|
Post by Cyno on Feb 7, 2020 15:12:35 GMT -5
Television ratings aside (and TBH television ratings are becoming an increasingly obsolete number to measure how engaged an audience is to your product), AEW constantly runs mid-sized arenas to good crowds, with being able to run "WWE-tier" arenas for their bigger shows like Double or Nothing or special Dynamites. They also do really well with online engagement and merch sales. Their PPV buyrates were also better than anything TNA ever did. AEW also seems to only be growing, too.
Between that and WWE's own problems the last few years, Vince's approach to them is to cut them off at the knees because he knows they're more of a threat than TNA ever was to them.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2020 15:18:25 GMT -5
It's just strange, though. I love AEW, but it's not making huge strides in ratings compared to NXT, at least it hasn't been by my last check. At this point AEW does consistently win and usually pretty decisively, but still, both shows combined don't get as many viewers as Raw does so it is bizarre that they have WWE so terrified. The only real reasons I can see are that AEW skews younger and they're... pretty much the most competently run business that has ever been any kind of a comparison point to WWE because the AWA, NWA, WCW, TNA, ECW, whoever were all run by people who had no earthly idea what they were doing and they all killed themselves a lot more than WWE did. I get that, and I love AEW, I really do, but on a reach scale... they're the equivalent of a well-run regional grocery chain, they're still nothing compared to, say, Walmart. WWE is the Band-aid, Kleenex, Clorox, whatever of the wrestling world. It does make me wonder if there's not a hell of a lot more going on behind the scenes that would indicate the ship is taking on water, because Vince losing his mind about a relative small player just seems so... uncharacteristic.
|
|
ssdrivin
ALF
Claims to be squishy, has yet to be proven.
Posts: 1,042
|
Post by ssdrivin on Feb 7, 2020 15:44:13 GMT -5
At this point AEW does consistently win and usually pretty decisively, but still, both shows combined don't get as many viewers as Raw does so it is bizarre that they have WWE so terrified. The only real reasons I can see are that AEW skews younger and they're... pretty much the most competently run business that has ever been any kind of a comparison point to WWE because the AWA, NWA, WCW, TNA, ECW, whoever were all run by people who had no earthly idea what they were doing and they all killed themselves a lot more than WWE did. I get that, and I love AEW, I really do, but on a reach scale... they're the equivalent of a well-run regional grocery chain, they're still nothing compared to, say, Walmart. WWE is the Band-aid, Kleenex, Clorox, whatever of the wrestling world. It does make me wonder if there's not a hell of a lot more going on behind the scenes that would indicate the ship is taking on water, because Vince losing his mind about a relative small player just seems so... uncharacteristic.
I'd suspect that if nothing else he knows he can't run the thing forever, so if he has to give it up at some point soon (and in the scheme of things, that's an inevitability one way or another) the last thing they need is strong competition.
You'd have to figure WWE's going to have enough problems of its own during a significant leadership change with all the turbulence that involves, the shareholders crapping bricks at the thought of the lynchpin of the company being gone, all eyes on the product to see if it's going to sink or swim, etc. But to suddenly have a (currently small but apparently very strong) contender with potentially very good prospects for the future around to "worry the sheep" as it were, that's going to make things rougher. So in my purely speculative analysis, seems to me to make sense to try to crush AEW and once again leave WWE as the only big name in town so that it doesn't compound the pressure of whatever might be in WWE's future.
It's another element of uncertainty that's bad for the company in what could turn out to be a pretty rough time - what is WWE without Vince? If it becomes something else, will it still appeal to the WWE fanbase? Will it become something else? Will everyone jump ship to AEW? Will people just tune out of wrestling? Who knows? Best to try and nix as many negative possible outcomes as possible, and competition is an obvious one.
|
|
Allie Kitsune
Crow T. Robot
Always Feelin' Foxy.
HaHa U FaLL 4 LaVa TriK
Posts: 46,162
|
Post by Allie Kitsune on Feb 7, 2020 16:26:36 GMT -5
At this point AEW does consistently win and usually pretty decisively, but still, both shows combined don't get as many viewers as Raw does so it is bizarre that they have WWE so terrified. The only real reasons I can see are that AEW skews younger and they're... pretty much the most competently run business that has ever been any kind of a comparison point to WWE because the AWA, NWA, WCW, TNA, ECW, whoever were all run by people who had no earthly idea what they were doing and they all killed themselves a lot more than WWE did. I get that, and I love AEW, I really do, but on a reach scale... they're the equivalent of a well-run regional grocery chain, they're still nothing compared to, say, Walmart. WWE is the Band-aid, Kleenex, Clorox, whatever of the wrestling world. It does make me wonder if there's not a hell of a lot more going on behind the scenes that would indicate the ship is taking on water, because Vince losing his mind about a relative small player just seems so... uncharacteristic. Without going into detail, I really think a lot of it is... ...philosophical... on Vince's part.
|
|
Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
FANatic
Writer, Lover of all things Wrestling. Analytical, Critical, Lovable (hopefully). Lets all have fun!
Posts: 236,212
|
Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on Feb 7, 2020 18:18:36 GMT -5
Television ratings aside (and TBH television ratings are becoming an increasingly obsolete number to measure how engaged an audience is to your product), AEW constantly runs mid-sized arenas to good crowds, with being able to run "WWE-tier" arenas for their bigger shows like Double or Nothing or special Dynamites. They also do really well with online engagement and merch sales. Their PPV buyrates were also better than anything TNA ever did. AEW also seems to only be growing, too. Between that and WWE's own problems the last few years, Vince's approach to them is to cut them off at the knees because he knows they're more of a threat than TNA ever was to them. Issue is, he isn't doing anything to hinder them and is only doing things that are hurting his own product in trying to DO anything to them. If WWE just stayed in its own lane we might not even be having these discussions about roster bloat, the Network dying, and these people being fired to plummeting stocks, but we are, and Vince has no one else to blame. This isn't AEW's fault, it's his crazy ass.
|
|
|
Post by The Rick Jericho on Feb 7, 2020 19:56:08 GMT -5
As more things come out about this or relating to this.
These two leaving as suspicious as hell as time goes on.
|
|
Dub H
Crow T. Robot
Captain Pixel: the Game Master
I ❤ Aniki
Posts: 47,880
|
Post by Dub H on Feb 7, 2020 20:00:50 GMT -5
Television ratings aside (and TBH television ratings are becoming an increasingly obsolete number to measure how engaged an audience is to your product), AEW constantly runs mid-sized arenas to good crowds, with being able to run "WWE-tier" arenas for their bigger shows like Double or Nothing or special Dynamites. They also do really well with online engagement and merch sales. Their PPV buyrates were also better than anything TNA ever did. AEW also seems to only be growing, too. Between that and WWE's own problems the last few years, Vince's approach to them is to cut them off at the knees because he knows they're more of a threat than TNA ever was to them. Issue is, he isn't doing anything to hinder them and is only doing things that are hurting his own product in trying to DO anything to them. If WWE just stayed in its own lane we might not even be having these discussions about roster bloat, the Network dying, and these people being fired to plummeting stocks, but we are, and Vince has no one else to blame. This isn't AEW's fault, it's his crazy ass. AEW: *exists* Vince: *Signs every wrestler on earth* Honestly the "bad"(good for the wrestlers) is that he is not only hoarding,he is paying everyone much more than he usually would.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2020 20:01:37 GMT -5
Television ratings aside (and TBH television ratings are becoming an increasingly obsolete number to measure how engaged an audience is to your product), AEW constantly runs mid-sized arenas to good crowds, with being able to run "WWE-tier" arenas for their bigger shows like Double or Nothing or special Dynamites. They also do really well with online engagement and merch sales. Their PPV buyrates were also better than anything TNA ever did. AEW also seems to only be growing, too. Between that and WWE's own problems the last few years, Vince's approach to them is to cut them off at the knees because he knows they're more of a threat than TNA ever was to them. Issue is, he isn't doing anything to hinder them and is only doing things that are hurting his own product in trying to DO anything to them. If WWE just stayed in its own lane we might not even be having these discussions about roster bloat, the Network dying, and these people being fired to plummeting stocks, but we are, and Vince has no one else to blame. This isn't AEW's fault, it's his crazy ass. I can't stand the narrative that WWE would have won "The Wars" any way you slice it because of WCW's incompetence. There's some truth to that, but if Vince hadn't struck gold with Austin (and later The Rock), you'd just have one shitty wrestling company that probably would have burned out 15 years ago. Your rival making a mistake only matters if you can capitalize on it. If Vince is really THAT worried about AEW, feebly putting NXT up against it is not exactly pushing back hard like he did during the Monday Night Wars. I make that point because either: A. Vince is legit threatened by AEW, and is somehow (ironically) Verne Gagne-ing his way through dealing with the new kid on the block, B. With the XFL imminent, he may just be saying "Screw it" to his own wrestling product or C. There's some major cash-flow problems in the WWE that no one really knows about, the latter 2 having nothing to do with wrestling company competition at all. Either way, I'm guessing something fishy is going on in Titan Towers
|
|
|
Post by HMARK Center on Feb 7, 2020 20:04:34 GMT -5
The whole "sign everybody!" thing is another weird part of all this: as mentioned elsewhere, WWE now has THREE HUNDRED wrestlers under contract, compared with around 150 just five years ago. If this was due to WWE expanding operations and opening up lucrative international markets and thus needing more regional, NXT: UK style shows, that'd make some sense, but there's no sign at all that's going to end up happening.
I don't want people losing their jobs, but it's hard to imagine stockholders not wondering what the game plan is, here. Telling them "Well, we can't let AEW or NJPW have them!" isn't going to cut it for investors.
|
|
Bang Bang Bart
Ozymandius
The King of North America
Posts: 60,708
Member is Online
|
Post by Bang Bang Bart on Feb 7, 2020 20:09:41 GMT -5
As more things come out about this or relating to this. These two leaving as suspicious as hell as time goes on. If a particular lawsuit is going to get even bigger, then a “pissant t-shirt company” is the least of their worries.
|
|
|
Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Feb 7, 2020 20:34:07 GMT -5
I get that, and I love AEW, I really do, but on a reach scale... they're the equivalent of a well-run regional grocery chain, they're still nothing compared to, say, Walmart. WWE is the Band-aid, Kleenex, Clorox, whatever of the wrestling world. It does make me wonder if there's not a hell of a lot more going on behind the scenes that would indicate the ship is taking on water, because Vince losing his mind about a relative small player just seems so... uncharacteristic. I'd suspect that if nothing else he knows he can't run the thing forever, so if he has to give it up at some point soon (and in the scheme of things, that's an inevitability one way or another) the last thing they need is strong competition. You'd have to figure WWE's going to have enough problems of its own during a significant leadership change with all the turbulence that involves, the shareholders crapping bricks at the thought of the lynchpin of the company being gone, all eyes on the product to see if it's going to sink or swim, etc. But to suddenly have a (currently small but apparently very strong) contender with potentially very good prospects for the future around to "worry the sheep" as it were, that's going to make things rougher. So in my purely speculative analysis, seems to me to make sense to try to crush AEW and once again leave WWE as the only big name in town so that it doesn't compound the pressure of whatever might be in WWE's future. It's another element of uncertainty that's bad for the company in what could turn out to be a pretty rough time - what is WWE without Vince? If it becomes something else, will it still appeal to the WWE fanbase? Will it become something else? Will everyone jump ship to AEW? Will people just tune out of wrestling? Who knows? Best to try and nix as many negative possible outcomes as possible, and competition is an obvious one.
I think that's a bit too charitable an explanation; business don't expect or demand monopoly and the reality is, to try and kill off competition is to overspend in an attempt to shove down a cmopany not on their scale and spend, spend, spend, just for fear that the competition ever makes it big. Shareholders would much rather get more profits out of the company than have talent on mroe expensive contracts just to keep them out of somewhere else. Which you can see in the money-and-business officers in the company wanting the company to be run efficiently and Vince wanting to squash the competition. Thinking selflessly about the future and the acceptance of his mortality doesn't really track with anything about Vince McMahon and the greater possibility seems to point to the opposite.
|
|
ssdrivin
ALF
Claims to be squishy, has yet to be proven.
Posts: 1,042
|
Post by ssdrivin on Feb 7, 2020 22:01:14 GMT -5
I'd suspect that if nothing else he knows he can't run the thing forever, so if he has to give it up at some point soon (and in the scheme of things, that's an inevitability one way or another) the last thing they need is strong competition. You'd have to figure WWE's going to have enough problems of its own during a significant leadership change with all the turbulence that involves, the shareholders crapping bricks at the thought of the lynchpin of the company being gone, all eyes on the product to see if it's going to sink or swim, etc. But to suddenly have a (currently small but apparently very strong) contender with potentially very good prospects for the future around to "worry the sheep" as it were, that's going to make things rougher. So in my purely speculative analysis, seems to me to make sense to try to crush AEW and once again leave WWE as the only big name in town so that it doesn't compound the pressure of whatever might be in WWE's future. It's another element of uncertainty that's bad for the company in what could turn out to be a pretty rough time - what is WWE without Vince? If it becomes something else, will it still appeal to the WWE fanbase? Will it become something else? Will everyone jump ship to AEW? Will people just tune out of wrestling? Who knows? Best to try and nix as many negative possible outcomes as possible, and competition is an obvious one.
I think that's a bit too charitable an explanation; business don't expect or demand monopoly and the reality is, to try and kill off competition is to overspend in an attempt to shove down a cmopany not on their scale and spend, spend, spend, just for fear that the competition ever makes it big. Shareholders would much rather get more profits out of the company than have talent on mroe expensive contracts just to keep them out of somewhere else. Which you can see in the money-and-business officers in the company wanting the company to be run efficiently and Vince wanting to squash the competition. Thinking selflessly about the future and the acceptance of his mortality doesn't really track with anything about Vince McMahon and the greater possibility seems to point to the opposite.
They want profits now, sure, they always want profits, but think of it from WWE's point of view. If shareholders right now, with all this Saudi and TV deal money coming in, are still getting sketched out about stuff, what happens when Vince leaves? If I were WWE, I'd be crapping myself about the outcome of that eventuality. Not to be morbid, to cast doubt on Vince's health, or to suggest he's due retirement any time now (because if it's up to him he probably won't), but everyone knows he can't run WWE literally forever. Be it soon or somewhere down the line, and realistically he's getting on in years and it's going to have to be a consideration whether he retires voluntarily or otherwise, it's going to happen. When it does, stuff's probably going to go pear-shaped for a while as far as investor confidence is concerned, so anything that makes that even worse is a potential (and potentially huge) discomfort to the company. That has to be a consideration for a company, especially one so strongly tied to one guy at the top.
If they murder AEW now (though I don't think they will, and I certainly hope they don't for the sake of "the business" and fans at large), that's one less thing to worry about, potentially a very large thing to worry about if people get properly spooked about WWE's future. AEW's not at WCW winning the Monday Night War levels, maybe it won't ever be, but it's showing a lot of promise and it's got a solid TV deal. It's also backed by someone with a lot of money and it's got a bunch of well-connected and wrestling-savvy people involved at the top. That's a threat when it comes to WWE's future, arguably moreso than TNA was (but that was in a less precarious time for WWE anyway) or anything that Hogan's taped his name onto, or any other startup (or for the most part foreign) wrestling promotion. The sooner it's gone, the sooner WWE can stop worrying about it looking like a serious issue when the time comes for Vince to hang up his proverbial boots.
I don't think WWE's at any risk, especially any time soon, of losing the position of distant top dog of American pro wrestling promotions, it'll remain that for many years to come just on the basis that it's going to retain a ton of momentum and cash to run on for a while. But from a business perspective, that doesn't necessarily help investor confidence if WWE's declining in popularity and a new up-and-coming promotion with a barrel-load of cash is chasing it; it looks bad, it looks increasingly risky, I don't think they can afford a strong competitor at such a crucial point in their history.
|
|