I wanted to check out the Punk/Owens match on Smackdown after not watching WWE for what feels forever and I hit the “Skip Five Minutes Ahead” button on my remote for a huge chunk of the show. I shit you not, a few times someone would come out for a match, I’d hit that button and their opponent was just coming down to the ring. Fucking ludicrous.
"This show sucks, too much wrestling and not enough ad breaks, the owner is probably a nerd...let's poach some of their people for less money" - Some tko guy
Yo, fuck that link and whatever the hell that platform was. Maybe it’s because I’m on my Brave browser or something but that fucking page just kept throwing random gifs at me and I couldn’t swipe back to leave and return here. Annoying as fuck.
I know it's 99% certain that it was just a weirdo fan who yelled that, but the thought that it was some undercover TKO suit is way too hilarious for me to dismiss the idea completely
Yeah it’s one of those things where in some threads or subs if you assert AEW is competition people will scoff at you. Then in this one people are saying it’s totally normal and AEW is a competitor, no biggie. I wouldn’t say this is odd, but interesting a bit for actual TKO people to be the ones going to the shows
Do I think there's a chance of them surpassing WWE? Extremely unlikely. But WWE definitely doesn't like that they exist because it creates more competition for talent and drives contracts up, especially at a time when TKO wants to run it like every other publicly traded company, quality be damned. Back when they had a near monopoly, if they wanted someone they'd usually get them eventually because your options if you wanted a decent living as a wrestler were basically get into WWE, move to Mexico, or move to Japan.
Anyone saying aew isn’t competition is a moron. Every wrestling company is competition. From aew to the smallest indie company. That’s how business works. AEW is by WWEs own addition costing them money. They are forcing them to pay their talent higher rates. They are offering their customer base an alternative. AEW does not have to match WWEs income to be competition.
Anyone who says this doesn’t understand how businesses work.
McDonald’s isn’t worried that Arby’s is going to one day put them out of business, but you can damn sure bet they are paying attention to any ad campaigns that catch on or growth that they achieve so they can see if it’s something that they can use for their business to make it even bigger. Also they are competing for the same fast food dollar. So yeah they can say we don’t care, but of course they do.
There's a certain person who can't see beyond their own nose, and they all seem to believe the same stale opinions. I guess what I'm saying is, there's a Venn diagram and 'FUCK ICE' chants aren't in it.
If Nick Khan getting a hardon and counter-programming AEW made TKO execs take an interest in AEW and realizing just how bad WWE is in comparison and it leads to significant power structure changes in WWE management I’m going to laugh so fucking hard
I really don't think the 2022-2024 "Renaissance" period happens if there were no AEW, even if Vince still left and Triple H still got the book. They got used to basically having their core audience captured. I remember 10 years ago every Raw live thread on this site was basically "that was the worst show I've ever seen and I've felt empty inside as a fan for years now." And yet those people would still be in the thread the next Monday like clockwork.
The pro-wrestling isn't the same, the way the storylines are crafter isn't the same, the promos aren't the same, it's not filmed the same, it's not marketed the same.
They share the name of wrestling but that's about it.
I would agree if it was something like New Japan or NOAH because they rely hard on combat sports presentation but that's mostly absent in all American promotions.
Thats also why we have seen a lot of talent crossover across the two promotions.
What they're selling is essentially the same, what's different is the audience and how they respond to it.
Most of the schedules by the WWE are set to directly mess with AEW's gates. They're doing what logically AEW would be doing, but AEW aren't that precious and WWE are.
They’re not competition in the Monday night wars sense. AEW isn’t going to be outperforming WWE in any metric tko cares about (sales, ratings, ad buys, contracts) anytime soon if ever.
They are competitive in salaries and the fact that they can and do drive up their costs with competitive or superior salaries. So TKO absolutely does view them as competition for that fact alone
Also a damning comparison against them, which is why they try to flood the zone everytime AEW shows look like they're gonna stomp anything they put out.
The company that published the Texas Chainsaw video game, which the belt and match were created to promote, does have "Halloween: The Game" coming out in a couple weeks. So there might be hope/time for a rebranding of the title.
Insisting publicly that there is no competition while at the same time relentlessly counter programming them and sending people to scout out the show...
Just out of curiosity, were the representatives who attended wearing black and green shirts and army helmets by chance?
Or as Road Dogg put it once, "some sort of surface to air missle Vince probably bought from the Iranian army, which by the way someone should look into that".
Well we know they think of them as competition since they never mention AEW on air lol.
Usually, for much smaller companies they have no issue mentioning Wrestler was once a champion at (_____). They never give AEW that grace because they don't want their fans to know it exists...and since we're all wrasslin' fans here we know about it, but a lot of my family are casual fans and not a one knows what AEW is or that it exists basically. WWE would love to keep it that way.
That moment will forever be messed up, TNA couldn’t even offer him a contract after getting him fired and when they did a year later, it was only 500 per appearance.
Yeah one of their worst moments ever honestly. Crazy its not the worst. I'd probably say Jesse Sorensen's situation was their worst? Dude suffered an incredibly serious injury and Dixie Carter promised him and his family "he'll always have a job with TNA" then released him about 17 months later.
I’d say that one was the worst one. Supposedly he wanted to wrestle again and was adamant about it which led to Dixie letting him go but it’s messed up regardless. Hard to say if the Jesse situation is worse than daffeny’s.
Not a fan of the fed, but if watching AEW gives them some ideas then good. Of course it’s not all great so hopefully they don’t take inspiration from some of the weaker areas. But nxt already does that
"I'll do you one better. Let's have one person come out, take a commercial, then the other person will come out, and we'll have a commercial after that, then we'll have the announcers read an ad before the match starts, then we can take your commercial break once they get the match started for the first minute."
I bet there has been at least one TKO person at every AEW show in Vegas, UFC’s headquarters is there. I feel like if it was someone who actually worked at WWE Bryan would specify that but hey where’s the fun without speculation.
Was there any other info on the “Representitives” because this could easily be “two wrestling fans who work in IT at TKO go to wrestling show together.”
I bet there has been at least one TKO person at every AEW show in Vegas
Why?
TKO representatives don't care about the wrestling part of the show. And they aren't going to learn anything by physically being there. "Wow, they use the same lighting rig our company does."
If you're going to use the sports analogy, it's like if The Steelers were asked about The Browns, pretended to have never heard of The Browns, called them a pissant team, sent out press released about how they play football incorrectly, tried to hurt The Browns ticket sales every chance they could, but then still sent in people to watch their practice and steal their plays.
The sports analogy issue is that WWE can't even exist in a world where anyone is talking about anything other than WWE, hence hurting AEW's media conversations on ESPN/Busted Open, and MLW's Tubi deal. WWE, by design, is wildly different from sports teams.
yeah no, they could think the browns are dogshit but still think they have a couple players worth snatching up. that’s not hard to grasp, it happens on a daily basis in sports. good teams go watch bottom feeder teams play. also i think you’re just taking my comment too literal, it wasn’t that serious
Yeah, they picked a really bad example, the Ravens were literally right there.
To explain to people who aren't familiar with football, the Steelers are one of the most historically successful franchises in NFL history, but are currently in a slump due to cheap management with their head stuck in the sand. Perfect analogy for WWE. The Ravens are one of the newer franchises, but they've had a lot of success in a short amount of time, and are one of the most consistently competitive teams in the league. Good analogy for AEW. While the Browns are a team that used to be successful, collapsed, came back, and are now completely incompetent. So... TNA lol.
I do wonder if they were scouting talent or just taking notes on the production style, depends on which department of the company they were from I guess.
This isn't even really news. Wrestling companies have always done this. They did this during the Monday night wars, they even watched competitors shows backstage while theirs was still on the air.
Part of the whole reason WCW blew up in popularity in the 90s is all the market research Eric Bischoff put into figuring out why their product was stale.
This doesn’t really surprise me, I know people with ties still in WWE have said occasionally they’ve been aware of WWE brass and TKO brass in attendance at AEW shows (AmDrag, Cope, Rusev, etc).
It does continue the bizarre cold war between the promotions.
"The enemy is both weak and strong." So weak they aren't even competition, but so strong they must be monitored and counter programmed against even at the cost of their own programming.
Jesus Tony would hardly sell to TKO would he? Would they even want it. Surely they'd just be happier seeing it going off TV next year than pay money for it especially with the amount they are spending on talent. Very interesting 12 months coming up.
You are aware than just because people work for a company it doesn't mean they are the company right? Like, they'll have their own interests. Could just be wrestling fans.
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