Failing.
That’s a fake number though.
And they barely fill out 40% of the stadiums they go to. They’ve definitely missed their chance now
On weekly shows it looks like they'd have trouble filling out a high school gym at times.
You people are fucking weirdos about this. It's a successful promotion.
Yeah, it's a solid 2nd. They have a great talent pool and the weekly in-ring stuff is worth watching/attending. They're not at WCW size (and might never get there) but they book those venues because they can get away with it, presumably.
WHO GIVES A FUCK WHAT PEOPLE GET PAID. Are you there crying with joy that good people in WWE are paid dogshit. UFC just got sued for stealing money from their fighters and WWE are paying their staff half that. People who are on the WWE/AEW war are absolute fucking weirdos.
Successful despite itself.
Take the two most popular guys right now: Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland.
Samoa Joe is booked like a heel but gets cheered like fuck by every crowd, except when he's against Swerve Strickland, who is undoubtedly the most popular guy at the moment, but he's also booked as a heel. So Tony put them in a triple threat with one of his top babyfaces, Hangman Page. Who then got soundly booed into turning.
While we're here let's look at their third most popular guy, Will Ospreay. Crowds chanting for him already yet he's still part of the silly heel stable and despite booking two matches to give them a quick face turn, he ends said matches by hugging the heel and saying how he respects them.
Like what the fuck is going on here? The talent is there but Tony just has no clue what he's doing here. Lots of potential fanbase growth being squandered by this nonsensical stuff.
I don't care, I like watching good wrestlers doing good wrestling matches because I watch the shows instead of reading recaps and 30 second Twitter clips. There's bad stuff but WWE's been dogshit on all counts for large swathes of my adult life. That's fine, I'll like what I like but posing everyone who likes AEW as some fucking moron who doesn't UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS is fucking cringe.
It feels like too often someone has hype either from coming in new or picking up steam and instead of capitalising on it they're quickly in another stable or feuding with some dork. Wardlow is limited enough but he could easily have been their Batista now, instead he's Matt Morgan.
Khans biggest weakness is feeling like everyone has to get their shine. Which just ends up in your Wardlows getting hot, getting over, then getting forgotten because it's someone elses turn. It's been a consistent issue. I'm not some idiot that can't see that but it doesn't mean I have to never watch AEW again.
But that's it isn't it. AEW hardcore fans are like the boys at school who hate mainstream music just because it's mainstream. They love their little circle and the fact Tony books for them, but as soon as they do something logical that attracts a few new casual fans, they think they immediately have to pivot away again because "this isn't what AEW was created for" (the standard argument during the Punk era).
It's fucking infuriating because as a wrestling fan not in the bubble that just wants to enjoy something other than WWE (ie. me), AEW fans like to moan about their detractors but they're the biggest fucking gatekeepers going.
You're talking to someone who AEW hardcore fans attempted to dox because I questioned the Jericho/MJF angle where he had to fight some bloke from WCW so don't worry about what they think.
Because I do not care about if it makes money or if people that never watched it in the first place enjoy it. So I'll express my opinion that I do.
Just catching up with this week’s Raw.
It can’t be said enough how good Drew McIntyre has been over the last few months. Top quality shit-posting on social media and top quality work on the microphone. I genuinely love his work right now.
Shame Mania isn't this weekend because work on the Monday is going to be a struggle.
Can always rely on Zom to have WCW's corner.
WCW lost 10 million quid in 99 so I would love to see where you got these other numbers from. Once again, I could not give a single fuck whether AEW made a penny. You're the one that cares about Eric Bischoffs booking reputation.
Cry more.
I don’t care one iota about AEW. I’m just correcting your erroneous statement.
With absolutely zero proof.
It's right that a lot of people who worked for Turner wanted rid of wrestling and eventually got their wish after the merger, but under Bischoff WCW became profitable for the first time and had their best year in 1998 before it all went to shit again by the end of 1999.
Bron
"Bischoff said in an interview last April that WCW had “never made a dollar of profit in the history of the company” when he took over the division in 1994 and made it profitable within a 12-month period."
https://mikemooneyham.com/2001/01/14...hat%20division.
Bischoff truly went full circle – from taking the dying promotion from years of follies and a distant second to the hottest wrestling organization in the country, only to oversee its fall. He took the Atlanta-based company from $24 million to more than $225 million in revenues in just a few years and made more than $50 million in profits in 1997 and 1998.
https://mikemooneyham.com/2004/05/30...s-to-bischoff/
For several years in the '90s, Eric Bischoff was Turner Broadcasting's "golden child." As the Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Bischoff guided the promotion to its first profits in 1995
Read More: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1183365...w-live-events/
From The Death of WCW book: In addition to the sky-rocketing ratings, WCW was one of the biggest and most profitable touring groups in the country, as fans swarmed to arenas for live Nitros and for the monthly megashows. Fans who couldn’t attend the matches live ordered in record numbers via the miracle of pay-per-view, spending upwards of $30 a month just to watch the special events. And let’s not forget the insane amounts of merchandise sold, from T-shirts to posters to magazines to bandanas to wrestling teddy bears to key chains to beanie babies to sipper cups to every stupid tchotchke piece of crap imaginable — all with the WCW logo slapped right on it. Everything was making the company money, to the tune of more than a $55 million profit in a single year.
You’ll be getting angry responses now. Watch out
This book about WCW is good although my feeling that the author really allowed Eric Bischoff more right to reply than you'd expect is confirmed by them co-writing a book together later.
Zom dropping fachts
You love to see it.
Nobody besmirches the good name of WCW on my watch.
All this WCW talk has me wanting to watch SuperBrawl 2000 again. Such a glorious clusterfuck of an event.
Boring chants in the opening match. Then Brian fucking Knobbs pulling a "doesn't work for me, brother" in the next match. WCW having to bill a midcard match as a "main event" to satisfy them dropping $500k to licence the KISS Demon, only to have him promptly squashed by The Wall. A Vince Russo special Leather Jacket on a Pole match with the highlight being Tank Abbott pulling a knife and threatening to murder his opponent for a shoot. Then we get Booker T vs. Big T feuding over the letter T (spoiler: Booker T loses and has to be billed as just Booker for the next 9 months or so). David Flair then proves to be the worst wrestling son of a wrestler ever to exist as Greg Gagne and David Sammartino rejoice. The best match on the show is a Texas Death between two pensioners. Hogan then literally ends Luger's career. Then the main event triple threat has six referees and goes home after 7 minutes because they ran out of PPV runtime.
AEW can only dream of such chaos. I implore everyone to watch this show.
Fucking yes Seven fuck him right up, majestic lad.
Was it Goldberg vs. DDP they had to replay for free on Nitro the next night due to Hogan and Warrior going way over time? That match was so hot, incredible for just ten minutes or whatever it was.
Yeah, one of the Halloween Havocs. That might also be the one where Warrior's trapdoor broke Davey Boy's back.
Davey broke his back at Fall Brawl I'm sure, which would have been immediately before Halloween Havoc 1998.
Look at this fucking card. The second half an absolute all-timer on paper:
Toggle Spoiler
Chris Jericho vs Raven in the opener was also a great match.
Just found the best promo of all time
Imagine being up at 4am to tweet this out. Got to be the most thin-skinned person in the business.
Cocaine
Bischoff firing back
I kind of hope it’s a work.
I’m backkkk
I'm a twit
I always find Eric Bischoff pulling a serious face slightly unsettling. Like he's really concentrating or holding in a massive fart. He looks like an old Jamie Carragher in that 'Strictly Business' picture.