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HOW DO YOU MAKE 340,000 VIEWERS DISAPPEAR, IF ACE STEEL GETS FIRED THE YOUNG BUCKS HAVE TO BE FIRED AS WELL, WHY SOME PEOPLE IGNORE AEW’S FAULTS AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2022-09-11 10:01:00

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You and Jim Cornette have been the two people in the media who have consistently pointed out shortcomings/problems in AEW while most, if not all, of your counterparts did the exact opposite.  Why do you think so many people acted like everything was great in AEW and do you think that is part of the reason that Tony Khan has made so many mistakes?

In some cases, it’s just that people covering AEW really love everything that they do and as long as they get what they want, they are happy.  They don’t look at anything other than “that’s what I like so it’s the best!”  In other cases, there are people who have, in some ways, bet their professional standing that the world would tune out WWE and turn on a New Japan style of promotion if someone had the money to start it.  I remember one scribe said that within a year or two, AEW would pass WWE.  At the time, I was thinking to myself, “Put down the pipe.”  There’s another camp that looks at wrestling as a performance art rather than fake fights that should do everything that they can to bring realism to the party.  Jim and I look at the business from a similar point of view.  Logic is important to us, both in storylines and matches.  We want storylines that make sense to lead to matches that make sense and when we don’t see that, we call AEW out on it.  We also look down the road and consider what AEW is doing today may mean for their business and TV deal long term.  With that said, I also acknowledge that if 200,000 new people join the show for the return of Kenny Omega, I will say it was the right move to make, even if I don’t like it.  Too often the people that praise everything AEW does will make an excuse for why the 200,000 people tuned Kenny out.  I just try and be fair and I think fair people will see that whether they agree with me or not, I back up my criticisms of AEW with facts.

I have really enjoyed your columns on the AEW-PPV situation.  I listened a show that NAME DELETED did that was posted on YouTube and he made a big deal of saying that Ace Steel had to be fired because it was his job to break up the fight and he got involved.  Not once did he mention that the three people who started the fights were EVPs, over Steel on the food chain.  If Ace should have stopped the fight, shouldn’t those three have done it as well?  And why wouldn’t NAME DELETED mention something so obvious?  Is he biased?

First, I deleted the name because I don’t listen to this person often so he may have said it elsewhere but I did listen to the clip you sent me and you are accurate in your presentation.  Not once did he even mention that Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks are EVPs in the company.  It doesn’t take a business degree to understand that EVPs are over Producers in the corporate hierarchy.  If this reporter thinks Ace Steel should be fired for “not breaking up the fight” then The Bucks and maybe Kenny should be fired for the same reason.  In fact, since they chose to enter Punk’s room and start the whole thing, you could make the case that they should be fired anyway.  They certainly should be stripped of their EVP Titles because they acted very poorly and put the company in a position to be sued by Punk for an unsafe work environment, should it get that far.  If they want to storm into his room because they were angry, fine, do it as wrestlers but not as officers of the company.  Then if punches are thrown, realize you may get fired.

What do you make of AEW losing 340,000 viewers from the start to the end of Dynamite this week?

I think it was on merit.  Tony Khan was in a pickle due to ongoing investigation but he could have said something other than “I stripped them of the Titles”.  Punk is hurt so he could have just said “Punk is hurt, will be out for months and we are stripping him of the Title”.  It would have been true!  You could have said the same about The Bucks, not that it had to even be addressed this week.  It’s a third tier Title that has caused 200,000 plus people to turn the show off three weeks in a row.  It could have waited.  Imagine you just spent $50 on the PPV and you turn on Dynamite and saw that speech.  Hell, I even felt ripped off by AEW and I do this for a living!  Aside from that, I would bet that some people watched MJF return and talk about WWE and just groaned, then turned the show off.  Tony Khan and Chris Jericho just whined about WWE in the build up to All Out, then they go and talk about the company.  Again.  It’s so hypocritical.

Why would Tony Khan choose to end his show with Yuta-Garcia instead of Danielson-Page?

I have no idea.  You would think an analytics guy would have learned from three straight weeks where people tuned out the hardcore dream stuff that he put on last in the Trios tournament.  I think a big part of the problem is that Tony sees what he thinks is important as everyone seeing as important.  That isn’t the case with the masses and people will keep turning off if he doesn’t adjust.

Tell me more about CM Punk’s dog Larry.

Why listen to me when you can listen to CM Punk!  I am with Punk and Ace Steel’s wife.  This dude should not have been in the middle of EVPs on the attack.  Then again, I like dogs more than I like most people.

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