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WWE was booked for an audience of one man for about 10-15 years. I would argue Vince the booker didn’t take a complete down turn until 2005ish. But even then the audience of one had shareholders, advertisers etc.. His entire fortune was tied to his wrestling promotion. He could only go so far. Now we have AEW booked for an audience of one. Except I think we’re all missing something this go around, it literally doesn’t have to make money. Shad Khan’s net worth has increased 4.5 billion dollars in the last 12 months. AEW literally never has to turn a profit unless Shad says so. It can be Tony’s toy and Shad’s tax write off. Short of losing TV completely, nothing can really derail Tony’s dream at this point. I say all that to ask, does this information change the way we should view AEW? The talent are getting paid, the shows aren’t that great, they provide a lot to talk about. As long as AEW keeps a TV deal, everyone wins, right?
It already has for me. I had been coming around to that line of thinking for a while now, that Tony would rather give us what he wants to see than appeal to the masses. Last week, he tweeted that very thing. I believe him when he said it. I have given up any hope that AEW will improve. It is what it is, Tony’s playground. And not for nothing, if he and his dad are happy with that, good for him. It’s his money.
Just listened to Mike’s great audio on the first two episodes of Who Killed WCW… like he mentioned, us 99 percenters know most of the story. But something hit me when he reminded us of the Turner suits who LOATHED having rassling on their network… pardon the rabbit hole, but is there any possibility the suits brought in Overrated Vince Russo for the specific purpose of killing off the product? I’ve heard the VKM-Russo “agreement” rumors, but never this possible swerve. Granted, Bro was terrible but it would make sense… at least it would explain how TRULY terrible the last 2 years were.
Nope, that didn’t happen. At the time Russo was brought in, on a significant contract I might add, it was to fix the WCW product. That didn’t happen, but he was definitely brought in to try and improve WCW.
What the heck? Who knew Ethan Page had the kind of command over a crowd and skill on the microphone? How is he a bigger star in one night on NXT than he was at all in AEW? Did Tony not know he could do this?
I knew! I heard him do strong promos in Impact wrestling. Tony should have known too. I have no idea how he didn’t but you are correct, Page showed what he could do in one night. AEW’s lose is WWE’s gain.
I recently noticed the addition of wrestler-specific faceplates on the AEW world title belt, something I don't believe belt originally had. Do you consider this an outright copying of WWE's idea, who have been doing the faceplates for much longer? Conversely, did WWE steal AEW's idea of picture-in-picture commercial breaks? I don't recall WWE doing it before AEW started it.
The bottom line is that in sports and entertainment, everyone gloms good ideas from the competition. I have no problem with that.
I don't know if it's an irrational annoyance or something that's happened for years and I've only just noticed, but what is with the proliferation of wrestlers chewing gum on camera? Is there a sensible reason for them to be doing it?
It’s just the opposite, it makes no sense. Chewing gum when you are supposed to be in a physical fight isn’t bright since you could easily swallow it. To me, it’s like wearing an earring. It is a realism killer to me.
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