Hey yāall, not a very frequent poster but I am trying to make it a point to engage with the Post community more frequently and I figured this question that has been rolling around in my mind is a good place to start.
My question:
I am wondering how the WWE review shows are fairing in terms of listenership?
It seems like interest in RAW/WWE is fading especially in the Post community. My rationale for this is the very small amount of feedback that has been reported on Rewind a Raw over the past few weeks/months. However, I also notice LOTS of people mentioning they listen to you all instead of watching. So I am curious if its possible that listenership has gone up as a result? I ask because honestly anything seems possible.
Thanks for the shows, they definitely make the work grind a lot less grindy.
My question is on Tyson Furyās involvement with the WWE. Heās charismatic, a large than life character and provides the āsports centerā moments the WWE loves. Was he brought in strictly as a big name for a crown jewel show? His brief run was uneventful IMO.
Hi guys, and Happy Hanukkah John (although you might be reading this after the holiday).
This is the first time I am posting a question for ask-a-wai so I wanted to first thank you for starting this amazing community which has been a real resource for me in the past year since I discovered you on youtube. I am especially grateful for you two making it possible for me to finally choose not to watch Raw! I have been a WWE fan for over thirty years, ever since Wrestling Challenge and Superstars became available on Israeli cable TV, and this is the first time I was able to avoid watching Raw without feeling like I might miss something important. So thanks for your sacrificeā¦
My question is about the important AEW video which showed wrestlers Dax Harwood, the Blade, and others as well as Vickie Guerrero and Amanda Huber opening up about their struggles with depression and anxiety and encouraging people to reach out and ask for help. This is of course also related to Eddie Kingstonās amazing article in the playersā tribune and to your wonderful work in The Wellness Policy. I wanted to know if you heard anything or have any thoughts about this blessed shift in the discourse around mental health in the professional wrestling industry. Do you know how this video/enterprise came about and whether Tony Khan approved it? Are there any more related projects in the industry you might have heard about? Thanks!
Back in June, there was a Forbes article about AEW & Tony Khan that included the line āā¦an eight-figure investment in video game development will keep the company in the red for now.ā
I understand itās apples and oranges, but do you have any information on how much WWE made year over year when it came to their 2K games? Could AEW recoup that 8 figure amount with the first console game or is that more of a cost to get started for multiple games down the road.
Great job on all the amazing content this year, hope to call in soon.
The first time I saw you guys was during fight week, 1 on 1 interviews on youtube. Is there any interest in the future to bring recurring 1 on 1 interviews to post? I think pollock is just as solid as ariel. Really digging ariels YouTube interviews more than the mma hours. I think pollock would knock that out the park. Maybe even wai and gina part 2.
Happy Holidays, guys! Hope you both have a safe and relaxing one.
Were you guys into museums at all whether historical, science, music, etc.? Iāve personally always enjoyed those field trips in grade school since Chicago has a variety of museums all over and in the future I would love to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto one day. Just wondering if you have any favorites.
Second Q if thereās time: As non-hockey fans, in your opinion, is there still a place for fighting in hockey?
I had always heard that although WWE and WCW had very high ratings in the 90s, advertisers wouldnāt pay to advertise on their shows because they felt wrestling fans didnāt spend money. Given the cost of rights deals for wrestling these days, when did this thought process change and why? (if that was even the case).
After writing the rest of my question I realised I answered my own question, if you guys have thoughts on the below I would be glad to hear them, otherwise feel free to skip the rest.
I believe TNAās best rating was their move to Monday night back in 2010 with 2.2 million viewers while that nights RAW with Bret Heart averaged 5.6 million viewers, outside of that TNA managed to get around 1.7 million viewers for a short period.
The reason I bring this up is because obviously the AEW and WWE ratings these days are a widely discussed topic but also much lower then they were back then.
How you feel AEW compares to TNA in their peek in regard to viewership?
Mathematically (which Iām not very good at) RAW has dropped 69% (5.6m to 1.7m roughly) where as TNAs 1.7m to AEWs 0.9m is a 47% decrease.
So relatively speaking AEW is a more popular product than TNA at itās peak.
I was recently going through some old Year End Wrestling Observer awards while looking up candidates for the Hall of Fame. One notable winner one year stuck out.
In 2001 Kazushi Sakuraba vs Wanderlei Silva was the feud of the year. Granted this was 2001 and the WWF had dropped the ball with the Invasion angle, but I find it fascinating that the feud of the year was from a Japanese MMA promotion in a newsletter read by predominantly western readers. This was also pre the MMA boom in 2005 and before streaming was widely available.
Could you discuss the feeling around this feud at the time? The reaction to it winning feud of the year and how it was covered in newsletters?
I know that thereās MCU Later now, but is there a chance of you two (John and Wai) still continuing your Marvel movie review series in the future?
Wai, have you checked out Doom Patrol on HBO Max? If so, any thoughts? To me itās quality is right up there with Marvel shows like Loki, and itās become an all-time favorite.
Listening to the Rewind-A-Wai episodes, thereās a name that always, without fail, pops up in the trivia rounds: Mariah Carey! Iāve developed a real love and appreciation for Mariahās music, songwriting and public persona. Do you have a favourite song/era from the Queen of Christmas?
Chris Elliot
Hello gents, hope youāre both well.
With the cuts over the last year and the change of emphasis with WWEās hiring process, are you guys surprised that NXT UK hasnāt been affected? Do you think thereās still a chance for it to be the pathway to WWE that the talent were promised, or is it just a TV product for their BT Sport deal?
Thanks for all the content and Iāve been loving the news updates
Generally speaking, what is your interest level in politics on a local and national level? What were some of the events, issues or figures that first sparked your interest in either local or national politics?
What does it say that Tony Khan - a man who as far as Iām aware had never previously booked a wrestling promotion, or ran a weekly TV show before 2 years ago - can suddenly run a very well booked and consistantly entertaining AEW? Is he just gifted at it, or does it show that wrestling booking is actually a simple practice at its core? or is it down to the talent having more freedom? Or a mixture of all the above?
Luk from Quebec!
My question is about kayfabe. Back in the old days, wrestlers went to great lengths to āprotect the businessā. Nowadays, with news sites, documentaries, podcasts, every wrestler on twitter, kayfabe is almost entirely dead. Yet when fans discuss moments of the last decade that made them jump back in, theyāre things like CM Punkās pipebomb, Becky and Rondaās beef, etc. where the lines between kayfabe and reality were blurred once more. How important do you find the correlation between kayfabe and wrestlingās success and can wrestling ever recapture its popularity of the 80s and 90s now that we know everything that goes on behind the scenes?
Iāve recently become a dad to twins. Itās the hardest thing Iāve ever done. We are currently going through a milk aversion where they basically refuse to feed and itās so tough. John, if itās not too personal, I wondered if you wouldnāt mind sharing some stories from your dad journey and some of the challenges you may have faced and how you overcame them? Hope the children are doing well! Wai, any thoughts of children in your future?
If Sinclair (or whoever) wants wrestling as an inexpensive filler hour of content, wouldnāt acquiring it be cheaper than producing it? Whether running ROH as its own promotion with an exclusive roster or reopening it as a super indie with no one signed full-time, I feel like buying TV-ready content would still be a cheaper alternative than either aforementioned option.
So, wouldnāt an IMPACT or NJPW take virtually any deal from a non-WWE company with Sinclair-type reach for, say, an Xplosion or a Strong just to get that content out to a wider audience? Obviously IMPACT or NJPW would need to get paid, but couldnāt Sinclair acquire programming from either (or both) for way cheaper than managing their own major promotion or super-indie in ROH?
