To be fair, AEW does seem to be going to smaller buildings now. What I don’t think has been factored in is how potentially damaging this could be to the fanbase’s perception of the product. It’s a concession of defeat — a necessary one and one that’s long overdue — but a concession nonetheless. I think you’re going to still see them struggle to move tickets.

I am convinced they did zero market research before announcing their Australian show. Anyone could have told you it was absolutely insane to book a stadium in Brisbane for wrestling. They didn’t even talk to Harley Cameron who is on their roster. That’s the brain-trust there. I don’t know why anyone would expect more planning or competency to be implemented elsewhere.

Mostly because Dave's important metrics change every week so no matter what, it means AEW is doing great. 18-49 only matters when AEW wins, otherwise he spins it. Let's not forget when Dave explained how in Canada, the demo is 18-54, and AEW won that demo, because Canadian ratings let Dave hype up how great AEW was doing that week.

When NXT got 680,000 viewers with a .17 demo, and Dynamite got 573,000 viewers with a .17 demo, Dave declared that AEW won, because .17 in the demo on TBS is better than .17 on the CW.

Nevermind that 107,000 less people watched, or that AEW's payroll is easily 20 times of what NXT's payroll is, or that CW is paying NXT 5 times less than WBD is paying AEW. But none of those points allow Dave to spin that a .17 demo is better than a .17 demo, which defeats Dave's purpose of covering for AEW's failure to grow their brand whatsoever.

Bingo. Dave has been quoted as touting viewership as the most important metric just prior to AEW’s debut too. That changed when Dynamite debuted with a comparatively impressive demo:viewership number. Now he just tries to claim that Dynamite wins because…Dynamite.

The 18-49 demo is an oversimplified and unspecific holdover from yesteryear anyway. Households and the way people consume media have changed — as have the interests of advertisers and other TV stakeholders. Dave is out of touch, if you even halfway take him genuinely.

The 18-49 demo is the primary metric that Nielsen uses to order their ratings. This is nothing to do with Meltzer. I want to know why you think the entire US TV industry is using the wrong indicator, and what you think they should use. What metrics are the advertisers and stakeholders that you mention using?

What percentage of posts in this thread are about Dave/ratings?

Metric matters when AEW wins.
Metric importance changes when AEW doesn't win.

It is not the metric itself, but how Dave Meltzer specifically changes what the number means from week to week to fit his narrative.

Audiences can be more accurately pinpointed now too. A few years ago, the target was Asian-American audiences. The 18-49 tells you nothing about that. Its importance was conceptualized in the 70s. Advertisers could target the whole family through the 18-49 male, who would likely control the family’s spendings. Times have changed.

We also have YouTube, streaming and other ways to reach high spenders. Cable — specifically second-tier wrestling — is not the best way to reach the audiences you want to reach.

Needless to say, Collision didn’t do too well on TNT against Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC and Peacock. I can’t wait for Meltzer to say the show actually did better than last week because the demo rating went up or that it’s unfair to count this week. Maybe he’ll find a way to adjust Collision by 2.1 million?

For AEW, their biggest revenue source is their US television contract. That money comes from advertising. The value/effectiveness of that advertising is measured, stop me if I'm wrong, by Nielson, who consider 18-49 to be the key metric.

Now you're saying that cable isn't the best way to reach audiences - but your original point was that "the demo" was not the best way to evaluate cable hotness, so you were talking about cable. Please be clear.

Why do you do this.. :|

Nielsons ratings are so inaccurate that theyve been ruled in court that theyvebeen barred from being used to uphold contracts at any level. The MRC disaccredited Nielson in 2021. After 19 months in 2023 Nielson was able to get reacredited by the MRC. They still are working to get their legal standing back.



Tl;dr they arent exactly the industry standard

The larger point, though, is that those numbers are being cherrypicked for moving goalpoasts.

For example, a lot of responses as of late have been about how Meltzer will spin the importance - or lack thereof depending on the week - of the overall number or a particular demographic if hit helps AEW sound like they're doing better than WWE in any way. However, if WWE is the clear victor in any way, it will be deflected in "Oh, well those numbers aren't important" or "the lack of ratings are the fault of [insert excuse or event that is always something beyond AEW's control] or "this isn't a competition anyway" type of drivel.

Getting the supposedly coveted cash cow of "18-34 males", overall, doesn't mean what it used to. Neilson isn't compiling what is being streamed on phones or for people catching clips via YouTube or social media, or even the potential (but not likely) bump they'd get from people who load shit on their DVRs but possibly never get around to watching it.

But again, it isn't about what AEW is or isn't getting. It's not about the supposed boatload of money they got from TV rights. It's about projecting superiority for their flagship broadcasts in particular against WWE's training vessel c-show... on the occasions where there's a win or a tie.

"It only counts if we're winning" type shit.

It's essentially the same thing at this point. Even though ROH is allegedly a separate thing, at least half of the "regular" roster consists of AEW contracted talent (other half were folks under contract while the OG company went under), although sometimes used in a different capacity. For example, Wheeler Yuta is supposed to be a big deal there, but on AEW TV, he has perpetual lackey energy.

Willie Mack had wrestled a few matches for AEW both before and after Tony's ROH purchase. And again, even though they are supposedly two different wrestling companies under two different corporate umbrellas, it's all Tony's toybox and he can do whatever he wants. Like take his toys back when he gets his feelings hurt.

So like between 90%-100%?

It's only increased because the ratings thread got bounced for being too toxic.

I seem to remember a lot of gifs of Seth Rollins dancing being posted by somebody :rofl:

Excellent post.

The demos aren’t power levels. Yet you have Meltzer comparing them like a 0.0007 on cable is more valuable than a 0.0008 on network. The value advertisers put into content is going to be determined by things more nuanced or self-determined than the general 18-49 demo. There’s a big difference between a 39 yr old trucker from Alabama and an 18 yr old kid from Philadelphia.

Advertisers decided a while ago that wrestling just wasn’t as valuable as other things of a similar or smaller demo. And when it comes to wrestling, WWE is going to carry favour based on their brand penetration. It’s ridiculous to look at the numbers Dynamite gets, compare part of them to part of what NXT gets, then claim that Dynamite somehow “wins” anything from it.

The bitch of it is that AEW could have established their own brand at this point; to have a long-game shot at being the Pepsi to WWE's Coke*... as opposed to a children's lemonade stand that sells snowcones flavored with piss and Red Bull. When they get told nobody wants to drink piss outside of a VERY specialized market, and even there, that urine is curated from a particular type of source that is likely to be exclusively "young, attractive, wauflike, disease free females with a diet that lacks things like asparagus" instead of the male communal piss trough they insist on drawing from. You know, since they don't need advice. They are doing "fine" with their piss beverage, and anyone saying otherwise "are just haters". 18-49 year olds love our yellow snowcones! Until they find out. But that's not AEW's fault. The local Jr High volleyball team is playing at the school across the street. They got their rights deal money, so we can just keep selling Frozen Piss Bull to the ever dwindling audience that knows our greatness and are willing to LEARN... unless you question who a random lucha newcomer is, because you should know from Cagematch or intrinsically IYKYK!




*if I wasn't going to stay with the beverage analogy, I would have gone for the Coca-Cola vs cocaine low hanging fruit of either TK or NWA. Just letting you know I thought of it even though I didn't go that way.

The problem is clear and in an ideal world it would signify to arm chair bookers everywhere that no matter how much they like the smell of their own farts they dont know shit about booking.

It wont though. Theyll think the problem is localized to TK. It isnt. Just like this should also signal that if you had infinite money you wouldnt suddenly become successful. You would fail miserably and die broke.

Promoting events is hard. Running a business is hard. You need talent as much as you need opportunity. And yeah holy fuck does tk not have any. The guy walked in with a carefully constructed product with hot angles and hot workers and a counter culture it factor that you cant manufacture and squandered it entirely.

It wouldnt fix because AEW is a meme now but he's gotta give up the book. Its not working. Its objectively not working.

That’s very true. There are so many intangibles when it comes to running things. TK doesn’t seem to have the talent to manage people — especially wrestlers and their politics. It’s also more than just putting names on paper against each other and having someone go over with a move. Being a worker helps you understand how to book through the action — not just around it.

You’d think Tony would have removed himself for those hero points by the now, but I think there is something in the psyche of people like TK and Dixie Carter that drives them to spend their money playing wrestling promoter that prevents them from stepping back.

Dymamite mint tonight.

AEW worth 2 billi!!!! sick league

AEW isn’t even worth 2 billion yen.

It is a bit beyond "Tony needs to give up the book"... he also needs to alsi actually delegate responsibility and actually listen to oeople who know what the fuck they're doing about the business of wrestling. As opposed to saying shit like "that's a good question..." and then proceeding to not answer said question.

But even there, he's already proven he can't even "book around" the action. There is zero action. "I have X talent now, and they can have a match against Y and Z and possibly W... for the next three weeks! Dream match!" Even if that talent having matches against those other three names could have been potentially stretched over the next six months and getting folks to at least tangentially care about the lead up to them finally having said match.

For example, Ricochet vs Bandito could have potentially been a blockbuster match for AEW. And I'm writing it off already. Why? Because not only do I know Tony is going to blow that load as soon as he can possibly get them in the same ring... And not only do I think the match will be set up ASAP to pop a number for Rampage or Collision instead of headlining a future PPV (and I don't mean the very next PPV)... I already know he already treated Ricochet the same way, so he doesn't mean as much as he did when he came in.

So, with all that "math", I know they're both just going to be another flippy guy on a roster full of them by next March because Tony doesn't have the impulse control to play the longer game. And, in that same stretch, he's going to come up with another dumbass gimmick to push on par with The Librarians, Orange Cassidy, that pizza guy, and Hologram.

You’re correct, sir. Sorry that my replies are not lengthy, but you pretty much nail it.

Very smart of them to embarrass Ricochet 2 weeks ahead of him scheduled to headline the Tokyo Dome. That AEW/NJPW relationship has to be strained.

To be fair, Ricochet embarrasses himself no matter what AEW does :rofl:

Looks like I've been proven wrong... thanks to the dropkick concussion upon Bandito's return, he's minimized faster than I predicted. :nono:

What is the industry standard then? How does any of this work?

Being cherrypicked by who, Dave Meltzer?

These conversations are circular. It's another assertion that "TV ain't what it used to be", we all know that. Repeated posts about how it's apparently ridiculous that advertisers consider working age adults to be more valuable to advertise to than children or older people. We track ratings but you can't trust the ratings because everything's made up.

Okay, so nothing means anything then. Great discussion. Shame I can't watch Dynamite any more since WBD didn't renew AEW's deal. Oh wait this thread constantly got things wrong. That's what Meltzer does!!! You're all a bunch of Meltzers!

It’s crazy how guys go to AEW and just flip out. I’ll take credit for that pun. I think it’s partially the environment and culture there, partially the wrestlers’ mentalities themselves. AEW attracts a certain type of crowd.

I guess shit happens, but it does seem to be typical AEW for a guy to crash and burn like that.

Lol at Worlds End. Or — as the bots would call it — World End(s).

So TNA gets this SportsNet deal in Canada, right? It’s a good deal for them. Dave cannot help himself. He writes up this thing that reminds people they got kicked off Spike and alleges that SportsNet was in talks with AEW, but AEW chose to stick with TSN because of the money.

Jimmy Korderas jumps in — quite obviously with ties at SportsNet — and points out that AEW tried to get a deal with SportsNet, but SN opted to go with TNA — it had nothing to do with AEW getting more money from TSN.

Dave claims that part of the story is “irrelevant.” It doesn’t matter who picked up the phone first. :lol:

The AEW mole said that AEW was handing out approved questions to participants at the Worlds End scrum.

*Sportsnet

That’s irrelevant.

Just irked me as a Canadian to see the brand continually miscapitalized.....

I apologize. Don’t want to disrespect any cold, heartless brands here.

AEWShop’s search bar was displaying anything that had been searched for. So naturally you would type in a wrestler’s name and all sorts of vulgar things would pop up to meet you.

Thank you.

Anyways... I won't be watching TNA or AEW anytime soon.

I'll probably tune in to the first RAW and SD on Netflix and then promptly go back to largely ignoring WWE except for big events.

I guess that I might watch more PLEs and not just Rumble/Mania (and sometimes Summerslam and Survivor Series).

I can’t believe I’m actually rooting for TNA.

Lol, ROH put up a disclaimer at their show saying that anyone in the ringside area is assuming the risk of injury or damage to property by being in that area.

Tony got his new deal, and immediately re-bought Elton John's song, and also bought "Im So Excited" for Dynamite, so clearly he is being more fiscally responsible now with plans to recoup the losses of the last 5 years :rofl::rofl::rofl:

I bet you all that talent is going to re-sign for reasonable amounts too. Especially the men who see what Jon Moxley can do at his rate of pay, and the women who see Mercedes Mone at hers.

The Hurt Syndicate probably cost >$5 million ALONE.

Meltzer has been pretty much called out for just making up that they’re going to be profitable. Tony has to be able to keep things within budget and be prepared for what happens if the TV rights deal is minimized or even taken away.

Looking forward to Dave’s studied analysis on the Dynamite ratings/MAX numbers this week. He got upset when Variety or some entertainment outlet conflated the NBC viewership with Peacock views. I expect those principles to be betrayed in lieu of flat-out lying about how AEW does on MAX.

You post very interesting discussion points but WHERE'S THE BEEF? Oh this isn't true and this isn't true and this isn't true. Say something, preferably something that isn't talking about Dave Meltzer

Chris Charlton has been sent on “indefinite hiatus” for calling Tony Khan a money mark via English commentary at the New Japan shows over the weekend. He also questioned what Okada, Jay White and Ospreay have done since signing with AEW and compared the Continental Classic unfavorably to the G1.

Charlton is absolutely correct about everything, but that stuff doesn’t need to make air. That’s Matt Striker level stuff. We don’t need “Stone Cold” Chris Charlton. Talk about the power vacuum top NJPW stars leaving for AEW has created, sure. That’s the story they’re telling in NJPW. But there’s a commentary-friendly way to navigate that.

Tony Shiavone jumping in and telling Charlton to “GFY” and take a shower sometimes is a bit rich though. By this stage, everyone knows Shiavone lives in the colon of whoever his employer is, but “Speak, bitch” Shiavone can’t really talk about doing a polished or professional job in 2025.

AEW and Tony Khan continue to be massively insecure as well.

So a NJPW commentator got suspended by NJPW because he risked his company from being cut off financially by hurting Tony Khan's feelings?

That sounds exactly like the way a Money Mark would react :rofl:

Yeah. There’s a reason that sentiment exists among NJPW fans. Is either side going to examine that in the business relationship? Probably not.

It was hilarious a few months ago when Dave said the new TV deal would prove TK isn’t a money mark. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can tell how much it bothers Tony Khan (because it’s true).

Meltzer?

Seriously the best Tiny Klown can come up with for Bobby Fucking Lashley is for him and Shelton to fight Private Party lol. But Switchblade Brian Kendrick is in the main events?!?!?

Remember when AEW was trying to convince people they had a great tag team division? They even got Dave to say it was the best tag division ever.

Brian Kendrick in main events? Tony must have heard that Noid doesn't like him, and, needing approval from this stranger on the internet, has started booking Brian Kendrick in main events in hope of garnering praise from Noid.

Meltzer?

Yeah, they call him Jay now for some reason!

Oh, so it wasn't really Brian Kendrick but that Jay White guy? Damn..... built my whole joke on a falsehood.....

I even thought "isn't switchblade that other dude's nickname?" but then thought nothing of it....

I guess because I plausibly believed that Brian Kendrick could be in AEW main events....

He was going to be, but David Bixenspan reminded people he was a Holocaust denier at one point in his life. Kendrick would very likely be in the Death Riders or feuding with them right now due to his connection with Bryan Danielson. He’d also likely be agenting Ronda Rousey matches in ROH.

And if TK wanted to impress me, he’d have signed Doug Basham to help with developmental 5 years ago. Bit late, Tony. :nono:

People in on the New Japan side of things are saying that they find TK a pain to deal with and there are lots of frustrations with the AEW deal. The directive to suspend Chris Charlton for his on-air comments about TK and AEW was allegedly made by Tony who “demanded he be punished.”

A Saturday’s Night Main Event is being listed opposite All In this year. AEW are boned lol. Projections are for about 16k for All In. WWE can probably pack more people into an arena for SNME.

MLW drew more for their Kings of Colosseum show than AEW did for the Edge/Jericho Collision.

Great news for AEW! Collision beat the NXT replay — 337k to 279k. They’ve also cleared 1k tickets distributed for their Maximum Carnage show in their World Champ’s home city.

I'm happy to see AEW overtaking NXT and the Maximum Carnage show looks like it's going to be a big hit!

Did Nerf get embarrassed about making 5 posts in a row and have to make a new account?

Another LolAEW moment: They were advertising Grand Slam Australia for the same time as the NBA All-Star coverage would be airing on TNT. Now it’s presumed to be airing after the NBA in a ridiculous time slot.

Also, it was listed here as “AWE: Grand Slam” at one point.

What ever happened to Rampage? Surely once Smackdown moved to 3 hours Tony would have been hyped to go head to head, it is where the best wrestle afterall!

WBD would have kept it, because they love all things AEW, but they actually had humanity in mind. They knew too much of an amazing thing would just be too much. It’s why they haven’t picked up ROH either.

Corbin fixing for a job at AEW lol. The marks that talked a lot of shit about him as a wrestler better be ready to work their spin when he’s suddenly their A1 guy.

Listed here?

Britt Baker is apparently on the outs too.

Listed here?

AEW seriously sucks but The Fraze still watches parts of Dynamite.

... you mean the same way AEW flavored manbabies are convinced that Penta showing up in WWE instantly made people start rooting for him out of spite instead of the fact that he has had significantly less* sloppy showings in his two outings on RAW thus far? He is getting the point across of the gimmick without needing to do a 20 minute spotfest? He kinda seems like a version of the Kevin Smith story where he was talking about how Jay Mewes tightened on taking his overall performance both on camera and off seriously during Dogma because he "don't want to piss off that Rickman dude." HHH is apparently Penta's "Alan Rickman".

I'm sure it has nothing to do with him being presented better in an environment where they tighten the leash on stupid shit. Not that. Or the fact that WWE has moved past a lot of the dumbass "this person never existed before showing up on our doorstep or even in some cases never worked in our own company before you just halluncinated their career under a different trademarked name" in recent history. None of that.

Just automatically appealing because he is no longer in AEW in and of itself is the conclusion "tHe SiCkOs" come to. :nono:


*less sloppy, but still a bit reckless. The attempted slingshot thing he wanted to do where he expected the ropes to be tighter and it just didn't work out, shame you you. Plancha where he pretty much missed Gable, shame on... uh me... Plancha where he pretty much missed Pete Dunne... shame... uh... won't get fooled again. Heh!

I’ve only seen the one Penta match, but it’s pretty obvious WWE knows how to get more out of talent than AEW. Ethan Page is an obvious example. Being “meh” in AEW is par for the course.

Ricky Starks asked for his release and got denied. Nothing surprising there. But it’s hilarious to see AEW marks defend it like it’s good business. AEW is creating hype around these guys and making themselves into the villain of the story. It’s not good business to keep wrestlers signed just so they can’t be used elsewhere.

AEW marks are also trying to blame Starks for it — the usual “he won’t do business” shtick. That doesn’t make sense. Word would get back to WWE and poison the well for them. Starks is being punished because he was allied with Cody and Punk — possibly compouned by him not becoming a Chris Jericho guy.

Remember how evil WWE was when they wouldn't release Grizzled Young Vets because they were in the middle of a story, but then kept using them on TV until their contracts expired.

Then once they finally were free of that slavery, they got to.go to the great haven that is AEW, and have had like 3 full matches in a year?

FUCK EVIL WWE!

Vince is evil when he does it. “Vince did it” is justification when AEW does it.

Where are these things happening because it's not here

How much time/how many segments is AEW going to dedicate on declaring Malakai Black was an asshole holding the rest of House of Black back?

He is big stinky pants who doesn’t like AEW anymore.

LOL, Dave Meltzer is trying to push the narrative that WWE are only working with TNA to block AEW from getting TV. AEW doesn’t need any help hurting themselves. They barely got a US deal.

He’s also trying to remind people that “working with WWE bad.” Yeah, um — that’s not the case anymore. Even if you want to look at things cynically, deals with other promotions make sense from a PR and legal perspective. WWE is also trading on good will. AEW is the entity that chews up other promotions (New Japan, ROH, Impact, AAA).

Dave also doesn’t expand on why WWE would want AEW to go under. It’s not like they’re a threat. The arms race is between AEW and TNA. But why are they helping TNA? Is it because they’ve figured something out and aren’t blowing up the entire business?

Meltzer?

Add Deonna Purrazzo to the list of talent unhappy in AEW. She’s upset she’s not being used more/better. I don’t know what she expected from AEW. See ya back in TNA.

Lol, Sean Ross Sapp is saying that they’ve heard that AEW is one of the most streamed shows in the sports category on Max. No number is attached, so it’s probably not very impressive.

They have never been listed on Max's top 10. Raw on Netflix on the other hand, are pretty consistently in the top 5.

Let's not let facts get in the way of some good AEW Schilling though :lol:

It can mean anything. These people play with rankings like being the 4th most watched “sport” on a streaming service that doesn’t specialize in it means something. It’s like when the sickos bragged about Orange Cassidy’s merchandise sales. Then numbers for another wrestler doing a “record week” came out (might have been Danhausen), and from that you could extrapolate that the dude sold barely any t-shirts lol.

20k people could get you “ranked” as one of Max’s highest streamed sports. These shills can give numbers or gtfo with that soft talk.

It’s just like how they hid the number of ticket sales for All In 2025 behind the revenue for the first sales. They’re en route to sell about 16k for that show if they’re lucky.

They should just call it “Parade of Champions” and be done with it.

Oh shit, he did say it was among the top streamed live sports, I didn't read that well.

Does Max even stream other sports besides boxing? So AEW is 2 of 2... WHAT A MANEUVER :rofl::rofl:

They do have the sports package for an extra $9.99 a month, but AEW is not included in that package anyways. Surely a reputable wrestling journalist wouldn't be comparing AEW's viewership to the viewership of events behind an additional paywall to make them look better, right?

What a wildly unbiased thing for one to do.

I haven’t looked into it, but it would be funny if they’re comparing it to a premium package they’re not a part of. I read that the NFL that gets streamed there gets <50k. It’s obviously not the preferred delivery method for football, but I can’t imagine AEW doing better than that. The sports package doesn’t sound like it’s all the rage.

WBD are also “guarding” the numbers apparently. What does that tell you?

I read a report for Collision, just to see what will get absolutely destroyed by SNME. Then I had to watch the segment. The Toni Storm stuff has been horrible. It’s WrestleCrap. People turned a blind eye to it for a long time for some reason though. Maybe because everything else in AEW sucks? Maybe it’s because they’re simping for the lesbian elements?

But on Collision they paid off the “Toni is pretending to have amnesia” gimmick. But it came after Mariah May absolutely kicked her ass. She got beaten down then just revealed she was playing a role the whole time. Wtf was the point? It makes ZERO sense.

Their promos were fucking horrible too.

People weren’t turning a bling eye to it at all. They were praising it as some of the best stuff on wrestling tv.

Come on. It’s fucking terrible.

I’m seeing people defend it. She got her ass kicked then was like “Ha! I was only pretending to be stupid!” :lol:

Got an idea for WWE. Becky comes back and she starts acting like a movie star. “Blockbuster Becky.” She wants to be nominated for “Best Actor” because she’s “The Man.” She wins the belt then loses it to her lackey, Lyra. Becky goes back to Irish dancing and says it’s her first time in WWE. Then Lyra kicks her ass and Becky gets up and says “I was just ACTING like I had forgotten you betrayed me!”

Brilliant.

In more “AEW botches everything” news:

The House of Black have a new look (well, two of them). Brody King and Buddy Matthews are now street thugs. Julia is still dressing like a sexy witch Halloween costume model.

They’ve just…been dumped by Malakai Black. They didn’t kick him out of the group or anything. Wrestling fans are going to see him return to the WWE and look like a guy breaking free of the minor leagues, while they’re still clinging to the flailing faction concept.

Their name is also horrible. They call themselves “The Hounds of Hell.” Bush league as hell.

I can tell you this is going to fail from the outset. It’s not that there’s no talent in the group. But no one there is looking out for them and they clearly don’t give a shit if they fall on their ass. The optics of this group clinging to each other after Black blows the coop is too soft a start.

You knew Black was leaving months, if not years ago. He’s been miserable there since near the start. Why you didn’t segue into new roles for The House of Black while he was there is baffling. It’s like when they still had Matt Hardy playing a heel even though they knew Jeff was coming in. Or how they knew they were going to turn Mox on Danielson and didn’t do any foreshadowing.

If you know Black is leaving — and they did — you can book backwards. When Darby did his thing with Brody King (was it around WrestleDream?), why wouldn’t Brody being a henchman for Black come up? Why wasn’t that used to move towards Darby vs. Black at some point between then and now (they had two PPVs)? Why wouldn’t the other House of Black members “break free” themselves and become stars?

You had forever to tell that story. Now you’re stuck with the Right to Censor minus Stevie Richards.

Lol, AEW have put Omega & Ospreay against Fletcher & Takeshita in Australia. I don’t think Australia really cares about the Aussies in AEW, but the fans buying tickets probably do more so. I don’t why they’d put Ospreay & Omega against a guy from the country. They people going are also probably aware of New Japan, so they are probably aware of how awesome Takeshita is.

It’ll probably just be “This is awesome!” chants from the few thousand people going as they all trade forearms, but it’s pretty reckless booking to put Omega & Ospreay in a situation where the crowd could flip the script and start cheering the Aussie lad against the overpushed wankers.

Dave Meltzer had to remark on Observer radio that AEW selling 2-for-1 tickets to Brisbane would imply sales aren’t going well. No shit.

Sick of hearing from people that Omega is a draw. It crops up when people discuss his involvement in New Japan. Except the show he was advertised for and arguably built around him (albeit poorly) only drew 16k fans to the Tokyo Dome. The venue holds over 40k.

I’ve seen fans suggest that they should have used Omega for Wrestle Kingdom on the first night. Same with The Bucks. Maybe the reason ticket sales were down is because they were there? The solution may not be more of that thing.

Omega is back off a life-threatening condition. He’s moved the needle nada. People just don’t care about his output as a wrestler outside the deluded Observer bubble. I bet the tickets are just flying now that he’s been announced in a match with 3 other “superworkers” as Dave is trying to coin.

It has been 14 months since Miro had a match in AEW LOL

The only people who care about Omega at this point are the people who were already watching AEW.

AEW is a Ponzi scheme. All they do is promise these great future returns, all the while they continue in a downward spiral. Streaming on Max, that was gonna be a huge surge. Not only have TV ratings not improved, but they haven't even come close to 100,000 viewers on Max. It is just the same people who were already watching.

They moved their huge stadium Grand Slam show out of a 50,000 seat venue because there was little interest. Now they are slashing ticket prices and offering 2 for 1 because there is very little interest in the same event at a 13,000 seat venue either. All In Texas in a 45,000 seat baseball stadium has been stuck at 15,000 tickets, and now they are crying because that evil WWE is running a SNME on the same day. Because that is why the ticket sales haven't moved for 6 weeks before WWE's announcement.

Everything is amazing though, Will Ospreay's Meltzer stars surely mean AEW is still fitting to change the world, JUST WAIT!! :rofl:

A smart and mature way to handle talent relations. I’m sure history will smile fondly on them.