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Post by Jaws the Shark on Apr 13, 2021 8:51:41 GMT -5
Vince worked with ECW. I think he sees this as a better funded version of ECW. Almost like the old territory days. If he has nothing for someone to do they can go there and then maybe come back. Imagine how incredible it would be if WWE joined this interpromotional thing AEW has going on with New Japan and TNA? Just one week Omega is in the ring withe Good Brothers and Bucks when all of sudden the lights go down and you hear "SIERRA, HOTEL, INDIA, ECHO, LIMA, DELTA, SHIELD" and out comes Mox with Reigns and Rollins as backup. He worked with ECW as long as it was beneficial to him, IE he could take their top talent, but pretty much left it to go under by about 1999. There wasn't really much talent going the other way, the only one of any real note was Al Snow who managed to happen upon a gimmick that got over but was a complete irrelevance before.
I don't really envision WWE working with AEW. I don't think it's a completely hostile war or anything, but I also don't think WWE feels completely unthreatened by it either as evidenced by NXT suddenly appearing in the same timeslot, and McMahon's ego is what it is and he's not exactly got form for acknowledging the success of other national promotions.
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Post by Pooh Carlson on Apr 13, 2021 9:14:26 GMT -5
What is with the narrative that WWE "put" NXT on Wednesdays to me with AEW. Wasn't NXT already on Wednesdays? The only change that was made was going on USA, and I'm pretty sure they said at the time that that had been talked about already, USA wanted to do it, and it would've happened regardless of AEW. AEW chose to go on Wednesday nights head to head with NXT, not the other way around.
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nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,713
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Post by nisidhe on Apr 13, 2021 9:24:18 GMT -5
Let's not kid ourselves here. AEW is the closest thing in 20 years to actual competition for Vince. Unlike WCW, however, they're going to compete with Vince on intangibles - creative license and fan engagement and response.
Tony Khan is still very much a "throw stuff at the walls and see what sticks" kind of executive - he's not going to shove _his_ preferences down fans' throats out of some crass contempt for his audience. He's open to letting what gets over organically get over, which, compared to Vince's tack, is _extraordinarily_ refreshing and gratifying - something pro wrestling as a whole has needed desperately for a long time, including an overarching view that a promotion should be favouring fairness and good sportsmanship and lifting up affability and humility as traits to be celebrated, not mocked and buried.
Let's see how AEW Dynamite fares when running opposed. If the numbers don't improve significantly, I may eat my words for now. If, however, the NXT crowd now finds itself free to watch AEW on Wednesday nights and tunes in, it's possible that AEW will draw 1.3 million - which should absolutely send Vince into a tizzy.
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Post by Confused Mark Wahlberg on Apr 13, 2021 9:27:43 GMT -5
I still can't see AEW without thinking of A&W.
Then that makes me think of Lars Sullivan.
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Post by Jaws the Shark on Apr 13, 2021 9:51:25 GMT -5
What is with the narrative that WWE "put" NXT on Wednesdays to me with AEW. Wasn't NXT already on Wednesdays? The only change that was made was going on USA, and I'm pretty sure they said at the time that that had been talked about already, USA wanted to do it, and it would've happened regardless of AEW. AEW chose to go on Wednesday nights head to head with NXT, not the other way around. I'm not sure about that, the line was that it went on Wednesdays so as not to clash with the NBA and NFL, and NXT at the time aired on demand so there wasn't necessarily going to be a viewership battle in the conventional sense. Then once that got announced, NXT by sheer coincidence suddenly inked a TV deal where it would run in the exact same slot and expand to two hours like AEW.
I mean, it wasn't shocking at all and obviously they're well within their rights to do it, but it struck me as being a pretty transparent attempt to undercut the new "competition".
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Post by Pooh Carlson on Apr 13, 2021 11:16:14 GMT -5
What is with the narrative that WWE "put" NXT on Wednesdays to me with AEW. Wasn't NXT already on Wednesdays? The only change that was made was going on USA, and I'm pretty sure they said at the time that that had been talked about already, USA wanted to do it, and it would've happened regardless of AEW. AEW chose to go on Wednesday nights head to head with NXT, not the other way around. I'm not sure about that, the line was that it went on Wednesdays so as not to clash with the NBA and NFL, and NXT at the time aired on demand so there wasn't necessarily going to be a viewership battle in the conventional sense. Then once that got announced, NXT by sheer coincidence suddenly inked a TV deal where it would run in the exact same slot and expand to two hours like AEW. I mean, it wasn't shocking at all and obviously they're well within their rights to do it, but it struck me as being a pretty transparent attempt to undercut the new "competition".
True about the NBA deal. And yeah it was "on demand" but wasn't the first run live on the network in the same time slot and then on demand. I wouldn't be surprised if it was more of a network move. They were talking about moving the show to USA, AEW got announced, and USA pulled the trigger to put them on before AEW premiered. Still, NXT aired on Wednesdays first, whether you watched it on demand or when it aired live on the network stream.
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Post by polarbearpete on Apr 13, 2021 11:20:03 GMT -5
What is with the narrative that WWE "put" NXT on Wednesdays to me with AEW. Wasn't NXT already on Wednesdays? The only change that was made was going on USA, and I'm pretty sure they said at the time that that had been talked about already, USA wanted to do it, and it would've happened regardless of AEW. AEW chose to go on Wednesday nights head to head with NXT, not the other way around. I'm not sure about that, the line was that it went on Wednesdays so as not to clash with the NBA and NFL, and NXT at the time aired on demand so there wasn't necessarily going to be a viewership battle in the conventional sense. Then once that got announced, NXT by sheer coincidence suddenly inked a TV deal where it would run in the exact same slot and expand to two hours like AEW.
I mean, it wasn't shocking at all and obviously they're well within their rights to do it, but it struck me as being a pretty transparent attempt to undercut the new "competition".
NXT streamed live on the Network at 8 pm every Wednesday night. Might have been shorter than two hours though. There had been rumors since before AEW formed that they were negotiating with Fox and then with USA about moving NXT to cable. I’m sure AEW’s deal sped up that decision.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 13:01:24 GMT -5
Vince will NEVER work with AEW. Vince worked with ECW. I think he sees this as a better funded version of ECW. Almost like the old territory days. If he has nothing for someone to do they can go there and then maybe come back. Imagine how incredible it would be if WWE joined this interpromotional thing AEW has going on with New Japan and TNA? Just one week Omega is in the ring withe Good Brothers and Bucks when all of sudden the lights go down and you hear "SIERRA, HOTEL, INDIA, ECHO, LIMA, DELTA, SHIELD" and out comes Mox with Reigns and Rollins as backup. He worked with ECW because WWF was getting their ass kicked by WCW and associating with ECW made them seem cooler. Also, ECW was a low budget public access show, not a multi-million dollar company airing on TNT. No way is Vince gonna work with AEW, He tries to pretend other wrestling doesn't exist unless he's in a situation where he HAS to acknowledge it. He wanted a big interview with Jericho, and there was no way to do that without mentioning AEW. If Vince wanted to work with AEW he would have been billed as "AEW Star Chris Jericho" instead of "WWE Legend Chris Jericho".
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 13:33:55 GMT -5
Vince will never do any kind of true cross-promotional stuff in terms of matches or storylines but I think like ECW back in the day he respects AEW in a way that he just never did with TNA.
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Post by cfbsicko on Apr 13, 2021 17:01:15 GMT -5
With the way medical technology has progressed, wrestlers nowadays can "go" forever it seems. Thereby creating a logjam of talent in the WWE that even with a 3 hour RAW, they can't manage to find enough airtime for anybody. I think Vince can somewhat be relieved that he doesn't have to be feel obligated to pay Big Show or Y2J and they don't have to be frustrated with WWE creative. Vince strikes me as the kind of guy who has a hard time saying no if someone was loyal to him. So I think with Chris Jericho appearing on the Smoking Skull Sessions podcast, it acknowledges that fact in a sense that they don't view AEW as the enemy. I think Vince appreciates that he gets to feature his younger talent while some of his former talent Ryder, Jericho, and Big Show still get featured in a prominent feature. What say you? I think the difference here is that Tony Khan is a billion himself who owns an NFL franchise. I also think corporate culture has changed a little bit since 1998. But it's great to see peace, no matter the circumstance. I don't personally watch AEW, but I'm glad Jericho and the older dudes have a place to get paid and stay on good terms with WWE. Someone we do not speak of said this much weeks ago when the SSS episode was announced. Only he added that Vince "unloading" the guys he doesn't want anymore is also a means to get Khan to spend money for nothing. Funny you mention this, as ! watched this episode yesterday. Crazy!
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Post by Capt. Internet Darling on Apr 13, 2021 18:01:48 GMT -5
The only people acting like there’s a “war” between the companies are the fans. On Twitter, I’ve seen wrestlers signed to both companies compliment the other’s product more than once. When Brodie passed you had the two companies come incredibly close together, I remember how surreal it was on Twitter's 'highlights' that Stephanie McMahon and Marko Stunt had tribute tweets placed back-to-back. There are loads of relationships and friendships that crossover between the two companies, and I don't think Vince sees AEW as the same sort of competition as WCW. AEW seems more like friendly competition, picking up people the WWE had no need for, targeting a different audience on a different night. Whereas WCW was directly poaching WWE talent and targeting the same audience on the same flagship night.
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Apr 13, 2021 18:07:39 GMT -5
The only people acting like there’s a “war” between the companies are the fans. On Twitter, I’ve seen wrestlers signed to both companies compliment the other’s product more than once. I don't think the perception has ever been that there's animosity between the wrestlers, though. Not widely, at least; some pocket weirdos surely think so, but for the bulk of it, every perception of action has been on a managerial level and in the same ways that WWE has moved on indie wrestling the past few years. The kinds of people who think wrestlers shouldn't be complimentary of their friends signed to another company just because they're signed to another company are the sort of unhinged "too into this" sorts of weirdos who on most other issues would be ignored completely.
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Kalmia
King Koopa
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Post by Kalmia on Apr 13, 2021 18:18:02 GMT -5
It's always been said that Vince respects wrestlers that push themselves forward and question things, so I wouldn't be surprised if he does have some respect for AEW considering it was largely founded by a group of wrestlers that bet on themselves. I don't think he'd consider working with them on a larger scale than the Jericho interview, but he probably respects the balls of the Elite and AEW as a whole for simply existing.
Plus, other than for a couple of lines here and there, AEW isn't really targeting WWE or setting themselves as competition. Even the Dynamites directly opposite NXT never tried any dirty tricks, unlike Nitro constantly did against RAW.
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Chainsaw
T
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It is what it is
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Post by Chainsaw on Apr 13, 2021 22:48:52 GMT -5
With the way medical technology has progressed, wrestlers nowadays can "go" forever it seems. Thereby creating a logjam of talent in the WWE that even with a 3 hour RAW, they can't manage to find enough airtime for anybody. I think Vince can somewhat be relieved that he doesn't have to be feel obligated to pay Big Show or Y2J and they don't have to be frustrated with WWE creative. Vince strikes me as the kind of guy who has a hard time saying no if someone was loyal to him. So I think with Chris Jericho appearing on the Smoking Skull Sessions podcast, it acknowledges that fact in a sense that they don't view AEW as the enemy. I think Vince appreciates that he gets to feature his younger talent while some of his former talent Ryder, Jericho, and Big Show still get featured in a prominent feature. What say you? I think the difference here is that Tony Khan is a billion himself who owns an NFL franchise. I also think corporate culture has changed a little bit since 1998. But it's great to see peace, no matter the circumstance. I don't personally watch AEW, but I'm glad Jericho and the older dudes have a place to get paid and stay on good terms with WWE. That sounds like a... really backhanded compliment there, pal.
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Apr 13, 2021 22:59:23 GMT -5
What is with the narrative that WWE "put" NXT on Wednesdays to me with AEW. Wasn't NXT already on Wednesdays? The only change that was made was going on USA, and I'm pretty sure they said at the time that that had been talked about already, USA wanted to do it, and it would've happened regardless of AEW. AEW chose to go on Wednesday nights head to head with NXT, not the other way around. I'm not sure about that, the line was that it went on Wednesdays so as not to clash with the NBA and NFL, and NXT at the time aired on demand so there wasn't necessarily going to be a viewership battle in the conventional sense. Then once that got announced, NXT by sheer coincidence suddenly inked a TV deal where it would run in the exact same slot and expand to two hours like AEW.
I mean, it wasn't shocking at all and obviously they're well within their rights to do it, but it struck me as being a pretty transparent attempt to undercut the new "competition".
If they were solely focused on having NXT do their best numbers possible, they would've put it on Tuesday the week Smackdown left. Not only would you be unopposed, but you would have a ton of people already watching that day our of habit. They were within their right to go on Wednesday but it was definitely a very quick decision given they couldn't go fully live for two hours at first and it was all about being competition given it wasn't the best slot for them ratings wise.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 23:15:32 GMT -5
WWE is McDonalds
AEW is Five Guys
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Post by Cyno on Apr 13, 2021 23:39:43 GMT -5
I'm not sure about that, the line was that it went on Wednesdays so as not to clash with the NBA and NFL, and NXT at the time aired on demand so there wasn't necessarily going to be a viewership battle in the conventional sense. Then once that got announced, NXT by sheer coincidence suddenly inked a TV deal where it would run in the exact same slot and expand to two hours like AEW.
I mean, it wasn't shocking at all and obviously they're well within their rights to do it, but it struck me as being a pretty transparent attempt to undercut the new "competition".
If they were solely focused on having NXT do their best numbers possible, they would've put it on Tuesday the week Smackdown left. Not only would you be unopposed, but you would have a ton of people already watching that day our of habit. They were within their right to go on Wednesday but it was definitely a very quick decision given they couldn't go fully live for two hours at first and it was all about being competition given it wasn't the best slot for them ratings wise. Yeah, they aired that split run between an hour of NXT on USA and the rest of it on the WWE Network for a few weeks because there was still some episodes of Suits to air. Just had to get the jump on Dynamite.
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Post by Lance Uppercut on Apr 14, 2021 2:49:11 GMT -5
What is with the narrative that WWE "put" NXT on Wednesdays to me with AEW. Wasn't NXT already on Wednesdays? The only change that was made was going on USA, and I'm pretty sure they said at the time that that had been talked about already, USA wanted to do it, and it would've happened regardless of AEW. AEW chose to go on Wednesday nights head to head with NXT, not the other way around. I'm not sure about that, the line was that it went on Wednesdays so as not to clash with the NBA and NFL, and NXT at the time aired on demand so there wasn't necessarily going to be a viewership battle in the conventional sense. Then once that got announced, NXT by sheer coincidence suddenly inked a TV deal where it would run in the exact same slot and expand to two hours like AEW. I mean, it wasn't shocking at all and obviously they're well within their rights to do it, but it struck me as being a pretty transparent attempt to undercut the new "competition".
Wasn’t there also rumors all year about selling NXT rights to fox? There’s been interest in getting NXT on tv for a while before going with USA. It’s not like they randomly made a hasty decision one day to put it on USA. There’s a separate tv deal for them no?
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Post by Lance Uppercut on Apr 14, 2021 2:56:15 GMT -5
The only people acting like there’s a “war” between the companies are the fans. On Twitter, I’ve seen wrestlers signed to both companies compliment the other’s product more than once. When Brodie passed you had the two companies come incredibly close together, I remember how surreal it was on Twitter's 'highlights' that Stephanie McMahon and Marko Stunt had tribute tweets placed back-to-back. There are loads of relationships and friendships that crossover between the two companies, and I don't think Vince sees AEW as the same sort of competition as WCW. AEW seems more like friendly competition, picking up people the WWE had no need for, targeting a different audience on a different night. Whereas WCW was directly poaching WWE talent and targeting the same audience on the same flagship night. I don’t know what’s more jarring. Seeing the Aew title on broken skull sessions or that Brodie Lee tribute and seeing Becky Lynch, bray Wyatt, and the shield on dynamite
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Post by celtics543 on Apr 14, 2021 5:35:47 GMT -5
I think Vince hated WCW so much because was jealous of Ted Turner's success in business and because he felt like WCW stole his talent and tried to put him out of business.
The feelings toward AEW are less because despite Shad Khan's success in business, Tony really hasn't done much other than this, so he isn't jealous of Tony Khan at all. AEW hasn't poached Vince's big name guys by offering big money. And they haven't tried to put WWE out of business. They barely mention them at all. I'm sure Vince didn't really care about WCW until Bischoff made it his mission to sign all of Vince's talent and try to put the WWE out of business. I look at AEW as like 1992 WCW in Vince's eyes. Sure, they have some guys who have never been in the WWE or had their run already but no one of real consequence that Vince doesn't have. If AEW lured John Cena out of Hollywood, went head to head with Raw, and started crushing them in the ratings then I'm sure his mindset would change.
The other thing not mentioned is that Vince looked at Hogan, Savage, Piper, etc as his friends. They're about the same age, they have similar interests, and they basically grew the WWE into a phenomenon together. I'm sure he was hurt on a deeply personal level when they left and tried to put him out of business.
I wouldn't be shocked if in a private moment Vince would admit to being proud of Cody Rhodes for what he's done. Famous dad that you could just live on the coattails of but instead set out to create something better and change the world. I'm sure Vince sees some of himself in Cody.
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