All Eliite Wrestling (AEW)

[NuneatonFox1]

The Khans have more money than the McMahons. Wrestling TV rights are worth close to £1b. Are AEW speculating to accumulate?

 

Big Show / Mark Henry are invaluable signings, they’re a huge part of the backstage set up, they know how things work and are massive in growing AEW in the community. 
 

Since Nick Khan joined WWE, he’s cutting talent left, right & centre. With this, the peacock deal & Vince getting older, whispers are they’re trying to sell to Disney and are cooking the books by releasing talent to make the balance sheet look better.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

9 hours ago, Scotch said:

That strategy makes sense with guys like Christian, Matt Hardy, Big Show, Mark Henry etc but not with guys like Punk, Bryan, Wyatt, Lesnar, Black and Strowman... 

 

How many NEW viewers will those kind of acquisitions bring? Not to mention the sponsorship and TV deals that comes with that. 

 

All they have to do is book it right and KEEP those viewers... Which is a big ask given their track record. 

 

I believe they’ve probably got a good chance of keeping those viewers, there is a lot of buzz about Punk in particular coming in from marginal fans who abandoned WWE and thus wrestling a long time ago. The news has got around and I’ve heard a lot of people out there saying that they’ll be watching now they know Punk is coming. The way they are doing this as well is really clever, keep it a surprise but literally spell it out he is going to be on the Chicago show - August 20th. Last few weeks they’ve done a great job in holding a high level rating as well which is massively up from where they started right back at the start. 

 

Their next challenge is adding this second show in a way that doesn’t (long term) take away ratings from Dynamite. They then have the TV time to sure up things a bit around the booking and utilising their roster depth and of course bring in the money to make it all worthwhile. They also then can consider adding a couple more PPVs to expand that revenue. They seem to be doing things relatively sensible - although yes we don’t see the balance books this is true so we don’t know the full story. 

[Jimmy]

9 hours ago, NuneatonFox1 said:

The Khans have more money than the McMahons. Wrestling TV rights are worth close to £1b. Are AEW speculating to accumulate?

 

Big Show / Mark Henry are invaluable signings, they’re a huge part of the backstage set up, they know how things work and are massive in growing AEW in the community. 
 

Since Nick Khan joined WWE, he’s cutting talent left, right & centre. With this, the peacock deal & Vince getting older, whispers are they’re trying to sell to Disney and are cooking the books by releasing talent to make the balance sheet look better.

WWE's TV rights are worth close to that not AEW's also AEW don't sign everyone released from WWE and if they did there is no guarantee they are paying close to what they were getting there given they only have 2 days a week to work, 3 if there is a PPV and are free to work on outside projects.

 

Don't forget when AEW was being formed WWE went around signing up lots of Indy talent and renewing people, many of whom have since been released.

[NuneatonFox1]

TV $$$$$ is based on viewership and ad sales. 
 

AEW are consistently higher in the TV execs preferred demo. 
 

Last week, AEW did 1.11m, Raw did 1.8m. Given the fact Dynamite is less than 2 years old, that’s an incredible rise. By the end of this year, AEW beats raw in the ratings at least once. 
 

Given how WWE have managed to piss off both Fox & USA, when they come around to renegotiate, I can see AEWs TV deal being worth a hell of a lot more. 

6 hours ago, Jimmy said:

WWE's TV rights are worth close to that not AEW's also AEW don't sign everyone released from WWE and if they did there is no guarantee they are paying close to what they were getting there given they only have 2 days a week to work, 3 if there is a PPV and are free to work on outside projects.

 

Don't forget when AEW was being formed WWE went around signing up lots of Indy talent and renewing people, many of whom have since been released.

 

[TAFKA Castroneves]

AEW is also going to have a bit of sway with ITV as well by the looks of it, pulling 100K + viewers now for a graveyard slot on ITV4, RAW by comparison on BT is drawing half, yes half.

 

The next strong rumour is Adam Cole hasn’t resigned with WWE and is out of contract after Summerslam, he seems smart enough to probably realise he’s not going to have much of a chance on the main roster. Britt Baker being his misses as well leads to a lot of 2+2=4 I don’t know if they can sign them all though 😂 

[Jimmy]

9 hours ago, TAFKA Castroneves said:

AEW is also going to have a bit of sway with ITV as well by the looks of it, pulling 100K + viewers now for a graveyard slot on ITV4, RAW by comparison on BT is drawing half, yes half.

 

The next strong rumour is Adam Cole hasn’t resigned with WWE and is out of contract after Summerslam, he seems smart enough to probably realise he’s not going to have much of a chance on the main roster. Britt Baker being his misses as well leads to a lot of 2+2=4 I don’t know if they can sign them all though 😂 

ITV wanted them for their box office channel which got shuttered after AEW's first PPV, they never promote them and as yet haven't signed up to show rampage, people keep telling me they are better off on ITV for the exposure but I think they'd be better off on Sky, providing Sky promote them

[The Horse's Mouth]

31 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

ITV wanted them for their box office channel which got shuttered after AEW's first PPV, they never promote them and as yet haven't signed up to show rampage, people keep telling me they are better off on ITV for the exposure but I think they'd be better off on Sky, providing Sky promote them

Being on free TV is by far the better option, there's no way sky would push them that far anyway as it's a niche product. The free access to TNA basically built them a bigger fanbase than the one they had back home.

[Finnaldo]

6 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Being on free TV is by far the better option, there's no way sky would push them that far anyway as it's a niche product. The free access to TNA basically built them a bigger fanbase than the one they had back home.

Didn’t WWE get fvcked off by Sky? Can’t see them willing to take on an even more niche slice of the market… 

[The Horse's Mouth]

14 minutes ago, Finnaldo said:

Didn’t WWE get fvcked off by Sky? Can’t see them willing to take on an even more niche slice of the market… 

I think they left on good terms iirc, BT just gave them a better offer. I wouldn't be shocked if they got back in with them, but I can't see them ever having AEW on there

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, Finnaldo said:

Didn’t WWE get fvcked off by Sky? Can’t see them willing to take on an even more niche slice of the market… 

not long after Sky gave WWE a big increase in rights fee in a deal, which for the first 12 had all 12 PPV's as actual PPV's WWE launched the network in the UK and destroyed that parts of Sky's deal, they were never going to renew after that, BT got WWE on the cheap.

 

Sky are replacing Sky 1 with 2 channels one of which is a terrestrial channel, AEW on that with an actual PPV channel and live coverage as an option on one of the sports channels would be much better for them then ITV which cannot air them live due to the amount of adverts on US tv, satellite channels here don't have the same rules re ad breaks as terrestrial do

[sharpylcfc]

Anyone here have AEW Plus? They're adding Rampage to AEW Plus so it might be worth having AEW Plus if you haven't already got it. Especially if ITV doesn't pick up Rampage. 

Edited 10 August 2021 by sharpylcfc

[Jimmy]

I'd get plus if it came with the PPVs or at least a decent discount, not paying for a TV show

[TAFKA Castroneves]

 

Very interesting interview with TK (as usual to be fair) very much looks like tonight at the “First Dance” Rampage we are getting CM Punk 👀 

[Libertine]

 

WOW.

[Scotch]

That was special. Felt like the glory days of wrestling again. 

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Holy hell!!! Haven't watched it yet just watched that clip above WHAT A POP

[NuneatonFox1]

What a pop. At times you couldn’t even hear his entrance music. 
 

- Great to see the commentators lay out and not say a word (Michael Cole would’ve been screaming his head off)

- Love that TK brought the rights to COP instead of giving him a new theme

- Night before WWEs 2nd biggest PPV of the year and not a soul is talking about it

- That was as close to the professional wrestling of the glory days of the 90’s than anything has come remotely close too in the past 20 years.

[kingfox]

The music, the pop, exactly what I expected and more.

 

Never seen such a buzz around a signing, just goes to show how many people have been desperate to see Punk return.

 

The viewing numbers will be interesting, I really hope he is needle mover that AEW needs.

 

Last night just felt like proper wrestling, compared to WWE’s kiddy shit that they keep dishing out.

[Scotch]

14 minutes ago, NuneatonFox1 said:

What a pop. At times you couldn’t even hear his entrance music. 
 

- Great to see the commentators lay out and not say a word (Michael Cole would’ve been screaming his head off)

- Love that TK brought the rights to COP instead of giving him a new theme

- Night before WWEs 2nd biggest PPV of the year and not a soul is talking about it

- That was as close to the professional wrestling of the glory days of the 90’s than anything has come remotely close too in the past 20 years.

I think it's actually Punk that owns it. As well as the two fist logo with the stars. He was really carefull in ensuring that it was HIM that owned all his image rights and its reall paid off. It wouldn't have been as special with a different theme or completely new shirt and logo. 

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Watching Rampage now. How anyone could choose to watch WWE over this is beyond me. I tried watching the WWE raw highlights thing on one of the Freeview channels. Not watched raw since 2009. Got through no more than 90 seconds before having to turn it off. It was some guy shooting water pistols at John Morrison who sold it like death and then Miz in a wheelchair who jumped out of it and the bloke who apparently wanted to attack Miz for whatever dastardly deed he's been up to just stood there pointing at Miz and gesticulating at the crowd for literally 20 seconds to hammer home the point LOOK HES NOT INJURED. Utter garbage. Who over the age of 10 watches that tripe?

Edited 21 August 2021 by Arriba Los Zorros

[kingfox]

AEW

 

WWE

Just goes to show what TV 14 gets you, over PG WWE kiddy shit.

[Scotch]

What I will say though is this, this moment now is MASSIVE for AEW. How they handle this and how they book the next few weeks/month will determine wether they will be a true competition to the fed or another promotion that will make a half arsed grab at it then fade away. 

 

When AEW started, there was always going to be an initial buzz. Especially with the financial backing they had  people were always going to jump on that band wagon, hoping for a real alternative to what WWE had been craming down their throats and fairbplay to them, they made a decent first dent but that was always going to happen. 

 

However, as some of us here have discussed, their booking can be very hit or miss and I do believe that although they made a good start and some people (like me) decided to stick around, alot were put off as they feared it would just go the same way early TNA did with poor creative choices and an unhealthy obsession with ex WWE guys. 

 

Now they have the wrestling worlds attention! They've made a massive statement here but if they don't book it right and they squander this momentum then people will switch off and won't come back because if they can't make something out of this then no matter who they sign in future, Bryan, Wyatt... They won't make that work either and no one will ever believe that they can truly compete with Vince. 

 

I personally think they will make this work because they now have something they didn't before. They have Punk who I seriously doubt would have went their without the garentee of creative control and with that control, I don't see him messing up his entrance and first programme with AEW and if they can use that to keep the new viewers that this would have brought them long enough to introduce Wyatt and/or Bryan and get those viewers emotionally invested in guys like Darby and MJF then who knows where they could end up  

[The Horse's Mouth]

It's weird I'm genuinely not as bothered as I thought I'd be 

[orangecity23]

2 hours ago, Scotch said:

I think it's actually Punk that owns it. As well as the two fist logo with the stars. He was really carefull in ensuring that it was HIM that owned all his image rights and its reall paid off. It wouldn't have been as special with a different theme or completely new shirt and logo. 

The song is from 1988, well before Punk, so the rights probably belong to the original record label or the band themselves. AEW probably just have to licence it direct from the label.

 

Back on topic, great pop, but most of all it's just nice to see a crowd that happy and Punk clearly loving every second of it. I cracked up when he lobbed himself into the crowd

[Libertine]

8 hours ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

It's weird I'm genuinely not as bothered as I thought I'd be 

See I'm completely the opposite. Over the last 18 months or so I've wound down my interest in wrestling, just tuning in for some of the big events, and despite all the hints of Punk arriving I just couldn't quite muster the excitement I usually would, but then watching those videos first thing this morning... Wow.  Literally reminded me how great wrestling can be in an instant. I'm not getting ahead of myself, I don't think AEW will ever beat WWE, but it doesn't necessarily need to to be a success. With the likes of Bryan to come and apparently another major signing soon, it could be exciting times ahead.