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TNA 2010-2013, the famous Hogan, Bischoff era. They drew their biggest gate(s), biggest TV audience and had around 1.5m regularly weekly viewers. Why didn’t this translate into making money when they went on the road?
The same reason that they didn’t translate those viewers into PPV buys the way that they wanted to, most TNA fans were happy to just watch from the comfort of their own home, but not spend money on the product.
I read a great article by Dave about his AEW need to go get CM Punk to help their TV. I agree. Flip side, does NXT need to grab anyone for their TV? Yes they have the WWE promotion vehicle behind it, but the product is different to what casual PG WWE families watch. Personally, I’d like to see Finn Balor and Bobby Roode back on NXT Full time.
I think the key word in your question is “need”. NXT does not NEED to do that, especially not at first. They can gauge the audience and make changes. Even if AEW does twice the audience that NXT does (and I am NOT saying that will be the case), anything that WWE gets out of NXT is found money. AEW needs their show to be a hit now so that they can get a great TV deal down the line. They NEED results right away, or at least quickly. NXT does not. Now, if AEW is killing NXT over the first month, I could see WWE making moves. And remember, they could have an NXT talent attack a Raw talent on Raw, then have the Raw talent go down to NXT on Wednesday, with USA hyping the hell out of it. Just imagine Shayna Baszler attacking Becky Lynch on Monday in hour one of Raw and leaving. By hour two, they announce Becky is heading to Full Sail on Wednesday. People will tune in, for sure. As I have said many times, AEW has a tough fight ahead.
I heard CM Punk’s Starrcast interview (great job Mike Johnson). He dropped a pipe bomb on how stupid some wrestling fans are when he told them that they don’t have to choose between AEW and NXT and said they should enjoy both. Why are some wrestling fans so stupid?
I don’t know that I would call those fans stupid. I prefer to use the term irrational. I think if you are a wrestling fan, you should enjoy whatever good wrestling that you can, just like Punk said. My anecdotal evidence, and that’s all that it is, shows me that the “Us vs. Them” thing is definitely a bigger issue from the AEW fans. Why? I can’t say for sure. I know that in some cases that they won’t support anything that Vince McMahon is a part of, for various reasons. Me? I am a pro-labor guy so if WALTER and Tyler Bate are going to give me an all time classic, I am going to watch it and support them. I don’t look at it like Vince owns NXT UK, I look at it like those guys got to show how great they are and get paid well in the process. As a wrestling fan, I am not going to deprive myself of that because of how I feel about Vince. Some AEW fans feel a lot differently. Me? I will be watching NXT, then AEW, and hoping for two great shows.
What exactly is Eric Bischoff's role for Smackdown? Not his title, per se, but more what he is doing. I've heard Paul Heyman's name mention a lot when it comes to Raw, but no one really mentions Eric Bischoff since he was hired.
He is the overall manager of the product, reporting to Vince McMahon. The reason you hear more about Heyman is that Paul is a booker at heart. Eric has always been a manager. They are very different people with different skill sets, so you can’t expect them to do the job the same way.
Lastly, I'd like to offer a suggestion. I love reading the Q&A daily, but sometimes I find it difficult to find. Maybe adding "PWI Q&A:" at the beginning of the post would make it easier to pick out.
We don’t need to! All you need to do is click on the Q and A link at the top of the page. It will bring them all up for you!
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