WWE ‘wants to kill off AEW by the end of current TV deal’

[Supremo]

Dave Meltzer is a national treasure and I won’t hear a bad word said about him.

Like Matt Le Blanc in the UK.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

38 minutes ago, Chico Torres said:

Weirdly MAGA corporation-defensive post here.

And of course Meltzer is a credible journalist and has been consistently for over 40 years, no one in the industry comes close.

If thats how you want to read it Chico then like I said some people have their own narratives. 

There are no credible wrestling journalists because wrestling doesn't run on credibility. It runs on innuendo, half-truths, and outright lies. Meltzer is a gossipmonger with his own opinions that you have Weirdly defended. 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The thing with Lorenzo Fertitta is interesting, because even though he's still friendly with people in TKO, he absolutely would not put his money into something just to be a bitch for WWE. Why would anyone ever do that? You got to think the only reason WWE is allowed to play TNA like a fiddle is because Anthem hopes they'll buy it eventually. If someone like a Lorenzo Fertitta comes in and buys it, then he's clearly going to attempt to make a success out of it.

[SaitoRyo]

19 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

If thats how you want to read it Chico then like I said some people have their own narratives. 

There are no credible wrestling journalists because wrestling doesn't run on credibility. It runs on innuendo, half-truths, and outright lies. Meltzer is a gossipmonger with his own opinions that you have Weirdly defended. 

[TheBurningRed]

Someone once tweeted Meltzer asking if he wanted the results of Rybak performing at Eurovision in Norway and he believed it to be a Indy show featuring the big guy without even checking. He’s a fool. 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

1 minute ago, TheBurningRed said:

Someone once tweeted Meltzer asking if he wanted the results of Rybak performing at Eurovision in Norway and he believed it to be a Indy show featuring the big guy without even checking. He’s a fool. 

That wasnt once. That was every year until Joe Stephenson was blocked by him. That went on for a good 5 or 6 years until someone grassed.

[Cheeky Boy]

Wasn't there once a clip of one of those England fan pub goal celebrations (big crowd, pints flying everywhere) with an edit to the footage being shown on the big TV, and he bought that it was over a wrestler (Okada?) revealing he'd gone back to some classic gear?

Probably a bit ironic, me commenting about him believing what he hears without checking, but I hope that one is true.

[TheBurningRed]

It was. Okada revealing he was back in trunks I believe.

[Your Fight Site]

I saw this pop up on Reddit a day or two ago and always thought this was an open secret? WWE making life difficult for AEW but helping TNA, and then either buying or taking control of TNA once they’re in a more favourable position to increase WWE’s (and TKO’s) market share and add to their portfolio.

[TheScarlettChad]

Meltzer also refuses to put Big Daddy in the hall of Fame. Some wrestling historian he is. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

2 hours ago, LCJ said:

That’s a fair point. Long gone are the days when Vince McMahon would threaten cable companies with withdrawing Wrestlemania if they chose to carry Starrcade. Technology and the way people access shows has moved on.

Exactly.

It makes me roll my eyes when I see something like "WWE are running a TV special in Texas the same day AEW are running a PPV in Chicago".

Okay, and? It's hardly WCW running the UIC Pavilion and WWF booking the Rosemont Horizon with Hogan on top the same night.
It's two states, thousands of miles away from each other (so nobody is having to choose which one to attend) that will both be available to see in the comfort of your own home at your own leisure.
 

[BomberPat]

3 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

I understand the 'counter booking' argument when live event revenue mattered and WWE would put on shows in the same city on the same day (or the day before), forcing the audience to choose where they spend their money. 

I also get it when WWE would put on a pay-per-view to counter a WCW pay-per-view as people would likely only choose to pay for one.

...but now everything is streaming surely it is redundant? Just watch one show and then watch the other. What damage is it doing? 

Splitting the audience isn't the point, and never really was - when Vince was counter-programming Crockett shows, he was going to PPV carriers and saying, "if you show Starrcade instead of Survivor Series, I won't let you have Wrestlemania". When the WWE book a venue, there's an exclusionary period during which other wrestling promotions can't run there or announce future shows there - it's why the location of Forbidden Door was just "London" for ages, until they could announce the O2. Same thing with local media - WWE can say, "we'll give you the John Cena interview if you don't cover All In".

Why did they suddenly seize on the UK scene when WOS Wrestling came about? There was no danger of WOS stealing their audience. But there was a danger of WOS talent being eligible for union representation, and generally being treated a lot more favourably than wrestlers generally are. And you can see why WWE would want to nip that in the bud.

[wordsfromlee]

54 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

It makes me roll my eyes when I see something like "WWE are running a TV special in Texas the same day AEW are running a PPV in Chicago".

From what I've read it seems like WWE are doing the counter programming in the hopes that people watch them live instead of AEW. Therefore AEW's live ratings will be lower and then when it comes to AEW renewing their TV deal, the channel will offer them a lot less money because their viewing figures haven't been as good. This gives them a smaller budget to play with as I presume Tony Khan can't keep using his Dads money to top it up forever.

Something like that anyway.

[theringmaster]

I actually think there is a far bigger chance of Triple H being booted from WWE than TNA replacing AEW as the number 2.

Now I don't think Triple H will get booted by TKO but all these strategies to beat AEW feel very out dated. They won't work; The AEW fans like AEW because it's not WWE, this isn't the mid 90's where fans watched WCW because it was the hotter product at the time. And this very simple bit of analyst which i can work out whilst washing the dishes and listening to podcasts can't be worked out by a mulit-billion dollar company.

I honestly think Trips sits and broods in his office at TKO over losing the Wednesday night wars of 2020.

[LaGoosh]

Stuff like this makes it all make a bit more sense. The AEW TV deal was a small fraction of what Netflix paid for Raw and it looks like they might be pretty close in viewership. Obviously this is not good for WWE long term.