NoFistsJustFlips

I just rewatched episode 7 last night. Don't have a whole lot to add other than this season is just so good. The last 5 minutes is maybe the best dialog in the whole series. So many double meanings. And you understood every one.

Of all the trademarks they have access to (WWE, NXT, WCW, ECW, AWA) why in the world would they pick the worst one? Wrestlepalooza? Gross lol. Even The Wrestle-Rock Rumble is a better name than that.

Its 2025 and Daniel Jones is still a starting quarterback. What a world. What's odd to me is that Jones is actually making more money than Russell Wilson this year. 14mil to 10.5 mil. He was a hard worker, hope it works out for him there. But not so sure it'll be any different. I believe this is Jones 7th year as a starter in The NFl. He's already eclipsed the amount of years Colin Kaepernick was a starter by 2. That feels so weird to me. Time is a strange mistress.

Episode 7 thoughts... Also, the prevailing opinion online of who the NY Ripper is...

20 million is the rumored number paid for ROH. Which there's no chance in hell they get a return on investment from that. Thats why I threw out such a large number. If youre okay blowing 20 on ROH, you shouldn't blink at 40 or 50 for TNA. Which to the Khans is like couch change. Wouldn't make a dent in the slightest. You can just rip off the WWE playbook and upload all that footage to You Tube and soak in the ad rates from monetization. You also get all the brands and trademarks and concepts to integrate. It was said WWE would go to GCW. Let them. Once you get below TNA you're not at a production level WWE would be comfortable partnering up with. So either they blow money to elevate a rando or they dont get a backup pasty at all. I get not agreeing with the idea. But to act like there's no logic or purpose to it is crazy. Its a legitimate idea that at least deserves consideration.

So now if Im TK (and a billionaire), I make a ridiculous offer to buy TNA. 30 million. 40 million. 50 million. Something way above market. Something TNA would never say no to. WWE has right of first refusal so they either have to say no we're buying it for 50 million instead, or let the sale go through. So either you get WWE to blink and the veil is lifted. Or you get more tape library stuff and to wipe a competitor off the board. That spirals me down the rabbit hole to where in that scenario I do a hard brand split. AEW Dynamite. TNA Impact. ROH Collision. Raw Smackdown & NXT vs AEW ROH TNA.

Yeah another vote for it not being a big deal. The FTR match is gonna be anticipated and feel big regardless if its their first or second match back. Especially since it'll probably be their first tag title shot together in 25 years.

Episode 6 thoughts...

Im really curious how they structure the cage match. War Games style one after another? All 10 starting? Will it be a standard cage or a bigger HITC style one that let's them play on the floor?

Yeah this card looks so good on paper. There's not a lot of Forbidden Doorness for it being Forbidden Door. But I dont even care. This show looks really good.

The Hogan Goldberg match was announced on Thunder four days before Nitro. Locally it had been advertised as the dark match main event for 2 or 3 weeks with no intention on it being a TV match. 4 days before hand they went ehh let's put it on TV and pop a rating since ticket sales are so good. Thats a hot shot through and through. As for the first point, yeah totally agree. They could have built and made it a big draw at the stadium for Survivor Series. Or I think there's an Austrailia stadium show in the fall as well. My hastily worded not a hot shot thought process comes off how they usually book Brock. He turned on Cody on the Raw after WM39 and was instantly working him at the next PPV. So thats generally the normal Brock M.O. Maybe they plan on making it a series with Austrailia and Survivor Series being escalating gimmick matches like the Cody fued.

Yes. Faster than the norm. Rushing into something out of the ordinary. Like the Hogan Goldberg match I cited. I dont feel like stretching things out to time it for a specific future date is the same thing. (Sometimes when replying while at work I dont have the time to re-read before I post to see where I need to add context into my posts. Sorry about that.) But yeah. Them throwing a random show out on 5 weeks notice feels like hot shotting to me, in a way that stretching and waiting for the Lesnar Cena match to happen doesnt. Even tho its the same amount of time for the show happening and the match happening, their standard way to use Lesnar calls for the match to happen sooner than its happening. And that feels like the opposite of hot shotting to me.

So my mistake I didnt specify what I meant. The event its self is a hot shot, yes. We all agree on that. I meant specifically Lesnar vs Cena. I dont feel like that is being hot shotted because they're just using Lesnar how they always use him. And they arent rushing into the match compared to how a Lesnar story is usually booked. They're doing the opposite and stretching it longer than the most logical use to use him there. Goldberg vs Hogan was a hot shot. They threw that out there on a weeks notice. This they are slotting in a Logan Paul match before just to stretch for time.

Not many Im sure. One? But you cant classify it as hot shotting because hot shotting implies doing something out of the norm to spike a specific metric at a specific time. And the lack of appearances is kind of the standard for Lesnar stuff. This is how they use him regardless if it's against AEW or not.

Funny timing, they just released the new valuations for NFL teams today and surprise surprise The Cowboys top the list at 12.8 billion. The most valuable franchise in all of sports. Winning certainly doesn't factor into that formula because they havent won shit in 30 years.

Lesnar is a little more versatile than that but those bomb throwing hoss finisher spamming matches were certainly the best use of Goldberg possible. Nothing he ever did was better than Survivor Series 2016 & WM34 against Brock. Now Brock's best recent stuff were the Danielson & AJ matches where he tries that formula but the smaller crafty wrestlers find an opening to push him beyond just finisher spamming.

What are you talking about Vince. That is exactly what a racist is. Someone who hides their true race feelings in public, but in private they drop N bomb and all that. If you're not a racist, saying those things even in private doesnt even come to mind.

I don't know if Id consider Lesner vs Cena as a hotshot. It feels like it should be happening at Clash in Paris but they shoe horned in a Logan Paul match to stretch it out so they could run it at the following PPV.

Its a lot easier to understand what the hell Jerry Jones is doing (understand, not nesicarily agree with), when you realize he gives zero fucks about saving money on salary. He cares about driving up the Cowboys value through reality show tactics and keeping them a focal point of all the talking head shows. Like who cares that he's gonna end up paying Parson $10mil more a year than he had to. The drama of his circus drove up the value of the team another $100mil by word of mouth. He's not a sports franchise owner, he's a brand owner. The real accomplishment is taking them from 300 million or whatever he paid for them to a valuation of 11 billion. Now I think that's a bunch of horse shit. But thats def what his thought process is.

You're thinking micro, not macro. Sure they have a toy line. What Im saying is for them to get a better deal, a bigger cut, when its time for their next deal those impressions count to businesses. Not totally related but UFC just made a 7.7 billion dollar payday. Do you think some of that gigantic price is based on the data of how often their events trend and the how many mentions the network gets and the like? Because I do. They're paying a premium for the content but also for the marketing and mobilization of social media word of mouth. Nothing trends like live sports One night means nothing. We agree on that. But its not one night. Its every AEW ppv now. The social impressions are siphoned off consistently. Their reach is diminished. Its not gonna put them out if business. But it does affect business metrics.

I agree with a lot of what's said. But there is a little bit of short sighted-ness here too. I agree with Niners, if you wanna buy an AEW ppv you're gonna buy it. You can always watch WWE later if you want. But a buy rate isnt the only thing affected by this strategy. In this day and age engagement and impressions on social media are very important to your bottom line. Its the kind of thing that can command you more money on licensing deals and action figure deals and video games and things beyond just buy rates, tv ratings, and ticket sales. So even if WWE doesnt affect the buy rate at all, they will suffocate social media. All the trending is gonna be based on the WWE ppv because they have a so much bigger foot print. Same as them suffocating all the streaming apps to give AEW (and others) no where to negotiate with. Its not a bomb thats gonna crater AEW. But what it is, is death by a thousand paper cuts. All of these incidents combined do affect AEW's bottom line. And their brand identity & reach.

So Cena vs Brock head to head against All Out, dick move. I guess there's not much AEW can do to retaliate. But at some point they have to do something. Book a story time with Janel Grant bay bay segment? Make a big show of donating to sex trafficking victims? Probably neither of those are good ideas. But I just hate to see them getting walked all over so consistently.

I saw that they changed the rules for the K balls this year. The one video I watched said now that they have 48 hours to soften the balls up vs just 2 hours before, he was predicting more kicks from around that distance. Should have a new record or two this year.

In the US: PPVs on ESPN Raw on Netflix SNME, NXT, & TNA on Peacock AAA & Archive Content on You Tube Smackdown on USA Network LFG on A&E Network Evolve on Tubi Hell of a footprint they have spread across the US media landscape.

I could see a bundle that included NXT PPVs & AAA PPVs going to Paramount at a very reduced price, just to corner the streaming market. They'll get TNA on Peacock. They're on Netflix. They're on ESPN. It makes good business sense if you're totally okay with being a monopoly. And they always have been. AEW is forever tied to HBO Max since Warner owns a piece. But slim pickings for any place to negotiate with. Even less options to get paid for ROH content. Or for MLW to break through. Its basically Amazon or You Tube TV left.