Wrestling Thread 8: Follow The Buzzards • Page 652

I'm trying to be on auto pilot at work today because my copy of 2K24 is ready for pickup and I'm here in my office staring at a computer.

 

at least she’s honest but damn

 

Bill was the best. Someone should use that move because so much mist these days missed the face entirely. Brody king should do this into a power bomb

 

Everyone goes back to WWE eventually but some things don’t have to be said one week before you debut for the competitor.

 

Bray definitely going to go in this year

 

I loved IRS for whatever reason as a kid. Now as an adult I can realize it was he was so smooth in the ring (same reason I loved dean malenko). Good for US Express

 

Yeah, this is going to be a thing to watch going forward. I get that their next TV deal is going to be lucrative, and is probably already close to locked in, but they can't just look at these ratings and say "well, cable is dying." WWE is up across the board, both in attendance and ratings, compared to last year. AEW is down. Wrestling is experiencing a boom and yet the demand isn't there for the big alternative. That's strange, and a bummer.

It could just be a matter of the numbers catching up, because I do think the product was quite bad all of last year and into the start of this year. It could take a bit to rebound.

What I hope doesn't happen is Tony sees this stuff and thinks "well, it doesn't matter how well I tell stories or book women, in fact, it hurts!" and just reverts back. I'd like to think he won't, but, who knows.

 

More on the Guevara situation discussed the other day:

Still a lack of clarity there. As someone noted, there's a big difference between "go to the finish now" and "end it with a roll up now." Regardless, they thought he might have a concussion and just let the match continue. A meaningless match on Rampage, no less. Not great.

 

Ratings make me zzzzzzz but idk if it’s a big deal tbh. Anyone that knows of Ospreay probably already watched AEW before he signed. Same with Okada. Until those guys gain some traction stateside with good programs and put on some good tv matches it’ll prob be about the same as it has been for them the last year or so.
They have a good dedicated viewer base and the sales of their PPVs make up for a lot it because they do really well.

 

ratings are zzz to me too but the unfortunate fact is AEW is a television show whereas WWE is practically a selfsustaining machine at this point. AEW is still trying to find a million dedicated fans to tune in every week, if they get shipped off to a less visible network that's very bad for them and puts an actual ceiling on market penetration going forward.

 

They need a fucking streaming deal

 

It’s not a huge deal largely because Tony could just fund the company indefinitely if he wanted to. Given that it’s a passion project, I think he probably has a far higher tolerance for it becoming self-sustaining than he would if it were just any random business venture.

With that being said, I think this week’s number is less concerning for Ospreay (and Okada wasn’t teased, so he doesn’t matter here) and more just the fact that ratings went down 5% over last week coming off of one of the most critically acclaimed events in company history. You always look for a post-PPV bump, not a drop off.

They did something to chase away paying fans from buying tickets and a couple hundred thousand from tuning into their shows and figuring out what that was/is is really tricky.

 

This looks like some kind of Mortal Kombat fatality

 

Yo wtf

 

They need streaming deal and they need better PR/Marketing

 

To this point: get your replica title belt in the hands of winning sports franchises! WWE has been doing this for years to great success/PR. The AEW title is beautiful. It's such a cheap/easy tool to generate buzz, and Khan is a sports guy, so it's baffling that he doesn't do it.

 

I have said from the beginning AEW needs to book their stars on all the late night shows, on all the daytime shows, callabing with major youtubers, get wrestlers cast in guest spots on WBD shows, ect. Whatever they can to get as much mainstream exposure as possible.

 

Dom's getting married today. Holy shit I'm old

 

He should have every popular Fulham and Jacksonville player holding that replica belt constantly.

 

Love how close they all ended up being

 

Do those type of players exist?

 

I'm sure if Conan was still on TBS that would be happening.

 

It’d just be Danhausen every week

 

Isn't that the host?