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I’m not looking for an apples to apples comparison, but with crowd attendance being so high and so many stars being over, and they’re on the verge of a big corporate merger, is WWE in another boom period like they were with the Hogan era and Attitude Era?
Their business is definitely on the upswing, no doubt. They are hot again. What's hot in 2023 is different from those eras, due to all of the entertainment options that are available now that weren't then. But WWE is definitely on its best run in a long, long time.
If Vince was still in charge like he was before last year, would WWE still be the success they’re having right now? Not nearly as many stars would be over but Cody and Roman would still be carrying the company on the verge of a merger.
I don't think they would be. I think there is a direct link between Vince McMahon giving up the booking and the company getting hotter. His booking was stale and out of touch. HHH’s team’s booking is worlds better and that is what gets people who weren’t already watching interested, the characters and the stories.
Over the past 30 years it’s been widely established that the top 2 managers in all of pro wrestling are Jim Cornette and Bobby Heenan, “with Cornette and Heenan each saying the other is number one.” With Paul Heyman’s work in the last 10 years, has he turned “top 2” into “top 3?”
It’s all subjective. I agree that Heenan is the best of all time because he was a bumping machine. His TV work was legendary as well. For number two, I think you can make the case for both Cornette and Heyman. Obviously, Corny was a great old school manager. In Heyman’s case you can say he didn’t spend as much time as a manager back in the day as Corny did, but he has been a pioneer of what a modern manager has become. Both men are all time greats, that is beyond dispute.
What’s a worse booking fate for talent? Being booked to be a manager for a tag team with a lame model gimmick, or being booked to be cannon fodder for Bray Wyatt’s worst gimmick? And how on earth did LA Knight survive both without getting anything on him?
He survived because people saw his talent and wouldn’t let him be held back. That simple. He reminds me of the Daniel Bryan situation in some ways, though Bryan was being pushed better when the fans attached themselves to him.
So the news hit recently about the Elite signing their AEW extensions. I was thinking, in the alternate universe where they'd left for WWE instead (I'm primarily a WWE guy so I don't want to live in that universe), what happens to AEW from a branding standpoint? I'm assuming the Bucks and Kenny own the Elite trademark for wrestling purposes, and would look to call themselves the Elite in WWE. At the same time, I can't imagine Tony would plunk down all that money and name his company after a trademark he didn't own himself. So does he pay even more to change the AEW name with no more Elite, and re-brand everything about the company? Also, I really look forward to reading the daily Q&A. Given what passes for reporting in some places these days, an honest, fair, and ethical perspective is always great to see. I've noticed that sometimes on Twitter, you post links to two or three Q&A sessions that don't show up on the site for several days. Do y'all auto-load your tweets ahead of time, or is my browser acting up? Thanks for all that the both of you do.
Second question first. I usually do my Q and As on the weekend. Once I post them, I tweet the link out for anyone who wants to read them early. If those three men left AEW, it wouldn’t affect the name of the company because it’s owned by All Elite Wrestling, LLC. I don’t see any world where Tony Khan would change it. As for those three, well this is just my opinion but as I have said before, if I can see that The Young Bucks lose viewers when they wrestle WWE can too. If WWE were to sign them, I don’t think they would have the amount of say or power that they have in AEW. I think they would try Kenny as a single if they brought him in so it probably wouldn’t be an issue. Thanks for the kind words.
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