AEW London 2023

[d-d-d-dAz]

5 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

 

AEW need to really decrease the blood use. Every match I've seen of Danielson he has bled. It seems that they lean heavily on it to get a match over. Less is more IMO. 

I think they’re doing alright.

[Keith Houchen]

18 minutes ago, theringmaster said:

The Knights are just the ultimate British Wrestling grifters and Khan has bought in to it 100%.

It will end badly.

I wouldn’t call them grifters, grifters don’t believe in what they’re “Selling”. They’re the absolute best in knowing how to earn a payday and how to exploit money marks. 

[BomberPat]

7 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

You have to wonder how talented someone is when they have to resort to stupid shit to get "popz". 

You don't "have to wonder" how talented Mox is, you can look at his body of work and see that he's fucking ace.

[Infinity Land]

9 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

AEW need to really decrease the blood use. Every match I've seen of Danielson he has bled. It seems that they lean heavily on it to get a match over. Less is more IMO. 

Could be just about true of Mox. But you've missed a lot of Danielson matches in AEW.

[Loki]

45 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

My wife finds Mox’s shenanigans genuinely quite upsetting. Her exact words when I was watching it was back and told her to pay attention to the spaghetti incident was ‘why did you make me watch that? You know I hate it when he makes it real with the blood and stuff.’

Mox 1 - wife 0

I do feel this is an area where AEW’s product doesn’t make sense to me.  That Stampede match was REALLY violent, a bit much for me, and it was staged in front of a crowd they knew would have tons of kids in it.

I mean obviously it DOES work as apparently all these parents are ok with their kids seeing someone get their head lacerated on a regular basis, but I’m always amazed that obviously fan friendly content like Orange can sit right alongside the deathmatch stuff.

WWE decided many years ago which audience was more important to them, kids or neckbeards, and adjusted accordingly.

[d-d-d-dAz]

4 minutes ago, Loki said:

I do feel this is an area where AEW’s product doesn’t make sense to me.  That Stampede match was REALLY violent, a bit much for me, and it was staged in front of a crowd they knew would have tons of kids in it.

I mean obviously it DOES work as apparently all these parents are ok with their kids seeing someone get their head lacerated on a regular basis, but I’m always amazed that obviously fan friendly content like Orange can sit right alongside the deathmatch stuff.

WWE decided many years ago which audience was more important to them, kids or neckbeards, and adjusted accordingly.

I think this goes back to the point I made earlier, in that I think AEW is a broad tent designed to celebrate all facets of professional wrestling.

They’re not really a business in the traditional sense, they’re a passion project.

Cody did an interesting interview recently where he said he fits in a bit more in WWE because when he asks how his merch is performing he’ll get a mass of data and spreadsheets and market breakdowns and trends, whereas in AEW it was more relaxed and general.

Their ‘audience’ is whoever just wants to celebrate professional wrestling with them, and if they lose some people on the way I think big Tone is probably fine with it. He’s bringing ‘WrestleDream’ back for God’s sake. The deep-cut loving lunatic.

Edited August 29, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[westlondonmist]

31 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

This...

Scissor Me Daddy Ass is much less inappropriate than some mark getting skewers banged into his bonce. I even felt it was too much and I don't mind a bit of barbed wire and thumb tacks. You have to wonder how talented someone is when they have to resort to stupid shit to get "popz". As Bret Hart would say, there is no art in intentionally hurting yourself. 

AEW need to really decrease the blood use. Every match I've seen of Danielson he has bled. It seems that they lean heavily on it to get a match over. Less is more IMO. 

Moxley is a talented guy, he was over in WWE without the insane levels of blood. He doesn't need to bleed and I certainly think he should cut it down. It had lost its impact, until the skewers but that was a bit too much.

[SuperBacon]

16 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

They’re not really a business in the traditional sense, they’re a passion project.

No, they're a traditional business. Tony Khan just knows what his audience wants as he is one of them.

[Infinity Land]

23 minutes ago, Loki said:

WWE decided many years ago which audience was more important to them, kids or neckbeards, and adjusted accordingly.

kids

Corporate sponsorship

 

[Accident Prone]

Acting like blood, a gross-out moment and a little plunder is somehow bad for children is really condescending. Just because WWE toned down their act to appeal to children, doesn't mean that it's the only (or best) option when it comes to the kids in the audience. If anything, what WWE did was to appeal to parents who don't like wrestling, whereas AEW appeals to parents who do like wrestling and also aren't clutching their pearls at anything you wouldn't see in your average modern superhero flick.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Accident Prone

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

No, they're a traditional business. Tony Khan just knows what his audience wants as he is one of them.

They don’t *need* to make money. They’re not a traditional business. They’re owned by someone who can afford to lose money and subsidise their existence.

They’re a passion project, he loves wrestling and wants to share it with people who do too. He doesn’t cultivate a single audience (I.e. kids, and then dial down the aggressive/hardcore stuff), he keeps a broad church.

But, traditional businesses are ones that need to make money to survive. AEW is more akin to a tech start-up, only he can subsidise the losses for as long as he wants, rather than needing to list or sell.

[SuperBacon]

AEW is a traditional business thats main aim is to make money. Don't be silly.

[Chili]

I don't know how to post damn pics so here's my tweet. I was delighted to see these lads gets their flowers as they say. The Best Friends are one of the absolute best groups in AEW. They've always found a way to find their groove again over and over. Chuck Taylor hitting the Awful Waffle to that crowd and even getting a win in the books at Wembley Stadium is an absurdly wonderful fact. They took an absolute twatting. I love that shot of them ambling up the aisle, barely surviving but they did, with 'Jane' blasting out. Alternative universe Wrestlemania is mad. Take them for a Nandos Sue.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Chili

[Keith Houchen]

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

AEW is a traditional business thats main aim is to make money. Don't be silly.

So is the Saudi football league, or Man City, or Newcastle, or Jacksonville Jaguars, or an office workers Etsy page. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

17 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

AEW is a traditional business thats main aim is to make money. Don't be silly.

That's quite rude.

If you read the interview with Tony in the SportBusiness Journal prior to Wembley, this isn't the case. So take your attitude to Tony Khan.

They haven't yet reached profitability and whilst he believes that's not far away, it's also not the main aim of the business as they have capital and are simply looking to grow the brand, expand into new markets and achieve sustainability.

That's not a traditional business model. It's more like the ownership of a football team (again, usually passion projects) or, at a stretch, the early stages of a tech start-up being prepped for sale. A good comparison might be in boxing; I worked for Frank Warren for years, as people here know, but the balance sheet of his shows needed to be profitable each time else there was a problem. In comparison, when I was at DAZN and we started the JV with Matchroom, it gave them the sort of capital that meant each show didn't need to make money. In fact, year on year they didn't need to make money, their aim became growing the brand, increasing viewership and increasing the 'soft value' of their broadcaster. But, that's not traditional, traditional businesses make money or go away. Tony Khan doesn't need to aggressively pursue profit - which he himself has admitted isn't his core aim - which allows him to do things differently. It's a good thing. He can swallow big losses if he needs to.

But, i'm aware this is boring for everyone else, so i'll shut up.

Edited August 29, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz