AEW Discussion

[Indynut]

Just because he co-owns The Jacksonville Jauguars does not mean he knows football.

[famicommander]

Dynamite moving from TNT to TBS in 2022

Second TNT show called Rampage will debut in August. Will be a one hour wrestling show, will also jump to TBS in 2022

TNT will air four quarterly AEW live specials per year, those will remain with TNT after the other shows jump to TBS

[Indynut]

Doing monthly specials is better than doing pay per view events every month.

[kovs27]

Hopefully they will ditch the YouTube shows now. They have too much useless content.

[NewROHFan2020]

Hopefully they will ditch the YouTube shows now. They have too much useless content.

How is showing newer and younger wrestlers for free on YouTube “useless”?

[Montana]

Not too surprised with this, especially once Turner got the NHL (in addition to the NBA).

The good news is TBS is still a relative channel. The bad news; these little shifts can hurt/stunt viewership. Still seem like Turner see's Value with the AEW brand.

With 3 hours of TV programming; their roster is probably still a bit on the high side. I'd be completely fine with removing all the YT content. Dark & Elevation. I never watch them; and seems quite useless other than padding records. Hopefully Rampage is more like Dynamite. I wouldn't mind some uniqueness to the show; but guess we'll see what it is. Will be interesting to see how a second show / 3rd hour does on TNT. Their fanbase seems pretty hardcore; but i guess we'll see. My guess is a slight decline from dynamite. Maybe 600-800K range. Guess it depends if it's on before, during or after Smackdown.

[Montana]

Hopefully they will ditch the YouTube shows now. They have too much useless content.

How is showing newer and younger wrestlers for free on YouTube “useless”?

- Literally nothing of relevance has ever happened on Dark.
- It's 2-3 hours of squash / training matches where 95% of the time you know who's going to win.

I can't knock it TOO hard; because i think for their "hardcore" fanbase... they like it. It gets really good viewership for what it is in my opinion. Personally i'd just MUCH RATHER, follow ROH/MLW/Impact/NJPW or any other company that spend 2-3 hours on AEW dark matches. I'm VERY surprised that many more people watch that, than other said promotions. For Example; ROH post a Dragon Lee match; and it may get 25K views; and Dark with two people no one has ever heard of gets 200-300K views. It truly boggles my mind.

[kovs27]

Hopefully they will ditch the YouTube shows now. They have too much useless content.

How is showing newer and younger wrestlers for free on YouTube “useless”?

To add to Montana's answer it's also mostly non-contracted talent that is getting squashed. It helps provide pay days with the lack of indys during the pandemic but the majority of the talent isn't going to get signed. With the pandemic winding down and indy's opening back up that extra 5 hours of content just isn't worth it.

[NewROHFan2020]

Hopefully they will ditch the YouTube shows now. They have too much useless content.

How is showing newer and younger wrestlers for free on YouTube “useless”?

To add to Montana's answer it's also mostly non-contracted talent that is getting squashed. It helps provide pay days with the lack of indys during the pandemic but the majority of the talent isn't going to get signed. With the pandemic winding down and indy's opening back up that extra 5 hours of content just isn't worth it.

If you were a non-contract talent getting squashed, you wouldn’t want to do it in front of 800,000 viewers? Better off wrestling in front of 300 people in a high school gym for $30?

[Montana]

Don't disagree it's good publicity for an independent wrestler like "Falco" ... or anyone else.

As a wrestling fan... I'd just rather watch another promotion with like storylines, belts, and stuff. Personally i love most all wrestling; but dark with squash match, after squash match, with nothing really leading to anything other than padding their rankings; it just doesn't do for me as a viewer. Again, i'd much rather watch MLW/Impact/ ROH ...etc etc

Maybe i'd enjoy it better if i was there live... but on a weekly viewer, no thanks. I'd rather AEW just start up a developmental company; and just use it similar to NXT. Put guys like QT Marshalls squad; Lee Johnson; the squad with JD Drake, Top Flight, the extras in Dark Order, Del Sol, Alanis & Liam Grey, Sonny Kiss, Varsity Blondes, Hyrbrid 2, The Sydals, ...plus i'm sure there's like at least another 10-20 extra per appearance guys. They could easily have the company, then they can focus on things like mic skills; storytelling, instead of more expo matches. OR just make it shorter. 30-45 minutes of squash matches.

But like i said before;... people must like it, cause somebody is watching it. I can't watch 2 hours of the same thing over and over.

[NewROHFan2020]

Don't disagree it's good publicity for an independent wrestler like "Falco" ... or anyone else.

As a wrestling fan... I'd just rather watch another promotion with like storylines, belts, and stuff. Personally i love most all wrestling; but dark with squash match, after squash match, with nothing really leading to anything other than padding their rankings; it just doesn't do for me as a viewer. Again, i'd much rather watch MLW/Impact/ ROH ...etc etc

Maybe i'd enjoy it better if i was there live... but on a weekly viewer, no thanks. I'd rather AEW just start up a developmental company; and just use it similar to NXT. Put guys like QT Marshalls squad; Lee Johnson; the squad with JD Drake, Top Flight, the extras in Dark Order, Del Sol, Alanis & Liam Grey, Sonny Kiss, Varsity Blondes, Hyrbrid 2, The Sydals, ...plus i'm sure there's like at least another 10-20 extra per appearance guys. They could easily have the company, then they can focus on things like mic skills; storytelling, instead of more expo matches. OR just make it shorter. 30-45 minutes of squash matches.

But like i said before;... people must like it, cause somebody is watching it. I can't watch 2 hours of the same thing over and over.

I don’t mind squash matches. I do mind 15 minute draws that ROH has though. Eli Eysom and Dak Draper have no business going 15 mins on ROH TV. I don’t want to see that. Same with that draw in the first episode of the women’s thing. Long matches should be for TV main events and PPV matches with some build to them. I would have rather watched 3 5 minute matches instead of those 15 minute snooze fests.

[Montana]

Fair enough... to each his own. I see that side of it. I didn't know going into Dak and Isom who would win, or that it would go 15 minutes; so that made it more interesting for me.... but yeah... I'm not a fan of all the time limit draws lately, especially when ROH has 1 hours per week. They should be squeezing more content in; but maybe with their covid procedures, it limited content/multiple matches being taped. Hopefully its better moving forward.

But for Dark; i know who's going to win every match before the show just about. I would occasionally check it for like JD Drake or AR Fox's students...but yeah, not my cup o tea.

[NewROHFan2020]

Fair enough... to each his own. I see that side of it. I didn't know going into Dak and Isom who would win, or that it would go 15 minutes; so that made it more interesting for me.... but yeah... I'm not a fan of all the time limit draws lately, especially when ROH has 1 hours per week. They should be squeezing more content in; but maybe with their covid procedures, it limited content/multiple matches being taped. Hopefully its better moving forward.

But for Dark; i know who's going to win every match before the show just about. I would occasionally check it for like JD Drake or AR Fox's students...but yeah, not my cup o tea.

I hear ya. I’ve only caught an episode or two of Dark. I watch AEW about once a month. I wouldn’t want to be watching 2 hours of pure squash matches every week, but I think it’s beneficial to the talent.

[famicommander]

Tony Khan has stated outright that the two reasons for Dark's existence and for Dark being so damn long every week are getting indie talents some work and building a content library for a streaming service.

I don't know why he thinks five and a half hours of squash matches per week will help a streaming service in any fashion but whatever.

The main issue is that both shows are mostly irrelevant to Dynamite, but sometimes they aren't. Like the Kaz and Daniels stipulation. Those guys disappeared off Dynamite for months. They were wrestling under that stipulation on Dark all that time, and the commentary acted like we were supposed to know that. And a lot of this QT Marshall crap is a continuation of stuff that happened on Dark. So you have like 4-6 hours of content that is mostly worthless to the audience, except when it's not, and we're not going to tell you ahead of time when something is going to matter.

It's the same issue that NJPW, WWE, and CMLL have. They simply put out more content in a week than a normal human being is capable of consuming. They leave it on the fans to try to decide what is and what is not essential viewing. It's content overload. The equivalent of turning on Netflix, scrolling aimlessly through it for 30 minutes, then turning it off and going to bed before you watch anything.

As for Dark viewership, Tony Khan stated himself that most of their Youtube audience comes from India. And we know India has been Impact's most important market for over a decade. I think the promotions that perform the best on social media are the ones with the biggest presence in India, across the board. I'm sure WWE is no different.

So while it's good that these indie guys are getting paid and getting some experience, I don't know that it raises their profile as much as the Youtube hits would indicate. Most of these people will never wrestle in India and even if they do, over 800 million people in that country live below the poverty line so it's not like they're all rushing out to buy your shirt or wait in your autograph line for 20 bucks a head.

In other news, they are not changing the name of the TNT Championship even though 95% of their TV content is leaving TNT. Stupid. Why not change it to Television Championship? TNT Championship is a stupid name to begin with and the belt design is horrid.

[famicommander]

Lucha Bros PPV history in AEW:


Add that to the fact that they've turned heel and face more times than the Big Show.

[kovs27]

Maybe the TNT title will be exclusive to Rampage. That would at least explain why not changing it's name.

[kovs27]

Lucha Bros PPV history in AEW:


Add that to the fact that they've turned heel and face more times than the Big Show.

Don't even get me started.......at least they are getting paid, hopefully well.

[famicommander]

Lucha Bros PPV history in AEW:


Add that to the fact that they've turned heel and face more times than the Big Show.

Don't even get me started.......at least they are getting paid, hopefully well.

Remember 2018? In that year alone they appeared on TV or PPV for
AAA
Lucha Underground
Impact Wrestling
CMLL
Major League Wrestling
Ring of Honor (All In)

They were the hottest act on the non-WWE wrestling scene. Anywhere in North America you might see them pop up and win a title any given night.

And now they're Pac's sidekicks who don't even get to carry their AAA tag belts on TV.

[Montana]

I don't mind them keeping it the TNT title at least for now. They are still on TNT until the end of the year for Dynamite and Rampage. I've never been a big fan of the name "TV Title" as it's basically just a midcard title with generic name.

As for Lucha Bros.... them and LAX are the biggest missed opportunity for AEW. They have an odd tag division. There are so many good teams; but still like they kinda put the belts on the wrong people, at the wrong time.

Kaz/Sky first champs... I look at this as more of a thank for from the EVP's ... but probably should have been the Bucks

Omega/Page - On one hand, they had some blockbuster matches, some of the best in AEW history; but to make Omega/Page big stars; it was at the expense of giving Lucha Bros/LAX the belts.

FTR - Thank you for coming to AEW; here are the belts for 60 days. Can't imagine they had more than 2-3 defenses.

Now onto the Bucks; which they probably should have done in 2019. The older/slower , always banged up Bucks. Still good; but looks like they cut FTR's reign short. Lucha Bros/LAX still dont have the belts.

Not to mention, it always seems like Jungle Express is always on TV. Seems like they could use LAX/Lucha Bros more.

Anyways.... IF andrade goes to AEW: hopefully he gets used much better than the Lucha Bros. Hopefully we get a Omega/Pentagon or Fenix title match on PPV soon.

[famicommander]

Via Meltzer

It’s believed that the new AEW TV deal with WarnerMedia does not extend the old deal, so the deal still expires in 2023, according to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

AEW and WarnerMedia previously announced in January 2020 that they had extended their TV deal for Dynamite on TNT through 2023, and agreed on a new series that we now know is Rampage. It was reported at that time how that extension was for 4 years and $175 million, or just under $45 million per year. That deal reportedly included an option for TNT to re-sign AEW in 2024, at a significantly increased price.

Rampage will mostly be taped on Wednesdays, although they will be live on weeks where there is a pay-per-view. The current plan for future AEW TV tapings is to tape Dynamite, Rampage, Dark and Elevation on Wednesdays for most weeks, and then split the tapings up between Wednesdays and Fridays when Rampage is live.

Taping Dynamite, Rampage, Dark, and Elevation all on Wednesdays sounds like a nightmare for the audience to sit through. Even if they cut the Youtube shows down to an hour each that's still 5 hours per event on a school night.

Unless they mean they're going to tape at different locations? Tape TV on the road while taping the Youtube stuff in Jacksonville maybe?