It really just bpils down to how much of AEWs operating budget comes outside of the deal. If Kahn Sr is willing to fund it, lets get silly, 80% then there's no reason Warner would drop it. Its not like airing it on max is a major money sink. Kahn Jrs a mark and will clearly lose his ass on the venture until daddy stops him.


Like i said there's no way to forcast it. It really boils down to how dumb kahn sr is.

How AEW dies:

https://i.imgur.com/5PQuj4w.gif

Apparently AEW is getting sued because Mox pushed a camera man who then got injured.

Yeah thatll do it. Not as bad as punching a journalist as far as historical legal blunders go but it def makes the list

Probably not going to help the case that Ricochet retweeted the story and called the guy suing a pussy.

..i kinda love that

UNSCRIPTED VIOLENCE!!!1!!

By all means if the guy was hurt on the job he's entitled to ask for something given he wasn't trained nor expecting to be bumped. The actual wording in the suit is hilariously sensationalized though, straight out of the playbooks of every lawyer that specializes in ambulance chasing claims.

Timing-wise it sounds like he sat on it for 2 years because he was hoping to get more work with them and didn't want a lawsuit to torpedo it, and since it didn't happen here's the suit.

Anyway, $25k in damages isn't an outlandish sum to ask for. I'd expect this is something that'll just get settled quickly.

Settle for 10 and pat yourself on the back

He’s not asking for $25k. He’s asking for a sum in excess of $25k. I’ve got no sympathy for AEW. Thing sounds pretty messed up.

Ironically he deleted it.

Stupid for Ricochet to say that. Kind of backs up what plaintiff is saying about it being a terrible work culture with a bunch of unprofessional idiots lol.

I’m reading the unions are now involved and that Mox does stuff like this all the time? Yeah, a bunch more people are about to get paid if this is true.

Just play it off as kayfabe. Ricochet said that, Trevor is really concerned about the guy’s welfare.

Or let’s just keep on ignoring Ricochet.

Kinda hope Rusev and/or Aleister Black do a CVV sit down at some point and discuss what the hell actually happened with them in AEW. Kinda doubt it'll happen as both guys were big into streaming while in AEW and they were relatively mum on their whereabouts or always said they didn't know why their booking was what it was. We'll never hear TK or anyone give his side of it.

My read on it though is that it was something like this:

-Both guys felt underutilized in Vince's WWE main roster and were excited to go to AEW where they felt they could end up rolling up the card

-Both guys had some early success. Miro did that dumb Kip Sabian shit, by his own admission he wanted to try something different and show a different side of his personality, but as soon as COVID ended and fans came back they gave him a change in character and a lengthy TNT run. Black got to feud with Cody and eventually start building a stable around him.

-In summer 2022 Triple H takes over the book and you can almost pinpoint this as the moment their booking gets extra weird. Both guys had extended absences. Miro returns for All Out but then disappears again amidst rumors he turned down a Hangman program. Black seems to salute the fans goodbye at All Out and goes on another absence, reportedly asking for his release. Reading through the tea leaves it feels like both guys believe Triple H would book them like NXT again and they want to go back...now starting to protect themselves for returns.

-Neither guy gets out of their deal. Miro's gone for nearly a full year only to go back to squashing people on Punk's Collision, and then disappear on and off again being gone for a full year before his release is finalized. Black at least sticks around to do Trios and Tag stuff but notably goes almost 2 years between singles matches until a singles program with Cope. Throughout this both guys continue to claim they don't know why they're not being booked (or in Black's case why he's left off of singles)

-Meltzer and Alvarez keep heavy-handedly suggesting their booking is the way it is because they're complaining about who they're asked to work with and they don't want to do jobs

---

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Plenty of misused guys from WWE think they'll get a huge push kinda like what TNA used to do, and they can be protective of that.

At the same time I really doubt they were refusing jobs. I think AEW encourages talent to pitch ideas and their ideas might not've jived with what TK wanted, but TK's too much of a bitch to tell them to work with who he says and he'd rather just not book someone in a program they don't want.

I CAN buy that both guys were essentially making TK the Hardcore Holly pitch. No matter how much symbolism or mythos Black tried to work in the pitches ultimately boil down to "And then I beat everyone and you give me the title."

And tbf I would do the same thing.

Do wonder how they feel back in WWE. Love both guys but don't reasonably see them ever advancing beyond midcard - especially with the WWE title firmly entrenched in the Cena angle for the rest of the year. PPVs only have like 5 matches on them now, harder than ever to get booked on a PPV let alone main eventing. The live event schedule is being reduced so there's not as many chances to headline one of those either.

If disappointment with their previous booking/not getting a bigger AEW push ticked them off then maybe at this stage they're just accepting it is what it is and at least they'll just settle in to the highest exposure job/highest paying job and be content with their midcard spot. I doubt either guy will have a prolonged absence anymore so they have that going for them.

Very hilarious to watch Black's first few WWE matches, it's obvious he was phoning it in at AEW.

AEW is a clown show. You go there and while the money is good, you realize you have lowered yourself professionally. Going to a place where you can’t be proud of your work can crush your soul. Artists or athletes sitting on the bench wasting their prime years is frustrating too. Is the money a fair trade off? For some it might be, but you see how bonkers some people are going in AEW.

There’s a difference between taking money and making money. Penta made a fair bit of coin in AEW, but it would be a different feeling to when those first merchandising royalties come in and you realize that you matter to people.

Rusev and Black were both trained in the WWE system. They work out and take the aesthetic side of the business somewhat seriously. That makes them a target for jealousy and bitterness in the first place. When asked to do something stupid they asked “why?” or just flat-out said it was stupid.

Oh, and they were both friendly with CM Punk. That’s a big crime.

Meltzer and Alvarez regurgitate nonsense about WWE programming. It’s propaganda to make pride in your profession sound bad.

Wardlow is sitting on the bench. Put over by CM Punk. Cody guy. Jacked. Jock who wants to be a star. AV club hates him and is pissed the girls talk about him.

It’s really that simple.

AEW Sucks, there is no way around that. They had many chances and have royally fucked up each and every one. At this point it is nothing but lies and false hype. Everything is the best and the company is getting more and more viewers, according to Tony. Except it is the same boring show every single week. Nothing changes, except the audience which is becoming smaller, not bigger year over year like Tony Khan and Dave Meltzer would have you believe.

Meltzer was just going on about how Dynamite on Wednesday sold 14,000 tickets, even though only 13,000 people showed up. Of course people have cameras and there were a lot of empty seats, so again it is just this false narrative that is easily proven as bullshit.

I actually enjoyed the Arena Mexico Dyno a lot more than most Dynos, well, pretty much all year. The crowd was hot all night which helped. I do enjoy the big Lucha multi man tags so that was fun. Arena Mexico Mistico is another beast entirely.

For the rest of the year I feel like I’m mostly in the “browse through DVR, watch a match or two if they sound interesting and call it a day”

Same with WWE as well. My desire to commit a couple of hours at a time every week just isn’t there anymore.

I will say that for me it’s not totally an indictment on the state of either company. I just have a lot more shit going on in my life than I did a few years ago. Even up through a few years ago I had nothing but time to watch pretty much everything.

Getting married next month, tons of household projects going on, work’s getting super busy. There’s only so many leisure hours per night, we’ve got a litany of shows we’re trying to watch through, I watch baseball when the Mets don’t piss me off, there’s video games coming out I’m looking forward to etc.

Just not enough time to go around for me to not just skim. Wouldn’t even matter if this was 2021 AEW or mid-2000s WWE or any other time where I was just super locked in. Even if I shifted wrestling up in the priority list there’s still a lot more I’m into now than before. Such is life.

Remember when people scoffed when Tony Khan was compared to Dixie Carter? The whole promotion is filtered through his personality. There is no hope while he is there, and this thing exists to give him something to play with. It’s doomed.

The lies don’t help AEW. They don’t change the books or the reality of poor business. They exist solely to fool marks.

Brody King wearing an Abolish ICE shirt has made its way to Fox News and MAGA Twitter, and they are very angry about it. He’s also selling shirts on his website for which the profits will go to the families of the abducted.

That’s kickass. Gonna go buy one.

Definitely no chance of that having any negative consequences on the company.

Couldn’t care less. Condemning a modern day Gestapo happening on American soil is more important than a wrestling promotion.

I’m not going to discuss this further with you, since AEW is a wrestling promotion. Barely, but it is. I guess the important thing is you think this helps.

It helps nothing to the power of a billion. My carny ass would sell the fuck out of that shirt though. And id sell kick em all out shirts too. Whatever moves.

Brody King accidentally comes out wearing the wrong shirt one week, has to scurry to the back and swap it back. No one notices he’s gone.

So Sasha Banks starts dating a jobber, and suddenly he is getting main event matches with Samoa Joe, Will Hobbs, Swerve, and Adam Page?

Good to know Tony is booking his toys based on dating habits of his other toys!

The push is based on the timing and athletic prowess Tony saw after placing cameras in their bedroom.

What did he do? Carry Mercedes all the way through sex without her botching? Tbf that would be impressive.

I imagine she makes him stand 4 feet away while she does herself.

Pic for joke reference

https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/edit...80311-1920.jpg

Oh it was a disaster. Tony just can’t tell the difference.

Tony got confused because there was no dog in the room :?:

Come on, there was clearly a beast in there. And you also had Mortos.

I've loved Mortos since AAA and was stoked he was getting a run in TNA and later AEW so more people could see him.

Hilarious that it took this for him to get a push though.

Also I love that since Mercedes is big enough for TMZ or other outlets to cover her relationship, the caption and image combos making it appear she's dating a literal bull are hilarious.

He's probably handsome as hell under there. Wouldn't be too surprised if a day comes where he eventually unmasks and just carries the mask to the ring as a prop or something.

Are Mortos and Black Taurus the same guy? If so, I think I’ve seen exactly one MLW match. I read he looks like Roman Reigns. I cannot confirm as I don’t have Tony’s camera setup, so I haven’t been peering into Sasha’s bedroom.

Britt Baker wants out of AEW bad. The sickos defended her when it seemed like she was a bully in the early days. Now she is sick of being in that toxic environment and she’s suddenly been revealed to be a horrible person and a bad wrestler. Like clockwork.

AEW has been an interesting experiment. It highlights how you can take athletes/entertainers, throw a whole bunch of money at them and still make them miserable.

Tony Khan learning most of the people he thought were his friends were really just after his daddy's money, and after they got enough, it is no longer worth having to pretend to like his weird ass.

Legit thought that was TK in the top picture. (Viewing on mobile)

I’m not sure Tony cares that people only use him for money. In some ways, that might be more “real” for the guy. He constantly sides with people who are very obviously milking him, as opposed to people who want to help and give him honest advice.

I’ve never gotten the talk about TK being nice. He’s clearly demonstrated a lot of cowardly, dishonest, rich kid bully behaviors.

Ha, I just realized that ESPN in Australia is streamed through the Disney+ app. So people instead of no one watching it because it’s on ESPN, now no one is watching it just because it sucks.

The All In card looks rubbish by the way. The Casino Gauntlet is in Reverse Battle Royal territory of bad. You can lose the match without being in it. They’re doing two of them because they haven’t built up proper programs. Athena will win the women’s. MJF will win the men’s, unless Darby Allin plays spoiler. I haven’t even been following closely. For matches so built around “chance,” they shouldn’t be that predictable.

They’re wasting The Hurt Syndicate on Kevin Knight & Mike Bailey, who have already slipped into a tag team because there’s nothing for either of them. Remember when Dave tried to compare Shelton coming in to Sean Morley in TNA? Shelton is one of the best actual workers in the entire company.

Will Ospreay & Swerve Strickland are fluffing about with the Young Bucks. The stip is that if The Bucks lose, they will no longer be EVPs. I guess they are going to make The Bucks being half-way out the company official? Cool? The match will suck too.

The corpse of Adam Cole mirrors the decline of All In ticket sales. He’s fallen from the main event of Wembley to putting over Kyle Fletcher in Dallas. The irony of this show being in WCCW territory is amazing.

Omega and Okada are going to try and recapture their overhyped rivalry from 7-8 years ago. It wasn’t that good then, it’s going to suck now.

The women’s stuff isn’t even worth talking about. Mercedes and Toni Storm have two of the worst gimmicks in wrestling.

The main event isn’t even worth talking about. I’m not even sure Mox is dropping the belt, which would be hilarious. Hangman isn’t the guy. They’re doing a garbage match to make everything mean even less.

I think that's all that ever needs to be said. Goodbye

Lol, MJF is the latest in the troupe of people to embarrassingly misrepresent what AEW is. He’s trying to act like Tony Khan only wants the people who really want to be there. Notice how no one talks about the money anymore? Willow Nightingale, Alex Windsor, MJF — they just really want to wrestle in AEW and see the world, yeah?

I actually really like how they arrived at the stakes in the Bucks/Swerve/Ospreay match.

Swerve/Ospreay can't challenge for the AEW World Title for a year if they lose. The Bucks would have incentive here because they not only want to keep their executive titles but also because they've established they've got a working deal with Mox and are trying to make his life easier.

But from the standpoint of trying to get the audience to buy in, it's also a believable enough stip. If it were "Ospreay and Swerve will be fired if they lose" nobody is buying that. The result of the match wouldn't be in question. These stakes are realistic enough where you could actually see it go either way.

I'd actually reckon the odds are very high now that the Bucks win.

Swerve and Ospreay have been around the AEW World Title scene for a year or more, taking them out of it for a year would cycle some new opponents in for Hangman without there being immediate calls to go back to the Hangman/Swerve well.

But the other thing is you're heavily implying what fans can expect at the next All In. Omega/Okada only officially got booked like a month ago but as far back as December when they first met face to face they made sure to have them do a face off with the All In sign conveniently behind them. 6-7 months in advance when tickets were about to go on sale they were basically telling fans they would be getting that match at that show.

Similar thing here. Ospreay and Swerve can't go for the title again until conveniently All In 2026. You're basically telling UK ticket buyers that the hometown boy is going to win the title at Wembley next year. The expectation is set without even having to officially book a match.

The stipulation should be whoever wins gets to replace Tony Khan, otherwise it makes no difference whatsoever.

At the All In press conference Tony Khan said he hasn’t spoken to Britt Baker about leaving AEW. Now, TK is a liar, but if that were the case, that’s a really shitty thing to cop to. She clearly wants out and you’d rather talk to the dirt sheets than someone signed and wanting out?

He’s such a weasel lol.

No joke: AEW is creating another championship at All In.

Why is that bad? It's a gauntlet

AEW the best

Even the trolling is lifeless now.

Tony Khan got so scared by Goldberg he moved his PPV's start time to mid afternoon :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Now he’s going to get crushed by the might of Yoshiki Inamura!!!

Dave Meltzer actually claimed that Dynamite gets more viewers than Raw.

Sounds like a post for the ratings thread.

More like a post for the Dave Meltzer is full of shit thread :rofl:

Maybe it's true, stranger things have happened at sea.

All In was ok

4.5/10

will miss this place

I have to admit it, guys — All In was absolutely brilliant. AEW are going to be eating well. They’re back. Feeling restored. World changed.

I’m trying to do one of my posts where I sarcastically go through the show and put a spin on how bad it was, but I literally can’t even remember how the show opened. Oh well, I tried.

Thanks Nerf

I don't think that was a good enough bit to post Nerf

It would be so cliched to have the ace of the company be someone that has its best interests at heart. Cool new idea to have the belt won by someone who tried to sabotage the single biggest star the promotion has ever had.

Very excited that they’re going to give Edge & Christian a babyface run. At the end of the day they can put over a young heel team like The Hurt Syndicate, FTR or The Young Bucks.

I wish people would stop saying Mercedes Mone has creative control. No one with creative control would drop a fall for political reasons.

On an unrelated note, how cool was it seeing WWE use footage of Hogan/Goldberg from Nitro this past weekend?

If Hangman Page had won the belt in short order, would Darby Allin have repelled from the ceiling just to say hi?

Casino Gauntlets are such a fresh idea. An idea for Tony next month when they do one: Have the guys fight to get into the ring. I saw something like it in TNA once. They did it under Battle Royal rules though. This one is just pinfall or submission so it’s good.

Here’s a poll:

Was Omega/Okada the best match ever?

Yes.
It wasn’t quite as good as the last Omega/Okada.

Nice to know Dustin Rhodes is so appreciated by AEW. I don’t think it matters he only made the main card once Adam Cole was pulled.

So now Alvarez and Meltzer are spreading the rumor that The Hurt Syndicate are like Aleister Black and Rusev and don’t want to job.

Ok. Never mind that they are about the only guys that seem to improve ratings a little bit and some of the only guys with credibility…actually, do mind that. But this narrative that guys coming in for a lot of money and wanting to protect their image in association with that is somehow unprofessional needs to stop.

Creative freedom is all well and good until you don’t want to look like an asshole losing matches while you’re the tag champs to guys who can’t compare, I guess. They never aim this rumor as criticism of the promoter/booker. Who gave them that power or lets this alleged behavior go on? I guess it’s magic contracts The Hurt Synidcate woke up with. It’s very clear just The Young Bucks and associates being jealous of their cred and still bitter the World’s Greatest Tag Team got picked over them in the ROH days.

Alvarez also said that Lashley & Shelton want to go back to WWE. Well, no shit. But it’s interesting that’s being spread. It makes me hopeful that their deals aren’t long-term. If they were truly in AEW for a long haul and were mad at Triple H, why would the narrative to crush them be their hopeful return?

Lol, Dave Meltzer made a tweet about WWE being sold out for Houston. He then had to add it’s an interesting race between WWE, UFC, CMLL and AEW for “Promotion of the Year.”

How the actual fuck would anyone with any sense put AEW in the running for promotion of the year?