Sports Entertainment

Chris said:

They need to start listening to Cornette.

You don't need to do non stop dangerous flippy shit you don't sell. Being injured that often that young means that they won't have careers - it's over for them already - imagine what their bodies will be like at 30.

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Yeah I guess Cornette had a point after all. Pretty tired of the guy (mostly his sycophantic followers who bully everyone in relentlessly) but he has things he's right about and this was one of them.

What matches do people want to see at All In?

Jamie Hayter vs Saraya is a given barring injury. The world title match and everything else are pretty open though and could be literally anything reachable at this point so go wild.

Now that Goldberg's a free agent I'm thinking Goldberg passing the torch to Wardlow could be a great moment at the event.

Arbitrary said:

Back in 2005 there was an unofficial ECW reunion show called Hardcore Homecoming. It has a tribute midway through the show of all of the wrestlers that had died. It was a lot of fucking wrestlers. I worry AEW is going to have that same kind of legacy.

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So far the body count is 1, Brodie, and that was unrelated to wrestling.

I doubt AEW is going to have any kind of legacy like that.

Though Darby definitely needs to be kept away from the pills for the foreseeable future.

Also I never understood why Hardcore Homecoming wasn't moved to a different date. A bunch of the bigger wrestlers couldn't be there because WWE's One Night Stand was on the same day. Moving it a day in either direction would have let everyone be there who wanted to be there and it would have been a bigger deal. Instead they made wrestlers have to choose and agonize over which of their friends they wanted to see more that day. Bleh.

Unless some new stupid thing pops up, Punk'll be back at the June 21st Dynamite at Wintrust Arena, the last show before Forbidden Door. Sounds like Punk/Omega is probably a go for the Wembley Stadium supershow in August. Omega would prefer to do a trilogy match with Ospreay instead so we'll see who wins out.

People being pissed that he still has a job notwithstanding, gonna be an interesting few months from DoN to All In.

Needless said:

lol him vs kenny would be such a waste of kennys talent, put him up against the man that started it, wangman page!

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It is a waste of Kenny's talent in a sense. He'd have to lose, the match wouldn't actually be great. It would make money though.

Kenny vs Ospreay III on the other hand would be an incredible match (I assume they're gonna hold back at II at Forbidden Door like they held back at WrestleKingdom) and worth Kenny's talents. Also Kenny gets to win! But it wouldn't be an "AEW main event" and it wouldn't be a box office bonanza.

So this is one of those situations where different people will have completely different approaches as to what to do.

Chris said:

Let's dream book this:

MJF avoids all NJPW matches because MJF, then CM Punk shows up to challenge him for the title at Forbidden Door and wins.

We build to Punk vs Hangman (because Omega will be building to Ospreay). Then on a random dynamite he will get injured again in a 3 man tag with FTR vs Dark Order. Then Punk can bitch on twitter again and FTR Bald will ask out of his contract again.

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Problem is, Punk is the lineal champion, and that needs to move from him to MJF as was originally gonna happen in their cancelled third match. That can be done without Punk actually holding the world title and I'm sure it will. 100% chance TK is painfully cognizant that MJF's reign has been essentially an "interim" situation.

I could see Punk/MJF III happening at All In, TBH. Cause I think Omega is gonna end up facing Ospreay, even if it isn't a box office bonanza. Punk/Kenny with special ref Bret Hart would be the biggest possible draw for Wembley, in an ideal world where it could come together right.

What makes me laugh is when I see people online fantasy booking for All In and they're talking about "MJF vs Okada" and whatnot. As if MJF has ever given any interest in fighting NJPW guys. Also Okada would make him look short. Not happening. Only time MJF might fight someone from NJPW is at the actual co-branded NJPW show in June, and I think he's getting Hangman and/or Cole there.

Hangman would prefer not to wrestle Punk like at all, or even interact with him, but he'll do what he's told regardless because team player etc. Hangman flew under the radar in this whole drama-fest but he was probably the one most disaffected by the whole thing / Punk himself.

Woefully Inept said:

Fuck Punk. If he never steps foot in a ring again good. Drama queen bitch butned all his bridges. Let him sleep in the ashes.

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I agree.

Araxen said:

I hate that all the Punk and the Elite news working together possibly leaked. What a way to ruin what could be a hot feud.

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Yeah. Well, at least SOME of the leak was bullshit (roster split just to separate them lol) and I hope people aren't taking it completely seriously.

Could be a real hot feud if Punk shows up "not on the format" and does backstage assaults on Elite members and it seems like legit chaos. Would be Hall and Nash 2023. Oh well.

Araxen said:

Apparently they already have 45,000 signed up for the pre-sale for Wembley.

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52k now.

This seems incredible, and yes AEW is punching well above what the detractors thought. Lots of excuse-making is on the way. Low ticket prices is probably gonna be a big one.

Anyway, it seems incredible, but it's similar to what WWE did for the early days of Clash at the Castle's pre-sale sign ups. Clash ended up at 61k actual people in the building, about 13k short of a sell out in the Cardiff stadium. AEW needs about 80k to sell out the larger Wembley (which really would be incredible even by the biggest partisan shitter's metrics). That would make this the biggest non-WWE show of all time and the biggest wrestling show in Europe since Summerslam 92 which also sold out Wembley('s previous stadium as it was rebuilt/renovated) with 82k. They don't need to tie with SS92 though. Even 65k would beat both of those goals, and 45k would beat the first one of being the biggest non-WWE show of all time. That seeks very likely right now and I'd call that a huge win in and of itself.

Let's go ahead and extrapolate the numbers out a bit and see what it tells us about the final numbers:

-Clash ended at around 80k sign-ups by the last day of the pre-sale sign up.

-All In's pre-sale is May 2nd. So they have a few weeks, until May 1st, to continue rising from the current 52k.

-Sign-ups don't equal ticket sales and are more about people opting in for information / seeing how much tickets are before they commit.

-Clash's actual ticket sales were 61k, 25% less than their sign-ups.

-If AEW sales go the exact same way, right now they're looking at about 40k sold. However, a few things bump that up. Obviously they have a few more weeks to hype it and drive the number higher before the onsale, plus months before the actual event. However, Clash ticket sales slowed down considerably after the initial launch rush, which sold most of the total. So All In wants the pre-sale sign up to get as high as possible. Things going for AEW that will help the conversion rate be higher for them than Clash's was:

1. Clash was roundly bashed for having very high ticket prices, something that deterred a lot of the early sign-ups from actually spending money. All In on the other hand is going to keep prices very low, $30 for upper deck. Pretty much no different from a Dynamite taping. Sign-ups have a good chance of converting into purchasers.

2. Clash was also located in Cardiff, which is very out of the way for travelers compared to London. All In's location is more accessible to international travelers, public transit, and flights from mainland Europe.

3. AEW is going to treat this as a Wrestlemania 1 level event, while Clash was a standard PPV/PLE. This will draw in more international traffic. Folks in Chicago and Toronto won't want to miss it, etc.

So factor in those last 3 things and I feel safe in saying that All In is going to have significantly better than a 25% drop-off from sign-ups to purchases. Since sign-ups are following a similar trajectory to Clash despite All In's advantages, I'm going to predict the final sign-up total will be around 75k (a bit less than Clash) and that will translate to around 64k seats (a bit more than Clash). Which wouldn't be the 82k sellout but it would be the biggest wrestling show in Europe since 1992 and the biggest non-WWE show period. Certainly blows away my initial modest projections of 35k-48k.

Goldberg and Wardlow vs Powerhouse Hobbs and QT Marshall at All In.

Good idea/bad idea?