AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[WyattSheepMask]

10 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Going to sound predictable with the moaning (sorry!) but Ospreay/Ricochet thrown out on Dynamite?

I get it's the anniversary show but surely that's one of the biggest Ricochet matches they've got, if not the most anticipated? 

I'm sure they'll get some PPV rematches but I'm really surprised. Feels like the only real ready made feud with depth that they've got for Ricochet.

It’s the only Richochet match they’ve got. You knew the second he turned up they’d go straight to them two.
Thrown out on free TV when you should giving people a reason to want to pay and watch it. Yeah, it’s an anniversary show, so you’d be hoping people would be tuning in in greater numbers for that, so have them in seperate matches and then challenge eachother, or on opposite ends of a tag match with little interaction against one another. Tease them squaring off before their respective partners get back involved, making a one on one match more desired.

Or just chuck it out there at the first opportunity so that geeks can give it 15 stars regardless 

Edited 8 hours ago by WyattSheepMask

[BomberPat]

9 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Going to sound predictable with the moaning (sorry!) but Ospreay/Ricochet thrown out on Dynamite?

I get it's the anniversary show but surely that's one of the biggest Ricochet matches they've got, if not the most anticipated? 

I'm sure they'll get some PPV rematches but I'm really surprised. Feels like the only real ready made feud with depth that they've got for Ricochet.

I think putting it on the anniversary show makes a lot of sense as a bit of a shop window as to what AEW are about, and while there's a lot of focus on TV deals and the future of AEW TV. 

I also suspect that there's something more to the match than just "these two flipping about for twenty minutes", or at the very least there will be a major angle coming out of it that might play better on TV than PPV. Their promos have centred around Ospreay thinking Ricochet is complacent, and Ricochet having a chip on his shoulder about Ospreay, and then there's the Callis Family hanging around, so I expect it won't be exactly the match people have pictured in their heads, which might be a better thing to put on TV than PPV. 

[Duke]

It's also an opportunity to get Ricochet firing and give him some strong momentum, build his aura a bit and remind everyone what he's capable of.

[LaGoosh]

I think if you wait til Wrestledream to run it I think people will be bored of Ricochet by then. No point keeping someone in a predictable holding pattern just for the sake of PPV. I'm assuming the 5th anniversary show will be tied into the new TV rights announcement so putting a big match like Ospreay vs Ricochet on there would feel like the right move. I'm a big fan of having big matches on weekly TV. You shouldn't save everything for PPV. It's good to make some episodes of TV feel special. Omega vs Danielson took place on live TV!

Additionally, if they have a spectacular well received match then you can put the rematch on PPV.

Edited 7 hours ago by LaGoosh

[WyattSheepMask]

2 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think if you wait til Wrestledream to run it I think people will be bored of Ricochet by then. No point keeping someone in a predictable holding pattern just for the sake of PPV. I'm assuming the 5th anniversary show will be tied into the new TV rights announcement so putting a big match like Ospreay vs Ricochet on there would feel like the right move. I'm a big fan of having big matches on weekly TV. You shouldn't save everything for PPV. It's good to make some episodes of TV feel special. Omega vs Danielson took place on live TV!

Additionally, if they have a spectacular well received match then you can put the rematch on PPV.

If you’re running the risk of people getting bored of him within 7 weeks of his debut that’s hardly a ringing endorsement of him is it.

To my previous post, I didn’t realise the TV deal was coming up/being renewed or whatever, so perhaps having them go this early is a tad more understandable, but I still think that if you’re gonna to make any money out of them, you need to do it on PPV and get people to fork out for it. 

[tiger_rick]

I've done it myself, many times, so not digging Sheepy out, but the whole "giving it away on free TV" stuff is so outdated. TV isn't free. It's worth $170m a year (to AEW and much more to WWE) and it's not free for anyone watching either (IPTV excepted).

You can't save everything for PPV and present prosaic TV week to week, especially when you're already in a slump. You have to reward people every week for tuning in with something that will get them excited. When you have a massive roster and constantly pick up talent, there's no excuse for not having that.

Plus, one guy is Ricochet. More people would pay to watch his missus fight Will Ospreay.

[LaGoosh]

9 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

If you’re running the risk of people getting bored of him within 7 weeks of his debut that’s hardly a ringing endorsement of him is it.

Probably not, but it is Ricochet and outside of big high flying spectaculars he is pretty boring week to week.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

32 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

If you’re running the risk of people getting bored of him within 7 weeks of his debut that’s hardly a ringing endorsement of him is it.

I'm already bored of him.

[Infinity Land]

AEW has had the habit of throwing out first time matches on TV before. They've given some teases to this already. Now have a couple weeks to actively build towards it. Then there's a PPV 10 days later.

If they just have the match and move on. Fair enough in the complaints department. If its all just part of the build to WrestleDream that's a bit different.

[WyattSheepMask]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

I've done it myself, many times, so not digging Sheepy out, but the whole "giving it away on free TV" stuff is so outdated. TV isn't free. It's worth $170m a year (to AEW and much more to WWE) and it's not free for anyone watching either (IPTV excepted).

 

Hey man, if you disagree that’s totally fine, that’s what debate is. No heat here.

I get what you’re saying about TV not being free, and agree with what you’re saying. I’m looking at it purely from a number of viewers and converting that in to PPV buys standpoint. Not meaning to derail things into Ratings Ramblings, but AEW have been stuck in the 600k-700k range for a while now, and I’m willing to bet that the number for Osprey v Ricochet on TV doesn’t do anything to change that. If we come back to this is a few week times and I’m wrong I’ll happily admit that I know fuck all.

If you’ve got 600k-700k who will watch the show regardless, then nothing has been gained from putting the match on TV. But if you can get even a small number of that 600k-700k to pay for that match, isn’t that the aim of the game? Or am I completely stuck in the past

Edited 6 hours ago by WyattSheepMask

[Supremo]

Half the rumours about their new TV deal suggest the pay per views are baked in anyway, so the entire model might be changing soon to something similar to WWE. You still want to make your big events special, but it’s far less important that you, “convert,” fans into pay per view buys.

Plus, we all must learn from the Parable of CM Punk. Left AEW having not had even half of the dream matches on the table. Wasted so much time wrestling dickheads like Bobby Fish. WWE are going to do Cody vs. Punk before AEW. I bet Tony wakes up in a cold sweat about that at least once a week.

With that in mind, I won’t ever complain about AEW doing the big matches as and when they can. Half the reason Ospreay’s run has been so great so far is that they’ve just spunked their load and gone straight to the good stuff.

Edited 5 hours ago by Supremo

[mim731]

21 minutes ago, Supremo said:

With that in mind, I won’t ever complain about AEW doing the big matches as and when they can. Half the reason Ospreay’s run has been so great so far is that they’ve just spunked their load and gone straight to the good stuff.

There's probably something to the idea that in theory, if done correctly, you spend a good while burning through the dream matches and programmes with a new, incoming star who doesn't need an introduction to the audience (like Ospreay), while also building new stars so that when the well runs dry of those existing dream matches there are fresh and exciting new feuds ready to go. Bringing up fresh rivals to that level rather than having to sacrifice them to maintain someone's momentum. 

Obviously with TV time etc that's easier said than done, but I think people are too quick to dismiss just having an incoming star be in white hot fueds and matches from the off and riding that wave while getting people further down the card up to that level.

[Infinity Land]

30 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Hey man, if you disagree that’s totally fine, that’s what debate is. No heat here.

I get what you’re saying about TV not being free, and agree with what you’re saying. I’m looking at it purely from a number of viewers and converting that in to PPV buys standpoint. Not meaning to derail things into Ratings Ramblings, but AEW have been stuck in the 600k-700k range for a while now, and I’m willing to bet that the number for Osprey v Ricochet on TV doesn’t do anything to change that. If we come back to this is a few week times and I’m wrong I’ll happily admit that I know fuck all.

If you’ve got 600k-700k who will watch the show regardless, then nothing has been gained from putting the match on TV. But if you can get even a small number of that 600k-700k to pay for that match, isn’t that the aim of the game? Or am I completely stuck in the past

So i'll get stuck further in the past, the gate.

US TV ratings are what they are. They aren't going to significantly increase to previous levels. Media usage has changed too much. Any next day streaming or live streaming rights in this new deal are just going to cannibalise the cable audience further.

PPVs have been steady even with the move to monthly events.

The most blantant issue that AEW have had for the past year plus has been ticket sales. Really ever since the introduction of Collision splitting the attention. Used to be an easy 4-5k for Dynamite. Now they are lucky to get 3k. That's something they regain with some effort. Getting back to a routine of promoting headline matches a couple weeks in advance might be a good thing, or at least a start.

[LaGoosh]

I know that Ricochet vs Mortos match was supposed to make me excited for Ospreay/Ricochet but it actually made me want to see Ospreay vs Mortos instead.

Mortos is so fucking good, man.

[tiger_rick]

21 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

I get what you’re saying about TV not being free, and agree with what you’re saying. I’m looking at it purely from a number of viewers and converting that in to PPV buys standpoint. Not meaning to derail things into Ratings Ramblings, but AEW have been stuck in the 600k-700k range for a while now, and I’m willing to bet that the number for Osprey v Ricochet on TV doesn’t do anything to change that. If we come back to this is a few week times and I’m wrong I’ll happily admit that I know fuck all.

It won't change it on it's own. Just like it won't add any buys on PPV. But they shouldn't be trying to change it with one match on TV. It needs to be part of a consistent presentation that rewards people each week and encourages them to come back next week. They did it beautifully at their peak and at some point when everything went to shit in 22/23, they lost their way. 

21 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

If you’ve got 600k-700k who will watch the show regardless, then nothing has been gained from putting the match on TV. But if you can get even a small number of that 600k-700k to pay for that match, isn’t that the aim of the game? Or am I completely stuck in the past

They clearly still need to keep stuff for PPV but with a roster the size they have, there's always going to be something new. Or something they can freshen up. They need big new matches in PPV main events but the rest needs to be well built, not necessarily first time ever stuff.

The big difference maker in revenue is TV rights. I'd argue that these days the priority should be PPV main event > Dynamite main events > PPV card fillers > Collission > YouTube > vimeo > Twitch > Tout > Rampage.