AEW announces 'Blood and Guts' match for March 25

Freshly Squeezed top baby face

I didn’t respond to your post. Or anyone’s post. I made a general comment on AEW. It didn’t go down well. 3 or 4 weren’t too happy. But that’s me getting offended… :joy:

The shitheads creating the shit storm over differing perspectives would be the smart answer. Might not be the answer of a lot on here.

I poked fun at NXT and you were mad no one jumped all over me. So you decided to make your usual post of how no one is allowed to criticize AEW :sleeping:

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Your exact quote…you made a comment about the fans of the program more than just the program itself. How you frame things matters. If you wanted to just frame it as “You know people say NXT is blowing their load on TV, but it seems to me like AEW is putting on a lot of gimmick matches.”

Point made without an attacking feel.

This forum is going to be flagged 18+ with all this load blowing discussion. Quit it

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Can’t have an “attacking feel” and need to choose my words very carefully when taking about AEW but I can very freely say “only an idiot would like this” when talking about WWE. I get it…

People might see AEW as part of their identity but that’s not my problem. I try and stay objective when shitting on all these shows.

I wouldn’t frame my opinions on WWE in that manner either but sure, main roster doesn’t have a passionate fan base on this forum.

I know a lot on here aren’t used to this but offering a different take doesn’t mean someone is angry. It’s them offering a different take.

:thinking::100:

I see @AuthorOfPosts point

If all you did was think this forum represented the wrestling audience you would believe that WWE main roster was in trouble and AEW was the number 1 company in the world.

AEW has some great elements. However it also has a lot of things that are off putting to me. Which means it might be to others as well.

Despite months of great TV they seem to be unable to grow an audience, sell more than 100k PPVs or sell out live TV shows (Colorado this week is apparently epically bad). So while it’s been great and live crowds are hot something is holding them back.

Right now they compete with NXT. They are so far behind WWE Raw and Smackdown that you cant really call it a competition.

It’s one thing if PPV buys and ratings were climbing. They are holding steady. They have an audience but the can’t grow it.

I am not saying Orange Cassidy is the issue at all. Or a Marco Stunt. Or Kris being an alien from Another galaxy. Or Jelly Janela being on TV or a a guy pouring baby oil on himself. I don’t know what it is. But it is something.

If you look back at ECW and even One night stand you would believe that Sandman is the biggest star in wrestling and Cena is a chump. So be very careful trying to use the live audience as a marker of how over someone is to a TV audience. Sandman has never been a TV draw and if you watch ONS he was over more than OC will ever be to a AEW crowd. And any ECW crowd.

I am not going to pretend OC isn’t over to a live crowd. He clear is. Similarly to pretend that AEW is perfect is to ignore evidence that they haven’t grown an audience and have had PPV buys falling and live crowds dwindling is also to have blinders on. Something isn’t clicking like it should to a larger audience

I am not claiming they are trouble or the sky is falling - but it’s not becoming more popular

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I think it is a bit short sighted to focus on them not having grown an audience. It seems unlikely to me that there are things they could do differently to have a much larger audience than they do now. Their women have generally been sub par. I’m not sure if they were better if it would mean a much larger audience or not. Short of playing the WWE/TNA card of signing legends I don’t know that they would do more. There are a lot of WWE fans that buy the WWE talking points, and ideas about who is a star. I see it with main roster fans hating on NXT and AEW on. People who like the main roster. For those people you need to convince them to add another night of watch and I don’t know that AEW (or anyone) really can.

I think becoming more popular is a long term game of them consistent,y being good and getting the product out in front of more people.

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I don’t know.

Historically it’s always been about having that breakout cross over star.

WWE had Hogan and then the in ring product go better with Shawn and Bret but it’s didn’t hit another peak until Austin and Rock came along.

I am not sure if see anyone like that right now. Maybe Riddle or Tessa. So I do think AEW if they create a breakout star will benefit.

What I mean more now is that I don’t think they are getting casual fans to tune in that much. I was watching with a few people who were chatting away in the background (wives friends). They glanced over a couple of times and seemed a bit interested in the tag match when things were getting good. The women’s match put them right off when I explained Kris was really an alien from the Andromada galaxy and the next ten minutes were spent with them laughing at people in the audience who believed this to be true.

I don’t have an answer as to what it is but clearly they haven’t overcome that hurdle to become mainstream yet. Most people still don’t know what AEW is

I think time will be of a benefit to the exposure of AEW. They seem to have learnt the TNA lesson of trying to pop ratings, and are playing the long game. Nobody expects them to replace the WWE, but if they can offer a real alternative, then I’ll be happy

My point is that casuals are generally watching WWE main roster stuff, which means they are on the hook for 5 hours of weekly TV already. AEW to really grow needs to convince them to either add 2 hours of viewing to that (more if you want all the content though they have been slightly better about this) or to drop one or both WWE shows. Either of those things takes time especially the second as it depends on building stars that eclipse the ones the WWE fans already know and love on WWE. There are a lot of WWE marks that look at AEW as a bunch of WWE mid card guys, and no names.

When you talk about wives you are not talking about casual fans you are talking about bringing in new fans. I agree stuff like the Alien gimmick makes it tough especially because it is poorly done. The women in AEW in general aren’t an attraction though as they have all of maybe 2 characters that I care about on any level.

You are going to see biased opinions when dealing with fandom. AEW has built up more good will than the WWE.

This isn’t scientific data analysis we are doing here. We’re a bunch of nerds talking about wrestling we like or dislike.

This forum has an obvious anti WWE slant. Is it really worth fighting it at every opportunity? Deezy was doing the exact same thing. Maybe there is a more neutral pro wrestling discussion group out there for you.

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Why are we still using this “casual wrestling fan” idea? With over 5 hours of basic programming a week, plus 5+ hour PPV, NXT, etc. WWE have killed the notion of a casual viewer.
The hope is that AEW can be profitable. And with the new TV deal, they are. So, why are you arguing?

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I’d really like to know where you get your info from? A very simple search on ticketmaster for tickets, does not show anything close to “epically bad”

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This guy named, uh…um… Cim Jornette. Yeah. That guy

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Meltzer said a week ago it was really bad. It looks okay on TM bc they are t selling the upper bowls etc and tarping it off apprently. Under 3k fans even though it holds much more