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Arbitrary

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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Tarrant said:
Him getting destroyed will make the rebuild that much better, like in Rocky 3. Dude hit rock bottom and got back into it and was redeemed.
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There is another option. Cody is Taz or Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat or Dino Bravo or Kerry Von Erich or any of the other hot shit wrestlers from other promotions that Vince hired over the years and never went anywhere in WWE. I don't think this is the case but it's not impossible either.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
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If Vince starts doing things that cause Endeavors $9.3 billion valuation and purchase price of WWE, they won’t hesitate to put him on notice. This is the first time Vince has to answer to anyone above him, and I wish I could be in the room if/when that happens.

or, maybe we are all forced to watch AEW again. Lol
 
Arbitrary

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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I could also believe that the reason Roman retained was because the sentiment that it was better for business during the negotiations and transition.
 
Chris

Chris

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They should just have Roman be champion for several more years now and build up strong US and Intercontinental champions to make up for lack of TV time for the main title.
 
Rajaah

Rajaah

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Arbitrary said:
There is another option. Cody is Taz or Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat or Dino Bravo or Kerry Von Erich or any of the other hot shit wrestlers from other promotions that Vince hired over the years and never went anywhere in WWE. I don't think this is the case but it's not impossible either.
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Pretty much. They have other storylines to get to. I expected Roman to get the title back before too long and for the Bloodline split to be exacerbated by their losses at WM, giving Roman more family drama to wade through for a while before ultimately getting the title back so he can face Rock or whoever at WM. Gives Cody his nice moment in the spotlight and gives us a break from the Roman show, plus opens doors by letting guys like MJF and Kenny see that they'll be respected if they jump over.

Cody isn't someone who should be getting a year-long "redemption arc" at this stage, either.

Either way none of this matters to me now 'cause I'm done watching or even really talking about it for a while. I'm not mad about what happened, I just feel shit-on for investing time in it. If other people are okay with it, that's cool.
 
Araxen

Araxen

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Fuck yeah! Just as I was losing interest in AEW, I'm back in! lol

 
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Tarrant

Tarrant

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AEW already has great talent I’d want to watch, but TK is Vince levels bad when it comes to booking storylines.

he’s great and building big PPV cards, but weekly shows? Awful.
 
Breakdown

Breakdown

Gunnar Durden
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Holy shit, AEW holding an event in Wembley that seats 90k


This is a ballsy move. I mean ballsy and stupid. I don’t think they can too 35-40k
 
Breakdown

Breakdown

Gunnar Durden
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And mind you 35-40 have only been done a handful of WCW events and only Wrestlemania of j remember correct
 
Rajaah

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Tarrant Tarrant DickTrickle DickTrickle I can't believe you guys didn't get it. I know what Rocky 3 is, that was a reference to CM Punk's unfamiliarity with it that was all over the internet as of late.
 
Rajaah

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Chris said:
They should just have Roman be champion for several more years now and build up strong US and Intercontinental champions to make up for lack of TV time for the main title.
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People have been saying exactly that for years and it hasn't happened. Made total sense to have the US and IC champions be the top guys on the two respective shows with Roman going between the shows and being above them as the sort of visiting force. If he's feuding on one show maybe he isn't on the other show for a couple months and the, say, US title gets to be the top title on that show.

None of it ever happened though.

Breakdown said:
Holy shit, AEW holding an event in Wembley that seats 90k


This is a ballsy move. I mean ballsy and stupid. I don’t think they can too 35-40k
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It's super ballsy because WWE is running the O2 Arena in the same city about a month prior to All In 2, and the O2 seats like one quarter the people Wembley does.

It's easy enough to make a stadium look good on TV even if it's only partway full. TNA Lockdown 2013 at the Alamodome looked like 25k people were there but it was more like 8k. WWF pulled trickery numerous times during their down periods to make it seem like a stadium had a lot of people in it when it didn't. See RAW at the Skydome in early 1997 versus RAW at the Skydome in early 1999. In the 97 show it was a pretty poor attendance crowd and they found ways to make it look good. In the 99 show they drew 42k people and didn't need to mask anything because it looked awesome regardless. That and WCW's two best-attended Georgia Dome shows (July 98 and Jan 99) were all in the 40k area in stadiums that sat 60-70k so none of the above were near full even at the very height of wrestling's popularity.

My point in all of this is that hell no they won't fill Wembley, but also they don't need to. Brits have been clamoring for AEW for a while now and it's going to pop a number if properly promoted. Unfortunate that there's no particular iconic British wrestler under the AEW banner. Someone huge in Europe like a Bret Hart or Bulldog. Cause MJF is gonna need a challenger at the event. I wish a Drew McIntyre was available.

I'm just surprised TK didn't choose Craven Cottage stadium since he can run that for free. Instead he went for the more iconic stadium.

I predict 35k for Wembley Stadium, 48k if Punk vs Omega can be ironed out for the event.
 
Araxen

Araxen

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When Jay came out this week, it said Bullet Club. It's crazy how far reaching BC is going to be now. I just hope they don't job Jay like they've done Juice.


I'm really excited for this angle.
 
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Rajaah

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Mulling over Wembley Stadium. First off, just a couple weeks ago AEW's event planners were looking at the feasibility of switching from the NOW Arena to the United Center for All Out (which they should have done already, 2021 at least would have sold it out easily). Then suddenly this Wembley announcement, the name change, and no mention of All Out. Got a few people by surprise I'm sure.

Second, AEW's lack of a big-time British super-babyface to challenge for the title at the event is really glaring at the moment. They need a Drew-type guy who is a draw there to challenge MJF, who doesn't have any challenger at this moment in time.

Closest thing they have is PAC and he's been nowhere near the title scene for a while, and usually a heel, and really just not that level of draw / believable challenger. Perhaps heat him back up by having him win a Summer tournament to decide who challenges for the International Title at the event, with him doing vignettes about how he has to win the tournament to "get to Wembley". I think that would do a great job boosting him back up for the event. If it ends up being PAC winning the INT title from Orange Cassidy, that would be some nice synergy considering he was OC's first match and lost there.

I don't know Drew's contract status, maybe TK does and has something up his sleeve there. However, if Drew jumps over to main event this show, he basically has to win (to rectify Clash at the Castle) and that wouldn't do any favors for MJF / would upset the current plan.

Jamie Hayter vs Saraya for the women's title is a given and there's a (small) chance it could actually main event which would be pretty cool.

My first thought was Punk vs Omega with special referee Bret Hart. But I keep getting conflicting things on Bret's availability (he may or may not be on the WWE payroll to keep him away from AEW, nobody seems to know 100%). And Punk is Punk so not exactly reliable to lock in for future plans. But I do think Omega/Punk with Bret reffing ("I know a thing or two about having backstage enemies") would be the best possible thing that could be booked. Add in Drew vs MJF, the women's title match, Bryan/Ospreay, FTR/Bucks, etc and you've got something.

How much of Wembley they fill is gonna be a real measuring stick of success. It's the first wrestling show there since Summerslam '92, which for a loooooong time (until WM32) was WWE's highest-attended show. Yeah, actual highest-attended show. Shame it never got credit for that because of the WM3 inflated number they couldn't walk back.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Breaking News:

Logan Paul renewed his WWE contract.

im pretty pumped about it.

edit: though after the “contract signing” pic was a clear and obvious photoshop, im starting to think his contract being up was some bizarre work.
 
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Chris

Chris

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Rajaah said:
Mulling over Wembley Stadium. First off, just a couple weeks ago AEW's event planners were looking at the feasibility of switching from the NOW Arena to the United Center for All Out (which they should have done already, 2021 at least would have sold it out easily). Then suddenly this Wembley announcement, the name change, and no mention of All Out. Got a few people by surprise I'm sure.

Second, AEW's lack of a big-time British super-babyface to challenge for the title at the event is really glaring at the moment. They need a Drew-type guy who is a draw there to challenge MJF, who doesn't have any challenger at this moment in time.

Closest thing they have is PAC and he's been nowhere near the title scene for a while, and usually a heel, and really just not that level of draw / believable challenger. Perhaps heat him back up by having him win a Summer tournament to decide who challenges for the International Title at the event, with him doing vignettes about how he has to win the tournament to "get to Wembley". I think that would do a great job boosting him back up for the event. If it ends up being PAC winning the INT title from Orange Cassidy, that would be some nice synergy considering he was OC's first match and lost there.

I don't know Drew's contract status, maybe TK does and has something up his sleeve there. However, if Drew jumps over to main event this show, he basically has to win (to rectify Clash at the Castle) and that wouldn't do any favors for MJF / would upset the current plan.

Jamie Hayter vs Saraya for the women's title is a given and there's a (small) chance it could actually main event which would be pretty cool.

My first thought was Punk vs Omega with special referee Bret Hart. But I keep getting conflicting things on Bret's availability (he may or may not be on the WWE payroll to keep him away from AEW, nobody seems to know 100%). And Punk is Punk so not exactly reliable to lock in for future plans. But I do think Omega/Punk with Bret reffing ("I know a thing or two about having backstage enemies") would be the best possible thing that could be booked. Add in Drew vs MJF, the women's title match, Bryan/Ospreay, FTR/Bucks, etc and you've got something.

How much of Wembley they fill is gonna be a real measuring stick of success. It's the first wrestling show there since Summerslam '92, which for a loooooong time (until WM32) was WWE's highest-attended show. Yeah, actual highest-attended show. Shame it never got credit for that because of the WM3 inflated number they couldn't walk back.
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Biggest thing to keep in mind is that AEW has had a shit TV deal in the UK.

ITV is the second biggest UK network and the best one to work with since BBC will never show foreign wrestling, but they have 4 channels and AEW was on the 4th one (least visible) in a graveyard slot at 1am days late.

Recently they moved it much earlier on ITV4 which helped, and I think I saw it late on ITV1 once. But what they really need is a next day showing at 9pm on ITV2 which isn't unreasonable given that it's usually wall to wall Family Guy reruns.

If they do this event, it needs to be live on ITV1 and used to relaunch AEW in the UK.

ITV is free though, WWE occasionally has highlights on Channel 5 (4th largest network) but is mostly on our version of cable. So AEW has higher viewership than WWE but whenever I mention wrestling at school, the kids say Roman Reigns or John Cena.
 
Rajaah

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Chris said:
Biggest thing to keep in mind is that AEW has had a shit TV deal in the UK.

ITV is the second biggest UK network and the best one to work with since BBC will never show foreign wrestling, but they have 4 channels and AEW was on the 4th one (least visible) in a graveyard slot at 1am days late.

Recently they moved it much earlier on ITV4 which helped, and I think I saw it late on ITV1 once. But what they really need is a next day showing at 9pm on ITV2 which isn't unreasonable given that it's usually wall to wall Family Guy reruns.

If they do this event, it needs to be live on ITV1 and used to relaunch AEW in the UK.

ITV is free though, WWE occasionally has highlights on Channel 5 (4th largest network) but is mostly on our version of cable. So AEW has higher viewership than WWE but whenever I mention wrestling at school, the kids say Roman Reigns or John Cena.
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Elementary school kids skew towards WWE pretty universally. AEW's demographics are the 16-40 male crowd primarily, though they're starting to finally make progress with the female demographics as well.

WWE vs AEW on demographics is very similar to WCW vs WWF back in the day. WCW had a lot of young fans (Sting, Goldberg, DDP) and a lot of older fans who were longtime viewers and enjoyed the more traditional aspects (themes of respect, Ric Flair, Hogan, Steiners, etc). Meanwhile WWF gained a lock on the teenagers and young adults with beer and middle fingers, and pulled to a massive lead in the 14-30 or so demographic for both sexes. Then that expanded to permeate more demos as they gained word of mouth, TV Guide covers, etc.

And yes, AEW has more TV viewers than WWE in the UK but I'm well aware of why that is.

Internally AEW is hoping for 80k at Wembley (which is basically maximum when accounting for stage and production) but they'll consider anything over 40k a success.

One major milestone to keep in mind is that as of right now, the largest non-WWE wrestling crowd in history (that actually counted, so no North Korea shows) was 39k at the Georgia Dome for Goldberg vs Hogan in 1998.

So if AEW can pass 39k, they'll surpass WCW as having the highest-attended wrestling show ever outside of WWE, and that's the feather in the cap that they want.

The Georgia Dome had a capacity of around 80k for concerts, which meant probably around 65k for wrestling, and they managed to get it around two-thirds full at the height of the company's popularity. Goldberg vs Hogan was a big draw. AEW doesn't have that, so they're reliant on "first AEW show in Europe" as the big draw. I think they're gonna need more than that, and will need to come up with some pretty compelling feuds heading into it. They already have one ready-made if one half of it will play ball.

I'll probably be there in some capacity, we'll see if it works out.
 
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