Well, I think one person called him cumdorx because he mentioned that he "finally had to block someone over here."

But it didn't come up during the harassment discussion. If it had, I'd kinda get why he left since that nickname is an issue for him.

lmao I just saw what he did. That is...something :rofl:

But yes, he was much better without being able to just piggyback Noid's bullshit and/or bring up Tony Khan in every discussion for no reason.

AEW's big show deal was announced! They will have a new show on the TBS YOUTUBE channel where Renee Young eats lunch with somebody while they watch a pretaped AEW match...

That is almost as good as the HUGE RIGHTS RENEWAL they have been saying was on it's way for over a year :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Is that spin or is that really as bad as xrod framed it

It's spin. It's just a fuck around YouTube show nobody knew was being announced until today. No different than WWE or pretty much every sports leagues having supplemental web shows. Silly online content for the sake of having silly online content.

And it has nothing to do with the rights renewal obviously but that won't stop xrod from having a good time.

AEW's entire business model has been "we will get a huge rights renewal". This is the 2nd year in a row that the deal was supposed to be announced at the Warner Brothers Discovery upfronts (according to leaks/reports from honest journalists).

Amid decreasing ratings and ticket sales, and Warner Brothers Discovery cutting costs across the board, well that giant rights deal is coming any day now, CLEARLY! :yes:

The show feels like it's basically a wrestling version of Dinner and Movie (which was itself a TBS property). And again it's just some silly supplemental YouTube content. Don't see the problem.

Anyone know what the hell WWE Speed is? Heard about it for the first time the other day, and apparently Ricochet is the Speed Champion or something.....

Why does everything look so bad in AEW? They must spend a fortune on presentation but everyone looks so cheap and everything from attires to physique of the performers look so bad.

Is it a case of not having the same standards, giving “stars” too much control of their own character or just a lack of leadership and authority?

Mercedes Mone is the latest in a long list to immediately look worse in AEW. Why is this happening?

Loved dinner and a movie. And joe bobs drive in

they have rasslin matches on Twitter. Wednesdays at noon ET, I think. The time limit for the matches is 3-5 minutes or something like that.

Yeah it's just super short slobber knocker/spot fest matches. Not my cup of tea (the super short time limit doesn't work for me, brother) but whatever. Could be a good way to get under utilized people a little air time or have them work matches with the vets to help them improve I guess.

I'm way more likely to watch match and a meal than WWE speed tbh. Like Destor I used to love dinner and a movie so this seems like it could be entertaining to me. I just hope they have some decent matches sometimes and it's not like dark jobbers jobbing in every single match.

Tony is basically a mark that doesn’t have the ability to discern between good and bad (or what works and what doesn’t). Or his ego won’t let him learn and adjust to adapt. He doesn’t understand that a lot of booking and producing stars is keeping the bad away so it doesn’t poison the good. He saw Sasha Banks as a star in WWE and just assumed it was all her (the finished content you see). He doesn’t consider the role agents, production, management, the people she was working with guided the star they wanted.

It’s just click and point with him. Come as you are. He doesn’t understand how to protect talent — sometimes from themselves.

I’ve long believed that WBD isn’t going to renew AEW. The content is just too risky. In terms of where it will be in terms of popularity (and where it has already been) and in terms of the content itself. The image of women rolling around in barbed wire is probably not something sponsors, advertisers and WBD themselves want to be associated with. Nor their branding in front of mostly empty arenas (whether they own it or not).

I’m sure David Zaslav knows the mess that AEW is. He’d know the story behind CM Punk and what it’s like to deal with Tony Khan and The Elite. I’m sure when Triple H and Nick Khan met with him they discussed how things like drinking another person’s bodily fluids is not exactly great PR.

I’m pretty sure they’re going to be dropped. I’m also pretty sure the excuses from Observer acolytes is going to be “Evil WBD hates wrestling/Evil WWE sabotaged them.” There doesn’t seem to be much accountability on that side.

AXS seems like a likely home for them. It’ll probably be spun into AEW helping out a network that wants to be a “wrestling channel.” X-factor will be if TK decides he is willing to spend money to pay a network to air them.

It’ll be interesting to see the future of the AEW/New Japan deal too.

I've never really thought things look cheap, they just look different from WWE. TNA usually looked really cheap to me, but I don't get that same feeling from AEW.

What I can't understand is how they still have audio issues almost every damn week. Pull the Young Bucks away from the board and hire a professional already.

How cool is it that we get to watch Eddie Kingston eat a meal with Renee while complaining about other wrestlers who are wrestling a match on TV that he doesn't like?!?!? AEW is the innovator of entertainment, PARDNAH!

Soon it will be a bunch of wrestlers watching old AEW clips crying about how they used to be on television.

Lol at people like SRS trying to spin WBD not getting the NBA into a good thing for AEW. WBD is also billions of dollars in debt. They’re really going to break bank for a show that just registered 672k viewers who don’t spend money on anything but wrestling and pizza. And AEW ran off the pizza advertisements.

It probably is a good thing. They may not be able to offer the same money but its doubtless they wont at least make an offer. They basically have to now.

Based.

Why would they make an offer?

they will. They need something to air. You just lost your biggest draw. Not really the time to drop the rest of your line up.

There will def be an offer. I just think it won't be nearly as big as some people think.

Without the NBA, basic cable becomes less of a priority for WBD, not more. You make a big deal for the NBA because you want that NBA revenue moving around. You’ve then got a live entertainment package to promote.

Since day 1 the story Tiny has spun is that AEW will get a huge rights renewal which will make them profitable. When it doesn't happen, either AEW has to slash costs, or they prove CM Phil right, they are not a real business.

That is fine by the way, but only if they stop constantly talking about/pretending they are hugely successful.

Brag about something after you’ve done it. But they’re bragging about ratings, which have never been something to brag about, has also made the rod for their back they are currently getting whipped with. There’s nothing wrong with saying “Thanks to everyone who watched, but we plan to do even better.” Instead they acted like being third on the podium was #1 and labelled themselves “demo gods.” It’s fun to watch them fall flat on their face.

The biggest wrinkle in these negotiations is if TK starts paying networks to show his bullshit. It’d be a new 5 year plan — “get a huge TV deal” having failed — but I can see him thinking that spending ludicrous amounts of money with the insane idea that in a few years or so he can re-negotiate for something healthy is something I can see happening.

More than likely WBD just drops them cold. The highest profile place I see them ending up is actually on FOX or FS1 with FOX paying chips for it. Ideally, for them, they’d be able to keep Dynamite on TBS for a reasonable amount of money and work out something with FOX to get Collision on network TV for cheap as an advertisement for the product. But the product would drastically have to change.

exactly right. They arent going to drop them with out lowballing them first

There will be *an* offer it just might be so low the show cant function on

If there still was the nba on the network i dont think thats a lock with those ratings.

Is there a world where they slash production so much so they could function on whatever that low offer is?

It is crazy, but I think that, ironically, the company that bought ROH just ROH'd themselves into irrelevance.

First thought would be cutting out travel and running exclusively from Jacksonville.

Cutting some of the bloated roster would be next.

I don't know enough about TV production to think of what could be scaled down from there. No pyro? lol

I think the issue is payroll not production costs.

cutting names would be how youd stay afloat but im sure they have minimums that would have to be met and im sure theyre excessive. And without those names you cant hold your dwindling viewership so its a compounding problem.


The tv deal has to be good. There's no way around that for aew to survive. Fortunately there's a lot of stations hungry for live content so there's opportunity for a network thats dumb and hungry

But it's absolutely necessary to pay all those people who only appear on Rampage!

At least they are on TV. Think of all the money going to people in ROH.

I often forget ROH exists

I really don’t think there is anything AEW can do to make a comeback.

Except for putting all 700 titles on Christian

Christian should win every title on Father's Day.

Do an angle where he has a relationship with Ann Carlson Khan and reveals he is TKs dad.

youd need to set that up first. A limo explosion might work.

I just don't see any scenario where Tony Khan would want to run a wrestling company that even he cannot say is the greatest thing ever. The huge rights deal seems to be what Tony put into his business model presentation, but really doesn't care.

If he was at all caring about making a profit, he wouldn't spend hundreds of thousands on special songs or millions on broken down or flat out injured wrestlers. How many matches did he even get out of Kota Ibushi or Paul White?

He does not operate AEW like he has a budget whatsoever.

I would not wish death on Shad Khan, but Christian Cage could have a field day :rofl:

TK cannot discern between good and bad wrestling. He thinks whatever comes from him is good. He thinks Will Ospreay is good, Chris Jericho is good, Orange Cassidy is good, Toni Storm is good and Riho is good. He can’t kill his darlings and produce a product that actually works towards one stylistic vision.

It’s been implied AEW has a budget. He charges for ROH and PPV. Tony wants to make money back, he’s just a fucking shit businessman and wrestling mind.

This is your semi-regular reminder that Tony Khan has never earned a job he has, and everything is a bought position.

Takeshita is miserable in AEW. He did an interview in it where he claimed (I’m paraphrasing) that he’s lost the joy of wrestling since being in AEW. He also thinks Americans don’t want to see Asians on TV.

TK is just a shitty booker, bro.

Tony didn't even know Miro was injured and tried to book him.
Tony knows Ricky Starks is not injured, but does not book him.
Tony told his employees to start referring to him as "The Alpha Male" on Twitter.
Tony told the world he was scared for his life.
Tony is a fucking idiot.

Whoa, I must have missed this Alpha Male thing. Either that or it was just too ridiculous for my brain to process. Is it recent?

Pretty recent, Jim Ross and Billy Gunn both independently of each other came up with that, not at all like somebody who pays them told them to get it out there.

Gonna be honest TK referring to himself and making people refer to him as The Alpha Male is the most heel thing ive ever heard. The visual image of a 120lb soy boy calling himself the alpha male...id pay to see him get his teeth kicked in.

Inadvertent or not thats fucking outstanding

bonus points if his voice cracks while he's trying to make someone say it

And while he's trying to make someone cry he makes himself cry and through the tears shouting "IM THE ALPHA MALE"

Stick him behind a monster and build a year to some baby steve austin type getting 5 min alone with him. Id literally spend money on that.

Gonna be hilarious when the end game is TK facing off against his huge game changing new signee.....Andrew Tate. Winner gets to be the Alpha Male 4 lyfe.

Sup guys guys I can't believe it the forums are back, but AEW IS not trending right now, let's make a WWE thread, that's the only wrestling that matters.

HE TAPPED WITH BOTH HANDS SO YOU BOTH WIN WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

lolAEW

AEW is the gift that keeps giving. It’s going to be a shame when they cancelled because they suck.

Let’s play predict the drama. I actually predicted Meltzer and Alvarez overrating Danielson/Ospreay to the point of alienating fans. What’s it going to be this time?

I’m going to predict that Tony says something stupid about WBD at the press conference.

Apparently MJF got an AEW tattoo. Not on his neck or anything, but still feel like he's gonna regret that one.

Did they really book a heel turn with a "I am destroying our friendship bracelet"?

Tiny really books like a 12 year old.

Also, remember when MJF talked about leaving for 3 years? He really flipped now to another AEW mascot??? I guess FTR Bald and Cope and Mone weren't cutting it.

Midcard Snare Trap is ALL ELITE!

MJF is obviously a talented guy. But him coming back to AEW feels like the guy is afraid to bet on himself and would rather be in a small pond. It immediately takes my enthusiasm for his potential down several notches. We’ll see if this actually helps AEW. Sometimes it’s just depressing to see talented people wasting their careers. Kurt Angle spent too long in TNA. People wanted AJ Styles to move on.

Vince has a humiliation kink. Tony has always struggled with friendship because so many would have been based around money. And it shows up time and time again in his stories.

He also has a thing for kidnapping, but he’s hidden that one. Maybe he always wanted to be kidnapped and ransomed back to Shad so he can see how much he is loved?

Disappointed that MJF didn't go to WWE but the fact that he came back to AEW as a home grown talent that the company can build around for years to come is huge for them.

Other than Roman Reigns, has Edge put anybody over this decade?

Used to think MJF was smart, but getting AEW tattooed on himself says otherwise. Used to think, yes, drain the money mark for as much money and spotlight as you can. Right now in WWE with Roman finally having lost, there is almost like a "backlog" of champions and stories to tell. So by all means stay where you are treated as a big deal and make that money and when the time is right jump on over and be treated like a big deal for a while. If he went over right now I have a feeling he'd get lost in the shuffle pretty quick.

But anyways, all my rational and logical thinking goes out the window with him getting AEW tattooed on himself. Sounds like he's not being smart but rather has bought into the "hype" and "drank the kool-aid"

YOOOOO fucking Edge broke his leg, and he STILL wouldn't call an audible to put somebody else over :rofl:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Howdy! <a href="https://t.co/kKGH7xx55S">pic.twitter.com/kKGH7xx55S</a></p>&mdash; Adam Copeland (@RatedRCope) <a href="https://twitter.com/RatedRCope/status/1795464145334116852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Is it a real tattoo? I haven’t seen the promo. I just don’t care. I’m fatigued by the idea of this guy in that environment. It’s been five years of talking about the guy’s potential. Now I’m supposed to think the guy is a big deal when he re-ups with the minor leagues?

It’s made me realize that the guy has been involved in some pretty mid shit outside a couple of big programs he was possibly carried through. After the Punk feud, he had some good matches and programs, sure, but the overall tone of just about everything he’s done has been off.

He did the weird shoot stuff with TK around the Wardlow match. He came back and became World Champion. Then he cried about not having a family with Danielson. Then he did the flat story with “The Pillars.” Then he turned babyface and that was horrible. Now he’s back.

He’s largely been boosted by an early rep, Cornette’s adulation and a confidence about himself. The maybe it’s time to judge the tree by its actual fruits?

Hmm, I dunno what to make of him. Why even do this video if he “doesn’t know what to say?” Is he 50 or 15?

I don’t think TK was ever going to put Malakai Black over. He’s a CM Punk guy and has been vocal about not really wanting to be there. Is this Edge’s “fault?” I guess he could throw more weight around. You don’t want your “legends” losing all the time, but Edge has been largely boring outside of his initial WWE return.

It’s not exciting or beneficial to have him in AEW outside the idea that younger guys are going to “learn” from working with him. Except that’s not a learning environment. And it makes the professors do stupid shit instead of helping the students. How useful is it for talent to learn how to get dumped with goop and roll around in barbed wire for a 50 year old guy still trying to make it happen?

At least we get another tournament. TK can show HHH how it’s done.

Latest TV deal news via Puck is that Tony Khan is “disappointed” in the offer from WBD. Now Meltzer and co. have stolen it. If even Meltzer is reporting it, you know it’s not good.

It’s kind of a “no shit” kind of scenario. Why would you want AEW content on your network? I’m still thinking WBD just drop them.

Edge beats Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 36, then gets injured in the rematch.

He comes back from that injury and wins the Royal Rumble, gets his win back against Orton, beats Jey Uso, then loses to Roman at Mania and the rematch.

Then he fueds with and beats Rollins, beats Kevin Owens, Miz, Miz and Maryse.

Wrestlemania 38 he beats AJ Styles, starts Judgement Day, gets kicked out of Judgement day, then spends the next year beating all of them, Priest, Dom, Balor, and Demon Balor at Wrestlemania 39.

On his way out of WWE, he beats Grayson Waller and Sheamus.

Shows up in AEW, beats Luchasaurus, a few AEW originals like Dante and Lee, takes Christian's title, becomes an AEW mascot, beats all of House of Black, breaks his leg, does no jobs.

Nothing about what you’ve said is untrue. Well, I guess Edge had some losses in there. The I Quit with Balor. I think Dominik screwed them in a tag. Did Seth get a win somewhere? I can’t say that I think Edge should have lost any of those feuds though.

That being said, I don’t think any of those feuds needed to happen either. They didn’t help any of the talent in any sort of on-air way. They’re just…there. It’s so Edge can get paid and do his thing with this second career he’s having.

We can tell that but I guess you're still posting because you need the money

Mark Henry, Arn Anderson, and Jake Hager's contracts have expired or will be by the end of the month. Probably will be some more expiries in the coming months.

Henry said he's focused on his podcasts and other media projects and didn't want to re-up with a backstage role in AEW unless he was fully committed.

Arn had nothing but good things to say about the company but I suspect it's more a case of he wants to take on a similar backstage role with WWE especially if it means working with Cody again.

With Hager I just think there was no real reason for AEW to keep him at this stage. They barely booked him in the last year or so and in his case it didn't feel like a case of him being a great talent getting lost in the roster overcrowding, he just simply wasn't that good and anything he did well they have others who do it better.

Hager had some value in the early AEW days as a big dude with a lot of live TV wrestling experience. But at this point he's totally redundant. Going with Big Bill as Jericho's Learning Tree heater instead of working Hager back into that spot was probably the final nail in the coffin for him.

Did Hager's hat get a new deal?

It should've gotten a 10-year supermax contract.

MJF could go to WWE in like 5 years and just wrestle in pants all the time. Problem solved!

Jake Hager’s hat is going to seek opportunities in a place that can actually use stars.

I heard a lot of black fans express distaste at the blatant tokenism of AEW shamelessly using Swerve Strickland for some PR. A lot of them were dubious that Swerve would make it through Wembley as champion. Looks like he might not even make it through Forbidden Door. :lol:

TK is thinking about adding more titles to AEW. I’m not joking.

Where'd you hear that?

Okada's gifted Lamborghini Huracan 580-2 Spyder in Nero Nemesis is sick as hell.

Lol, MJF wasn’t on the Dynamite after the PPV? Will Ospreay defeats a bunch of jobbers and comedy wrestlers in a Russonian gimmick match for the World Title shot at the PPV? It doesn’t seem possible for this shit to get worse.

They waited a whole month to run the exact same match with the exact same winner with the almost exact same prize! Tiny is such a bad booker he forgot her JUST did this lol

Hello? Hello?!

They live in Canada, you wouldn't know them.

(but more likely Noid read someone else's post somewhere saying one person was complaining and decided that counts as "a lot" lol)

It is hilarious they ran the same terrible gimmick so close together. But did Tony forget or is he just that fucking bad?

Kayfabe: Imagine being a wrestler going for the World Title. You get your gear on. You’re all stretched and ready to go. The #1 contender is decided before you even get to the ring. Time to go back home and twiddle your thumbs.

It’s totally emblematic of AEW, but it’s hilarious in the context of pro-wrestling. And Tony obviously think it’s a good idea. Even the Reverse Battle Royal gave the losers a chance to try and get into the ring.

I used to be a fan of Cesaro, but I’ve got to admit that Claudio does not look out of place with The JOB Squad and Los Boricuas in 2024.

I'm sure their match will be great, but I don't love the idea of doing Swerve vs. Ospreay already. Swerve shouldn't lose the title yet, so the drama isn't there for me.

Having a great match for the sake of it is fine, but that shouldn't be a PPV main event. Make that an attraction for TV.

(I also just don't like champion vs champion matches in general.)

Bookers have forgotten how damaging babyface matches can be. When people give a shit about your product (it’s lucky very few people do about AEW), it’s a risk to put two of your supposed attractions against each other when they necessarily have to step on each other’s goals.

Swerve is either going to have to have his balls cut off like a good token champ, or Ospreay has to lose a high profile match this early into his “run.” Great booking, Tony.

The match itself is going to be pretty bleh too. Swerve and Will are both guys that work up to the standard of their opponent. Left to their own devices, they get kind of spotty. Samoa Joe and Christian were good opponents, at least on paper, for Swerve.

Coming off a PPV, MJF’s return and there being no NBA competition, Dynamite did a whopping 787k.

This shit is dead, folks.

AEW's fall from grace has been insane.

It was one of Alfred Konuwa's things. Now it's trying to get Tiffany Stratton fired over a dumb tweet.