Burst
El Dandy
*inarticulate squawking*
Posts: 8,598
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Post by Burst on Jan 24, 2024 10:32:41 GMT -5
They've also gotta lower the ticket prices. Don't know how true it is, but I saw it said that was a big thing Cody was an advocate for. Keep tickets prices relatively low to get families there, and so fans have more money to spend on merchandise. Right now they've got high ticket prices, and fans know to wait till just before the show when they can get those same tickets for 1/3rd the price. Not sure that this is something that's gotten any better, but I feel like at-event merchandising is something that's always kind of fallen flat for AEW; it always seems like there's a desire on the part of fans to spend money at the show, but then 9 times out of 10 there's a single merch booth that's horrendously understaffed with a very limited selection where if you don't miss the start of the show waiting in line for it, you're not getting anything good. Also feel like it wouldn't hurt for them to have some more live-exclusive merch, though if they do that, they also need to make sure to make enough to go around; when I was at the first Rampage in Pittsburgh I managed to miss all the exclusive special edition t-shirts just in the time it took to get through security and get into the building. That being said, I can't recall specifically, but I want to say event merch is another area that's had personnel changes as of late.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jan 24, 2024 11:26:00 GMT -5
'WCW 2000' is such a loaded term when applied to any company, it's going to set some backs up and overshadow any point you're trying to make. Yeah, you evoke WCW2000 for a very specific reason to get a rise out of a very specific crowd. I still mostly like and respect Meltzer as one of the closest things to an actual journalist in this carny industry, but it's obnoxious how often he has found it necessary to post these sensationalistic headlines to try and generate clicks lately. Journalism is a dying industry. Magazines, newspapers and websites are dying out. In wrestling journalism, Dave basically *is* the industry so it isn't surprising he is using cheap tactics, his bottom line is probably worse every month
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ghost
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,767
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Post by ghost on Jan 24, 2024 12:52:21 GMT -5
Exactly. Wrestling/SE in general is already a niche genre. What Khan is doing is booking for a niche within a niche. The ceiling for that type of approach is going to be limited compared to WWE. I'm not even saying he's wrong for doing it. I just don't think you're selling out big arenas consistently that way. I don't get this argument because when I see AEW, I see them appealing to almost every single style of genre that exists in wrestling, literally something for every flavor, from the dramatic to the silly. You will see classic technical, hoss, high flying, lucha, hard hitting, Joshi, deathmatches, crossover, you will see sports entertainment-esque gimmicks, more wrestler based gimmicks, you will see classic vets people know and young stars on the rise people might get to know. AEW provides a little bit of something for everyone, and you see it in the crowds. Funny enough very recently at the last few events commentary even made note on the amount of kids in attendance for AEW shows, and not linked to one particular wrestler, to Darby, to Orange, to Jeff Hardy, to Thunder Rosa. When people say they're appealing to a "niche within a niche" they never elaborate further on exactly how they're doing that, and in what ways they should apparently be appealing to more of the niche they apparently... aren't? Their presentation and graphics, video packages, everything are on par with WWE. Their in-ring product might be a step above even now. I feel like they've done everything they can to show they can be on par with WWE while also not being a clone of WWE, which they shouldn't be in the first place. A company that expects crowds to pop for NJPW talent or Independent talent just by seeing their names on a screen during a debut are not catering to a casual/mainstream audience. It's catering to a more diehard audience. That's what I mean by "niche within a niche". It has nothing to do with variety on their shows. ECW in the mid to late 90's had variety too, it doesn't mean they were catering to the same market that WWF/WCW were at the time. Again, that's not a knock on Khan, sometimes it is better to master a specific niche than try to compete for a larger more unattainable market, but that's going to limit the company's ceiling in terms of things like live gates in the US. Maybe it will work better globally (Wembley was a huge success). I thought AEW's peak for me personally was around late 2021-early 2022. I'm not sure what the attendance was then compared to now, but I don't think they are firing on all cylinders like they were back then. That's just me though.
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UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm
Grimlock
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Posts: 13,974
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Post by UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm on Jan 24, 2024 13:03:19 GMT -5
AEW has a ton to fix and that starts with the ticket prices but mentioning WCW 2000 is just asking for what you're getting now. It might be true, might have some shades of grey to it but I remember when WWE was absolute horseshit and Meltzer thought it was too but held back to my knowledge of saying the booking was even close to it. (which it was but both were absolutely boring as f*** and nonsensical)
I don't know. NXT and WWE are pulling ahead for me right now but I enjoy both shows and I've been to every AEW show in my area. I go out of the way for these shows. I f***in' doubt there's many like me out there though and the stories haven't been that great on TV.
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Post by Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite on Jan 24, 2024 13:34:16 GMT -5
I've mentioned this before, but AEW needs to do more to increase overall brand awareness and make their talent house hold names.
They have a lot of potential break out stars/personalities on their roster (MJF/Swerve/Toni/Kingston/Orange Cassidy...) they should be working to get them in commercials for unrelated products, guest starring on TV shows and going on popular podcasts so they can get some new eyes on the product.
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Post by xxshoyuweeniexx on Jan 24, 2024 13:35:33 GMT -5
'WCW 2000' is such a loaded term when applied to any company, it's going to set some backs up and overshadow any point you're trying to make. Yeah, there’s an argument to be made for ticket prices, booking smaller arenas vs large ones, stuff like that that we’re discussing civilly. But saying WCW 2000 is like saying WWF 1995 or Hulk Hogan’s TNA, it’s just attention grabbing clickbait.
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Post by kingoftheindies on Jan 24, 2024 14:03:15 GMT -5
I've mentioned this before, but AEW needs to do more to increase overall brand awareness and make their talent house hold names. They have a lot of potential break out stars/personalities on their roster (MJF/Swerve/Toni/Kingston/Orange Cassidy...) they should be working to get them in commercials for unrelated products, guest starring on TV shows and going on popular podcasts so they can get some new eyes on the product. I think a lot if the issues you are seeing is flat out this, AEW grew insanely fast and when they were hot for 2021 they learned things and still are. Made some mistakes with some signings, learned that many executives were not prepared for a larger workload, ect. I think you've seen some of the mistakes self correct for the daily and show operations. Gotta figure out merch and promotion now
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Post by Denny Zen is Cooking™ on Jan 24, 2024 14:42:41 GMT -5
I've mentioned this before, but AEW needs to do more to increase overall brand awareness and make their talent house hold names. They have a lot of potential break out stars/personalities on their roster (MJF/Swerve/Toni/Kingston/Orange Cassidy...) they should be working to get them in commercials for unrelated products, guest starring on TV shows and going on popular podcasts so they can get some new eyes on the product. I don't outright disagree, but even WWE's biggest stars are not household names. The Rock is a household name, but it would be very interesting to see how many of 10 random people on the street would be able to identify a picture of Roman Reigns. And AEW has done a lot to leverage its relationships in this manner, dating back to Cody Rhodes being on the Go Big Show. Willow Nightengale was just a competitor on Food Network's Grudge Match. MJF was in the Iron Claw movie. MJF threw out the first pitch at a Mets game. Britt Baker threw out the first pitch at a Pirates game. John Silver threw out the first pitch at a White Sox game. Swerve and Ric Flair have both been highlighted on prominent, nationally televised NFL games. Flair during a playoff game. "AEW star Chris Jericho" has been in a few cheesy made for TV movies. Copeland is in the Percy Jackson series that just got released on Disney+. Bowens was included in the Out100 and has made several non-wrestling appearances as an LGBTQ+ advocate. All of this to say that I don't think it's quite as simple as AEW wrestlers making appearances outside of AEW. The average person sees someone introduced as a "wrestler" and either proceeds to never think about them again, or assume that they work for WWE.
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Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
FANatic
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Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on Jan 24, 2024 14:44:48 GMT -5
I don't get this argument because when I see AEW, I see them appealing to almost every single style of genre that exists in wrestling, literally something for every flavor, from the dramatic to the silly. You will see classic technical, hoss, high flying, lucha, hard hitting, Joshi, deathmatches, crossover, you will see sports entertainment-esque gimmicks, more wrestler based gimmicks, you will see classic vets people know and young stars on the rise people might get to know. AEW provides a little bit of something for everyone, and you see it in the crowds. Funny enough very recently at the last few events commentary even made note on the amount of kids in attendance for AEW shows, and not linked to one particular wrestler, to Darby, to Orange, to Jeff Hardy, to Thunder Rosa. When people say they're appealing to a "niche within a niche" they never elaborate further on exactly how they're doing that, and in what ways they should apparently be appealing to more of the niche they apparently... aren't? Their presentation and graphics, video packages, everything are on par with WWE. Their in-ring product might be a step above even now. I feel like they've done everything they can to show they can be on par with WWE while also not being a clone of WWE, which they shouldn't be in the first place. A company that expects crowds to pop for NJPW talent or Independent talent just by seeing their names on a screen during a debut are not catering to a casual/mainstream audience. It's catering to a more diehard audience. That's what I mean by "niche within a niche". It has nothing to do with variety on their shows. ECW in the mid to late 90's had variety too, it doesn't mean they were catering to the same market that WWF/WCW were at the time. Again, that's not a knock on Khan, sometimes it is better to master a specific niche than try to compete for a larger more unattainable market, but that's going to limit the company's ceiling in terms of things like live gates in the US. Maybe it will work better globally (Wembley was a huge success). I thought AEW's peak for me personally was around late 2021-early 2022. I'm not sure what the attendance was then compared to now, but I don't think they are firing on all cylinders like they were back then. That's just me though. I might agree if they did this all the time but they don't, and they don't over-rely on this either Yes they do it, it's arguable if it's to their benefit or not to gas up outside visiting talents, but I can't say it hasn't been to their benefit in some regards. Okada got the reactions they wanted, Vikingo has gotten the reactions they wanted, Mistico was treated like a king in his match. I think it's something I can say hasn't really hurt them or their ceiling, maybe it would if they did it constantly at all times but AEW has so much more going on at any given time I can't see an outside talent being on the card deterring people from going to their shows or watching the rest of usually a two hour program, personally. I think AEW's is as hot as they've ever been with a renewed focus on the sports aspect and presentation of their program. The Continental Classic really felt like it gave them some much needed juice and they're finally getting beyond the Punk shit, and with a new guy in charge of live events and bookings, I hope that area only improves as well.
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Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
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Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on Jan 24, 2024 14:46:34 GMT -5
I've mentioned this before, but AEW needs to do more to increase overall brand awareness and make their talent house hold names. They have a lot of potential break out stars/personalities on their roster (MJF/Swerve/Toni/Kingston/Orange Cassidy...) they should be working to get them in commercials for unrelated products, guest starring on TV shows and going on popular podcasts so they can get some new eyes on the product. I'm all for more stuff like this
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Post by polarbearpete on Jan 24, 2024 15:00:49 GMT -5
A company that expects crowds to pop for NJPW talent or Independent talent just by seeing their names on a screen during a debut are not catering to a casual/mainstream audience. It's catering to a more diehard audience. That's what I mean by "niche within a niche". It has nothing to do with variety on their shows. ECW in the mid to late 90's had variety too, it doesn't mean they were catering to the same market that WWF/WCW were at the time. Again, that's not a knock on Khan, sometimes it is better to master a specific niche than try to compete for a larger more unattainable market, but that's going to limit the company's ceiling in terms of things like live gates in the US. Maybe it will work better globally (Wembley was a huge success). I thought AEW's peak for me personally was around late 2021-early 2022. I'm not sure what the attendance was then compared to now, but I don't think they are firing on all cylinders like they were back then. That's just me though. I might agree if they did this all the time but they don't, and they don't over-rely on this either Yes they do it, it's arguable if it's to their benefit or not to gas up outside visiting talents, but I can't say it hasn't been to their benefit in some regards. Okada got the reactions they wanted, Vikingo has gotten the reactions they wanted, Mistico was treated like a king in his match. I think it's something I can say hasn't really hurt them or their ceiling, maybe it would if they did it constantly at all times but AEW has so much more going on at any given time I can't see an outside talent being on the card deterring people from going to their shows or watching the rest of usually a two hour program, personally. I think AEW's is as hot as they've ever been with a renewed focus on the sports aspect and presentation of their program. The Continental Classic really felt like it gave them some much needed juice and they're finally getting beyond the Punk shit, and with a new guy in charge of live events and bookings, I hope that area only improves as well. AEW’s as hot as its ever been in what sense? I don’t sense that at all from any business trends. Unless you just mean the creative is hot.
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UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm
Grimlock
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Post by UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm on Jan 24, 2024 15:09:11 GMT -5
I've mentioned this before, but AEW needs to do more to increase overall brand awareness and make their talent house hold names. They have a lot of potential break out stars/personalities on their roster (MJF/Swerve/Toni/Kingston/Orange Cassidy...) they should be working to get them in commercials for unrelated products, guest starring on TV shows and going on popular podcasts so they can get some new eyes on the product. I'm all for more stuff like this See this is the kind of stuff where AEW needs to improve on. For people who already watch the shows and see Eddie on there, we think "cool, triple champ and very likeable guy is on TV" when they shouldn't have just him out there. It's like how back in the day you'd have Mick Foley/Rock/HHH/etc. show up to these things and advertise all the different types of personalities you can see on the show. Once you do that and mix in what will get new viewers (something like Eddie for people already watching, Copeland for those who haven't kept up with wrestling and maybe someone like Hayter), you'll get a lot more out of these appearances. As it stands, stuff like this with Eddie is playing the hits to people already watching.
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Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
FANatic
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Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on Jan 24, 2024 15:16:01 GMT -5
I might agree if they did this all the time but they don't, and they don't over-rely on this either Yes they do it, it's arguable if it's to their benefit or not to gas up outside visiting talents, but I can't say it hasn't been to their benefit in some regards. Okada got the reactions they wanted, Vikingo has gotten the reactions they wanted, Mistico was treated like a king in his match. I think it's something I can say hasn't really hurt them or their ceiling, maybe it would if they did it constantly at all times but AEW has so much more going on at any given time I can't see an outside talent being on the card deterring people from going to their shows or watching the rest of usually a two hour program, personally. I think AEW's is as hot as they've ever been with a renewed focus on the sports aspect and presentation of their program. The Continental Classic really felt like it gave them some much needed juice and they're finally getting beyond the Punk shit, and with a new guy in charge of live events and bookings, I hope that area only improves as well. AEW’s as hot as its ever been in what sense? I don’t sense that at all from any business trends. Unless you just mean the creative is hot. Creatively yes, I also think they've been drawing back in some venues and even ratings wise they just had their best number in what months? I think things are ticking upward.
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Post by raymondo316 on Jan 24, 2024 15:20:48 GMT -5
2021 after Punk and Danielson signed had people legit thinking that AEW was going to "take the next step" and could even challenge RAW in the ratings going forward.
You just need to look at the demo ratings and viewing figures compared too now to see there was more interest in the company then.
Also attendance figure wise AEW was outselling WWE is most markets, they was seen as the hot product.
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Kalmia
King Koopa
Happy to be here
Posts: 11,706
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Post by Kalmia on Jan 24, 2024 15:26:41 GMT -5
It's kinda weird. Other than for the occasional dip the weekly ratings have evened out and are pretty steady again. The PPV buys are still strong, especially considering the increased number of them last year compared to previous years. Hopefully someone at AEW can figure out why the live ticket sales aren't as steady. Maybe it is the price. At least with a PPV you know who you're going to see and it's easier to make a last minute purchase. You never know who's going to be on a Dynamite until the card starts getting announced the week before.
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jb80
AC Slater
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Posts: 141
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Post by jb80 on Jan 24, 2024 15:32:40 GMT -5
Prices and TBA matches are a big issue at least for me. Imagine spending hundreds of dollars for some floor seats and getting a Daniel Garcia main event or something.
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Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
FANatic
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Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on Jan 24, 2024 15:40:39 GMT -5
Prices and TBA matches are a big issue at least for me. Imagine spending hundreds of dollars for some floor seats and getting a Daniel Garcia main event or something. You'd be underpaying to witness the dance live tbh
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Post by daaave on Jan 24, 2024 15:55:21 GMT -5
AEW probably been the best American company ever in announcing cards in advance? Not sure that's the issue. You usually know exactly what you getting 48 hours before show
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Dub H
Crow T. Robot
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Post by Dub H on Jan 24, 2024 15:57:24 GMT -5
2021 after Punk and Danielson signed had people legit thinking that AEW was going to "take the next step" and could even challenge RAW in the ratings going forward. You just need to look at the demo ratings and viewing figures compared too now to see there was more interest in the company then. Also attendance figure wise AEW was outselling WWE is most markets, they was seen as the hot product. Simply pur whatever reason you wanna give why ,they screwed up ,people will have different idea to how they screwed up but they had all the attention and made many wrong choices which now tk is having to work extra hard to try and recover
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Post by KingPooper on Jan 24, 2024 16:14:55 GMT -5
The most Ive seen them do promotion was Dalton Castle promoting AEW on the Free Beer and Hot Wings show when they had a show in Grand Rapids last year. Dalton being a friend of the show made for a good interview but there was a bit confusion of about the difference between him being in ROH, yet most of the taping was AEW.
I'll be honest the taping themselves are a bit of a chore. Live Dynamite is great, then taped Rampage which might have a decent match or two. Then it was like an hour ROH squash matches, with no end in sight finally they mentioned the ROH main event was Daniels vs. ZBJ Not caring about either it was time to go.
You want your audience to leave on a high note. Not just slowly filter out as the taping goes on. It was great to see Dalton Castle but most of it was matches for the sake of matches. Even a die wrestling fan that posts on a forum, I don't know if I would go to another AEW event unless something decent was announced a few days before hand.
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