I know you in particular are gonna love it in due time, cause I see you every week being hyper critical of everything WWE does cause you care. Once you get invested in the wrestlers and show, you'll be in. To your first point, I feel that's just WWE fans being too sensititve to the pot shots. They're literally just trying to speak to their base and hype up their fans. They're speaking to the anti WWE crowd that's been unhappy for so long and it works. When the HoF was on and Haitch was calling them a pissant company and saying Vince would buy them out and the role of EVP for 6 dudes was ridiculous we were all laughing. Why are the pot shots bad now? It's just playing into the fanbase. I find it enjoyable cause I know how much it'll trigger people.
HHH took a shot on a single night and you haven’t seen a thing before or after. it’s weekly with AEW. You can’t have it both ways.
We have to be real on Vince. If the WWE excuse is gonna be well Vince gonna Vince. That fucker isn't going anywhere. Isn't his mom alive in her 90s? and he's filthy rich, probably on all kinds of medical shit to keep him pumping along. Cyborg Vince will be a thing.
Weird that on a weekly show people would want to know about the characters on it. People love entrance music. Of course they want to hear it when they walk to ring. It’s minor in the grande scheme. They will eventually find the proper levels
Character building is really important? Entrance music is also a major cue mechanism in pro wrestling. So many major pops/moments have been started there. It's not a small thing.
People want promos, but not taking up the first 20 minutes every night with meaningless stuff. Character development is the most important thing. It gets you invested in the matches. If it's non stop rasslin, you'll get burnt out and not care cause what do you know about this flippy fuck vs. this bland facial nerd?
Nobody expects Vince to leave anytime soon. We hope something (XFL) takes his attention away or by the grace of Gorilla Monsoon he hands the brands to HHH but in reality we all know this man will run the program for another 10 plus years
I'd rather learn about the characters through their in ring work. That alone conveys plenty to mature watchers.
and that 20 minutes being McMahons. That is WWE at its worst. Luckily that hasn't been as prevalent lately but we will see once WM season is upon us again.
The RAW after DoN, i was expecting WWE to answer and legit the first 40-50 minutes was promos and Shane beating up a Roman distant relative. Was the most brutal weirdest shit.
Even NWA Powerrr which is like a 70s/80s throwback had a shit ton of promos. Cause the talking is important and always will be. And everyone seemed to love their first episode even though the IN RING was mediocre at best. It was like 3 squashes and everyone losing fairly easy. No company is getting over being all rasslin', sorry.
Literally just watched the promos and skipped all of the matches for that, I dig the whole old school respectable manly man promo work
You hit the nail on the head there. People want to be invested in who they are watching. Doesn't mean we need to hand someone a mic and tell them to talk for 20 minutes or have multiple "talk show" segments. Hell, they have had some build up package videos that were real good. Just a few more of those could work too. I really think you are right about that. I enjoyed AEW first two shows. But the parts I did not enjoy as much could probably be reduced to I just know nothing about the people involved and had no interest in watching them go 20 minutes, But pretty much every segment involving people I know of I have liked, and even have been entertained by acts I did not know going in. I really liked in particular what I saw out of Private Party. I thought they did a great job using the Bucks to get them over.
Every one wants the attitude era back, I think people should go back and watch more of those old shows. It was a lot of promos and a bunch of 5 minute matches involving bad in ring wrestlers. Personalities are what made it enjoyable with one or two good matches thrown in.
MLB killed both this week That said, here are the past four NXT ratings... 1.179 Million Viewers 1.006 Million Viewers 891k Viewers (H2H with AEW Week 1) 790k viewers (H2H with AEW2)
Really every match shouldn't have to be ended with a finisher and they should be protected more. If guys have a move or sequence that looks really good and devastating let that end some matches. Take Rollins for example his suplex/falcon arrow sequence looks great. Have that be basically a 50/50 move where it ends in a pin half the time and a kick out the rest. Then he can just bust out the stomp as needed or when he is trying to prove a point
I prefer the male soap opera part more than the in ring matches. I like promos and storylines, which make it kind of hard for me to watch both AEW and NXT, because I don't know the characters and why they are fighting someone else. Attitude era was amazing for building the story.
I love good wrestling matches but they should be feud enders and I dont want to watch nothing but non stop in ring. Give me a good solid 20+ minute match to end a feud. Fill shows with a lot of quicker matches and good stories, save the 20+ minute matches for PPV and one or two a TV show. TV has become a big deal now with PPV kind of fading a little, have a solid feud ending match to end of the TV shows like KO v Shane was, KOTR final, etc. or have matches that mean something like #1 contender matches. And then save the biggest feuds to end at the PPV.
They aren't having brand GM Authority figures making the picks. The networks are doing it, and sending different reps. Supposed to be much like the NFL Draft with Steph walking up to the podium with said reps to make the picks. Allegedly. Spoiler The only picks I've seen are Heyman pushing for Bray/Aleister Black, and FOX wants Char and Roman. No telling if that works out, especially with Black being married to Char's boyfriends valet. More likely they the 4 of then end up on the same show.
WWE posted some info... Roman vs Rollins will kick off Smackdown. Winner gives his brand the first picks. Smackdown will select 30 people over two nights Raw will select 41 over the two nights Any remaining superstars will become free agents and are free to join any brand Smackdown will get two selections per pick and Raw will get 3. Tag Teams will count as two It also seems like we may see some tags broken up
So RAW will be the mid card draft or is it all figured out ahead of time and they just announce them at various times to leave some bigger names for day 2?
Also someone on Cultaholic suggested an idea I liked, instead of a shakeup, have twice a year a "transfer window" kind of like in soccer where for like a week or two guys can switch shows. Even suggested having contracts with your brand so you'd know who would be a free agent leading up to those open weeks, etc. May be too complex, but may be more fun than the random shakeups
Would make a lot of sense with Fox wanting to treat it more like a traditional sport. Could even have trade rumors and things like that. The Shakeup was always such a wasted opportunity since they literally had no story behind the switches.
I'm not sure... I would imagine you might get 10 and RAW 15 superstars on Smackdown. The rest on monday. I would imagine some ladies will get selected in those picks... Becky, Char, Sasha, Bayley, Bliss and maybe the tag champs so that's 7 of 25. Some big names might still loom around for RAW but largely yes midcard
The drop in viewers sucks but I dont know what their expectations were. It was always going to settle somewhere below the 1st episode and they'd have to work on growth. Hopefully it doesn't suffer another big drop next week. Going against the big baseball market teams probably didn't help. I saw a segment by segment break down and the Darby/Havoc match lost 196k viewers where everything else pretty much went up. It's pretty cool how they can track stuff like that.
Spoiler for length of the list Spoiler: Draft Info Set to begin on Oct. 11 on SmackDown, WWE has decided to divide their talent into two separate preliminary WWE Draft Pools. This move basically ensures that the first ten picks Friday night on SmackDown will not be filled with all of the top stars. For example Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, and Charlotte Flair are not allowed to be selected by either brand until the Oct. 14 episode of Raw. Though fans will go to bed Friday night already knowing exactly where Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns, and The Fiend have been drafted. Below is the full list of draft-eligible wrestlers and which night they are available to be picked. Friday Night SmackDown – Oct. 11 Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch Roman Reigns The O.C. (United States Champion AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) ”The Fiend” Bray Wyatt Drew McIntyre Randy Orton Sasha Banks Ricochet Braun Strowman Bobby Lashley Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross Lacey Evans The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) Natalya The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado) Cesaro Kevin Owens Humberto Carrillo Akira Tozawa Sin Cara Eric Young EC3 Chad Gable Heath Slater Drew Gulak The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel) Tamina Raw – Oct. 14 Universal Champion Seth Rollins WWE Champion Brock Lesnar SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair Titus O’Neil Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (with Sami Zayn) Aleister Black The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods) Daniel Bryan Bayley Luke Harper Erick Rowan The Miz Ali King Corbin Elias Raw Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode Samoa Joe WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) Rusev Cedric Alexander Rey Mysterio R-Truth Carmella AOP (Akam & Rezar) Heavy Machinery (Tucker & Otis) Apollo Crews Andrade Liv Morgan Jinder Mahal Buddy Murphy Mojo Rawley No Way José Dana Brooke Shelton Benjamin Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder The IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce) Sarah Logan Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville) Drake Maverick
Would be awesome if it was a legit draft, so you could see what the networks valued drafting the rosters
If I'm drafting a show I think my top 5 picks each night are SD 1. The Fiend (think he can still be rehabbed and hes a genius), 2. AJ, 3. Braun, 4. Becky, 5. Roman (really wanted to put KO, but Roman would help more with ratings) RAW 1. Brock (assuming he is actually around a little bit, he is the biggest draw love him or hate him), 2. Daniel Bryan, 3. Seth Rollins, 4. Charlotte and 5. Is a tough call, maybe Samoa Joe who is waiting to be pushed as a monster heel or Kofi
he's not muscle though, he's the "sexy high flying heart throb" the guy's been booked as a cocky, disingenuous prick on the youtube series and he already had legit heel heat with the built in audience, perfect fit for some variety in that group imo
I like the makeup of that group, just hope they dont go NWO and keep adding guys. They have the mouthpiece leader, the annoying prick high flyer, the tag team and the muscle. Maybe add a bad ass female, but that's about it.
Last word on the ratings this week. AEW was the 8th most-watched show in that timeslot NXT was the 27th
Or in other words, they have the brains (Jericho), the muscle (Hager), the looks (Guevara), and the wild card (LAX). Just need the useless chick
Ivelisse has already been tweeting Jericho to join. Not sure they want a female though. Might be overdoing it. The group composition seems perfect currently.
I was looking at the numbers this morning. The drop in M 18-34 was really surprising. Is that solely on the baseball? I know it's early and only a 2 week sample size but seems a pretty drastic drop. Going to be interesting to track this for a couple months and see how it grows. Curious where they settle in. NXT seems to be in steady decline. And VoW had a post about it, that the people watching NXT didn't really change the channel. Whereas the people watching AEW would flip to see what was going on else where then flip back.
My theory is that NXT was never supposed to win in the ratings. WWE is perfectly happy for them to lose as long as they are taking enough the audience from AEW to keep them from reaching Raw numbers. That is when WWE would actually look bad. Not when AEW is crushing there C-level, junior brand.