK scraps the entire idea of ROH lol.

But there are similarities there. While this isn't the first ROH match they've done, it's one of the first totally cold ones that had a person that has never once had a TV match for them (ala Buff & Booker in WWE). Gresham & Castle also fall in this category, but they have the benefit of way more TV & PPV exposure than these two women. No Impact doesn't count as TV exposure to me lol. Mercedes has done like two or three AEW TV matches in the last year but that is not enough to develop a relationship with the general TV audience. Not many in that crowd knew signature moves or popped because they knew her theme or anything like that.

Just real poor planning. Or maybe wishful thinking is the better way to word it. Baltimore was an ROH town. So maybe TK was banking on some recognition that just wasn't there.

[Dynamite - 5/4/2022]

2 hours ago, just drew said:

I said last week that I thought Serena needs a manager. That is even truer to me after last night. Lady just cannot talk. If Tully is still making it to tv, use him.

If Tully hasn't been fully shifted over to the ROH side that is a great idea. I think he would be a perfect fit for her. She could be that quiet cocky badass that backs it up in the ring while this loud old man sings her praises with pretty words.

[RING OF HONOR in 2022... in AEW]

28 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

He could want different era logos for every belt, which would be pretty cool. 

Cool from a fan's perspective,yes. But a nightmare from a business perspective. Branding and marketing your business is very important. If you have 4 or 5 different logos all active at the same time maybe *your* fans wouldn't be overwhelmed by it... but absolutely business partners and potential new fans would be. Belts specifically it may not be that important, because a programming manager at a network probably doesn't dive that deep. Or a new potential fan may not look close enough at the belts to even notice. But if TK has plans to make action figures and market replica belts and things of that nature, it starts to complicate things.

I know as just a viewer the average person may not care about those things. But that's an explanation of why we'll probably never see that done. At least not by a competent company.

[RING OF HONOR in 2022... in AEW]

I think the rationale could be (note this is speculation) that they want to go back to a time from before Sinclair owned ROH. The logo was better. The titles were better. The booking was better. The stars were better. Maybe it's a conscious decision to distance themselves from the most recent era. Which if it were to be the case.... I'd wager the branding and belts all get updated to the FTR version of the block logo. I doubt it has a single thing to do with Sinclair buying them. Especially since they still used the Sinclair paid for Women's title, TV title, and Six Man title designs.

I get that originally Gresham had a logical reason to carry the old design. But once he won the match, you would think they would have switched to the current design if they were gonna keep it around. That's some of the reason why I think we're getting all redone retro titles once things are actually up and running. I really think legitimately the only reason they swapped out the tag titles is for the visual of FTR having the same font logo tights to match the older titles. As in they probably had a talk with TK and maybe he told them he's going with the block design and to get that design on the gear for that night.

So I assume they stick with the retro World Title but update the logo to the block logo. Keep the block logo design Tag Titles and update the side plates on the Pure title to the block logo. Women's title will probably get a whole new design with a block logo. TK doesn't seem to like the men's title and women's World titles having the same design thing WWE has been doing. I think they should just dump the tv & six man, but if they keep them I expect updated designs there too.

And let's be honest the most recent title designs were all very generic. Like the TV title main plate is flat. Which looks really bad when worn around the waist. The men & women's word titles are both very derivative of that generic independent world title tons of indys use.

Yes I'm a belt nerd

[RING OF HONOR in 2022... in AEW]

We're too soon into this run of TK owning ROH to get any answers to these questions probably. But I wonder if The Six Man Titles are still recognized. No mention of them and most of the members in that group are in Impact and CYN right?

Also why did they go to the retro World & Tag Titles, but kept the updated designs for the TV & Women's Titles. (I know Women's was previously the WOH Title and this is the first design for that belt). But you know what I mean. Different eras' titles and different logos on everything. I'm sure as time progresses we'll get a more unified branding. Just interesting to me to see this stuff in real time be handled kind of randomly.

[Dynamite - 5/4/2022]

8 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

I just figure the talking point of the episode should be a Fenix vs. Dante match that nailed what it was supposed to do.

I believe you. There's just no proof because 65% of the match happened during a commercial for TV viewers. We picked up about where he hit the Reverse Spanish Fly. So we missed out on the whole flow of the beginning stuff. Hard to really sing the praises of something we only saw roughly half of.

[Dynamite - 5/4/2022]

Wow a tale of two hours this week.

Man the crowd was molten hot for the start of the show all the way through making Wardlow look like peak Goldberg over. Then hour two fell off a cliff. That awful Pillman promo and the whole mess of a House of Black segment. The Rosa promo. Throwing two women out in the main with a combined like ONE AEW TV match between them. Just a lot of odd choices that murdered that crowd.

But man that Wardlow segment made up for all of it. He looked like $2million bucks.

Also why even do Fenix vs Dante if we're missing cool ass shit and more than half of the match to a commercial?

[Rasslin' Video Games]

Yeah count me in on that Legends DLC. Arn, Tully, Jake, Tall Paul, Mark Henry, Taz, & maybe even Aja Kong & Awesome Kong. Could even toss Jeff Hardy in the legends DLC. DDP & Glacier too lol. Just thinking of any legends that have appeared in AEW. Hurricane did, but he's a WWE agent so no way. Bret did but that's doubtful. Didn't Madusa present the women's title?

I'd save Brodie Lee for a separate Dark Order DLC that also has Negative One and Silver, Reynolds, Colt, Uno, & Anna Jay. Just make him Negative One as tall as John Silver and skinny and it could work. And hey, more royalties for Brodie's family that way.

Could easily come up with two or three more packs of left out people. We'll see how hard they wanna go with additions.

I'd say Cody is almost surely not in it. Even if they have a 100% finished character model. Just not a smart business move to include him. He was gone as of January too. So it's not like it'd be a hasty decision that would gut the game. It would be nice if he were there but I don't expect it.

[MOON KNIGHT (SPOILER TALK)]

Episode 5 was great.

Yes, I did just watch the finale. My opinion? Episode 5 was great.

I didn't like this story in totality. Too disjointed and just not my thing. If it stayed psychological thriller with more great content from the mental institution we'd have something. But instead they just spammed the 'Scorpion King' button. And it just didn't scratch that itch for me.

And for clarity I know nothing about this character beyond this show. I sense the Egypt stuff is a core part of it. But it just bored me to death.

[Rasslin' Video Games]

I imagine Omega's involvement going down a lot like this...

KO: Hey everyone, let's see how the game is looking.
Yukes: *shows him a game that isn't No Mercy*
KO: Good stuff guys but it's not looking right. Here let's have another 28 minute ladder match in No Mercy.
Yukes: But Kenny we have no spare time
KO: Guys you aren't hitting the mark. This is the research part of research & development.

And I'm okay with that lol. I too want No Mercy.

[Rasslin' Video Games]

A 50 person roster is going to be met with some disappointment. 40ish men and 10ish women probably? Bunch of fun people being left out. Oh well, if the game play is there I'll be happy.

[Better Call Saul]

27 minutes ago, RandomAct said:

I think we've touched on this before, but I've never felt like Hamlin is an altogether bad person. I kinda feel bad for him knowing that his marriage is falling apart and he's in therapy, yet Jimmy can't stop fucking with him.

Agreed. Chuck was the one doing all the shitty things to Jimmy. The title of the episode was Hit & Run, so I breathed a sigh of relief that all they did with Howard's car was a hooker deal. I thought for sure they were going to hit someone with his car on purpose, or have it happen as an accident they had to roll with.

[Better Call Saul]

51 minutes ago, Craig H said:

And really, who parks where there's a cone?

If I pulled into that therapist lot and I'm a customer and it's the last spot, that cone is getting chucked as far away as humanly possible

[AEW - MAY 2022]

8 hours ago, Krone Meltzer said:

How much money do you think AEW saves in comparison to WWE just by not copywriting all of the names, nicknames, moves, plethora of shows/events. I'm not privy to how much it costs to copywrite any sort of material, but between all the names that WWE owns, coupled with the ones that they have spent on in the past that they no longer use, I would imagine it's at least a little bit of change right?

Let's say WWE own's 5,000 trademarks they keep active (just a plausible guess, could be more, could be less). Multiply that by $300 a pop (roughly)... and that comes out to $1.5million dollars. Which is a wayyy higher number than I expected before doing the math.

But that $1.5million is a drop in the bucket to them when compared to letting the talent own the trademarks. How much money could Bray Wyatt generate if he owned that name and The Fiend likeness? Way more than that $1.5million just by himself. So it's a cost associated with defending their market share / not handing anyone else ready made acts that could help them grow. In that sense sure, AEW saves money over WWE by not owning the talent trademarks. But they also lose out on that market share defense. (Which I don't think they care about in the slightest to be fair).