Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.
Hasn’t Corey Graves been around long enough to know that if he wants to run “angles” with the other announcers, he should let them know he is doing it?
Yes, he has been. And he should also let WWE management know that he is doing it. He made a really poor decision tweeting what he did about Mauro Ranallo. And if it ends up Mauro doesn’t come back, I could see him becoming the target of the fans’ ire at Smackdown tapings. That is not what he, WWE or FOX would want. He needs to smarten up.
Now that Kairi Sane is no longer a pirate, do they need to change her theme music, which only works if she is portraying her pirate persona?
Need? Probably not. It’s not THAT big of a deal, at least to me. But if they want to, that’s OK too.
What do you think AEW can do to have more eyes on their weekly TV show?
They are doing a solid job now for a company so early in its existence, though they are down from week one obviously. To me the reason for that is that people that tuned in for the first few shows did not see enough character and storyline development and they didn’t return. I know a lot of hardcore fans think that wrestling is all about the matches but to many people it’s not. It’s about the stories and the characters. I think the one area AEW has been a bit lacking are in telling us a good stories and showing us who the characters are. I think that problem stems from the fact that they have too many bookers and not one central vision. The best storylines have involved Cody so I think they need to treat the whole roster the way that they do the feuds that he is in. That would be a smart strategy as they build.
I have to admit I was surprised to read that Cody Rhodes has trademarked a few old WCW pay-per-view names. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean that AEW will use them, although they are using Bash At The Beach in January, but what’s the thinking here? Wouldn’t it be better to create their own concepts and ideas rather than buying up trademarks from a company that went out of business nearly 19 years ago?
I think there is a place for nostalgia and all but I am with you. I have always thought it’s better to be the “first AEW big event” than to be the “next Bash at the Beach”. I like creativity and coming up with new ideas (which is why I hate crutches that companies rest on, like WWE uses Money in the Bank).
Do you think AEW/Wednesday Night Wars had any influence in how strong NXT was booked at Survivor Series? Is it possible since there’s no “real competition” (by no means am I saying WWE is the best but no Monday/Friday Night Wars) for Raw and Smackdown that Vinny Mac put NXT over the way he did to try and draw more weekly NXT viewers?
I talked about this on audio a lot in the last week. Here’s the deal. WWE is trying to turn NXT into a viable, third product that they can monetize in a greater capacity that they do now, with their modest TV deal on USA. USA would love to create a show that does a million plus viewers every week as their goal is to always win the basic cable ratings race. It’s in both companies’ best interest to make NXT strong and build momentum behind it. They are not doing to “crush AEW” but if that happens in the process, it would be an added benefit for WWE. But rest assured, they didn’t book NXT so strongly over the last few months to get at AEW. They did it to strengthen their asset.
You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
