NoFistsJustFlips

I have no idea what it'll be like when they start touring again. But literally this show costs next to nothing to produce currently. They own the building. They own the equipment. They're already paying the talent's salaries. The upside is talent development. How does Jungleboy keep improving wrestling only once a month on Dynamite? By wrestling up to 8 more times in that month on all the Dark shows. You gotta get reps in to get better. It's always strikes me a bit odd when we get hyper focused on one specific aspect of a cost structure without factoring in the whole picture. Like yeah, they definitely don't break even strictly off of Youtube monetization. But Youtube monetization isn't the only income AEW brings in. They are profitable as is, based on PPV buys & Right's fees. Not to mention merch and toys in Walmart and whatever their split is of ad buys. They are sinking in a cost to help their performers get better, with the hopes that a roster with more experience brings that sunk cost back in better performances / drawing more money down the line. But I don't think that's some high level thinking on my part. Basically common sense. The same thought process of how NXT & The Performance center definitely don't cover the cost of all contracted talents training at the PC or the NXT as a brand as a whole. It's an investment, not a stand alone profit stream.

If you used your name before WWE, then you own it through prior use. You basically sub-contract it out to WWE during the length of your contract, if they allow you to keep a prior name. So WWE has full rights to use / promote / exploit / profit off of it until your contract ends. Then all rights revert back to the performer. It gets weird with prior use and similarities. Christian can go by Christian Cage because that's one of the names he used on the indies before WWE. But he can't be just Christian, because WWE owns that trademark and he never had prior use as only Christian anywhere. The only real exceptions to this are if another promotion created the name / character and WWE then buys the I.P. of that promotion. So while The Dudleys used that name before WWE, the I.P. was created by ECW and was transferred to WWE when they bought ECW. That's why they had to be Team 3D when they left. Ricochet falls under the prior use category. When he's gone he owns his name again. He started way back in the early 2000s as Ricochet and it's his to do with as he pleases.

I hear you and totally agree. I have to wonder out loud if this additional show is less about putting on a program people enjoy, and more about just giving more people weekly work to improve. I'm with you throwing so many matches out there doesn't make me want to sit down and watch. But I think the idea is actually just give more people on the roster more work, knock off ring rust, try and learn and grow. Can't do any of that in catering or filming BTE spots. So I'd expect there to be 25ish matches a week between the two Dark shows without much distinction or identity, other than the commentary teams.

False. It's "wouldn't have". The phrase "wouldn't of" isn't actually a real phrase. Common mistake. Carry on.

What in the blue hell is wouldn't've???? ? There's no such thing as two contractions in the same word. I believe you were looking for wouldn't have...?

I just went on a fuck Sean Spears rant a few pages ago, so I think it's prettttayyyyy clear I'm not your boy TK. But if he sees this and likes my opinions my DMs are wide open ? I did the math to covert $7 million into total buys in my first reply. 140,000ish is what you get when you divide $7 million by roughly $50 a pop. Funny you have ignored that part of my post and just keep ranting about inflation. I don't get why there are so many thread crappers in the AEW forums, but this shit happens every time they hit a new benchmark. 140,000 is the highest for any wrestling outside of WWE since 1999. Better? Your inflation bullshit is irrelevant, because the same exact point they were trying to convey in dollars is true in total buys (with or without inflation). 140,000 in 1999 is the same as 140,000 in 2021. No inflation deflection necessary. Call me a supermark or whatever if it gets you blood flowing. But no amount of petty bullshit name calling can dispute the facts. This is the most bought non-WWE wrestling event since 1999. Now gather up your inflation shit and take it to the Death Valley Driver econ & statistics forum pal.

$7 million dollars today is... $7 million dollars today. No amount of *yeah but* changes that. It's not a bullshit attitude to say knocking $7 million dollars is fucking stupid. When WWE signs a $2 billion dollar TV with FOX no one is running in to say *yeah but* that $2 billion would actually only be $300 million in 1973. When the network gets sold to Peacock for a $1 billion dollars no one is rushing in to rant about inflation. A wrestling company that isn't WWE just made $7 million dollars. In one night. That's a big deal. Candy bars used to be a nickle. Is that relevant to someone reporting Hershey's Q1 2021 earnings? Nope. So take your false equivalency bullshit elsewhere. I said then you do it because YOU are the one proclaiming that making **$7million dollars** is not actually a gigantic accomplishment. So if that's not a gigantic number to celebrate, then you must know first hand how to make more. Than do it. Promote anything (doesn't have to be wrestling) and get 140,000 people to buy it. Fuck man, make your offering *free* and see if you can get 140,000 people to bite. Spoiler, you can't.

...bruh... It's basically a contract loophole / procedural move. By restructuring it knocked his cap number down by $15 million. The added two years are voidable. I mean it's Brady so who knows, maybe he really does play that long. But in actuality the move was done because this year's salary cap is drastically lower than last year and this gives them more wiggle room to sign dudes.

Let's have a little context with the discussion here lol. 140,000-150,000 buys is a great number. TNA never got more than 25,000 buys in their best days (Angle vs Joe). And rarely ever got above 5,000 in the weekly days. WCW nose dived in 1999 and never hit that many buys in their last 18 months. $7 million dollars of PPV revenue is crazy good. You can focus on the rate of inflation vs 1999 PPVs if you want, but that's pretty snarky. Legitimately the best selling non WWE wrestling PPV in 22 years. And better than a fair amount of the pre network B show WWE PPVs too. But hey if you wanna knock $7 million dollars of PPV revenue, by all means run one yourself and show us all how it's done.

Fuck Sean Spears. In the pre lockdown days AEW guys were allowed to work indys. Brother comes into a promotion, decides he likes one of the worker's names, and trademarks it. So now a guy that had been working the indy's for a decade using "The Reaper" as his nickname gets a cease & desist and can no longer use it because Sean Spears trademarked it. And it's been over a year and he hasn't even used it for himself. That's some hardcore carny shit. Fucking over the other boys just trying to work up the ladder. (As far as I know he didn't try fighting the trademark suit because of the cost involved. He probably could win in court but he doesn't have the cash to get that far down the road.) So yeah, fuck Sean Spears.

I've never seen that before. Jesus what a terrible promo lol.

Three pretty sweet indy belt designs on the best unsigned guy on the planet. "Big Time" Bill Collier

I lost my shit for him being there. I'm a huge It's Always Sunny fan and so did not expect to see the Juggalo child Charlie wanted to mentor sitting front row lol.

You're using the word star as a synonym for mainstream recognition. (Yes I know this response was about Valentine and not Christian). That's not what star means. Especially not in the context that it was used for the purposes of what AEW promoted. So this is where I will tap out. I don't think our opinions are that far off from each other, but you just give far too much importance to the word star.

Thank you. I actually agree with you and find this post very helpful in what I'm trying to articulate. There are tiers here and mine would very similar to yours. What I'm trying to argue isn't that Christian is in the top tier. What I'm trying to argue is that people are using the term star to represent the top tier and that's the wrong usage. -Mainstream crossover / top draw / era defining talent (Hogan, Rock, Austin, Flair, Cena, Brock) -Mega star / full time main eventer / *the guy* of a time period that didn't quite cross over (Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Edge, Orton, Taker) -Star / big deal but not always a full time main eventer / well known in the wrestling bubble (RVD, Christian, Miz, Benoit, Mysterio) The disconnect here is people misusing the word star. Christian absolutely is a star. Maybe now that Goodear helped me articulate my point better people can see where I'm coming from.

Then literally @Smelly McUgly, tell me what we're allowed to use as criteria for this discussion. The WWE HOF doesn't count for you. You also just threw out World Title reigns. So tell me what I *am* allowed to use. Define star for me. Because if a guy at the top of the card for one of WWE's brands isn't it, and a guy at the top of the card for a competitor of WWE isn't it, then what is it? Only singles wrestlers your remember fondly from your childhood? How am I allowed to argue this point if you throw out every possible metric we can use as an inarguable fact? Longevity? Ratings points for their TV matches? PPV buys for events competed on? Total money made in a career? Give me fucking something other than this unspeakable intangible that only you can decree. This is not a wild hot take. This is not some wild claim. This is a fact. Christian is a star. Well shit, same question to you then @John from Cincinnati. What is a star? There's levels here. Star doesn't mean absolute top draw. But it's above jobber. It's above midcard. It's below mega star. Y'all define star for me in your terms because we DO NOT agree on the meaning right now I guess.

I quoted your post where you said Christian wasn't a singles star. Then I provided proof that he indeed was a singles star. So there was no weird flex involved. Christian held more world titles than Shawn Michaels. Christian held more world titles than Roddy Piper. Christian held more world titles than Kevin Nash. Christian is absolutely a singles star and you are wrong in saying that he "was not really that big a singles star and whose biggest claim to stardom was as the eventually less-pushed, less-popular member of a tag team from twenty years ago." That's all. How exactly do you measure what defines a star then? I agree The WHC was always seen as second to The WWE title. But the WHC was the top title for a national wrestling brand. (As was The NWA title when Christian had that twice in TNA too). The WHC meant a bunch when Triple H & Batista were main eventing Wrestlemania over it. It mean a lot when The Undertaker and Edge were main eventing Wrestlemania over it. So tell me what criteria we are allowed to use so we're both working with the same definitions then. Like, I'm pretty sure Christian's bank account is bigger than Jake Hager's. But that's something we aren't privy to, so probably not the best metric to argue the definition of "star" or "singles star" right? If a 6 time world champion isn't a "star" who is a "star"? No one is trying to say he's this rea defining mega star like an Austin or Rock or Hogan. But to say a guy that had runs on top isn't a star, would mean no one is a star except the mega stars. I'm not trying to challenge anyone on their opinions. That's subjective. But how do we debate the merits of this without goal post moving?

How is Christian not a near Hall of Famer? The Hall of Fame current includes such mega stars as Nikolai Volkoff, William The Refrigerator Perry, Greg The Hammer Valentine, Koko B Ware, The Bushwackers, ect. The Hall of Fame isn't just the Hogans / Pipers / Flairs of the world. Explain to me how a former 6 time World Champion is not as big of a singles star as Nikolai Volkoff. Your making the argument about who you believe is a star / HOFer vs who is ACTUALLY in the HOF. Christian was never *the guy* of an era in wrestling. But he's absolutely been a main eventer for the two biggest national promotions existing during his career. He held World Titles in both of those companies. How is that considered not really that big of a singles star? Sure he's not Austin. He's not Hogan. But he definitely was a singles star that main evented PPVs for World Championships.

I disagree that AEW over hyped the surprise signing. Big Show literally just said a HOF worthy guy is signing Sunday. That means someone who isn't in the HOF but is certainly on the level. In context, they mean the WWE HOF... the only wrestling HOF the general audience knows of. The Hall of Fame Koko B Ware is in. The HOF Vince's limo driver is in. This isn't the NFL HOF reserved for the tippy top 2% of the best GOATs that ever played that have to be voted in. The WWE HOF is about someone that is solid, or memorable, or contributed something WWE found a lot of value in. Christian certainly belongs. He's better than Koko, and the limo driver, and 75% of the people in there. And they literally just threw it out there 4 days before the PPV. It's NOT AT ALL fair to compare it to who is the third man from the nWo or whatever. All AEW said is someone we consider HOF worthy is signing here in a couple days. And TK hyped up he's one of his favorites of all time. Christian is one of my favorites of all time too, so I don't find that out of line to say at all. How did anyone conflate any of this to expect Punk, Rock, Cena, Brock? Like wtf. If they had signed any of them it would have been pushed so much fucking harder and specifically said one of the biggest names of all time / mega star / whatever. Not just on par with Koko B Ware / HOF worthy. Regardless tho, I do agree that he should have just debuted as a surprise. Or even the same way Big Show did, by random Twitter announcement that no one expected. Had they done that, no one could get their (wrongly) high hopes up. But for real Christian is the best option out of all the likely names. He can go. So for anyone that did expect a Brock / Rock / Cena / Punk I have this question to ask. Why? Why did you expect someone so huge on a thrown away under hyped thing thrown in 4 days before a PPV?

I'm very pro AEW and even I felt like tonight had more bad than good. -Pre show match started the trend of matches that wen way too fucking long. A pre show match is supposed to be a warm up. Not 22 minutes long. Glad to see Itoh but someone teach her how to kick out properly. Raising your hand slightly aint it. -Bucks vs Jericho / MJF was better than I expected, and one of Jericho's better matches lately. Didn't quite line up to the angle, but the work was very good. -Tag battle royal was pretty much a waste, except for that fire final 4. Get Jungleboy out on his own. I want more Jungleboy vs Fenix. -Women just did not click for me. The work was fine-ish just uninteresting. As was the post match just to be able to promote a 6man for wednesday. -Miro looked good. Match was mostly a waste of time. -Hardy vs Hangman was so long. And mostly boring. I love hangman. I think Matt is super creative and a major asset. But not as a straight up wrestler. The finish was very slick tho. -Ladder match was one of the most boring ladder matches of all time. I like everyone in the match. But just did not feel any energy from anyone. Cody is legit hurt. I get it. But him hovering in the entrance way for 10 minutes was just not well done. Scorpio vs Darby should be good. Ethan Page is solid, but he did not get a very warm reception. I also think booking him in a ladder match like he's a spot guy (he's not) was not booking towards his positives. -Weird that Christian has his TNA music. I know who it was the second his music kicked in. I was 2 for 2 with my guesses. I love Christian so I am good with this. Twitter fans hyped this up way too much and noting was going to live up to it. Although walking out, signing paper, showing your new merch was very anti climatic. But man if I get a Christian vs Fenix match all will be forgiven. -I loved the cinematic match. It's my favorite one of them all, and my match of the night. Loved the style of it. Loved everything about it except the commentary over it. Would have played better without it. -The main was very well done until the ending. And I mean the ending was well done, just such a letdown with that weak pyro. I have to imagine something more was planned. There's no way they tested that out and said yeah man that looks great the audience will love it. Why build 3 "triple hells" if you're only going to use one tho? The rope explosions looked good, and the match built well. But that PPV ending. Nooottttt very stronggg.....

Nothing. Literally nothing. Get it? Because you can't see him. (Picture of an empty Revolution stage from last year). Dumb John Cena meme tweet.

You guys are waxing philosophical about gaining mass but all of your "he can't gain that much size at that frame" arguments have been debunked lol. Visual proof... Before: After:

Puf is a legend. Totally agree. ?

Disappointed. I didn't see one joke about Vince finally seeing the first Coming To America movie in regards to Apollo's new gimmick. Just in time for the sequel. Personally I like the change of direction for him. I hope they keep it out of the unsavory zone they wander into too often. But as a guy who wrestled on the indys as "Uhaa Nation" I'm thinking he has at least some input in this. He's really a great dude and an amazing talent so I hope this gimmick gets him to the next level.

Final guesses on the surprises: If the surprise HOF worthy person is a woman... If the surprise HOF worthy person is man... Ladder Match entrant...