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IS AEW MAKING A BIG MISTAKE WITH THEIR PPV PRICE, HOW SHOULD THEY CROWN THEIR FIRST CHAMPION, IS LIO RUSH A VICTIM OF BEING A MILLENNIAL AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2019-05-20 10:00:00

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Is AEW serious that they want to charge $49.95 for the stream or Double or Nothing?  They are an unproven commodity except for one PPV!  I want to give this company a chance.  Why would anyone pay that price when any other company’s  streaming options are usually 50% less or even more??  I would think $19.95 or $24.95 would have been better and get a higher buy rate and more eyes on their product.  Your thoughts?

And honestly, that one PPV was a Ring Of Honor show so AEW proper is indeed a novice company.  If have said the same thing on audios for months now.  I have said that if I were them, I would have made the show $19.95 on PPV.  I would even go lower and charge $9.95 via stream.  They are spending a lot of money, true, but they aren’t going to make it all back on this show.  They are a start up and that means that they have to spend money now to (hopefully) make money later.  To me, it was much more important for them to get eyeballs on the product than it was to generate revenue with this show.  The traditional split is 40 percent so they will get 20 dollars per buy.  I would rather do twice as many buys and make the same amount in gross revenue (or even less) and get many more eyes on the product.  I would want to create goodwill with the fan base, especially given I can watch everything WWE offers other than TV for less than 10 bucks a month.  I can watch all ROH shows for 10 bucks a month.  Etc.  Instead a lot of people feel like you do (believe me, I have heard from a lot of you) and will be skipping the show due to the very high price.  I think they are making a big mistake, especially when you consider that the company is kind of in limbo until they start on TNT in the fall.  No matter what happens on Saturday, this show is really just a placeholder until TV starts.  

I've read people saying that "All of Nothing" could be the mantra for fans to take to AEW.  Is it a lack of wherewithal or does Turner Media and the Khan family think people will pay that much?  I enjoy the talents but in this day and age, is it a money issue that they look for an immediate return?  In an age of streaming, are they starting out of the gate with a lame horse?

Time will tell how many people buy, or don’t buy, the show.  I don’t know if it’s a lame horse until we see what happens. Obviously, they think enough people will pay what they are asking. If I had to guess, I think they are in for a surprise when they see what the buy rates are.  I hope I am wrong.

I had a question about this whole Lio Rush situation. I honestly don’t know how I feel about it but I was wondering if this is a millennial thing of some sorts. Millennials have completely changed the work culture in terms of working from home, eliminating meetings that are unnecessary and using productivity apps like Slack. Maybe it’s time to end traditional things like carrying bags out of respect (maybe it’s not...I don’t know). I believe hazing was tradition and I think that has ended. Hazing is ending in colleges even though those were traditions. Maybe Lio sees himself as an independent contractor who doesn’t have to carry someone’s bag just like Kevin Hart wouldn’t carry Eddie Murphy’s bag if they did a movie together back in the day when Hart was coming up. Maybe Lio thinks star wrestler A can hire someone to do that for him. And maybe Lio Rush feels he travels 300 days a year and wants to stay married so he’s challenging work-life balance by bringing his wife along. And, yet, he has a big mouth so he also says stupid things. Maybe his end goal is to get out of a difficult work culture so he knows exactly what he’s doing to force the WWE to allow him to ummm...work from home...for the remainder of his contract and work for a more wrestler-friendly product when he is a free agent. Of course, that other company can see Lio as a cancer and not hire him. But I don’t think Lio is a naive as people say. His heat has really started to hit the news since AEW was about to take shape. It just seems too consistent to be an honest mistake. 

It’s not a millennial thing because other people his age come up and don’t do the things that he has done.  It’s a Lio Rush thing.  The bottom line is most businesses have a culture that has mores for new talents.  It’s the kind of thing one either adheres to or deals with the consequences if he/she chooses not to.  That is what Rush has done.

Based on the fact that Conrad Thompson, by virtue of being on the AEW broadcast team, is an employee of AEW, Does this support WWE's reasoning for pulling Kurt Angle and Undertaker from Starrcast II? 

WWE doesn’t have to support any reasoning.  If they have a talent under contract and don’t want them to work for someone else, they just have to say so.  You can’t blame them, AEW is owned by a billionaire family.  They have to be seen as a threat by WWE.

Now that the deal to air AEW on TNT has been officially announced, what would you like to see happen at Double or Nothing in regards to their first World Champion?  Tournament?  Battle of 2 top Contenders? etc?

Well we know the winner of the Casino Battle Royal will get a shot.  To me, I think for a start up company they should do an 8 man tournament.  Announce it on week one of the TV show and do the first round on week two, the semis on week three and the final on the first PPV that they have after they start on TNT.  Given they are getting an ad split from TV, they still need to generate revenue from house shows, merchandise and PPV.

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