FUM

14 minutes ago, Loki said:

So what are the metrics then?  Merch and YouTube?  Surely TV ratings are the prime metric of success - and I believe Tony Khan is a fiend for ratings breakdowns.

I think WWE continually being on a ratings slide but yet managing record financials disproves any correlation between ratings and PPV buys alone solely meaning success. I do realise I missed out the word “alone” from my original post - now amended.

He had the two highest YouTube views the year of his return and was their biggest merch seller for a good period (I believe, happy to be corrected).

It’s not 1998 where we pretend ratings and PPV buys alone determine the success of a company or wrestler.

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Yeah, why wouldn't they want to work with someone they strongly dislike who publicly lambasted and humiliated them then physically assaulted them?

FUCKING GROW UP!

Fall outs happen in the workplace. You move on and get over it. While granted the answer in reply to that will of course be that you don’t start boxing with your colleagues over it, this is wrestling which is a different bubble of backstage drama where sometimes things get sorted out slightly differently to your average workplace.

If they have the chance to garner massive interest in their company and themselves, they should get over it and take it.

Punk has apparently said he would like to work with The Elite but reports are they aren’t keen. The exact type of anti-Kevin Nash behaviour I expected from them.

I remember meeting Adam Maxted and who I assume was his partner at the time on my way to the stadium at WrestleMania in Florida. Had made a family holiday out the trip so was with my partner. We had watched Love Island and other half forgot where she knew his face from and said “aw hiiiiii how have you been?” in the manner you would bumping into an old friend. Anyway, she continued chatting to him and his partner for a good bit asking what they’d been up to etc. as I watched them answer confusingly like they should know her but didn’t want to say they don’t.

When we walked away she said she couldn’t remember how she knew him and was mortified when I told her she had only ever seen him on Love Island. Poor guy must have been wondering for ages who the heck she was.

I quite like Bronson Reed but I hope I never see him in a brawl after a match again. Felt like I could have taken him watching that and I’ve only been in about two fights in my life - the guy was absolutely done in, it was horrible to watch. What made it worse is Lashley looked like he could go the rest of the night if he needed to. Lost a lot of his aura there for me.

I wonder how much Cody is actually injured or how much he is just very smart at selling. Mid-sentence still rubbing that side, made it really believable - I’m a sucker for small touches like that. He really is brilliant and I can’t believe how quickly he’s brought me round. Loved the rubber chicken reference too.

I’m hooked again after last week, hopefully Vince stays away.

Wouldn’t be surprised if Vince is telling Trips to get out and say his heart can’t take the stress of the role so he’s stepping aside at this stage.

19 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Summerslam allegedly did 80k. At a time you could only watch WWF if you were lucky to have Sky or bought VHS tapes.

To be fair that’s an argument as to why it was so popular rather than against. There wasn’t American wrestling in the UK so people just had to go - AEW are competing with the biggest company in history who put on regular UK shows and are running the same area just over a month prior.

6 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

Who the fuck is Tony Bellew?

Some cricket player from that NFL league.

Boxing in general is a strange sport attendance wise. The biggest stars in the business don’t really sell out unless there’s a decent opponent.

People want to see competitive fights rather than just wanting to say they’ve seen someone live.

Wrestling can differ from that. I only went to some indie show in Edinburgh once to say I’d seen Young Bucks live. None the less, NFL isn’t niche here in 2023 - it’s annoying now how much people talk about it more than niche.

15 minutes ago, Jonny Vegas said:

Comparing Bellew's drawing power and AEW's is silly.

In LotM’s defence the point wasn’t that Tony Bellew could outdraw AEW. The reply was to me mentioning NFL being a niche product and the point was that everything is except football and example being Bellew couldn’t draw in his home town despite being a huge name.

Though I do think Tony Bellew was never as popular as people make out for what it’s worth. I didn’t even know he had a fight that night till I switched it on.

The idea that NFL is a niche product in the UK in 2023 is one of the larger cases of lacking awareness I’ve seen on here.

I imagine they’ll try get Goldberg in some form as he’s a name who will likely bring some people in regardless what you think of him. Whether that’s a match or him just turning up who knows.

They’ll be expecting WWE cuts coming soon as well try scoop a bit of name value there.

I imagine it will be a case of selling someone like Bryan Danielson as the crowds guy seeing he loved his time in the UK so much as opposed to using anybody from the UK that they actually have available to them.

I know it’s blasphemy on here but surely people don’t still think Hangman is “THE guy” to take this company forward any more? Not to shit on him as he is great but his first run with the belt practically switched me off AEW for a while.

Drew has about 9 months left according to SRS and the likelihood is he will re-sign, it’s just a case of both waiting to see how the landscape is at the time so you can write off that pipe dream.

People thinking this will sell out are deluded imo but I admire the ambition. Fair play to him.

I’m already booked to come down to London for MITB so trying to clear coming down again so soon afterwards won’t go down well! Sure it will be a great show though.

I don’t think it’s so much “Vince booked it, it’s bad” to be fair. I think it’s that the show was being changed throughout the night meaning nobody really had a clue what they were doing or what was coming. Guys being sent out to wrestle the first match of the night and only finding out just before it having to scramble to get ready - yeah, there’s the “always bring your gear” argument but it’s just a bad environment and wrestlers don’t work to their best. A lot of the roster has been on top form because they are feeling good - by all accounts, morale went through the floor across the board with everything that was going on.

Man, I really had got excited about wrestling again. Guess people who love the backstage drama and have been dying for weeks to say Vince was back so they could have a storyline between him and Trips playing out in their head will be happy. I just feel really disappointed right now that something I’d got my love back for appears to be headed back to where it was when it was probably at its lowest in terms of my interest.

I’ll give it another week in the hope it was just because Vince was in LA but I really don’t have faith.

Am I reading this wrong or is Vince McMahon now Dana White’s boss?

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

Having now seen the cut, I don’t think they stopped the match due to blood. They stopped it because Finn’s brain was about to fall out. Spoilers for how fucking grim it is! Jesus!

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Jeez! I take back what I said - fair enough!

Stopping a Hell in a Cell match to clean up some blood is pretty laughable by the way. I know you’ve got a sale to complete and want to present that you care about the talent but it’s literally a Hell in a Cell match - no buyer is pulling out because someone accidentally got busted open let alone one that runs UFC. Check he’s okay to carry on then get on with the match.

I can’t say much more than myself or anyone else has already said on the Cody situation. Drew, Sami, Cody - none of them will ever be as hot again. I guess it’s on to hoping Jey’s reactions are huge when he eventually turns because they’ve blown lightning in a bottle two big events in a row.

Yeah, I’ve said plenty to say I don’t believe Cody was the guy and I love Roman but that was the moment.

Cody will never be as hot again and I’m not sure anyone will. If it wasn’t Sami, it had to be Cody. They chose neither - madness.

Totally forgot to give credit to the fan who shouted, “Holla if ya hear me”, at the start of Dom’s entrance. Outstanding.

Guy who does my work induction is pretty engaging when you see him walking round the office doing them.

34 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Endeavour is the biggest talent agency thanks to getting early on mergers.

WWE fans will inevitably kick up a fuss over PLEs becoming PPVs again. I'm sure that was floated this week in amongst the Nick Khan press tour. You can understand why since it's the UFC model.

Surely Peacock and their huge deal would have a say in that. Can’t see them allowing it or continuing to pay the money they do without the PLEs.