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Post by Thumper Moore III on Aug 1, 2021 14:33:13 GMT -5
I don’t understand either. They’ve let go, in the last six months, of Daniel Bryan, Aliester Black, Braun Strowman, and now Bray Wyatt, all main Eventers in their prime (or close to it) who move merch. And Vince is joking about it, saying that maybe we can give AEW more of the talent?
Booking-wise, they’ve killed McIntyre who was the hottest thing in wrestling and would’ve moved merch and tickets. They split up every tag team but Nea Day and the Usos with no plans for them after the breakup. (I’m looking at you, Heavy Machinery and Iiconics.) They’ve managed to screw up almost every hot angle they’ve had, and I don’t understand anything about their strategy right now.
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Post by Duke Mongoose on Aug 2, 2021 11:24:28 GMT -5
They’ve managed to screw up almost every hot angle they’ve had, and I don’t understand anything about their strategy right now. Make as much money as humanly possible then sell the company when the TV contracts come up. People are going to watch the show no matter how bad it gets, so why try? At least AEW seems to be trying to create angles that go somewhere. I don't agree with a lot of their decisions, but they've at least got that. WWE is a complete mess and I don't see it changing any time soon. |
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Post by Thumper Moore III on Aug 2, 2021 11:51:02 GMT -5
They’ve managed to screw up almost every hot angle they’ve had, and I don’t understand anything about their strategy right now. Make as much money as humanly possible then sell the company when the TV contracts come up. People are going to watch the show no matter how bad it gets, so why try? At least AEW seems to be trying to create angles that go somewhere. I don't agree with a lot of their decisions, but they've at least got that. WWE is a complete mess and I don't see it changing any time soon. AEW has made some mistakes as well. Not giving Hangman and DO the win is a big mistake IMO, because you strike while the iron is hot, and they could’ve sold out a football stadium with Hangman v Omega and an “undercard” of Punk v Darby and Danielson v just about any of their top guys. But at least they have a plan. Tony Khan LOVES pro wrestling, as do Cody, the Bucks, and Omega. Their love for the business shines through in everything they do and makes their screwups kind of endearing. McMahon & company LOVE money, and that shines through in everything they do and makes their screwups so much less forgivable. RoH loves serious pro wrestling. PWG, DDT and Chikara love the goofy side of wrestling. GCW revels in deathmatches. Lucha Underground loved creating a mythology around pro wrestling. All of these companies had/have tremendous good will from their fans, because they are true to themselves. WWE is true to their shareholders, the chief of which is VKM. My hope is that as AEW rides this momentum and continues to grow, that they stay true to themselves. |
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Post by Dyno on Aug 2, 2021 12:51:07 GMT -5
Flair gone.
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Post by lechampion on Aug 2, 2021 14:41:31 GMT -5
They’ve managed to screw up almost every hot angle they’ve had, and I don’t understand anything about their strategy right now. Make as much money as humanly possible then sell the company when the TV contracts come up. People are going to watch the show no matter how bad it gets, so why try? At least AEW seems to be trying to create angles that go somewhere. I don't agree with a lot of their decisions, but they've at least got that. WWE is a complete mess and I don't see it changing any time soon. I agree! Trim the fat and sell it off. |
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Post by Slashmaster on Aug 2, 2021 15:26:11 GMT -5
I hope he goes to GCW and re-invents himself as a deathmatch legend, or maybe join AAA and adopt a more fast-paced, high-flying style. Those are the only two options for Flair as far as I'm concerned. |
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Post by Skullgore on Aug 2, 2021 15:32:05 GMT -5
Nick Khan is behind the wheel right now. A guy who has specifically stated that WWE is not a wrestling company, but rather an entertainment empire. Talent as individuals are just a dollar figure on a piece of paper to him. As CFO, his job is to maximize profits. If an individual wrestler’s contract is not making profits, then they are expendable. To them, no one individual is drawing money; they’re betting on the strength of the brand to keep increasing revenue. So far, they are successfully meeting that people objective. Is it myopic? Absolutely. The corporate world only cares about making money in the current quarter and does not account for long term consequences.
Bray had one match in 2021 that lasted about 5 minutes. Even if his return was imminent as far as he was told, that’s not a great return on investment. He probably had a pretty lucrative contract that gave him a lot of creative freedom. A guy like Nick Khan sees him just as another cog in the machine, no different from the hundreds of other cogs that can replace that one. CM Punk talked about this a decade ago and it still holds true. There are always going to be guys (and women) who see WWE as the be-all, end-all, the apex of the industry. They’ll be safe for the next decade, especially once the inevitable sale happens. Nick Khan’s job will be completed and Vince McMahon will die a very wealthy man. Those seem to be the only two people’s opinion that matters at this point and neither one has to care about all the consequences that will eventually catch up to them. Those are somebody else’s problems to worry about.
WWE is dead! Long live WWE! In the meantime, us wrestling fans will have no shortage of wrestling promotions to choose to support and enjoy. The people who want to wrestle will find somewhere else to do it. They’ll no longer be required by WWE because, as Nick Khan has said, WWE is not a wrestling company. They can build their own sports entertainers to do the sports entertaining. When you look at it through that lens, you realize that reaching this point was the inevitable destination as soon as they denounced professional wrestling in their pursuit of “putting smiles on faces.”
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Post by Thumper Moore III on Aug 2, 2021 15:44:46 GMT -5
I hope he goes to GCW and re-invents himself as a deathmatch legend, or maybe join AAA and adopt a more fast-paced, high-flying style. Those are the only two options for Flair as far as I'm concerned. I’d like to see him in ChocoPro. Flair and LuLu Pencil would tear it up! |
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Post by Duke Mongoose on Aug 3, 2021 11:34:00 GMT -5
When I first saw this I thought Charlotte and couldn't wrap my head around it, unless she decided to leave to be with Andrade. But don't worry about Ric, he's got time now to continue his ongoing feud with The Overcharger and defend his CarShield World Title. |
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Post by Skullgore on Aug 4, 2021 17:15:20 GMT -5
Some people in the know are saying that the Dark Side of the Ring episode about the Plane Ride from Hell makes Ric look really bad. I mean, the 30 for 30 doc was pretty honest about Flair’s moral failings and there was almost no backlash that came out of it. Dark Side has at least one of the crew members on that flight interviewed for its doc. If it is one of the flight attendants he sexually assaulted, it could get pretty ugly. I personally don’t think it will create much outrage because we’ve known for years exactly who Ric Flair is and what kind of life he’s had. He’s still pretty much universally beloved through it all.
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Post by Dyno on Aug 5, 2021 11:22:53 GMT -5
How great were Ever-Rise and Black last night?
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Post by Duke Mongoose on Aug 5, 2021 11:32:35 GMT -5
Hopefully 2.0 will get a chance to shine in AEW. I'm still surprised they never really did anything on NXT.
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Post by Thumper Moore III on Aug 5, 2021 13:58:28 GMT -5
Black’s entrance is the best creepy entrance since the Fiend debuted. And that Black Mass was absolutely perfect to Cody’s jaw. Looked incredible, and Cody sold it like he got KO’ed.
And 2.0 looked great. The spot where the one guy got star-struck by seeing Sting and then Darby murdered him with a Suicide dive was excellent.
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Post by Duke Mongoose on Aug 5, 2021 14:25:33 GMT -5
And 2.0 looked great. The spot where the one guy got star-struck by seeing Sting and then Darby murdered him with a Suicide dive was excellent. Got a solid laugh out of me. I love when 2.0 is overly hammy with their stuff. They play to the cheap seats and it's amazing. It used to make them stand out on the indies and they only got to show a bit of that in the ring for NXT but mostly they did it in backstage skits that people pretty much ignored. |
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Post by Dyno on Aug 5, 2021 17:07:51 GMT -5
Black’s entrance is the best creepy entrance since the Fiend debuted. And that Black Mass was absolutely perfect to Cody’s jaw. Looked incredible, and Cody sold it like he got KO’ed. And 2.0 looked great. The spot where the one guy got star-struck by seeing Sting and then Darby murdered him with a Suicide dive was excellent. Pity they then went with the faux retirement thing with Cody after the match. Kind of killed it all for me. |
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