There’s a chance for it to look visually impressive, but it’s a bit of a mythbuster in terms of AEW’s UK presence. If you were Tony Khan, with the perceived positive of it being your largest crowd to date aside, you’d be able to see there is still lots of work to do. But he seems more interested in yelling at people and taking self-owning shots at Nick Khan.

They’re opening up more seats and now attendance looks like it’s gonna push the 60k mark. There’s no objective way to perceive this as anything other than a win.

How are the 52 Dynamites a year drawing? Seems 1 show in another country is a real flashy distraction to avoid noticing the declining attendance and ratings :rofl:

Best to ever do it. TK.

And Tony Khan announces they’ve cleared 60k in ticket sales

Not bad, but also kind of weird there are already 1600 resale tickets available, at a lower price than face value, during a presale... :rofl:

:eek:

Well.

I feel like a lot of people shit on things AEW says/does, like the sales numbers for All In for example, simply because they know TK or one of the wrestlers is going to spaz out publicly about it. It's internet 101. I should know as I fish for reactions all the time.

Its impressive for sure but it amounts to flash in the pan status. One show does not necessarily amount to long term success. Not to mention that if the show winds up being flat it could be pretty detrimental.

I liken a show like this to the US Women's World Cup. The final will draw huge ratings and trend (:roll:) on social media but its just the novelty of the spectacle. Afterwords, no one cares unless you have a plan and can hold onto a chunk of that audience.

Yeah, the show sucking will hurt them. I can imagine talent will get snippy if they miss out on spots too. Can’t wait for that wave of drama.

Tony Khan buying up them tickets.

The big issue we'll see AEW struggle with is as the novelty has run its course and AEW isnt doing "1st time ever" houses how (or can) they keep filling the seats. No one is immune to this issue. Its not a uniquely non-WWF issue. I suspect however that it will be a massive issue for this company. Maybe not in the UK though. The product seems very UK friendly as far as historical tastes are concerned.


As they tour theyll do well in just about any city thats a wrestling town but will people come back each time? Ehhhhh

I don't care about AEW in the slightest... but I'd still go to a live show in a heartbeat. I think that was one of my conclusions from my couple of months of watching them... that the television show wasn't that great as a television show, but as a live show it would probably be very enjoyable, probably more than a typical RAW/SD/House Show.

WELL THE TRUTH COMES OUT.

What do you mean by that?

Destor is a notorious "continentalist" who treats anyone outside of North America as beneath him or anyone of North American descent.

The ticket sales are a great outcome for AEW.

WWE has used overseas tours as money makers and worldwide brand builders for decades. AEW doing similar is good business for a less than 5 years old company. Whether this event makes money or loses it is probably largely irrelevant but if they sell 50k+ tickets it’s probably at least a break even and has potential to materially increase brand reach and loyalty.

For the record, this is the same thing that has irked me since day one. They do a flashbang to get attention, pretend it means they are red hot, and berate anybody who doesn't buy in to their viewpoint fully.

the UK has always been a good market for more technical products

Again WWE are in 3 different countries for their next premium shows. WWE in the freezing cold US market mud!

Cool, where are all the examples Triple H and the wrestlers having a tantrum over that?

I’m not on twitter but I’m sure they are on there somewhere.

Bingo

You would be incorrect.

There's something to be said about Punk's whole shtick in WWE being about change and he never really did anything about it. Like a politician, he benefited from the gimmick but that was the extent of it. In contrast, Cody Rhodes, along with the Bucks, were able to forge a new alternative with TK. Sure it's not as big as WWE and it might never be. But it's still a place for wrestlers to make a living. While I don't know much about the backstage politics of the new place, the way Punk swooped in and tried to influence his way to the top, it felt very disrespectful and self serving. The way he behaved at the press conference, any normal employee would've gotten released. Now that they're creating an entire new show around him, it might as well just validate his insanity further.

Yeah he’s a huge loser but he draws. I can’t wait for him to come back.

There's no denying that he's a very valuable asset. Even in his prime, he didn't look out of place when he was feuding with Cena or defending his title against The Rock. That being said, it feels like he's being rewarded for his bad behavior. Which doesn't sit well with me. And this is coming from someone who started watching wrestling again during the summer of Punk angle.

I'm a bit late on the commentary party around this, but the biggest difference between Lynch's broken nose, and Baker's black eye, is the EVERYTHING ELSE AROUND IT!

The the base images themselves are a "time and place" thing, and the difference between a National Geograpic photographer getting the perfect image to set a mood, and a police photographer proccessing someone into the drunk tank.

Seriously, Britt does look like she was invoved in domestic abuse... but not in the Adam Cole prob'ly beat her way. All jokes about his mass loss aside, it looks like she downed a couple bottles of hard liquour, thought about an argument or comment only tangentially related to her man, and then started fucking Adam up out of the blue, folks tried to pull her off, and she got in a legit drunken fight with all of them talking about how what she's doing isn't their business. Somewhere along the way, cops were called in the alley behind the bar, and she got a shiner from the multiple people she's trying to grapple with or the police. Someone posted this pic to instagram instead of trying to help one side or the other. And now, in addition, she has a similar looking mugshot at the local police precint.

This, as opposed to Becky being in an arena, getting massive hardway, but continuing the angle while wiping blood from her nose with her forearms and talking mad shit to the opposing team of wrestlers. And in spite of the gusher, she's still full kayfabe "I'LL COME BACK TAKE ALL YOU BITCHES ON MYSELF" swagger. In a well lit arena. Surrounded by fans and giving the aura of badassery.

Well I only have your word for that and you’ve got a bit of a reputation for being mildly negative about AEW.

Being negative about AEW is not the same thing as being incorrect about them. AEW certainly does have a record of its executives having tantrums when WWE runs opposition (Omega and Tony Khan have both done this). WWE can surely be petty in their own way, but the tantrums are textbook AEW at this point.

I think the tantrum's been well covered at this point. Why do we think the ESPN guy decided to post something completely untrue? *gets in to the spirit of the thread* ESPN more llike extremely small penis nerds

I think he either heard a passing remark from someone no selling AEW and made a flippant remark or got told it would be a funny joke.

It’s not a planted lie. Nick wouldn’t set a buddy up with false information like that. Plus it is so easily verified as false if false. There’s most likely a sting of truth about AEW scaling back the building and/or concern about the ticket sales, and that rubbed TK the wrong way.

Either way, TK reacted in a way that would make an enemy smile. It’s not winning him any allies, that’s for sure.

Can you explain what the 'sting of truth' about there being concern about ticket sales were, when that number was immediately far exceeded? Very confusing statement.

He may have 'heard a passing remark' but who would have been making such a remark? Why did an employed sports journo pay attention to this remark? Seems like a really bad boo boo.

Because no one gives a fuck about AEW. Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte sold 85k tickets within hours. 35k isn’t getting any sports journo’s panties wet. It’s just nerd wrestling fans who want to rep for the little engine who could.

He may have heard ticket sales weren’t going well and they were going to scale the building back to meet those numbers, which is what they’re obviously going to try and do. It’s just where that line is. Then you have to contend with what’s sold versus what the actual attendance is. Would be funny if the number ended up being 45k.

But yeah, read any article about wrestling and feel the disgust a lot of journalists have for it. Could simply be this Coppingher guy just doesn’t give a shit enough to get it right, could be that he has inside information that TK doesn’t like.

WWE sold something like 59k thousand in the presale for Clash at the Castle. About 64k ended up attending. Whatever the number of tickets sold for AEW may not not jump that drastically by day of the show.

Is there an official number out there? People seemed satisfied with 35k at first. That number could imply an attendance of 38k by the end. I’m sure if things are that bad, TK is buying them up himself, but it’s not insane to think that a 40k cap was realistic if you wanted to be honest about things.

They've sold like 70k tickets???

And how is that, exactly? Because I dont blindly cheerlead for them? I watch Dynamite, ive bought many of their PPVs, and have posted about lots of things they have done that I have enjoyed.

But that has been the point all along right? I think their public relation skills absolutely suck. They do everything possible to look like idiots.

And why do you only have my word for it? Ive never seen WWE wrestlers or Execs do something like brag about not being racist because they employ people of color. Ive never seen WWE personal telling people who offer the slightest criticism to go fuck yourself or shove it up your ass. Ive never seen anybody in WWE spaz out over AEW running a show. There are countless websites that cover everything wrestling, where are all the stories about Triple H berating fans on Twitter?

If they werent so childish, and werent led by a spoiled weirdo, they would be so much more enjoyable.

Have they? Who is saying that? Meltzer? AEW themselves? Had they at the time? The number I remember seeing was 35k. Maybe they’ve sold more since then, but 35k for Wembley might make a reporter turn up their nose a bit. Especially if there is heat between them and certain AEW parties.

It’s way more likely than a conspiracy theory that suggests Nick Khan is throwing his friends under buses because…well, for no reason if they sell more than 40k tickets.

It’s Tony Khan having a meltdown because things don’t go 100% his way, per usual.

You quoted a post that said 45k in this thread last week, so well done in not remembering that. Last official announcement was 60k on Friday. Various estimates over the weekend from looking at Ticketmaster have been anywhere now from 70k to 75k but obviously those can be unreliable.

It's good this though, good to visit a place thread to chat with people who have, say, 2,500 posts in the thread and they don't have the first clue what's actually going on, or what they've even said themselves.

You sound a bit sore. It’s irrelevant what I quoted. The number I saw (and probably this Coppingham guy too) was 35k. I did a quick search and the only numbers I can find come from AEW. Not sure I’d call them reliable. I guess TK could have bought up a bunch of tickets himself too though. Doesn’t really have relevancy to the convo we are having though.

I think the only contradictions here have been: you getting the numbers wrong, and now you saying what Coppingham did - he said he was 'told', you're now saying he made the assessment himself?

I believe it was 35k sold on the first day of the presale. If I'm to believe you, this is basically the limit of what should have been sold. Since I'm helpful, I've got a headline written for Coppingham: "AEW Bucks the Trend in Unprecidented Sales Surge. Owner Tony Khan Kicks Out At One. World Record Breaking Ticket Purcahses."

And that’s when this guy commented. That’s literally all that matters. Nothing else is a “contradiction.” I don’t know why you’re so confused by this.

He commented that the arena was only set up for 40k, then made an allusion about other events on the arena that were neither here nor there.

You yourself have gone back and forth on the numbers, the meaning of his statement, his motivations. I'm just trying to understand what happened and this guy's professional assessment?

Is it very strange and unusual that 35k tickets had sold on day 1 of the presale, but the presale ended up at 50k and then general sale added another 10-20k sales in a few days? That seems to be the heart of what we're establishing here - that when 35k tickets were sold, that was basically considered the limit. Have your socks been blown off by the updated numbers? Has this ESPN guy been floored by a massive unexpected turnaround? Why did he get it so wrong? What happened?

Yes, he did make that comment after 35k seemed to be the number. I don’t think his comments about other events are neither here nor there.

No, I haven’t gone back and forth on the numbers. You’ve tricked yourself on that one. I saw 35k and only yesterday found Forbes articles quoting AEW themselves saying 60k. I’ve speculated on where this guy might have been coming from. What makes sense to me is that he looked at the numbers released and/or heard things. That’s obviously stung Tony Khan, hence his nervous response.

I don’t really trust the latest numbers to be honest lol. They seem to come from AEW themselves or hardcore fans speculating. I wouldn’t be shocked if Tony Khan bought up tickets or scalpers did scale up the sales, but I think we’re a little way off from seeing what actual attendance for this thing is.

What I don’t believe is Nick Khan calling in favors with ESPN journalists to put their credibility on the line to make statements that are going to be demonstrably false in a day. That sounds like a Tony Khan construct to me.

Seems like quite the scandal. I'm sure I'll hear about it here first

Speaking of Ticket Sales...

Why are they offering 3000+ less tickets for All Out?
Why have they sold only 222 tickets in the last month?
Why isn't Tiny talking about how Vegas is red hot for AEW?

Just seems strange he is completely ignoring All Out ticket sales, since he loves talking about ticket sales so much, right? Makes you wonder...

Is it common for AEW shows to sell a certain number of tickets and then double that amount? Seems like they start off with the interest they have and then it turns into a trickle. That’s why if the 60k number is true, I wouldn’t be shocked to discover they were secondary market or bought by Khan himself to distribute. Will be interesting to see how many people are actually in the building come show time.

Also, fuck that Double or Nothing number is disappointing. Between that and their ratings, I don’t know how anyone can argue that the product is “hot.” They obviously have to run new markets to achieve anything close to a sellout. They’ve run into trouble as soon as they go back to somewhere they’ve already run.

I will point out that the UK was one of the few markets white hot for TNA/Impact at one point. So, there is that.

There hasn’t been a wrestling show in Wembley since 1992. There is a hunger for anything to fill that void. It doesn’t need to be good.

Dunno man. Seeing is believing.

The only downfall of the ignore feature is that it doesn’t block the posts when quoted. Shame.

We definitely need more troll accounts like this. :y:

A cool bill for AEW over 5 years? Is that good?

The only downfall of the ignore feature is that you still know who can't get off AEW's dick. *cough weathervane cough* SHAME!!!!!:rofl::rofl::rofl:

It’s gone beyond the point that they can even rattle off specifics. It’s devolved into “AEW is great, trust me.”

Not really. My prediction for the TV deal would be TK pushing for the total amount of his current deal over one year of the new deal. That would be ~$180 million per year, which is less than what WWE currently charges for 2 hours of their content.

Over 5 years, $180 mil pa is $900 million. That’s pretty close. Keep in mind that Rampage and this new Collision show are a part of that, plus any specials and the possible back library (if they’re even interested in that), it’s not really surprising at all.

Given that Warner currently splits ad revenue and pays $45 million in rights fees for Dynamite, the show should currently have an estimated value of at least $450 million over 5 years under the current arrangement for Warner to not be losing their ass on it.

I also guessed that when the deal was announced, Dave Meltzer and the like would make a huge deal about it, act like it’s the biggest thing ever and AEW has won, ignoring that the deal still takes them under 1 of WWE’s current shows, and that WWE is probably about to negotiate to roughly double that.

If WWE doubles it’s TV rights when their deals are up and gets $1 billion per year out of Raw and SmackDown, that means AEW would be getting $50 million per year versus $200 million per hour each year of their contract, putting AEW’s hourly value at about 25% of what WWE’s will likely be. That seems about in line.

Once upon a time I made a thread about what WWE was going to do with all their new deal money. I am wondering what AEW will do.

Unlike WWE, AEW is private so they don't have to worry about stockholders. I wonder if the first of the new money would go towards paying Shad back. The early talk was Shad fronted the money at the chance of obtaining a lucrative rights deal. As time went on that changed to Shad letting Tony blow some of his inheritance while Shad was still around.

If the new TV deal can cut the dependence of Shad's money out of the equation, will Tony overspend even more? If he is giving 6 year deals to Brian Cage now, what happens when he needs no approval? Should be interesting to see.

It will be interesting to see if talent ask for more money or if he can get more WWE guys and girls to sacrifice their dignity to appear on his show for obscene amounts of money. I doubt any of it helps the quality as long as he wants to be creatively in charge.

Apparently people with Amazon preorders for Fight Forever are receiving emails giving an estimated release date of January 2024. Because they totally know what they are doing.

Oof.

Pretty sure those e-mails went out a long while ago. Amazon sets those dates up purely placeholders when they don't have an actual release date.

That said it's beyond comical now that the game was announced like 900 days ago and yet you're able to play as Cody in a WWE game earlier than this game ever comes out.

I was willing to forgive the long release time for a while, wanting them to get it right vs. rushing it out. But we've gone well beyond that point now. There's absolutely no reason they couldn't have put out a perfectly functionable wrestling game by now with a few basic match types, a decent roster, and a story mode to get the ball rolling.

These kind of delays can really only be that Kenny or whoever keeps wanting more shit added, not realizing the amount of work that actually goes into it since every single thing you add not only requires programming/coding but also carries the risk of breaking something else, requiring even more cleanup.

The stories that come out about this game's development will be amazing.

I always wondered if the CM Punk thing has anything to do with the game being delayed. Since he was on the cover and would help the game sell... maybe they wanted to make sure they're "allowed" to put him in the game and back on the cover? idk if that has anything to do with it, but just wondering!

I don’t think so. The rumors were that Punk was just going to be left in the game because it would be too much effort/money to take him out. Plus they probably paid for his music and all that. Cody is still scheduled to be in the game.

It’s way more important to put in dancing mini-games and Molotov cocktails than it is to get the game out in timely fashion.

By the way, I still say it looks like shit — both in terms of aesthetics and how smooth the gameplay doesn’t look.

This game is just going to make people want to whip out their N64s and play No Mercy. It’s going to be like when Homer Simpson designed the car.

AEW: Duke Nukem Forever

This is a fantastic reference and you deserve to be commended.

FTR Bald and Hair out there running his mouth again that All In will be the most important show in professional wrestling history :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Why they have to go full on hyperbolic for every single thing ever? Seriously if they stop setting impossible expectations they wouldnt have so many letdowns.

Seriously, it would have been cheaper to have just used the MDICKIE engine, hired a graphics team to make it look good, and pocket $20 million.

Lol thanks. It’s odd it fits so well.

The All In show hasn’t happened yet guys. Let’s see how mad you are when you’re left off the card. :y:

Yep, reports are already coming out that talent is upset that Will Asspray is going to get a All In match while they are not.

At this point the games on the never never for me.

Not a bad week all around for AEW, TV deal sounds like a solid step up for a business of there age, British event selling well.

While the ratings trend is a concern to me as an uneducated watcher of those things the company paying for the product dont appear to be phased so theres either more to it or AEW has been outperforming in the networks eyes to date.

I would love to know where this new TV deal leaves them from a P&L point of view but I have no doubt there will be plenty of internet conjecture to draw whatever conclusion suits in the coming months/years.

Decades even. Scuttlebutt is the new truth. It’s here to stay. Like Nyla Rose’s penis.

Maybe Tony Khan will fit everyone on the show and give them 0.00008 seconds of screen time each?

Can't wait until some people on here find out that the episode title for the CM Punk's return is "The Second Coming"

Followed by The Second Leaving and The Third Coming.

Who else can't wait for CM Punk, the guy who took 3rd place out of 3 people in a MMA Senior's tournament, to return to wrestling and get injured again? Such good shit!!!!!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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I’ll take Punk back just to see the tears. Even if they come from him.

Val Venis sells weed in Arizona now.

Does Val Venis still have Hunter Biden child porn on his laptop that he's going to share?

Val Venis is trash.

Don't ever break character again

Now book him in a world title feud against Frank’s Trash Man character from Always Sunny.

Wade Keller claiming the new WBD deal contains rebranded Max streaming and carries a value of 5 years, $1.2 billion ($240 million a year)

Dead company, pack it in

I hope the new layout is like HBO Max and not Discovery+

And then adding an ADDITIONAL $15,000 just for the hell of it :rofl:

If true, for that deal to include 4 hours of prime time and secure streaming, WBD are getting it at an absolute steal. It’s like the Peacock deal, Raw and SmackDown rolled into one. WWE gets more for Raw currently than AEW will be getting out of this entire deal.

WWE will probably set be getting more than what AEW will be getting out of the totality of their deal per year. AEW will get all the positive dirt sheet write-ups, but the gap between the two companies will probably never have been wider.

Maybe its actually more money, it's all a matter of perspective.

Of course it’s more money. Is it enough money? Joking about AEW’s waste aside…probably enough to cover their expenses. Is it going to come with problems? Absolutely. Is it big in the context of what live entertainment should probably be worth? Nah.

It's only wrestling after all

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF

Is anyone expecting AEW to be making WWE levels on their TV deals?

Cool. Let’s not talk about it on a wrestling forum. :y:

No, but $200 million per year is right in line with where you’d expect them to be. It’s not exactly them “pwning” the doubters.

Thanks for trying to talk about such uninteresting news then