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

[Infinity Land]

The Netflix deal is still a bargain for them. It's like 52 seasons of 'Is It Cake?' every year. ESPN just paid $325m for US rights to PLEs. 

WWE themselves did say when it came to US rights they wanted to keep Cable/Network/Streaming to keep them an active presence across platforms. Which is what they have. 

Everyone should be happy. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

4 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

It's like 52 seasons of 'Is It Cake?

That is the crossover that I want. You could make Rollins out of cake and he would be more entertaining. Heyman is already made of cake and Punk is made of muffins so we have already made a start. 

[Supremo]

Seth Rollins revealed to have been cake the whole time, with The Bronson Boyz scoffing him up. Seth goes on to only exist in our memories.

There is no better arc for The Vision.

Edited August 16, 2025 by Supremo

[air_raid]

Bron Baker.

I just realized too that Seth has both The Vision, and Seth’s Silver Medal. Surely that makes it the SilverVision?

Edited August 16, 2025 by air_raid

[Chico Torres]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

I honestly think WWE is its own worst enemy. Most entertainment companies seem to recognise the value in creating goodwill in its audience, but I’m not sure WWE ever has. Blatantly predatory behaviour only serves to alienate a section of the audience willing to watch both companies. 

Not to a meaningful extent where they would stop watching. Some online grumbling yes but they recently brought Brock back and the same management that is highly likely to have been complicit in sex trafficking is still in place, it’s seen as a bad move but not sure anyone, certainly in meaningful numbers, decided to stop watching as a result. Probably more outrage at counter programming than sex trafficking or MAGA pandering. But that won’t stop them watching the next RAW.

They have successfully cultivated a captive and largely inelastic audience and AEW helps them to create a more hardcore subset of cultists who thrive on an us vs them mentality and will “yeah, but Tony…” things or disparage journalists who are perceived to be attacking Dear Leader.

[WyattSheepMask]

4 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

That is the crossover that I want. You could make Rollins out of cake and he would be more entertaining. Heyman is already made of cake and Punk is made of muffins so we have already made a start. 

Someone legally being allowed to go at Seth Rollins a knife to see if he’s made of Victoria Sponge? I’m all in on that

[TheScarlettChad]

33 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Someone legally being allowed to go at Seth Rollins a knife to see if he’s made of Victoria Sponge? I’m all in on that

His outfits are visual diabetes so I bet he's made of the sweetest cake ever 

[Supremo]

The suggestion of TNA moving to Wednesdays to compete with AEW should be a laugh. Three weeks in they’ll start sending over all the main roster talent. Roman Reigns in the Impact Zone.

Looking forward to The Undertaker giving some TNA lads the rub by choke-slamming them, never to be seen again.

[Hannibal Scorch]

6 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

The Netflix deal is still a bargain for them. It's like 52 seasons of 'Is It Cake?' every year. ESPN just paid $325m for US rights to PLEs. 

If you want to take a look at the most watched shows are on Netflix, here’s their list for the first 6 months of 2025. You’ll be surprised how much cheaper content is above WWE https://assets.ctfassets.net/4cd45et68cgf/mplcXj5ulHDfbCPCr0f0I/5dbb6ec09f03df89706476e380e9b8bd/What_We_Watched_A_Netflix_Engagement_Report_2025Jan-Jun.xlsx

6 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

WWE themselves did say when it came to US rights they wanted to keep Cable/Network/Streaming to keep them an active presence across platforms. Which is what they have. 

Everyone should be happy. 

Why should we? All they have done is created another monopoly only this time using those platforms to stop other companies being able to shop around for a TV deal. Unless of course you’re in a “business friendship” with WWE.

[WyattSheepMask]

3 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

His outfits are visual diabetes so I bet he's made of the sweetest cake ever 

Definitely stealing “visual diabetes”

[Infinity Land]

3 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

If you want to take a look at the most watched shows are on Netflix, here’s their list for the first 6 months of 2025. You’ll be surprised how much cheaper content is above WWE https://assets.ctfassets.net/4cd45et68cgf/mplcXj5ulHDfbCPCr0f0I/5dbb6ec09f03df89706476e380e9b8bd/What_We_Watched_A_Netflix_Engagement_Report_2025Jan-Jun.xlsx

Why should we? All they have done is created another monopoly only this time using those platforms to stop other companies being able to shop around for a TV deal. Unless of course you’re in a “business friendship” with WWE.

And where does Raw fit collectively as a season instead of individual episodes? Then the same for Smackdown, NXT, Current & Past PPVs/PLEs, Unreal. As well any other future programming they make as part of the deal. WWE being one of the few things Netflix has that they can sell live advertising to which brings in some money in return.

My post gave reasons why Netflix should be happy. Reasons why WWE should be happy. For the collective everyone should be happy. 

[Kamran]

I think the other benefit for Netflix with WWE is that not only do they get live content every week, WWE fans are more likely to stay subscribed as long as they keep showing WWE. I think with some of their other big shows, fans will subscribe, binge-watch and then unsubscribe when they're done.

[garynysmon]

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

The suggestion of TNA moving to Wednesdays to compete with AEW should be a laugh. Three weeks in they’ll start sending over all the main roster talent. Roman Reigns in the Impact Zone.

As a longstanding TNA viewer I find using TNA as a pawn in the ongoing WWE v AEW never ending culture war to be nothing short of depressing.

I made no secret of the fact that TNA was essentially the only modern wrestling I watched from 2018 to very recently, but its hard to back a product when you know that every single top star will leave at the end of their deal.

Yes crowds are massively up on 2018-2022, and in all honesty attendances of this size were what I always hoped for in terms of presentation.

But…. even back then you always felt that Impact had a fighting chance of the likes of Josh Alexander etc resigning and offering some kind of continuity.

Obviously some left and some renewed, but you always felt you had a fighting chance of retaining at least some of the top names.

But the company now feels much more transactional in nature, with Joe Hendry basically an NXT wrestler in all but name, and probably Santana too.

Watching a very small company grow back up again (very slowly, admittedly) is more to my liking than being a total cuck, even if is in front of a few thousand rather than a few hundred fans.

Edited August 16, 2025 by garynysmon

[DavidB6937]

8 hours ago, garynysmon said:

But the company now feels much more transactional in nature, with Joe Hendry basically an NXT wrestler in all but name, and probably Santana too.

You say that but outside of a few random main roster appearances, his NXT stuff has been fairly sporadic, especially recently. It's not like he's been over there full time completely invested and not bothering with TNA at all. Sure, he might sign with WWE in the end, but at the moment he's doing far more work for TNA.

Santana has been around but makes sense for the title picture. Moose has popped up a few times, and a few of the women too.

The NXT presence on TNA - Trick, Fatal Influence - has probably been more regular. If anything they've been using it to give them more experience and develop their champions more. Trick especially has been far more interesting in this run when he was pretty stagnant before.

I think they could've taken a lot more talent if they wanted but it has been a fair co-existence so far. I guess everyone assumes the worst case scenario in the end so we'll see when WWE have had enough of playing nice.

Edited August 17, 2025 by DavidB6937

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

You say that but outside of a few random main roster appearances, his NXT stuff has been fairly sporadic, especially recently.

He says as he’s advertised for this weeks NXT. He’s had 20 matches in TNA, 8 in WWE this year. Those are matches not in ring segments but that’s almost 50%. I think that’s pretty high.

11 hours ago, garynysmon said:

As a longstanding TNA viewer I find using TNA as a pawn in the ongoing WWE v AEW never ending culture war to be nothing short of depressing.

I made no secret of the fact that TNA was essentially the only modern wrestling I watched from 2018 to very recently, but its hard to back a product when you know that every single top star will leave at the end of their deal.

Yes crowds are massively up on 2018-2022, and in all honesty attendances of this size were what I always hoped for in terms of presentation.

But…. even back then you always felt that Impact had a fighting chance of the likes of Josh Alexander etc resigning and offering some kind of continuity.

Obviously some left and some renewed, but you always felt you had a fighting chance of retaining at least some of the top names.

But the company now feels much more transactional in nature, with Joe Hendry basically an NXT wrestler in all but name, and probably Santana too.

Watching a very small company grow back up again (very slowly, admittedly) is more to my liking than being a total cuck, even if is in front of a few thousand rather than a few hundred fans.

I think losing Ace Austin and Josh are examples of people who were perfectly happy in their spots who didn’t want to work in association/for WWE. 
 

TNA hasn’t been my jam since AJ left really, but I’d still dip in and out and follow results. But I think Anthem have done a pretty bad job of making them viable and have no interest in a company that feels like another WWE outlet, even if they don’t own them. Just makes me sad how it scrapped its way through all this time and now WWE are trying to eradicate any goodwill it had.