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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 9:21:47 GMT -5
To add to Muskrat's point, there's no need to rush because, unlike with the NBA, the potential bidders haven't shown their interest because the window isn't anywhere near closing. The only reason we knew NBC, ESPN and Amazon were interested was because the deadline for WBD to make a deal with the NBA was the end of April so the rumor mill was only starting to move. If the AEW deal started in October 2019 and then extended to 2025, the likely odds is that the window closes about October or slightly after so we wouldn't really hear about any potential bidders until then.
It's hard to tell if anyone but WBD will be interested in AEW but considering where it usually ends up and how cheap it is in comparison to other programming deals, I doubt we'll get a WWE Raw situation from the late 00s where WWE was courting interest after the exclusivity window ended, didn't get any and had to just accept a lesser deal (which, to be fair, paid off big time in the long term when the next couple of deals afterwards were double and then triple that one along with almost every other sports deal).
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 7:57:24 GMT -5
Yeah, it's something we also have to remember. They do an average of 130-150k a show domestically and haven't really dropped below that in a while. I get the convenience for Americans for it to end up on Max but that isn't a small amount of money to be giving up for PPV to go to streaming. If WBD want to do that, they basically have to show the money to make it make sense for them to accept it. I was thinking about this earlier, so I decided to do the math. Over the past year AEW averaged 139,444 buys per PPV (source: www.itnwwe.com/wrestling/aew-ppv-buys/). This was for 9 PPVs between Revolution 2023 and Revolution 2024. Let's assume AEW takes in around $15 per buy. I am using a conservative number because the prices internationally and domestically are different and there is some kind of split with WBD for use of BR. 139,444 x $15 = $2,091,667 in revenue per PPV $2,091,666.67 x 9 PPVs = $18,825,000 in total yearly revenue So safely, WBD would need to pay at least $19 million per year to cover the lost revenue of moving PPVs to MAX. Appreciate you doing that, especially considering we only know, at best, normal PPV and not stuff like B/R or international places/other sources like Triller, YouTube etc. It also doesn’t seem like that big a number to make up to make it happen but will they is the next question.
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 7:35:41 GMT -5
Since the Upfront is today, the accounts related to WBD are advertising it, including Ad Sales and…just look at the first thing they bring up.
Today is going to hurt.
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 7:29:37 GMT -5
The PPVs always do well for AEW so I hope they get a good deal for them if they're going to put them on Max. Yeah, it's something we also have to remember. They do an average of 130-150k a show domestically and haven't really dropped below that in a while. I get the convenience for Americans for it to end up on Max but that isn't a small amount of money to be giving up for PPV to go to streaming. If WBD want to do that, they basically have to show the money to make it make sense for them to accept it.
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 7:00:54 GMT -5
As pointed out, there was a feeling in Wall Street for years that, even though they didn’t like how Vince worked, if he wasn’t leading WWE, that would be the end of WWE. It’s why USA wanted the McMahons everywhere, it’s why he was the vocal point of the Saudi deal and TV negotiations (until the FOX one where HHH and Steph lead), he was the glue holding the company together.
Then he didn’t tell the company about the dozens of NDAs. Then he forced himself back in all just to get the TKO deal to happen which you can argue right now hasn’t been going super well overall but it is all being carried by WWE. Like, yeah, Vince laid the groundwork but remember, the moment he left, it was all supposed to fall apart but if anything, TV companies liked Nick Khan and HHH better. So did sponsors. We see more companies advertising with WWE than ever before all because they’re willing to work with them and not the old dude on top.
Along with that, if it wasn’t for the pandemic, we’d be seeing a downturn in interest with TV ratings and attendances sliding because the product wasn’t hot and no stars were really being made. And that dude is now 5 years older and could at any point be arrested by the FBI. Who wants to work with that guy?
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 6:23:43 GMT -5
Can not wait to see Richard Kind and the cast play off each other. It's still surreal to me that Kind, Levy, Galifanakis and Nanjiani are going to be on the same show. And they're bouncing off Martin, Short, Gomez and the rest. Like, not even a year ago, it was cool enough that Rudd and Streep were with this cast, this is the equivalent of spoiling our teeth comedy wise.
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 5:47:40 GMT -5
Gonna be real awkward if there's no deal reached by the time that exclusivity deal ends lol I’d like to say that I can’t see WBD not signing a new deal but then I also figured they would be keeping the NBA so…
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Post by eJm on May 15, 2024 0:41:09 GMT -5
The thing with WWE’s argument is that it’s very reliant on Vince having agreed to go through with the terms of the NDA and keep up with the payments to Janel Grant to prevent anything from coming out so they can say she voided it by filing suit.
Ignoring the “under duress” parts and the fact that she’s saying it’s voided because of the Speak Out act, Vince didn’t do that. This whole thing is happening partially because the payments that were agreed to did not happen. The other stuff just makes the entire thing worse only because some of it was things we knew from other suits and things we could probably tell went on from watching the product from, say, 2001 to as far as 2019.
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 16:41:57 GMT -5
Oh, I see you, Hulu, sneaking in the fact Melissa McCarthy is in this too like Broderick last season. {Spoiler}They’re going to LA! Give me my Bukula cameo, Only Murders!
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 16:21:20 GMT -5
Like others have said, that doesn't sound like someone that should have friends. There's no telling what other stuff he is into, like beating his girlfriend or maybe child neglect. …what?
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 14:16:17 GMT -5
You know that won't happen. We live in a world of rushing to judgement and condemnation before facts are all in. And a lot of people that do that just move on to the next outrage and pretend the previous outrage never happened. Obvious I'm using hyperbole there, but you must admit, it's not far off. I erred on the side of caution myself and didn't speculate, but I also was under the impression there was way more evidence than "this other guy said it happened". Knowing that's all they had, I'm surprised it even went this far. In all seriousness, yeah, that’s what I expected too. Like someone had a camera phone on him or there was a CCTV or traffic camera that caught something and the fact none of that really came out and the person in question didn’t want to go to court to talk about it, even if it did happen (and I can absolutely believe it did), yeah, it was doomed to be dropped at some point.
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 14:12:00 GMT -5
Don’t worry folks, I’ve already written amended lyrics for All In this year “Doo doo doo doo doo doo Wheeler likely had a gun but the prosecution didn’t feel like they had enough evidence to secure a conviction and couldn’t prove what happened, didn’t feel like they had enough evidence to secure a conviction and couldn’t prove what happened, Wheeler likely had a gun but the prosecution didn’t feel like they had enough evidence to secure a conviction and couldn’t prove what happened“ Rolls off the tongue really If I see you at All In this year, you better have that printed off and I’ll genuinely give it a shot. 😆
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 13:41:00 GMT -5
The image of Vince angrily deleting text messages after a breakup like he's sixty years younger than he is blows my mind what is happening I think what makes it worse is that he decided to delete the texts and then stop paying Grant. Which both says he's cocky enough to know nothing will happen and also says he isn't very good (as demonstrated by basically using company funds to pay the other NDAs) at covering his own tracks or doing the things to stop these situations from happening. I mean, besides actually doing things to have NDAs needed at all.
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 13:14:23 GMT -5
Right Vince, we truly believe what you say /s...
Always a thing innocent people do; delete evidence.
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 12:49:16 GMT -5
As I understand it, the NBA wants double their current deal just for regular season games. It might be kind of like Smackdown on Fox. Where they’re not making enough on the deal to justify paying even MORE money to keep them despite the high ratings? The issue might be more that the NBA is doing about what it's expected to do with the deal they have but if they double it, it'll be harder to justify it which, in a way, makes sense. Especially if NBC is absolutely willing to pay the amount asked. The thing with Smackdown was more that it was paying a lot and were told they would get double the viewership rather than the amount they got now since, well, everyone in America has access to Network TV and not to Cable.
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 12:35:13 GMT -5
There's another point I just realised that makes this more of a shame from a Glaswegian perspective. In the past decade or so, Glasgow ended up cultivating a unique part of wrestling culture that permeated throughout the world. As much as #SpeakingOut and the pandemic brought it to a screeching halt, it still happened. When the SECC show drew 4,000 fans, it wasn't built on top of big imports. It was a core of Scottish talent supported by other BritWres names and Rhyno. There are currently 10 Scottish wrestlers signed to WWE, 5 men and 5 women, with a good few main roster reigns under their belt, all of whom were major fixtures in ICW's boom period. One of the hottest names on TNA right now got his big break in ICW. AEW is arguably an aberration in not having some Scottish presence there. Scotland has punched above it's weight in the wrestling world, so the fact we're having a discourse about them being priced out of it is really a shame. I will also say, one of the reasons ICW fell as rapidly as they did (in hindsight, considering I still considered it doing ok a year after the SECC show) was because WWE very much muscled into the territory and made the shows they did about them and not about any co-operation in ICW along with stealing every major talent that was involved with them not named Stevie Boy. Also, Mark Dallas was doing everything but asking to be hired by WWE for NXT to book it and then Jim Smallman did instead.
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Post by eJm on May 14, 2024 7:00:25 GMT -5
Hey, I don’t watch WWE nor am I a fan of what WWE does a lot of the time but I will forever be happy that someone I knew and trained with for a brief time and saw them rise to a contract is now on national television.
I’ll have a different tone if they screw her up at any point, obviously. 😆
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Post by eJm on May 13, 2024 18:21:48 GMT -5
While the subject is up, I might as well have a side tangent about something that is sort of political but it’s less beliefs and more the policy. The week before the London Mayor election, the present mayor, Sadiq Khan (no relation to Nick or Tony) said he wanted to bring events like the Super Bowl and WrestleMania, saying both by name, to London and it felt like the most populist BS you could possibly use. One, you’re not going to be guaranteed either. The NFL loves London and has been trying to get an NFL team there for years (Spurs’ new stadium’s been rumored for long enough to be pitching itself as a home for an NFL team) but there is a real long shot the Super Bowl will ever go out of North America without a damn good reason to do it. Especially when it’ll be airing hours later and most of the audience is staying up late on a Sunday. WrestleMania, I mean…it could happen but you’d have to make a lot of sides happy and I highly doubt London gets a WrestleMania before, say, Saudi Arabia because, frankly, that cash cow is way bigger. Two, frankly, London doesn’t need either. Performances happen there all the time and even with other stuff that’s happened (let’s call it Eggsit for the benefit of those aware), it’s still a location to go to so boosting tourism and not to try and make this a “WWE vs. AEW” thing but another company has willingly paid for one of the few spots Wembley Stadium has every year to use it and yes, WrestleMania would sell it out but it feels weird to throw that under the bus to chase that instead of developing that as YOUR WrestleMania. I also just hate the idea that a city that has, admittedly, has had budget problems with transport and the like over the last 5 years (for many reasons I won’t go into) using tax payer’s money for an event that, quite frankly, won’t have the significant tourism in comparison to the other stuff going on and it’s just a weird thing to even promise. But I also hate how taxpayer’s money is used for all these places, especially when WWE is right now trying to stop Brendan Thurston from getting information he’s entitled to find out about how much public money was used to pay for the Royal Rumble last year. I think if they were going to have Wrestlemania in London in late March or early April, the venue would have to employ the opposite of the air conditioning employed in the Qatar World Cup, because it would be absolutely f***ing freezing. Or more likely, you end up with a £300 souvenir Wrestlemania parka that you have to buy to stop you freezing to death. The last point also links in with what people have said about Glasgow and poverty, because London is literally one of the most unequal cities in the world. Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that and the spending is from different budgets (not the time or place to go into that) but again, it just leaves a sour taste when someone is willing to spend a load of public money to make a wealthy private company even wealthier while even middle earners struggle to make ends meet, never mind the real pockets of deprivation in east London, largely so public servants can pat themselves on the back and say "London is for everyone" (it isn't). Hopefully haven't broken any rules there, but it needs to be said. I’m biased as someone born in East London but I’d say that’s all safe to say and I agree with you completely. I just needed to get it out because, man, that annoyed me.
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Post by eJm on May 13, 2024 18:15:55 GMT -5
Honestly, the only way that would really happen is if TKO absolutely bottoms out in the next few months and becomes Private along with the rest of Endeavor and they get super desperate but unless WWE does something really terrible and they lose a tonne of money and makes TKO shares drop, it’s not likely. Mixed cards will do nothing but piss off both fan bases. I’d imagine there’s more WWE UFC fans than UFC WWE fans. So it’ll be nothing more than appearances on each others PPVs for a little cross promotion. Which is likely the best way of doing it. UFC stars appear on WWE TV more often to promote shows, they can piggyback off of WWE shows to add buzz and sell cross brand tickets and you can have WWE stars in the front row of shows to make them seem like slightly bigger deals. Anything else is just naff, really.
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Post by eJm on May 13, 2024 18:12:31 GMT -5
Hopefully this is the end of Zaslav but I'm guessing the shareholders will just keep letting him f*** everything up for no reason. I don’t think it’s that simple. Especially since a lot of these cuts and changes were in part to try and make space to keep the NBA. Like, they have other sports as mentioned but you’re basically handing Tuesday and Thursday (and a lot of the playoffs) to USA and ESPN. Like, it still does help AEW because Dynamite is one of the top rated shows consistently on Wednesdays, sports or otherwise, and they have until the end of the year to sort things out but it’d be ignorant to think that nobody is going to bid for them when the exclusivity window closes because even Collision does well in the demos on Saturdays and that audience is harder to get in 2024.
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