The last thing AEW should be doing is listening to Flair, Cornette, Bishoff, Konnan, Disco, Dutch, Booker, or any of the others from the bitter bad-faith take club of the world.
People seem to think Tony’s not taking advice or listening to the very experienced minds around him?
AEW’s TV over the last few months has been very, very good. Last week was a mediocre show - but it’s so silly to act like the sky is falling. They spent a good portion of the fall changing a lot on the fly (since the reality was All Out through Full Gear was going to be centered on Punk and FTR vs. The Firm and MJF, which all went out the window.) The last few months has been refocusing on a lot of important players, and getting new acts elevated.
But he’s booking ROH as well it seems which is a lot. This weeks show doesn’t jump off the page either and Rampage has basically been relegated to as relevant as Elimidate so I don’t think he’s doing an amazing job either. The build for this PPV hardly screams must buy yet - but he’s got a couple of weeks to convince me to pay.
The last ROH PPV didn’t become must-buy for a lot of people until the final two minutes of TV of the Dynamite preceding it. And it continued to prove why I won’t ever doubt buying an AEW or current day ROH PPV.
Again, I don’t think anybody truly know what ROH will look like just yet. And I feel there are a ton of assumptions made about Tony that aren’t based in reality.
Over the last 40 years, Vince McMahon was praised for his work ethic - somehow working 25 hours a day, and never sleeping, and called a genius for not listening to his detractors, etc. Tony Khan is out there showing the same work ethic, and every bitter non-employed by AEW person with a podcast is saying he’s doing it all wrong?
Good question. I think it was a bit different with Vince because it was felt like he worked hard to get to where he was and put everything on the line to succeed and push it. Thus he kept working like that because that’s all he knew and people knew he only got there from hard work and taking risks and being there 24/7.
Tony doesn’t have the same story. He’s more like a Shane than Vince. Doesn’t quite resonate the same I guess.
I agree I’m willing to wait it out and see what happens before deciding about the PPV. However to date nothing has really sold me on it. That can change with one hot angle
Vince was essentially handed one of the biggest territories in the United States, and was a third generation promoter.
He hardly created something from nothing… which is what Tony actually has done. Other wealthy people have played in the wrestling space - and not created anything close to the success of AEW.
I know this is way off topic, but Vince’s myth is mostly a carefully fabricated one.
See I do disagree with you here. The 500 people who were attending ECW events when it was at ‘Peak Hottness’ will never forget that.
The rest of us who were watching King Mabel and Survivor Series 1999 don’t really feel much.
Yea I dont disagree. He got the company from his dad and that helped. He did take huge risks and pushed it globally which no one else had done so some credit is due but it’s not all as it’s portrayed.
Tony was born into wealth and is a wrestling fan and books as such. I’m not knocking him - but rich kid who is given play money by dad isnt as compelling even if he’s done what no one else has in 20 years
I haven’t watched nearly as much as most of you folks, but hot wrestling to me was the first couple years of AEW. Crowds were insane. Every match felt meaningful, and had meaningful conclusions. There was a sense of urgency to watch every week and tune in live to keep up with the product. Numbers were popping and blowing up, whether on TV, PPV, or online. It felt like they were gaining more and more momentum every week. The big stars were transcending beyond weekly wrestling shows.
And on the other end of the spectrum, cold wrestling was RAW during the Thunderdome era. No reason to watch whatsoever. John and Wai’s recaps were more than enough content, and even then it felt like a lot of people just laughing at the product.
I think this is an unfortunate and reasonably popular take. It’s a way to discount what Tony has done with AEW. If he’s successful - he’s the son of a billionaire who had a head start. If he’s a failure he’s “The Son” who got in over his head.
He’s shown a tremendous work ethic. And he’s four years in and still learning a lot every week.
Anyway, I’ll stop with the railroading of the topic at hand!
Lol. Someone has been drinking the network kool aid. He basically took over the business from his daddy and then broke deals with other promoters to take their best guys.
I mean two things can be true at the same time. Nobody should discount his work. But he hardly came into the business as an underdog or built up territory from nothing.
I just think it’s very disingenuous to put down Tony while praising Vince for what basically comes down to the same things.
I’m not praising Vince at all - I think though since he took wrestling globally and built a billion dollar company out of a carny sideshow he is going to get the benefit of the doubt.
He grew up in a broken home and has that rags to riches story even if it’s not entirely true.
Tony is the son of a billionaire. For right or wrong those people will never get credit from the general public because of all the advantages they have in life over the common person.
If you are using Twitter, you can tell any narrative you want. Twitter is a a cesspool and you can find negative comments about literally anything if you look for them. Take any celebrity, any TV show, any movie…it could be Star Wars, Marvel, Breaking Bad, WWE, AEW I could go on and on and on, if someone with influence makes a comment about something pertaining to any of these things, you will find people playing contrarian. You can say the exact same thing about WWE. This is why I hate social media, especially comment sections. I wish more people were like me and just stuck to places like this.
I couldn’t care less about what idiots on Twitter have to say. What I read is Post Wrestling, Wrestling Observer, PWInsider, and some Tik Tok wrestling personalities, and 95% of what I read is overwhelmingly positive on AEW. I used to browse the comment sections on Tik Tok, but it just made me mad as anytime I said anything I was either called a WWE fanboy or an AEW mark. Its funny to be called both in the same discussion.
Problem is everyone is on polar opposites now a days. Either the narrative is “Vince was handed everything and did nothing”, or he “built a billion dollar company starting with only a penny to his name”.
Tony definitely was handed more then Vince as Tony started AEW being a billionaire but with that said, Tony’s vision for what AEW has become from the production, to the booking, to the style, to who he hand picked to be in the promotion (and people can spare me the bullshit that he just grabbed random Indy stars) was truly a thing of magic and something that so many people “could” have done since March 26th, 2001. If its so easy, why didn’t ROH do it, why didn’t TNA do it, why didn’t NWA reinvent themselves, why didn’t NJPW do it in the US. What Tony did, and the timing of what he did is something that I will never criticize him for despite how he can be on social media. The closest anyone else has come is Hunter with NXT, but he had the luxury of being under the WWE’s umbrella. Not the same, what Tony did was 10 times more impressive. Though, even with Hunter, people can spare me the bullshit that he just grabbed hot Indy stars. These are the types of narratives bias idiots tell.
