NoFistsJustFlips

I agree with this sentiment by the way. But I did want to highlight this quote because it demonstrates exactly what I mean. WWE let McIntyre go 5 or 6 years ago with the same thought process they have about Andrade now. That he wasn't a star, that he wasn't ever going to be a star, and that he wasn't even worth having on the roster. So were they right about Drew then, or are they right about him now? It's a conflicting stance and the best representation of them not knowing what they have / what they're doing than any analogy I can come up with. WWE is straight up plug and play. You can't base too much value on how they do book a guy vs how they don't book a guy because of it. Anyone can become Jinder Mahal and go from jobbing to The WWE Championship out of nowhere with a commitment to a push, whether warranted or not.

I do see what you're saying. I guess my outlook is just different from yours (which is okay). You cite Bret Hart as an example, but Bret wasn't in a place mentally after having his world shattered to produce at that point. Vince fucking him over so publicly in Montreal and more importantly Vince mind fucking Bret's own self worth by devaluing him so much he just let him go to WCW just ruined him. You can't analyze his run in WWE in 1997 vs his run in WCW in 1998 as if it was the same person. He was a totally new, totally broken man. As for my tastes, give me one too many surprises vs none. WWE's current programming is what I think of when I think of driving the speed limit in a Hyundai. Boring. Gets you to where you need to be on time. But there's no heart. There's no soul. In WWE there is no pulse and no reason to expect any surprises will ever happen. You don't ever have to kick yourself because you didn't tune in. There is nothing there that is can't miss. I prefer having too many guys doing too many things where you may not always be able to keep track of everything, or dudes may get lost in the shuffle or whatever, vs that super sterile predictable no frills programming. But that's just my opinion. If you don't agree that's okay. Gasp! Lol. I'm not professing he's a huge star. But dude. How can you add that "he would still be with WWE" part? Like they know what a star is anymore. They don't want stars. They want burger flippers. They wanna churn out content. They don't want gourmet chefs. They're McDonalds. 99 billion served. Same McDouble every time you pull in that drive thru. Saying he's not with WWE therefore he isn't a star / an asset / someone worthy of having is a point of view I just can not get behind.

I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from. There's dozens of situations they can announce things ahead of time and build anticipation for it. Especially with the roster that's already in place. But at it's core, isn't wrestling it's best when you don't know what's coming next? This isn't a catch all for every situation. But surprise is one of the main elements that make a wrestling show a destination program. "Oh shit wonder what's gonna happen this week gotta tune in." You never know who is gonna show up. You don't always know what's going to happen. And that's exciting. Now that's not discrediting anything you've said. I just don't understand why you think it would be better for them to say "Andrade will be here on the April 20th Dynamite, how cool is that. He's going to face Kenny Omega. That will be a great match!" vs him showing up and doing something unexpected or working a match with no tease. Dude just became available two days ago. Let's use the very rare element of surprise that's almost never possible under these circumstances. Sure they should reign in the stuff you complained about. But I don't see how any of that is relevant for a free agent that somehow got WWE not to do a no compete and he can show up just three days after he's a free agent. Use him as soon as he's willing to be there. And DON'T announce it ahead of time. Because the last time they teed up some anticipation for a new signing, everyone complained it was the most over hyped thing ever in the history of wrestling. So don't over hype, just do it.

Direct promotion, sure. But they built up The Exalted One until he was free to debut. They knew that was going to be Brodie. We didn't. But they did. Impact promoted a couple of the recently released dudes were debuting on that one PPV last year. they didn't say who directly. But they still built it up. What I'm saying is there is wiggle room to do things and build up them coming in when you can't have them right now. But this is a case of being able to have a dude right now. Will it matter as much if you let 90 days pass anyways? Seems like a waste of a rare opportunity.

Fair point. And I agree they have relied on that too much. But that's really the only way to capitalize on him being able to start right away. They can do vignettes and build to matches with dudes that have 90 day no competes. This one specific case, unless he shows up somehwre in person and does something it's kind of a waste of this unique situation. But again that assumes Andrade even has AEW on his radar. He very well may not want anything to do with them. It really does depend on what his goal is.

I mean, it depends on what his goals are really. But it can be as simple as starting Dynamite with Matt Sydal's entrance (he's booked to face Omega, if he wins he gets a title match) Andrade jumps him and beats the fuck out of him and demands a title shot. Omega is like fuck no you just murdered that dude I'm not wrestling you tonight with no notice. Then the powers that be sign the match for the main event. It can really be as simple as a one off match. He's hot. This lets AEW benefit from his buzz. AEW & Omega are hot right now doing the forbidden door shit. This lets Andrade get a high profile match in to raise his stock before signing elsewhere / prove he really does have a higher ceiling than US Title JAG midcarder. Like they don't have to sign him to a long term deal. They can get a shock moment / a dope match / and set everyone up for success by literally just pushing Matt Sydal's story off one week. I have the sense Andrade is going to more interested in NJPW / CMLL. But this move as a one off is totally do-able. And they could always revisit signing him longterm down the road. But it doesn't take a whole lot of creativity to get someone that's hot to fit in, at least for a one off.

Damn if that's true, it's a severe departure from their norm. And there would have to be a reason for it. I guess we'll see in the next week or so if he pops up anywhere.

For the sake of the board I'm just putting dude back on ignore. Sorry for the thread detour guys.

Strike one. But I'll find ya. Only so many ring announcers in FSW history lol. For the record I don't actually care who you are. I just wanna make sure I don't accidentally book any stooges that run to the internet to spread the hot gossip to validate their desperate need for acceptance.

There's a 90 day no compete for every wrestler released by WWE. So end of June is the soonest he can appear for another promotion. The only people without 90 day no compete clauses are the ones who let their contract expire. When the contract ends organically you are free to do as you please. When WWE cancels the contract (early release) there is always a 90 day no compete to prevent someone showing up tomorrow when the news is still hot.

"Thank you for the info"

This means one of two things. 1. You're part of IWC's ring crew / digital team or something. In which case running to the internet to blab plans for someone you consider a friend / colleague is just... really shitty. 2. You're a fan. One that's been around a long time and thinks that makes you more than a fan. But still just a fan. In which case my initial joke is still relevant. If you are in the business in some way, I would think that you'd know better than to post private conversations told to you in confidence about future plans. Which is why I assumed you fall in category 2 and made my joke.

Dude. Britt Baker is not going to just blab all the real booking plans to a random fan at an indy show lol. She's obviously working him. "Oh yeah man it's crazy I'm gonna do this big face turn and save Rosa then we're working The Bucks for the tag belts. Get your bet in early on Fan Duel and make some money!!"

I was saying to myself this thread didn't have enough talk about Bat Shark-Repellent, thanks for reminding me.

I thought the opening action sequence was amazing, but the rest of this bored me to tears. I know they have to set the ground work for the important story beats but man... sitting through like 10 minutes of Falcon trying to get a bank loan is where I draw the line lol.

I know right lol. Every sports reporter is treating Golladay like a WR1 and a big get for The Giants. I don't remember hearing his name too much so I looked up his stats and he had two solid years. But definitely not WR1 numbers. I hope maybe it's one of those transcendent player kinda things that trumps stats that I'm just not seeing looking at numbers alone. That's a lotttaaa money to be throwing out there too. But hey, can't be any worse than ole gator arms Golden Tate was.

He went with the most valuable team of all, money lol. He took a one year deal this year in a market crippled by a low cap. Next year with be a market ready to spend with a big jump in cap space due to the new TV deals. So he's betting on himself having a good enough year this year to get paid next year vs cashing in this year on lower numbers. He's got a good agent.

Wow have never seen a close up HD version of The Hogan Picture Belt. Very understated. I would like that design a lot better with a globe instead of a picture tho.

Two big reasons outside of just being worried all the content won't come over / they will abandon uploading rare things: 1. The search function on Peacock sucks vs The Network. On The Network you can search any wrestler's name and if they have a match on the network, it's in the results. Current talent, old talent, and even enhancement talent. You could also search for any specific match and jump right to that match without having to wade through an entire show to get to it. Peacock doesn't have matches specified at all and have already said they aren't doing that. So that great feature is just gone. A search on Peacock just shows a few recent clips of current stars and the ability to find whole shows. (Although searching WCW found zero results, but searching just WC brought up all the WCW content they had up). 2. The watch from beginning feature for live events is gone. If you wanna watch Fastlane better have that shit turned on right at 7PM. As is now, The Network's best feature was being able to get home an hour after the PPV started and clicking watch from beginning for a live PPV. You could even fast forward through dull stuff. Can't do any of that on Peacock. It's just a live stream with none of those features.

Ugh. Why couldn't Titus host it alone? Or at the very least get someone else to host it with him. Literally all anyone is going to talk about is the shitty optics of this. Titus makes sense in this spot as he's basically a community celebrity in Tampa for all the charity and community outreach he does. But Hogan already has a spot waving in the HOF deal so why did they need him in this spot?

I'll get this out of the way up front. I pitched a bitch over the aspect ratio originally. I still think it was a bad decision. But as the movie flowed I got lost in it and didn't notice it as much as I thought I would. I still think you should paint your picture for the canvas you have (HBO Max on 16:9 TVs), not the canvas you want (IMAX theaters 4:3). I'll put my reactions in spoilers. I am pleasantly surprised. There's definitely a chance WB sees all the positivity around this and decide for a DCEU HBO Max finale film. It's like 1 in a million. But you're telling me there's a chance! /Lloyd Christmas

One thing making that women's match even more amazing to me, is they did it with no audience just the few wrestlers in the front row there. To go out there and work that hard... and pull off a match that good with no actual fans is so fucking impressive. They deserve all the praise they're getting it. I didn't think Britt had that in her but jesus she went above and beyond. Her act with Rebel is like the modern day Jericho and Ralphus and I never want it to end. Who knew D.M.D. actual stood for Death Match Dentist? I'm quite shocked that AEW had a match that good taped a week in advance and had the restraint to not over hype it on social media. They have done a phenomenal job of keeping the taped weeks seem live and exciting in a way no other wrestling promotion has even been able to do with taped episodes. That will go down as one of the most famous women's matches of all time. Strap up Britt asap. Let her hold the title for a year and duck Rosa that whole time. Finding loopholes to not have to defend against her. Then do a casino royale for a guaranteed world title shot. Rey Fenix wins only to take off the mask and reveal it's actually Thunder Rosa and she wants her guaranteed world title match against Britt Baker in a steel cage. (Rey Fenix starts wrestling with a long sleeve Penta style top for the two months leading up to this so it doesn't come out of nowhere lol).

It's been documented. Tickets were moving pretty slow for Wrestlemania 32 in Dallas. They announced this match on Raw on March 22nd and saw a huge surge in ticket sales immediately following the announcement. We're talking 5 digit movement in the days after it was announced. Your overall Mania name sells the tickets POV is generally true. But WM32 was the year they were trying to break 100,000 and they weren't even close less than a month out. They announced this and it got them pretty close to the legit 100k they wanted.

It's pretty obvious WWE didn't do any introspective analysis of *why* that sold tickets. Shane had been gone for a decade. Him vs Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell was a fresh match out of nowhere that had the added oh shit light bulb of wait Shane always did stunt bumps, bet he does a crazy cell bump. Had Shane been active in WWE for the prior decade it wouldn't have sold tickets like that. Also has anyone had a more uneven Wrestlemania run than Braun? WM32 -In Erick Rowan's corner vs The Rock. WM33 -Wins Andre Battle Royal on Pre Show. WM34 -Wins Raw Tag Belts with a child vs Sheamus & Cesaro. WM35 -Lost Andre Battle Royal on Pre Show. WM36 -Wins Universal Title as a throw away replacement vs Goldberg. WM37 -Probably some weird gimmick match vs Shane McMahon.

Are you referring to WWE or AEW here? Regardless I'm of the understanding they both have the same structure. Guaranteed contracts that pay a downside guarantee, or fixed-term as you put it, as well as bonus mechanics (merchandise / royalties / bonus for being in games / ect). Why would you assume AEW are using out-dated contract structures of the past where they pay by appearance? None of their roster would be making enough to live if they had the old school $300 a night deals TNA used to do with their lower card. You know when people like Jesse McNeal had to be on food stamps even tho he had a contract. Now the indy guys they bring in are working on per appearance deals. The J.D. Drakes and John Skylars of the world. But that's not who I'm referring to when I'm talking about getting reps in. I'm talking about the contracted talent that are indeed on downside guarantees. Not really dawg. They fly in all the talent contracted to the taping every other week. That way if someone comes up with a spur of the moment creative idea you don't have to scramble to fly out someone who you didn't fly in. As well as in case of injury or emergency. So they literally are just sitting around bullshitting in the building if not being used. You might as well turn on the camera and let them get some work in. Since I have to be super literal with you it seems, no I'm not insinuating things are that spur of the moment with the Dark tapings. They book out the whole weeks worth of tapings to do on Wednesday, then the following week's work to do on Thursday, ahead of time. So unless you're really trying to argue minute costs like electricity or heat to run 6 hours of tapings vs 2 hours of Dynamite is make or break... then I have absolutely no idea what you're going on about here. They are profitable. That's what has been reported. Instead of trying to discredit what has been reported, why don't you try and substantiate your claim that they aren't? Got any reports saying they aren't profitable? Have any reason to believe the reports out there saying they are profitable are false? Just throwing your personal two cents in isn't going to cut it when you're the one ranting against what's been reported. I can't tell if you're anti-AEW, pro-WWE, or just like stiring shit up. It's common sense you can not improve as a professional wrestler without wrestling professionally. A bunch. Over and over and learning and growing and improving. I can tell you from experience you can only grow so much doing training matches in an empty building. You need live rounds. The threat of fucking up and the repetition of digging yourself out of a hole when you make a mistake to get better at this. So whether you personally like that two Youtube shows exists is irrelevant, because they serve a valuable purpose.