http://i.imgur.com/Ur5OMO4.jpg

That’s where I’m sitting.

Awesome! Good job Cody! (If you are reading this tehehe)

:y::y: Awesome!

I would’ve opted for more expensive tickets if my wife didn’t just have a birthday. Damn her.

I wish they didn't feel compelled to have a large entrance that blocks off seats. I don't get the logic behind that.

Gotta make it look legit, I suppose.

Yeah, cant hype this up as much as they have, and go with a dinky little curtain with strobe lights. Gotta go full stage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you did not get your ticket for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEW</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DoubleOrNothing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DoubleOrNothing</a> in the pre-sale, General on sale happens Wed, Feb 13th at 9am Pst / 12pm Est<a href="https://t.co/BVyw1bPbla">https://t.co/BVyw1bPbla</a> <a href="https://t.co/ke6CmWA2Zz">pic.twitter.com/ke6CmWA2Zz</a></p>&mdash; All Elite Wrestling (@AEWrestling) <a href="https://twitter.com/AEWrestling/status/1095065195062480898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Nice seats @ Malfeitor!

I hope they've got a awesome plan B in the works.

The source seems a bit sketchy but current rumor going around the net hints at AEW planning an October date for the launch of their potential tv show.

Same source also hinted the real launch of the company won't happen till this September since that is when the next All In event is scheduled to occur.

It's gonna be Switcblade and Okada. I dunno how I feel. Well I'm not excited but whatever.

I wonder if they will run the Jacksonville Stadium this summer. They said they would go there for the next event.

Just in time for Ambrose to show up

Found this schedule for AEW going around. Folks saying there are Proms booked all month at Royal Albert Hall so that may not work. Also the place only holds around 5,000 so we will see.

Good job. The re-sale market is blowing up. Cheapest seat is 112 on Stubhub.

"ALL OUT" wow... okay Cody has his dad's marketing bug but I think it's a lot better.

I love the PPV names so far. ALL IN, DOUBLE OR NOTHING (in Vegas, are you kidding), and then a year after it all started and the night it all official begins AEW goes ALL OUT once again at the Sears Center. Omg. I love it.

The end of Fighting With The Family is Paige /sighing in relief after she won the NXT title and the eating the cum of Brad Maddox off her belt and flashing a huge cum eating grin at the camera.

The cheapest seat I saw for my section on StubHub was like 545 or some shit. Ridiculous.

Okay RP.

Rez was saying in the Raw thread that it would be good to snag some of the big name stars. With the rumors abounding of potential signings with Goldberg, Dave Batista, CM Punk and others and also the possibility of a summer stadium show in Jacksonville. I think a great hook to sell a show like that would be Batista vs Omega and Goldberg vs Jericho. I think a match with Batista and Omega would possibly get some mainstream press and they could build it easy as the big leaguer coming in to walk over the flavor of the month for a big pay day, all the while the cool and confident BEST BOUT MACHINE holds his own with his universe of fan at his side until the fateful showdown in the sun filled with awesome power spots and lots of rehearsal. With Goldberg and Jericho you have a real like decades long feud to bring to surface. With Jericho's recent abusive drunk gimmick he could really wring the cloth on Goldberg and push him to go over the edge live on PPV.

Also I think that they should give Jericho a screw job win at Double or Nothing. He's had a lot of losses lately and if they have paid out like he said they did, and they did, then AEW should keep him strong for the future. Omega can easily recover from a loss from Jericho. He could even be stronger if done correctly.

Yeah I’m thinking Jericho wins and then faces Hangman while PAC ties it up with Omega or something.

I'm curious to learn more about these June and July shows. Hmmm.

Could be a good move to start their TV in the traditional “fuck it, we’ll just coast until January” time period.

Except WWE has moved the "fuck it, we'll just coast" mantra to being year-round, so they'll really be good to go whenever.

I think Omega should win at DoN. He’s your ace right now and he’s never had any US exposure. He’s basically “homegrown,” in the sense that he’s never been in WWE. Even if they get AJ Styles, CM Punk and/or Randy Orton, those acts are more loaning their star power to the brand so you can build up and around your Kenny Omegas. Omega losing could be a big deal. I don’t think you start him off with one.

Besides, I like the idea of Jericho being this giant free agent who signs, and acts all babyface until this younger guy from Winnipeg signs and beats him in his first match, immediately adding wrinkles Jericho needs to iron out. Jericho can slime wins from Hangman Page and/or Cody. And if they don’t secure any of these rumoured big names, Omega can be the one guy Jericho is not greater than.

The rest of the tickets went on sale.

Sold out in 4 minutes.

I got fucking lucky. A lot of my friends tried to get tickets and got jack shit.

I think this will be a trend for the next few shows at least. Keep a steady hand and enjoy the ride.

This is a good thing and if it keeps up maybe it will entice the Wwe to actually make some real changes

This is the first same-day sellout for pro-wrestling in Las Vegas, with tickets sold to every state and Puerto Rico, as well as 9 other countries.

Great interview w/ Chris Jericho and Tony Kahn about plans for AEW.


<iframe src="https://omny.fm/shows/talk-is-jericho/the-aew-vision-of-tony-khan/embed?style=cover" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="180"></iframe>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">God I love when you cut baby face promos ������ Great shit Mongoose! Congrats on the sell out!! ����</p>&mdash; Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/1096110260539015168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Undertaker to appear at Starrcast before DOUBLE or NOTHING
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Undertaker to appear at Starrcast II <a href="https://t.co/ZQr6Vw4XQb">https://t.co/ZQr6Vw4XQb</a> <a href="https://t.co/vLHx6XaC71">pic.twitter.com/vLHx6XaC71</a></p>&mdash; Wrestling Observer (@WONF4W) <a href="https://twitter.com/WONF4W/status/1096159917637943296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I don't think Taker is appearing at Double or Nothing btw

That said

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">See ya there, Take. <a href="https://t.co/KicnlJvu2s">https://t.co/KicnlJvu2s</a></p>&mdash; The Young Bucks® (@MattJackson13) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattJackson13/status/1096164483884412928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
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So surreal that The Undertaker is going to be at what is essentially their fan-fest.

Sting, too. Maybe they can play rockem sockem robots

Great Khan interview with Jericho. He sounds like a smart and pretty down-to-earth and honest guy. He’s got A LOT of knowledge and it was cool to hear the Midnight Express, Jim Cornette, Ultimo Dragon and Buddy Landell get shouts.

The “weird” things to me were hearing him describe the women like the cruiserweights in WCW. It’s like...WWE is pushing them as the main event (even if it is PR spin and they’re not really banking on them). I’d like to know more about what he means by that. I think it’s a healthier position for most of the female talent they’ve got (I don’t really feel “Britt Baker: Main Eventer”), but I feel it’s the one time he felt like he was putting too much pure hype promoting it like “something never done before.” Like he’s saying this division is going to be really different, but how.

I fucking love the inclusion of Aja Kong and Tony did say they are going to get “more diverse,” which I hope means they are going to look at the sorts of talent WWE wouldn’t really touch because they still have beauty requirements. But women’s wrestling has been a focus in a few places for quite a while now.

And while what he says about not wanting to grab everyone makes sane and logical sense, I’m a little disappointed it kind of dampened my excitement for a mass exodus. I still want Moxley, Styles, Nakamura, Orton, The Usos, The Hardys and Brock Lesnar over there for perception’s sake. They don’t need to be on every show and can mix up with other people. They’d bring freshness to roster, since they are so WWE entrenched.

Nothing Taker does will ever be more surreal than this...




Dude goes on a date with his wife in full Taker gear, while she eye bangs Kevin Love in the background lol

Haha, Taker’s such a weird dude. I’ve thought about this for ages, but there’s just something odd about the dude. I’m not making fun, but he doesn’t seem to fit the profile of other “tough guy” wrestlers. He’s spent most of his career putting on excessive make-up and pretending to be a zombie with utter sincerity. So much about him isn’t really known. And he’s evidently got terrible fashion sense (Survivor Series ‘00). It’s like there’s a little kid or drama nerd competing with the Texas guy who likes MMA and Jack Daniels in there.

CW Network could be a possibility for AEW too. We haven’t really talked about that too much.

I'm hoping for TNT/TBS but CW would be the next best option. Any FOX or NBC stations aren't happening because WWE. Some random ESPN Ocho wouldn't be good... WGN would be..meh. I forgot it existed.

Well, my heart was on TBS or TNT too, but the CW actually has higher viewership, I believe. But do they want a network show or a cable one? There are probably “pressures” with a network show. I could see them simply cross-promoting due to the Cody/Arrow connection, or running Clash/SNME equivalents. They’re all under the Warner banner though.

Low-key hoping for an AEW/Mortal Kombat crossover.

I always forget that CW is a network channel.

Damn do I want that TNT AEW Tuesday Night Dynamite, tho

I think that’s always been the goal. Hence the name of the show.

Word

Not that WCW was anything but shit in the end but that AOL merger was one of the worst things to happen to wrestling.

WCW made it a common sense decision to cut them off. They were losing so much fucking Turner money, and there was no end in sight.

True. I still believe the brand could have been saved. Restructure contracts, purge Russo, etc.

TNA is still alive, after all.

The contracts weren’t going to be restructured and they were probably going to be used on to, and they weren’t going to draw anymore. They stumbled with Sting, fell on their ass with Goldberg, rolled down a hill with the Fingerpoke and then fell off a cliff with the Flair/Hogan double-turn. It was done by 1999.

TNA may be technically operating, but they have ~20,000 viewers (including Twitch), and hardly alive. The day the plug is pulled is not the day they were officially brain dead.

I have heard a few rumblings about CW. It makes sense, Aarow is one of their most successful shows, and the cross promotion would be the easiest thing to do with Cody and Stephen Amell, who I'm sure has at least a voice/opinion the network would listen to.

And CW's lineage does include a weekly wrestling show with Smackdown, so it's not a total unknown for them either.

As far as AEW goes, while it's not a big 4 network channel, it is still Network TV, and a Network deal right out of the bat would have to be the best case scenario over any cable channel.

If you take Eric Bischoff at his word, which I do cause his story hasn't changed in almost 20 years, and he did try to buy it for further proof, but he said WCW wasn't really losing that much money.

When the merger happened they classified WCW as "other" with a bunch of other things at Turner that were losing money also, with the intent of unless I adding all of it to make the merger look good.

WCW didn't go out of business like ECW did where they had to declare bankruptcy, AOL/Time Warner just didn't want wrestling in their portfolio so they pulled the TV deal and took nothing for it.

They could have sold WCW for $45 Million with its current TV deals, and instead they cancelled the TV deals and sold it to Vince instead for $40 Million less.

They were willing to lose all the ad revenue that Nitro and Thunder brought, and an additional $40 Million instead of airing wrestling. Plus they still had to keep paying the full contract of every single wrestler who didn't take a buyout so they could go work for Vince.

Vince only took on like 6 contracts when he bought WCW, Booker T, Chavo, 2 other really low paying guys, I think Hurricane might have been one, and 2 of them were Torrie and Stacy who weren't making crap either. Everybody else in the Invasion got a lump sum buyout from AOL/Time Warner, so that is also more money they gave away just to get rid of wrestling.

Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Sting, Flair, Mysterio, Steiner, Savage, Mr Perfect, those guys all sat at home getting paid their full amount until their contracts expired.

I only work on hindsight

I don’t take Bischoff on his word at all. Dude is a used car salesman that could only sell new cars.

If WCW was making money, and Bischoff was not a cunt to deal with, there is no way they would have chopped it. They chased away ad revenue, ratings, revenue streams, and all hope of it ever being profitable. Jamie Kellner didn’t shoot WCW in the head, he simply pulled the plug.

They could have sold WCW for more, but I’m willing to bet they just wanted it off their hands by then, and were ready to write off the loss. You also have to consider who would have even bought it. It was a dead brand, and when Vince tried to get it on networks later in 2001, no one was having it. And not even Vince was willing to buy those AOL-Time Warner contracts.

WCW had a lot of assets, but the value of what they could bring to TV. It cost more money to operate than it was making. That’s the ultimate factor there. There is no sane projection where WCW could come back.

You explained it better than I could. that

:y:

Every show in 2000 was a money loser. They were running the same sized arenas and getting much smaller crowds (1,800 paid seems to be the average). They had cut their third hour so television ratings would have needed to soar in order to compensate for lost ad revenue. They went down.

Everything was just as expensive, if not more (factoring in talent) and they were getting less and less back. $67 million in one year is nothing to sneeze at. On top of that there was the Hogan litigation. It was a headache.

I get kind of annoyed seeing Kellner portrayed as the villain. WCW was run incompetently into a wall. They were returning less and less and costing more and more. It’s a no-brainer.

They probably could have milked Vince for more money. But despite having their best profit year ever, he was also tied up in the XFL. I doubt he would have been willing to come up much.

I only believe Bischoff cause his story has remained the same. Look at any other professional bullshitters, over the long haul they change details.

In 1999, WCW lost money, only a little, and that was their own fault. The whole Kiss demon gimmick was supposed to lead to a New Years Eve WCW/Kiss Concert PPV, which would have put WCW in the green for the year.

Then with the Merger, the big wigs got scared of putting on a live show because of Y2K fear. That actually happened, and they pulled the PPV off the table, along with turning a profit for the year.

WCW was still watchable at that point, but the decision makers got taken by the real used car salesman Vince Russo. WCW sent Bischoff home, essentially firing him while paying out the remainder of his contract.

Then in a few short months Vince Russo blew up everything WCW had built up for the last 3-4 years so quickly, including letting Benoit and company walk and show up on Raw. So WCW asked Bischoff to come back as a consultant and work with Russo, which lasted a few months until Russo went into business for himself with the whole Hogan thing.

The misconception about that is it wasn't the worked shoot of Jarrett lying down, it was the fact that after the match Hogan and Bischoff left, and then Russo cut a promo on Hogan and rebooked the title match, which is where the contract breach occurred in terms of Hogans creative control.

That was the year WCW lost that $67 or whatever it was million.

Russo and whoever put him in charge in combination with the merger as well as AOL/Time Warner not wanting wrestling in their channels is what killed WCW.

It wasn't one thing, just a combination of a bunch of bad circumstances. Of course WWE's narrative is they kicked WCWs ass out of business, but the victors get to write the history.

It’s a combination of a bunch, but Bischoff had already started to run WCW into the ground well before Russo came in. Russo certainly made things worse, but 1999 was not a good year for them.

Thunder killed WCW.

WHAT TIME DOES AEW COME ON TONIGHT GUY'S???

It came on earlier today on YouTube

Hogan killed WCW, Bischoff killed WCW, Nash killed WCW, Russo killed WCW, three hours killed WCW, Thunder killed WCW — take your pick.

WCW killed WCW

an scot steiner is part of it

Baring a NJPW-AEW partnership forming, seems the odds of Ibushi showing up at a future AEW event is even lower than before.

He hinted in a recent interview that he wants to retire in NJPW and his current contract with them was the last decision he made for his career.

Shit well in that case I’m calling Ibushi as G-1 winner right now.

Sounds like Undertaker's been pulled from Starrcast

Vince probably threw another guaranteed deal at him

Yeah Ibushi said he had a big money offer from AEW to work there exclusively and they wanted him to move to the US permanently (bear in mind his English is practically non existent, to the point he brought over a translator when he was in WWE). Weirdly this seems to be what has made him decide to commit to New Japan instead, he thought going to AEW would be the end of his career as he would never be able to go back to Japan and be a top guy. He said it really made him realise that he doesn't care about money at all, he just wants to be able to put on his best work and feels he can only do that in New Japan.

Taker's info is listed again on Starrcast

AEW has put up FB/Instagram posts about Sonny Kiss. No real surprise but loads of people in the comments section are now revealing themselves to be homophobic pricks who now aren't gonna watch the show because "eww, gay wrestler"

Bullet clubalos being shitty. *gasp* I'm shocked.

According to the Observer, there are at least 3 networks seriously interested in signing a tv deal with AEW and more networks have become interested due to the buzz generated from Double or Nothing's ticket sales.

In terms of if AEW could beat RAW on its first week, Meltzer stated only 1 of the 3 potential networks could possibly pull that off.

Vince took on a lot more than 6 contracts.

He had people under contract who didn't even show up on TV like Above Average Mike Sanders.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looking forward to seeing what MJF does in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEW</a> Part 1 (from MLW) <a href="https://t.co/ujgIODQprL">pic.twitter.com/ujgIODQprL</a></p>&mdash; Kenton (@Kenton_la) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kenton_la/status/1098846458680410112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looking forward to seeing what MJF does in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEW</a> Part 2 (from MLW) <a href="https://t.co/4J2qjSjY5D">pic.twitter.com/4J2qjSjY5D</a></p>&mdash; Kenton (@Kenton_la) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kenton_la/status/1098847050920353792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looking forward to seeing what MJF does in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEW</a> Part 3 (from MLW) <a href="https://t.co/Ro6TWqXiP6">pic.twitter.com/Ro6TWqXiP6</a></p>&mdash; Kenton (@Kenton_la) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kenton_la/status/1098848082928783361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Off the top of my head, Buff Bagwell, Booker T, Palumbo and O'Haire, Kanyon, Shawn Stasiak, Torrie Wilson, Stacy Keibler, Nick Patrick, Charles Robinson, Mickey Jay (I think) Mike Awesome, Chavo, Helms, Kaz Hayashi, Elix Skipper, Johnny the Bull, DDP, Mike Sanders, Kidman, Lance Storm.

I'm sure there's more that I'm missing.

Also Arn Anderson and Mark Madden for a bit.

Scott Hudson

They took on so many contracts that they actually ran a second invasion angle in HWA at the same time the regular invasion was going on.

Johnny the Bull, Jamie Noble, Shannon Moore, Evan Karagias, Mike Sanders, Lash Leroux, Elix Skipper, Kaz Hayashi, Reno, Jason Jett, Kwee Wee were all there and part of it. The first three guys were the only ones to get called up and not until after the invasion was done.

Yeah that right, some reason I thought Mark Madden but he might have gotten fired before the sale. WCW had too many commentators though.

Mark Madden was a fat fuck moron

Major networks this, major networks that.

Which major networks? We should know this by now.

Ok yeah I knew I was missing a bunch

AEW is being very smart by not rushing into a TV deal. With big star contracts coming up circa April/May, there should be more and more interest. Way smarter to string this out until after DoN and see if you can jack up those rights fees.

I don't think AEW wants a ton of names

I think they want to make their own names, ala WCW and Flair/Luger/Sting, etc

Yeah that seems to be their main plan at the moment.

Kahn supposedly has already rejected a few names suggested to him by the Elite since he wants to keep the main roster small and not have AEW come off as WWE Rejects heaven like TNA/Impact nor being just The Elite & Pals. Even someone like Cody was something that took a lot of persuasion by Omega and the Bucks for him to sign.

Also makes it easier to offer big contracts if you have fewer mouths to feed since they are going to be running way fewer shows than WWE does per year.

That’s the official line, but of the WWE talent that have deals coming up, almost all of them are logical signings. Jim Ross, Arn Anderson, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Brock Lesnar, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, The Hardys and The Usos — they all fit. They all bring with them some cache.

Those are all people in the twilight of their careers, save for Uso's and Ambrose. They already have Jericho, they don't need a ton of people in a similar position.

I don't think Ambrose will wrestle anywhere when his contract ends. I think Uso's will resign.

They also have their share of baggage and in Lesnar's case, a very expensive price tag.

Like out of that group, I'd only pluck Styles (main event), Ambrose (mid to main event), and Usos (tag). Maybe Anderson for a backstage role depending on how things clarifying regarding his release.

If Lesnar comes with Heyman, then no need for Anderson although Lesnar would need to work a lot more and that price tag has to come down a lot.

I’d 100% take Styles, Orton and Lesnar. Brock vs. Jericho and a trilogy with Omega would make it worth it from the start. I’d even have some sort of perverse interest in Brock vs. Cody and Brock vs. Pentagon.

Even Nakamura makes sense from the perception perspective. If you want to draw a clear line between your product and the WWE, then having a kick-ass Styles vs. Nakamura match is a good start.

It <s>spends</s> depends what we’re talking about perception wise; yeah AEW don’t want to be perceived as the place *all* WWE rejects go and get a push, but WWE lifers like Orton will help with the perception tha AEW can compete. Guys like Styles & Nak give a different vibe; these aren’t guys that are fully WWE branded. Styles in particular has worked in the biggest companies in the world throughout his career, he has a bit of a Free Agent feel to him still, choosing AEW over WWE when they’ve been pushed well (more so in Styles’ case) gives off a totally different vibe than your Tye Dillinger’s and TJP’s signing.

they would be fools if they did not take rusev when he leaves wwe he is young enough and over enough to be a steal for them.

Bingo. You want the tippy top guys because it looks like you’re shakers. You want the underappreciated because it allows you to look ace using them properly. A TJ Perkins or Shawn Spears are the guys I would be more reluctant to take. They’ve got more of the “cast off” vibe.

I don’t know if that’s worked. But I tried to post a screen grab of an interesting exchange between Randy Orton and Zack Ryder on Instagram.

Not showing up for me.

Nakamura should be their number one target. That dude is a star, and would certainly bring in more fans, especially from NJPW. Yeah they will want to watch the Americans who did good in New Japan, but their own guy, that will bring in a big fan base.

Shinsuke would be a huge coup. I think an announced signing for AEW would be like when AJ showed up in WWE.

Nakamura can do it all, but WWE isn't seeing fit to hitch their wagons to him and let that spark of excitement flicker, so another change of scenery could be a nice "oh, shit" moment. Plus, you have the potential of out the box classics with guys like Jericho, Omega, PAC, or possibly even Cody, and a guy who can help get Adam Paige over as "the man" since it seems like that's a direction they're heading in.

Conversely, if WWE actually decides to let the man cut loose and be top dog to keep him away from AEW, that could be a benefit, too. Of course, they could just throw a bunch of money at him to server that purpose, and let him languish in the midcard anyway content to not have him draw elsewhere...