This is the seating plan for the upcoming Dynamite on May 1st in Winnipeg. They're not even attempting to sell the greyed out seats other than the east/west floor. Why? The blue areas have seats available. Some are sold, but most aren't. There has been absolutely ZERO promotion for this even happening up here yet. It's only a month away and should coincide with most people getting their tax returns. They have every opportunity to pack this up.
A good part of AEW's roster have strong connections to Winnipeg (Jericho, Omega (injured, but whatever), Callis, Copeland, and Christian). WWE seldom comes here and the top guys usually sit it out. It's basically an open market.
I've been to movies and concerts that are virtually empty. It's not the same experience when it's packed. I hate people, but it absolutely changes the experience.
I don't care about TV ratings. I know I sure don't contribute to those...but I watch their show anyway. Empty arenas are a bit depressing. Empty because they can't sell their product is one thing......but empty because they don't want to fill them is another question. Filling arenas would shut up guys like Bischoff et al. Everyday isn't going to be Wembley, but they can still feel like it.
Seats/sections open as events sell tickets. They’re not saying “we don’t want to sell these seats,” they’re just selling the seats that will be on camera first. Should those all sell out, more sections open.
I agree AEW has an issue with marketing/promoting live events and they raised their ticket prices to almost unreasonable levels after Punk showed up. They need to promote more (local interviews, etc) - which tbh, they have in recent months - and lower ticket prices. But the seats aren’t available because the sections they have open aren’t selling out.
At this point, they’re still raking in 3k-5k crowds weekly. They aren’t going to go to smaller, more intimate venues because most a tier below only seat 2k-3k. Even with only half arenas, they’re still making more money than if they were to downsize. If it looks good on TV for the network and sponsors (and it does), there’s no reason to switch up their touring schedule. But yah, they could certainly do more to sell more tickets - it just very obviously isn’t as big an issue as some folks tend to make it seem.
When I was at Collision I couldn't shake the feeling "why does this place look so small now?" because I was there 3 months prior for Raw. I didn't notice until a couple hours in that it just felt smaller because they had all the upper sections tarped off, so with the right lighting if you hadn't been there before you wouldn't have known there were seats up there.
At some point unless Tony or Shad the Dad decides to pull the plug, losing money becomes unsustainable. Selling less tickets means less money. AEW isn’t pricing itself out of the market as much as they’re just not drawing like they used to. They’re not a hot property the way they used to be. That’s because AEW isn’t telling compelling stories. AEW might have some amazing characters and the matches are usually good to great, but they’re not taking advantage of the characters. Say what you want. Call me a grifter or whatever but I’m right. We saw it with WWE for over 20 years. We saw TNA circle the bowl because of bad creative. We saw WCW die because they lost so much money, again because of bad creative. ECW couldn’t keep up and that last year and a half was not great. ROH couldn’t clear the hurdle of creative working out, as much as I liked ROH especially early on.
> ROH couldn’t clear the hurdle of creative working out, as much as I liked ROH especially early on.
Yeah, if having the "best wrestling" was all that mattered, there would've been a good 5-6 years in the mid-2000s where ROH would've been the top promotion in the country.and it would've been WWE struggling to find a TV deal.
Shahid Kahn only invested one single time when AEW first started -- none of his money is going into the company. Mike Ozanian, managing editor for Forbes, valued the company at $2 billion at minimum after a private valuation, with further research done by people with less access and theoretical information suggesting it could be floating around $1 billion. Both are fine numbers for a company 4 1/2 years old, but I'm more willing to believe the Forbes editor considering it's, well, Forbes. Ticket sales do need to be better -- but, yes, that is at least partially because of the prices and partially due to the markets they run their shows. Which is likely why Kosha Irby was brought in at the beginning of the year -- because she was WWE's Regional Director of Live Events and is said to be taking over a similar role for AEW after the poor turnouts.
Anyhow, I don't mean to ruffle any feathers obviously, but the "AEW has no compelling stories" shtick is for the birds. It's just a tired argument that holds no real water. There is no metric -- stories are 100% subjective. I, and many others, happen to really enjoy a lot of the stories AEW has told/is telling. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty I didn’t, but I’m mostly fine with what they put out. So I just don’t understand how one can consider it objective fact that the stories are no good based solely on the fact that they personally feel that way. I mean, I personally find very few stories on WWE truly compelling -- even the majority of the Bloodline stuff when Roman/Rock aren't around -- but how I feel is irrelevant to their current success. On average, the same amount of people who tuned in when AEW started are still tuning in now, relatively speaking (see: that graph and info I posted recently). That simply wouldn't be the case if the stories were objectively uncompelling. You can dislike the stories and think those who enjoy them have bad taste, whatever floats your boat -- but, no, creative is very likely not the primary issue.
ECW went under because Heyman is an awful businessman who couldn't pay his talent, keep his shows on PPV or cable, made enemies of all his business partners and ultimately ghosted his crew. WCW sure had its fair share of bad creative, but WCW had far more issues than just that and those have been talked about ad nauseum. Sinclair stopped caring about ROH and mismanaged it brutally during its final days if we're to believe any of the people who worked there when they were closing. WWE were closest to failure in the mid-90s due to the steroid scandal and WCW's ascension pillaging the roster of recognizable names like Hogan, Hall and Nash, forcing them into a rebuilding period. While, sure, bad creative was present for all these companies, it for sure was never the core factor in their closures (or nagging issues, in WWE's case).
None of these situations are similar to AEW's current situation. None of those companies were valued near $2 billion when they went under with all signs pointing to a new lucrative TV deal coming at the end of the year when their current one is set to expire. None of them had the strong relationship with the network when they went under, none of them had the level of sponsorships when they went under, none of them were actively touted as key programming by their networks when they went under, none of them were listed in the Top 5 shows for their night consistently when they went under. AEW doesn't seem to be in any danger of closing due to financials and their recent hire would suggest that the attendance issue is likely because of scheduling/pricing as opposed to subjective storytelling (and hopefully that hire helps right the ship in that regard). Call me a fanboy or whatev -- again, I'm not trying to come off that way and am just approaching this topic with objectivity -- but these tangibles hold more weight than one's opinion on the stories.
Just saw that Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane) was added to Mania. Glad to see they're finally using Jade, even if this particular match doesn't really scratch the itch for me. Still oughtta be good stuff though.
I only watched the first 90 minutes of SmackDown tonight. With Jade's little promo, I felt like that was kind of a waste of time to just come out and say a few sentences and then flex. Is it just me or did it look like she had more to say at the end but they had already started playing her theme music to wrap it up?
I was a Jade fan when she was in AEW. I always got a kick out of the 'cut the crap, Tony' line. WWE needs a Tony to make this happen. I felt her promos in AEW were stronger than this one was tonight. The in-ring stuff there was a bit green...but when you're dealing with other green wrestlers every week, it seems doubtful that would improve much. Hopefully working with Bianca and Trinity helps that more.
I missed a bunch of Smackdown in between making supper so I'll rewatch it shortly.
Is it just me...or was Kairi a much more solid in-ring performer a few years ago during her first run in WWE?
Yeah, Kairi is not on top of her game these days. I'd like to see her put in serious effort in a match with Asuka or Iyo Sky, but we won't see that as long as she's in a stable with them. But then again for as long as they keep sticking her in tag teams (she's never had a chance to do her thing solo on the main roster), maybe she feels like she'll forever be lost in the shuffle.
Yah I watched Jade’s run in segment back earlier and it was just okay. Makes one wonder why they kept her off TV for 7 months to “get better” when she just does all the same crap she did before, but I suppose we’ll have to wait for a proper singles match to see if she really improved or what. She was pretty damn good by the end of her AEW run, her matches with Statlander were awesome. Who knows the thought process in WWE sometimes though.
I still like Kairi but she isn’t doing her best work right now for sure. But I also feel like she hasn’t been given a TON of opportunities to really open up since her return.
Anyhow, here’s part 2 of that 24/7 Mania match marathon since the first video is private now. Tuned in just in time to miss the Wrestlemania VII match with Warrior kicking out of multiple Macho Man elbows in a row and instead get to see the great Savage/Liz reunion.
The Bayley/Sasha/Charlotte/Jax match from WM33 is on right now and I can’t stress enough how much I miss hugger Bayley. Her heel work was fun for sure but she had a legitimately super fun aura about her back in those hugger days. Would be neat to see them bring that back to some extent at Mania this year… I feel like her current face persona is missing something.
Matt Cardona answered Adam Copeland’s open challenge on Collision tonight, giving us Edge vs 1/2 of the Edgeheads. Pop was wild and the match was pretty awesome.
Gonna be a fun episode of the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast next week haha
Was chatting with folks on Discord and the concept of Top 10 favorite tag teams came up. Who would you guys have on your list?
For me, I went with:
1. Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) 2. The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) 3. Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart) 4. Von Erichs (specifically David, Kevin and Kerry) 5. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 6. Steenerico (Kevin Steen & El Generico) 7. The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) 8. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) 9. Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Bejamin & Charlie Haas) 10. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
100% just my personal list -- not an objective thing at all. 9 & 10 may be bopped off from some teams I'm just not thinking of. I appreciate Dudleys, Hardy Boys and E&C but they don't top those 10 based on my personal preference. Interested to see if others share theirs, tag team wrestling doesn't get the love it deserves.
No order except number 1. Subjective to the minute as I might have forgotten someone haha.
Midnight Express (Eaton and Lane) Freebirds (Hayes and Gordy) Road Warriors Steiners Uso’s Haas and Benjamin Hart Foundation (Bret and Anvil) Hollywood Blondes (Austin and Pillman) Arn and Tully Briscoes (Jay and Mark)
Edit: honorable mentions to the Varsity Club and Power & Glory.
Edit: maybe also an honorable mention for Ricky Steamboat and stupid ass Shane Douglas. That’s the best work Shane Douglas ever did and it’s not even close. His ECW promo work was great until he just said fudge a thousand times and his matches were almost always disappointing.
Man, CM Punk is a hypocritical yes-man sell out after all. What a fudgein bummer.
Dude legit admitted to choking Perry at All In, said he thought that he was “being responsible,” and then goes on to suggest the reports of him being violent backstage are “overblown.” Again, a mere 20 minutes after admitting he choked somebody before Samoa Joe scared him into snapping back to reality.
Also says “guaranteed money” is the issue with AEW’s contracts… as the man who 1) signed a contract for guaranteed money, like anybody signed to either AEW or WWE do, 2) got pissy when it was suggested he didn’t buy into his own “worker’s rights” spiel and, 3) said “I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to make money” during his WWE return promo. The guy just can’t help but trip over himself.
Dude is an unhinged poser, and this interview has tanked any goodwill I had left for him. Cabana and Hangman were 100% right.
There's tons of those in the business unfortunately. With a big enough payday it's hard to resist selling out. I forgive Bret for doing it, but I've refused to watch his match with Vince to this day (though from what I've heard it wasn't much of a match anyway).
> There's tons of those in the business unfortunately. With a big enough payday it's
> hard to resist selling out. I forgive Bret for doing it, but I've refused to watch
> his match with Vince to this day (though from what I've heard it wasn't much of a
> match anyway).
>
Extremely lucky to have not watched that trash bag match lol. Although it does feature a pretty gnarly Hart Attack to Vince from the Hart Dynasty where Vince bashes his head off the floor like the loser he is. Almost makes it worth the match. almost.
Lol arbitrary hate for somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong other than dare start a pro wrestling company. Keep that bias comin’. I respect you, Bucket -man!
LOL I love how any sort of criticism of Tony and AEW is ‘all he did is start a company and everyone’s blasting him for no reason’ or ‘grifters, I swear’ or whatever other rhetoric you have. As much as you claim to be objective, your bias is really showing. Mine has too, but I’m not lying about it.
> LOL I love how any sort of criticism of Tony and AEW is ‘all he did is start a
> company and everyone’s blasting him for no reason’ or ‘grifters, I swear’
> or whatever other rhetoric you have. As much as you claim to be objective, your bias
> is really showing. Mine has too, but I’m not lying about it.
Brother, I criticized Punk then made a joke about April Fool's and you popped in with an out-of-nowhere Tony Khan bashing. We all get it, you hate Tony Khan. That wasn't relevant to the conversation regarding the interview Punk did today, it was just you for some reason needing to push your weird disdain for a wrestling company's owner into the conversation... again. Give it a rest.
I don't lie about crap. I enjoy both AEW and WWE. I enjoy AEW far more lately. Haven't even sorta hidden that, so not sure what you're getting at. Whether that changes or not is yet to be determined, but it's entirely possible. Sure isn't going to happen because grown ass adults keep whining about Tony Khan, though. For someone you claim is a joke, YOU bring him up an awful lot.
I never called you a grifter, as far as I know you aren't somebody from the pro wrestling industry trying to make money off your arbitrary opinion like Bischoff, Bubba, etc. The objective fact is that, yes, you did "blast him for no reason" today (among several other occasions), and that, yes, all he did was start a pro wrestling company and you, for one reason or another, have seem to taken great offense to that.
I truly don't need you to keep being passive aggressive to me over pro wrestling. Either filter me and be done with it, or stop blatantly riling crap up. I'm completely fine with you, you seem to have a problem with me. Make a decision and I promise i'll be able to live with it. Getting real old.
Would it have been better if I said AEW was the joke? Would that have been better? That’s what I had typed out but I figured you’d go after me for whatever I said so I made it more fun for me.
You crap on Punk an awful lot and I like Punk. What’s wrong with me stating my opinion as you stated yours? I saw you crap on him for no reason and then holy crap I saw a recap of the interview and educated myself and still #TeamPunk.
I don’t know Tony enough to hate him. I think he’s wholly unqualified to be in the spot he is and his product reflects as such, but hey he can do what he wants. His stories suck and his attendance and ratings and other metrics we can see show that. I think some of the people he employs, namely the Bucks and Hangman Page and Jungle Jackoff and Jericho, are a detriment to his company but that’s one person’s opinion. He can make his company a distant number 2 and maybe or maybe not get a good TV deal. We’ll see what happens.
Listen to your avatar friend. No animosity on my side, no matter what you may think.
I like AEW, but Punk has a point that a boss that isn’t willing to step in and settle disputes (and creating and separating people into different shows isn’t settling) is never going to be sustainable. Khan needs some sort of enforcer, and honestly these days that has to be a guy that can toe the line between respected/intimidating and on the right side of HR. WWE has Hunter (who knows if that will stay with the McMahon crap), AEW lacks that.
> Would it have been better if I said AEW was the joke? Would that have been better?
> That’s what I had typed out but I figured you’d go after me for whatever I said
> so I made it more fun for me.
>
Why would that have been better? I think it's obnoxious to act like a company's owner has personally offended you, why would it be better to think his company did too? Have fun with that I guess?
> You crap on Punk an awful lot and I like Punk. What’s wrong with me stating my
> opinion as you stated yours? I saw you crap on him for no reason and then holy crap
> I saw a recap of the interview and educated myself and still #TeamPunk.
I didn't "crap on him for no reason." I watched the interview, molded an opinion based off my decades-long fandom of the guy, and posted it here in this thread. There are certain things Punk said that objectively contradicted how he's acted for years, and even contradicted what he said in the same interview. Hashtags don't work here, so not sure why you keep using one, but heck, if you're "#TeamPunk" good on ya! I hope you still enjoy his work, I'm sure his matches will be fine. I just think he's a hypocritical loser.
And let's be fair here, you'd very obviously be #TeamAnybody if they came out and said goofy crap about AEW. Objectivity goes a long way in opinion-based conversations -- when one lets their subjective opinions and blatant, admitted bias drive all their arguments, the opinion suddenly becomes washed. This is why I'd be okay with you filtering me if any criticism I post about WWE is going to become a very serious, very necessary e-war.
>
> I don’t know Tony enough to hate him. I think he’s wholly unqualified to be in
> the spot he is and his product reflects as such, but hey he can do what he wants.
> His stories suck and his attendance and ratings and other metrics we can see show
> that. I think some of the people he employs, namely the Bucks and Hamgman Page and
> Jungle Jackoff and Jericho, are a detriment to his company but that’s one person’s
> opinion. He can make his company a distant number 2 and maybe or maybe not get a
> good TV deal. We’ll see what happens.
Again, you are literally processing Nielsen ratings like they still matter as much as 1998 when they simply do not. That is not a legitimate metric to make the point you're trying to make. Both shows have lost 600k viewers on average since 2019. This isn't a matter of opinion. This one IS objective fact. Not because I'm saying it on the internet, but because all metrics and information suggests this. You choose to disregard this information to continue being inaccurate about AEW out of some weird vendetta towards a wrestling company solely for not producing a product you enjoy.
Your subjective opinion on the quality of AEW creative or just saying his stories suck does not warp reality for everyone else to make it objective truth. I like AEW better than WWE, so look at that - his product works for me! If it doesn't for you, that's totally okay! And if somebody is hung up on attendance -- just don't watch the show? At this point, the "attendance" conversation is really only dredged up by folks who already want to dislike the product and want to use this as yet another example as to why EVERYone else should too. It's pointless. No minds are changing. Simply don't worry yourself with it. Easy peasy!
>
> Listen to your avatar friend. No animosity on my side, no matter what you may think.
Please, please don't backpedal. I'm relaxed. A lot of words =/= anger and rage. You very clearly have a bone to pick whenever I share my opinion of AEW, or criticize something WWE-related. If you didn't we wouldn't be having this conversation for the 40th time. At least own up to it, and move past it. I'm entirely willing to. Alternatively, again, please just filter me. I won't take it personally, I won't hold it against you -- I'm just sick of this extremely corny pissing contest over which TV show is better. It's beyond lame and as a 34-year-old, I don't need it in my life.
> I like AEW, but Punk has a point that a boss that isn’t willing to step in and
> settle disputes (and creating and separating people into different shows isn’t
> settling) is never going to be sustainable. Khan needs some sort of enforcer, and
> honestly these days that has to be a guy that can toe the line between respected/intimidating
> and on the right side of HR. WWE has Hunter (who knows if that will stay with the
> McMahon crap), AEW lacks that.
To be fair, the dude suspended Punk, The Elite, and then fired Punk. These are moves a boss would do. We need to remember - by Punk's own admission - that he didn't like The Elite and didn't want to be there because of that. He, however, had a contract to fulfill, so Khan attempted to keep them separated. This is another thing a boss would do to capitalize on his investment. Punk was catered to at every turn. It's easy for us - or Punk (who wanted to be released by this point) - to say that "this would never work," but audiences were praising Collision and the "soft brand split" every week that it existed. So for some, it did work -- but Punk was being difficult and taking everything to heart, so he got heated.
I can understand Punk's frustration in wanting to leave and Khan has historically been cool with providing wrestler's releases when requested, but he can't then claim to think it was "responsible" to choke Jack Perry. That's unhinged behavior. Khan has a team of folks -- clearly Bryan and Joe work toward "enforcer" roles -- but there's only so much a guy can do if one of their top stars is getting into physical altercations all the time and acting like an angsty child, posting to Instagram and leaking his side of the story to Nick Hausman every other week.
And that's another thing to keep in mind -- all we've ever heard is Punk's side of the story. He's the one doing all the talking, AEW and those involved are just plugging along. It just seems bitter on his part, but I genuinely hope he's happier now and moving toward getting level-headed again. I'm just no longer a fan of the guy, and I honestly should have figured that'd be the case after the whole Cabana podcast situation right after he left WWE, but whatev.
ANYhow, that post-show Rock/Cody beat down was kinda badass. I like that little added realism to the whole ordeal. It DOES feel like it should just be straight up Rock/Cody at this point, so I'm hoping Roman does something between Mania and now to acknowledge (lol) that, but this angle has been fun enough for the most part.
Also fudgein love the sad kid reactions they just showed. Rock heeling to the nth degree.
I admit I can type a lot and it can be obnoxious, so apologies. I mean no ill will. But I'm just calling a spade a spade, the wrestling e-wars are getting old and passive aggression isn't always super passive haha. I'm certainly guilty of that from time-to-time. I just wanna come here and talk wrasslin'.
> tag team belts are both on the line, so they can potentially be split..
Oh yah, good call. There could be two winners to that match -- I could see them going with some wonky finish where two guys from different teams snag different belts at the same time. I'm gonna update the prediction form to put that on there.
Tbh they do need to split them up. Sick of just one team having both... especially JD, since they've been boring me to tears lately. Love Finn and Priest but their reign has been whatev.
Uh oh, on this night of all nights, it looks like multiple AEW releases are expected. Stu Grayson has already been released with more to come, per Fightful.
This is notable because Khan, up until this point, has only released wrestlers based on behavior. Otherwise he just lets contracts expire and doesn't pitch new ones.
It's reported it has nothing to do with CM Punk.
Not happy about that tbh. Could be cost-cutting, could be a simple case of releasing wrestlers who aren't used. We need to see the names first to figure that out. Hope all the grapplers land on their feet regardless.
EDIT: Looks to be a fat cutting scenario.
RELEASED so far:
-Stu Grayson -Backstage interviewer Dasha Kuret -The Boys (Dalton Castle's boys -_-) -Anthony Henry -Slim J -Parker Boudreaux -Jose The Assistant -Jora Johl -Gravity
