People will bring up Race, Gordy, and Regal as counterpoint. Thing is, Gordy at 15 was bigger than most of AEW's talent is now. Race never didn't look old. Regal was in carnivals, not mudshows.

Also, let's not bring up Riho's age when she started. Or Saraya's, and think about the folks she fell in with.

Interesting given the new sites all saying WWE and more importantly HHH was interested in him.

Never saw it myself given he’s on the shorter side but him and FTR re signing are good keeps for AEW.

AEW already has like 200 people they don't use, but yay, lets resign Brian Cage who at one point they paid for like 20 months without using him on TV. Now that he is locked up for another extended period, well Tiny can put him back in the drawer for another 2 years once he gets bored with him again.

Good signing though, now they can rebook him throwing Darby around again in 2026, long term storytelling!

Brian Cage is a shorter guy, artificially inflated, close to 40 spot monkey they’ve already cut before. The rumors WWE wanted him probably came from him or his wife.

Some of these guys are more valuable as Trojan horses for you. Especially since you know Melissa Santos gets on social media and complains about the company when he isn’t used. So either that happens or the company uses him and you get crappy television. Win-win.

I don't think Regal is averse to people training to wrestle early like he did, but one thing he's been consistent about is you should work in some different places before signing with WWE. His own son trained in NJPW first and then worked a bunch in England before moving to WWE, at least he had some exposure elsewhere.

Think the example I remember from a way back was DH Smith, Smith asked Regal for advice right after he got in and Regal told him he should quit and go see the world first.

Dunno to what extent that applies to AEW when even people like Starkz and Wayne have wrestled all over the place before signing, and AEW will probably allow them to keep taking bookings elsewhere.

Some of Regal's comments on this were pre-NXT as well, but at least the indy/well-traveled folks they bring in to NXT and eventually let go have experience to lean back on to get bookings. Not exactly an extensive nor great track record for the total "trueborns" of NXT where they were completely built within that system. Parker Bordreaux might be the worst wrestler I've ever seen and I don't know if a trip to any country will help him.

There are plenty of wrestlers who started young and didn’t turn out to be car wrecks. Regal and McIntyre have both had their rough patches, but overcame them. But I think it’s just objectively creepy for grown-ass adults to engage children in that manner. I find it weird when adults give children drugs too. Let them take responsibility for ruining their lives when they are adults themselves.

But yes, having an actual background in wrestling where you have been places and worked for a number of different places is useful. WWE could benefit by letting their talent do more of it. There’s an actual chance that Tony Khan will let these people do that under him. But the future isn’t too bright for anyone in AEW, so who cares?

As/If wrestling continues to be a bit more mainstream and less carny I dont see an issue with it. Sports and entertainment always work with younger people who are working towards the top of there proffessions. Unfortunately it attracts creeps and weirdos because of that but thats true of anywhere young people gather.

Throw it onto the spotlight, protect the young but I dont have an issue with people training young for what they want to do.

Why is Jericho talking about how Jay White is a 6'4" guy?? How liquored up does one man have to get to think Jay White is 6 feet 4 inches tall??? :rofl:

Lol wtf?

:rofl:

He must be busting chops. Since when do chicks dig the NZ accent?

So Punk wants to come back to AEW it seems. Cant say I'm super psyched for it but whatever. Elite vs. Him and FTR would be a watch but if Omega and the Bucks arent into it I dont particularly blame them.

Punks kinda the one who needs someone to work with him for relevance atm.

Love him or hate him, Punk leaving damaged the popularity and perception of the show. He’s easily their biggest star. This is TK’s mess for not controlling the situation and getting on top of The Elite (and likely Jericho).

It’s important to keep in mind none of these dirt sheets talk to Punk. This is more than likely from the Elite/Jericho camp. The closest thing we’ve got to confirmation is Dax saying Punk wants to return to wrestling. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s still Punk holding out on them and looking for a buyout.

25k have apparently lined up for the presale. I don’t know how impressive that number is/isn’t. It sounds like a lot, but when you consider that 59k were queued up for Clash at the Castle and there ended up being 64k tickets sold, it may not be the hottest start for a UK show.

Is there a history of AEW doing much higher attendance than their advance leads you to believe?

SRS claiming that plans have been set in motion for a Punk return.

Love that this is seemingly such an agonizing, fraught process that we're just going to continually get updates on as it incrementally gets closer to happening rather than it be a big surprise, holy shit type of moment it otherwise would've been.

Punk sucks, gets injured constantly, gets along with nobody but other crybabies, and is an old, beat up, no credibility having malcontent.

Tony Khan is an idiot playing with his daddy's money, so he probably doesn't care if any of the wrestlers get along with each other, just as long as they get along with/pretend to be his friend. Also based on what Saraya said, they also have to "FEDBAD TONYGOOD" to stroke his fragile ego.

Now there's a post i can get behind

The Elite and Chris Jericho are also massive crybabies who got jealous when it was exposed what can be achieved in terms of metrics when Punk came in. TK wanted this chaos, he got it.

It was very telling when Saraya put the “fedbad” line on Tony.

The twenty updates that really update nothing are getting old I agree. Neither the Elite or Punk are cared about outside the IWC and I could see the whole thing being a limp noodle if it happens because people are over hearing about it.

I loved the way FTR worked the IWC leading into the title win but by the time the match was announced I was more relived I could stop hearing about it than being super pumped. All these guys telling there own stories might be a bit too into themselves as artists and storytellers I think.Thats the creative addition AEW needs is someone telling these guys when the angle has gone on long enough. I include Jericho, Punk and the Bucks in that. Not sure about Kenny... some of his shits been so fire and well timed.

TK tweeted that he read the sheets and has an update to the update in that there is no update but he'll keep you updated through future HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS ON DYNAMITE.

The fact that I didn't disbelieve this and went looking to see what the tweet said speaks volumes

Did FTR really work people, or did they just make up their minds recently?

They worked one person for sure, Tiny Khan. Just by teasing they weren't happy and would leave, FTR got a monster 4 year contract and the tag titles. Similar to Brian Cage, the idea of losing a friend is too much despair for Tiny to handle, and he gets his dad to write a new check. It is a Hell of a negotiation chip to play for the best deal possible.

AEW has been shit save for MJF since All Out for whatever reasons. Bring Punk back. It can only help.

Oh come on now! It’s really obvious what happened here. TK, being the super great guy he is, jumped on the grenade to take some heat of Saraya’s terrible, terrible return promo. Best. Boss. Ever.

The rumor is that Warner want AEW to facilitate a roster split when Collision starts, as they want Dynamite and Collision to each have a unique identity. As opposed to Rampage which feels exactly the same as Dynamite but far less important. Unknown if it would be a full blown roster split with everyone, or just a soft split for the bigger names the shows would be marketed around.

The talk of this comes right along with the reports yesterday about tentative Punk plans. Presumably, they'd use the split as a way to keep people with issues apart from each other.

Feels like it would inevitably become a mess if/when one show is viewed as more important than the other. No different than how in the mid-2000s they'd do the WWE Draft and keep their talent in the dark, and it was obvious people got pissed off when they were drafted to SmackDown because it felt like they'd been demoted on live TV.

Roster split is genius!!! Maybe then they could introduce more titles!!!

A true alternative to WWE.

IF they can coax CM Punk back, the obvious thing to do is run him against MJF in Wembley Stadium. It’s their biggest match, their best story, their best media publicity, etc. The idea that people give a flying fuck about the backstage drama is way overblown.

* MJF vs. CM Punk
* Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay
* Adam Page & The Young Bucks vs. Death Triangle

That’s way more on-point than wasting Punk in a program against The Elite, where the heat would be in Punk telling the truth and burying the company.

In fairness, if Warner are actually telling AEW they want a split there's not a whole lot the company can do about it. At least all of AEW's programming would still be under the Warner umbrella vs. WWE having to placate both FOX and NBC in case either of them get pissed off about someone being exclusive to a show.

But it just feels like an inevitable clusterfuck. A Saturday evening show is not gonna put up good numbers no matter who is on it, nevermind a 2-hour Saturday show. People who are "exclusive" to that show are gonna get miffed.

With The Elite in the process of working out contracts (Bucks contracts expire in January, Kenny's sometime in November-December depending on how long AEW extended it)...imagine if they left because AEW put them on the Collision "brand"/B show.

Would be a hilarious way for The Elite to leave All Elite Wrestling.

They could have gotten their ducks in a row so the overlords didn’t feel the need to intervene.

I can see the Wembley Stadium show being a disaster as to how it impacts talents’ egos. The number of folks that will need to be left off, thrown into meaningless matches and the jealousy that goes towards the talent who aren’t is going to be a clusterfuck.

AEW’s talent management is horrendous. And their booking sucks. So coupling the two together is leading to a lot of these nightmares.

They'd work the B show anywhere they didn't have a front office title, tbh. And yes, I mean Kenny too

If they do this other show they need to scrap rampage and elevation. Also hope the Saturday show is ROH and they aren't trying to operate a 3 way soft brand split.

If the Saturday show does turn out to be ROH you could probably keep Rampage.

Splitting the roster because so many people cant get along shows what a GREAT leader Shad's doofus son really is!

Tiny gave 39 year old Brian Cage, who he went 2 years without booking on TV, a 5 year guaranteed contract, with an option for a 6th year lol

Wtf?! Is it really that long? If there were rumors of WWE being interested, I bet they were fed to get TK to panic and make that move.

That is what is being reported. Probably gave FTR Hair and Bald that deal too.

Brian Cage is not worth that investment.

Bad take.

You can look at how 3-time Booker of the Year Tony Khan has guys go weeks/months between TV appearances and understandably think it’s poor management but consider this: who are WWE top stars?

Roman, Brock, Cena, Logan Paul.

What do they have in common? They’re all talents that aren’t there week-to-week, they’re special attractions. TK is making Miro an attraction to eclipse them all!

Yeah TK only wanted Miro to job to Hangman when he came back because he is a master of long term storytelling. It would have all made sense after he returned again after another year long hiatus.

Miro, another guy Tiny resigned to a multiyear deal and who has had 4 matches in the last going on 2 years. Totally making the best of that financial commitment :shifty:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Vikingo had three televised defenses of the AAA Mega title on AAA TV last year, will have three in AEW/ROH in about a month in the TK verse.</p>&mdash; luchablog (@luchablog) <a href="https://twitter.com/luchablog/status/1647066516620230656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Say it with me: “Special Attraction”.

LolAEW

That might work better if when he did get booked it wasnt just in a random 6 man tag or as a replacement when somebody got hurt or too drunk too often.

The latest bullshit from the dirt sheets is that Punk is returning in June for 2hr Collisions.

It would be funny if Punk gets better ratings on a Saturday than The Elite get on a Wednesday.

The go home Dynamite for Forbidden Door 2 is in Chicago. How convenient. I'm sure there will be a huge announcement.

There’s a huge announcement every week.

Debuts do not get the rating bump anymore.
Special Edition Dynamites do not get the ratings bump anymore.
HUGE announcement ratings bumps lost their last gasp with a fucking reality show.

We are now at the point where a wrestler needs to die that Tiny can then exploit to get a ratings pop. That is where we are now, and lets hope Shad will finally draw the line and tell Tiny NO, he will not fund murder for ratings.

Wrestlers die a lot so thatll probably work out

Pre sale wait list of 50k for the England show, sounds promising. Wonder what pricing will be like.

Even Dave responded, guess Tiny's check was late this week :rofl:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They have not sold any tickets, let alone 45,000. There will be no tickets sold until 5/2. <a href="https://t.co/nxiiCAbuxL">https://t.co/nxiiCAbuxL</a></p>&mdash; Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) <a href="https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1646934729713754112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They know how presale works right? 100% will be sold the second the gate is open

They’re probably en route to sell about 53k right now. It will probably be more by the day.

That’s a lot.

Imagine the rant about THE BOTZ we'll get if they don't sell that many now.

Well, who knows how hot the ticket actually is versus how hot it is perceived to be by scalpers, etc. Selling the tickets initially and filling up the building aren’t exactly synonymous.

Clash at the Castle had about 59k people queued up for the presale. They ended up with 64k in the building, or about 5% over what the presale was.

I think the risk AEW needs to try and mitigate is putting on a show that doesn’t exactly encourage repeat business. I think there’s a good chance of backstage backlash at talent positioning too. TK needs to sort his house out and make sure that he can run Wembley again, not just the once with the low-hanging fruit of London being ripe for a stadium show.

This was something that nobody learned from Impact...

Hayter and PAC are the only AEW Brits that need to be on the Wembley card. But you know they're gonna book Saraya in a match there even if she's undeserving.

I do actually like Kip Sabian well enough as an undercard act but if they randomly start pushing him out of the blue just so he can have an International Title match it'll be really transparent. If they do a pre-show battle royal and want to throw him in then whatever, but not a regular match.

From the partner promotions, Ospreay's the only non-AEW Brit I think would make sense to book, particularly if it's against Omega. Everyone would be fine with that I reckon. Even a guy like ZSJ who I love, Bryan vs. ZSJ feels like a great Forbidden Door match, going out of your way to save it for Wembley would feel kinda forced.

Kinda funny that AEW is gonna run a TV show in the same timeslot as WWE PPVs. I can just hear the crying if WWE does the same to them.

Remember when Kenny Omega got pissed that WWE was evil enough to air an Evolve show on the WWE Network the same night AEW had a "for charity" Fighter Fest show? Not a WWE show, an Evolve show that was already booked, but WWE was hurting the wrestling business by airing an Indy show. Classic AEW :rofl:

Tbf, this is DTW making them do it. I know 3 x Booker of the Year Tony Khan would never do anything to harm the business.

Don't get why Punk and The Elite need to work separately from each other as is being rumored. I've had fist fights with people I shared a drink with almost right after. Motherfuckers need to get over it.

And nobody needs to apologize. Just fucking work together and make money. Christ.

They’re a bunch of fucking pussies. And the root of the problem. The Elite are always going to get in between AEW and success.

Dale is correct. This is what would be best for business but if you just want to play in the sandbox with your friends and get Tony to put some of the adults on an entirely different show to keep the sandbox the way they like it this is another route that helps no one. At least you get to gang bang Riho whenever you need to feel better about yourselves.

This whole Punk/FTR v Elite drama is maybe the only time I'd want Vince to be in charge just because he'd probably make everyone involved eat shit or find a way to have them sit at home not getting paid until they did what he wanted.

I just can’t bring myself to care about this Elite/Punk stuff. Any tension dissolves the moment you put them in the ring. They don’t have the style to deliver on personal issues.

The Elite are clearly still butthurt about Punk and don't want to work a program with him because they have no direct financial incentive to do so. Even if it's "best for business", the only person who could make any actual money from this is Tony Khan. Such is the drawback with giving people guaranteed deals in an industry filled with bruised egos.

And before anyone says "well that's easy then, tell them if they don't do it they're fired for insubordination"...yeah that sounds easy from afar but it's almost certainly way more complicated. Much like how people said Punk could hold "hostile work environment" over Khan's head, The Elite would just do the same thing. "How can you say we're fired for cause because we didn't want to work with someone who assaulted us?"

Very easy to see how this could turn into yet another legal quagmire. And so that's why Khan is pretty much over a barrel here. He did this to himself.

Dax Harwood has announced that he is shutting his podcast down, saying he felt it was doing more harm than good. He claims there was no pressure from AEW or Tony Khan to end it.

The fact he felt the need to say TK didn't shut it down is proof that he did.

Had he said nothing, everyone would've blown him up on Twitter asking if TK put him up to it lol

Even if TK really wasn't involved, there's been too much bullshit going around for people to not just assume it was him anyway

Yeah. The fact that he needed to say it is more an indictment on the predictability of IWC blowhards who are always desperate to create their own scuttlebutt and treat it as fact to fit the narrative they want pushed.

Thank God we don’t have any of those people here at TPWW…

The Elite don’t care about AEW’s growth. It’s a vanity project for them. They’d rather get 850k viewers with it being “their show” than it get double that with them in a minimalized role. This is what the drama between them and Punk is really about. Punk proved you can do over 1 million on a Friday night and was petitioning for an improved product that clashed with the philosophy of The Elite.

At this point I can comfortably estimate that I have consumed over 500 hours of AEW content, and CM Punk still sucks :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Shit! Punk's coming back :lol:

Justin Roberts will miss Dynamite tonight after reporting a positive COVID test, he’s staying home in isolation for a week.

That 90% of the comments to the tweet about it on Reddit are “who still tests for COVID?” just serve as a reminder why we live in hell.

Absolutely why it is still so rampant. We live in a time where in home entertainment is at an all time high, yet people couldnt stay home, wouldnt mask up, ignore social distancing, etc. It is the same people who would tweet stuff like that.

Even the haters are hooked.

Booker of the year.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New Observer says Punk was extremely important to getting AEW a new Sat show from WB (Some saying the deal was incumbent on his return) and Dave theorizes that if WB even pays AEW their median rate for prime-time programming, it'd net AEW an extra 52 mil a year. WO HOF Punk up.</p>&mdash; Trevor Dame (@TrevorDame) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrevorDame/status/1649323468838817793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Elite will love this lol.

Dave said it so you know it's gospel.

Elite will DEF think it's gospel since Dave is their butt buddy.

Buddy of the butt ONLY.

I wonder if Meltzer has gangbanged Riho

Just him? I doubt it. I don’t even see how that’s technically possible. Unless you’re this guy..,

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/p...ngang_8553.jpg

Anyone who thinks The Elite are more valuable to AEW than Punk is fucking nuts.

Not a needle mover tho

"But....but....he's never gotten anyone else over but himself."

*is integral in getting AEW $50 million just in TV contracts*

Nah, he doesn't get a dude here or there over. He gets entire feds over.

Waiting on Orange Cassidy to do the same. Any day now......

Checkmate liberals

Hitting up Mindy's Bakery this weekend.

So if Punk doesn't come back, they aren't getting the show?
If Punk gets hurt again, is the show getting cancelled?
What if Punk went to WWE, is that why Warner wants to make a play for WWE?

I mean CLEARLY these options are all thanks to the worst UFC fighter of all time :rofl:

Its sad to see Drebin turning into a sheep on account of his old man dementia.

Supposed seating chart for Wembley

https://i.redd.it/dlwsksoqxeva1.jpg

The stadium seats 90k for football in just the seats alone, based on this they have a little less than 2/3rds of the normal seating capacity open. Figure the seats themselves are around 50-55k and then the A-G seating around the ring probably takes it to 60k or so.

That would be a hell of a gate on its own. They could always add seats if tickets move quickly.

Will be interesting to see what happens when the sale starts.