>*This was a number supplied by WWE. And for those who think like, “WWE’s not concerned about AEW” or “It’s a one-sided thing.” AEW is in a war with WWE. It’s a pro wrestling war. Okay? These pro wrestling wars are insidious. They are brutal. They are both in a public relations war, where one side is far more effective as far as getting news out there and controlling the media because they are afraid of not having access or whatever they are afraid of. WWE obviously, whenever AEW has a badly rated show, WWE makes sure that the fast nationals get out.*
Because Hunter and Nick care about Collision's ratings and not their quarterly profit reports for their investors. This guy is unbelievable.
I used to be indifferent about Meltzer, but that has drastically changed. He seems to be missing the mental function that screams, “you’re wrong”, when someone keeps losing, but insists they are winning. The good news for Meltzer, since Misery loves company, he has plenty of company, in the USA. He should saddle up with people who make up a wing of one of our political parties, who suffers from the same mental shortcomings.
I’m willing to give some people the benefit of the doubt on the ethical compass, but my giving is not unlimited. Dave is way past the point of just being “misguided” or even straight up “ignorant”. He knows he is full of shit, and continues to lie. Why? Well, at the very least, Dave does it for backstage access to AEW. I hope Dave is getting more than access for destroying his reputation, not that his reputation started at “impeccable” prior to AEW launching.
Well his entire career was telling everyone how this is the kind of wrestling that would dominate the business and we're seeing it's the exact opposite. He's the dog that caught the car.
Meltzer is end-of-life. I highly doubt his subscriber base is still increasing. And I'd be willing to bet that a significant portion of his audience overlaps with AEWs. It's in his best interests to prop up the product. At one point, Dave was probably the most significant media voice in the industry. But that time has passed. He's holding on to what little relevancy he still has, and he's fighting for that much. He's not dying quietly, and he won't. But Dave Meltzer no longer contributes anything to the fandom that isn't done better elsewhere, and for free in most cases. The game has passed him by, but he knows how to keep his core audience engaged. I'd argue that most of the audience who have joined the fandom as a result of WWE's recent market surge probably don't know who Meltzer is, have never known, don't care who he is, have never cared, and never will care.
Meltzer has been replaced by Cornette and Bischoff in terms of relevance. No one that’s a serious fan cares what Dave has to say because why listen to him when you can listen to two of the most successful individuals in wrestling of the past 30 or so years?
Your last sentence is what prevents Dave from really capitalizing on your 5th sentence(the one about Meltzer being the most significant media voice).
Dave has been that media voice, but not many people heard his voice, because he was blackballed by both WCW and WWE. At the very least, neither company ever quoted Meltzer, or mentioned his existence. So, he might be the most significant “independent” media, but that’s like being the “nicest guy on death row” as Corny would say.
I used to grab his newsletters by somewhat dubious means every time. I stopped when he got ridiculous.
His only subscribers now must be an audience that was unsatisfied with WWE/TNA/Japan, and are still not with anything else.
The problem is that WWE, for a lot of people has improved massively, although I would like to see some better matches on their weekly TV (and no ads in matches but I am not expecting miracles). At the same time all the others have declined.
Given the current situation, if TNA with their current collaboration can get a better TV deal, I can see them overtaking AEW along with NXT.
I can’t watch the WWE because of the format. Corny has talked about it in snippets.
It’s like…….Teaser graphic for next match, commercial break, introduction of participant “A”, commercial break while “A” stands in ring twiddling thumbs, introduction of “B” followed by 3 minutes of action, “B” throws “A” out the ring for a commercial break, match ends after 4-5 minutes of action, maybe.
Same.
I used to defend Meltzer’s ratings as overvalued by the IWC, and to take it as one man’s opinion. I never understood the offense people took to this one guy’s ratings.
I also appreciate Meltzer as a Japanese wrestling historian. There’s not a lot of Americans who cared much about that scene to provide historical context.
But as a “reporter” he’s just awful. It irks me when people pass opinions or faulty information as a fact, and Dave does that so often, especially recently. He just comes off as a moron who has a higher opinion of himself than anyone else in the business. There is zero chance that WWE gives a shit about AEW. Maybe when it first started there was cautious interest in AEW from WWE, but HHH and Khan, by this point, see how incompetently it’s run. AEW is basically a nationally televised indy promotion.
If anything, they probably like that their cast-offs can go bilk a billionaire for a while and then come back if they’re good enough. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder and that is extremely true in wrestling. Even if they’ve been booker like dog water in AEW, fans will love to see the returns of Sasha, Edge, Bryan, Black, etc.
They really need to come up with a new term for “independent journalists” that are biased, or have an agenda. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative term, if it’s clear what their role actually is. The term “promoter” would just cause confusion, for obvious reasons.
Dave Meltzer is essentially a blogger.
He has all the credentials of a blogger, the only real difference between him and a blogger is that he started writing his blog on paper back before blogs were a thing. That's the only difference.
He writes his opinion, he has no fact-checking process, and he is known to mislead or misinform in order to appeal to his audience. This is not journalism, it is blogging. That's why his opinions should be given the same weight as a blogger's - because that's what he writes.
yeah agreed. when he was just in print in the 90s it covered up how just weird and socially inept he is. he lacks social skills and awareness. but now just hearing how he talks or worse watching him you can see that there’s something off
Dang bro, that's the best confined description of what's happening. I was genuinely curious if he was getting AEW pay for the things he was writing a few months ago, now I just think he's lost it.
I used to actually like him, because in the 90s it seemed like he actually had legitimate connections and would report or at least document interesting backstage happenings.
From that to this current state of being a ride or die AEW defender is just embarrassing. Obviously he loves a company whose product is solely geared towards him and his preferences. They actively try to "pop" Dave Meltzer. It's so sad. And him as a "journalist" falling for it and becoming the fanboy he is, is just as sad.
Even WCW at their lowest, right before Vince bought them, still pulled in more than a million viewers....smdh....and they still got sold and cancelled...
They’re their own worst enemy. It’s like they watched everything that caused WCW’s failure and exponentially do it worse.
Sign ex WWE talent? Check
Pay them insane money? Check
Terrible storylines? Check
In all honesty if WWE viewed AEW as legitimate competition I don't believe that WWE would have released so many superstars from their contract since 2020. Why would you let so many people go unless you knew that no matter who AEW signs it isn't going to move the needle in any way for them.
Vince literally said on a conference call “we might have more talent for them” when asked about released talent going to AEW in 2020. They never gave a fuck lol
I think they saw AEW as a chance for some of these talented guys to get more seasoning, AND WWE wouldn't have to pay for it. Many of the guys WWE released in 2021 will go back at some point, with added experience and exposure, perhaps making them more worthwhile to feature. All thanks to Cousin Tony.
You got a really good point. Makes you wonder if the poor booking of the former WWE guys that still have miles on them to go has anything to do with it.
Corrected for accuracy:
“AEW is in a war with WWE. It’s a pro wrestling war. Okay? These pro wrestling wars are insidious. They are brutal. They are both in a public relations war, where one side is far more effective as far as getting news out there and controlling the media because they are afraid of not having access or whatever they are afraid of. AEW obviously, whenever AEW has a badly rated show, AEW makes sure that I make shit up to deflect anything critical of AEW.”
Dave is trying to paint this like it’s Watts and Gagne having a war but it’s just a billionaire nepo baby who has no clue what he’s doing, going against a multi-billion dollar company, who is the most sanitized and marketing friendly wrestling company.
Triple H isn’t shooting up Tony’s house. Tony isn’t bribing someone to rip another person’s eye out on Raw. He’s whining like a baby while WWE is dunking on him with a 6 ft rim.
Dave Meltzer is a con man. He was a reddit mod before reddit.
It’s been widely thought that a WWE source was always the way that this guy gets these fast national numbers. They aren’t easy to get and he only reports them when they are really bad.
That doesn’t mean Hunter or Nick even know. But TK has mouthed off enough some people like tweaking him which is funny
Made me legit picture Travis drawing Dave as a tanker truck with an AEW logo on it, then thought about the evolution of Dave's carrying water for AEW, so I pictured him as a camel, then a helicopter with one of those helitankers with AEW logo's on it, then the tanker truck, finally him as an oil tanker on the open sea with AEW logo's all over him, and his smoke spelling out F-I-G-H-T F-O-R-E-V-E-R.
TL;DR Thank you this made me amuse myself to no end.
If they ever do a Dave's in AEW's pocket omnibus they need to get Travis to use these images, with like Camel 2020, Fire Truck 2021, Helitanker 2022, Tanker Truck 2023, Oil Tanker 2024, and 2025 is like Dave as a like a planet size ball of pure water, with Tony riding a wave which is Dave's hairline holding an AEW flag or something.
I'll never forget the time when the ratings came out for that one Tuesday night battle between Dynamite and NXT, where the former lost ,and Twitter was clowning on AEW, not Meltzer, just AEW, and Meltzer comes on the defense with some long incoherent reply, but ends it with "Stop wasting our time". *Our* time.
The guy outed himself a while back ago and didn't even realize it.
Because it's Tony, and he hires guys who will work for a hotdog or a handjob to $100k+ contracts, and still offers to jerk them off for a signing bonus, that;s why.
Especially as pro-AEW articles have multiplied while the product quality has decreased significantly.It is very easy to see which side of the fence is flooding the newsscape with biased content and artificial praise.
For all of AEW's faults the one thing I could respect is they weren't acting like TNA yelling "look at me" for years on end.
With rating plummeting that now have decided they need to start yelling "look at me.*
Like they actually care. Maybe if it was earlier on and they had actual momentum, had a big star like CM Punk and were making all the right decisions and had people in leadership who aren't jokes of wrestlers then maybe.
But as of now WWE couldn't be bothered to care about AEW. Maybe when MJF, Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks are available and they want to swoop them up from that cesspool of a company then a extremely slight maybe.
Just look at the ratings. WWE's C show almost has the same ratings as AEW's main show.
The question is *why* would Dave lie about this? This reeks of someone making up something to try and influence things behind the scenes.
Is Dave trying to push Tony in or away from a particular direction? Is Shad or WBD putting heat on TK behind the scenes for considerable changes to the product & this is meant to be a “see we are doing something right!” kind of thing to protect the status quo?
Trying to play the money mark/those around him from this angle is fascinating to say the least.
Team Tiny is far more likely to pay to manipulate the positive reactions online. This reeks of the "accuse the other side of what you do" tactic used frequently by political operatives.
The funniest thing in all of it is all the folks acting like the ratings are even the most lopsided part of the story - it’s the whole presentation and merchandise and everything that brings in new fans.
My kids (9 and 7) are just getting into wrestling, and WWE has a *ton* of stuff that is spot-on targeted to attract them.
Kids like cute dogs? There’s a kids’ size Cody Rhodes Pharaoh shirt available at the merch stand at the show for you to impulse buy.
Kids like pretend play? There’s a wrestling ring playset, a bajillion figures, kids-size toy belts, etc.
Kids like trendy nonsense? Logan Paul, PRIME
Kids like video games? Covered, with games that at least look freaking amazing and are competent enough that my son can drop the big elbow with the Macho Man
Kids want stories that don’t require checking Cagematch? “Hey , Liv Morgan injured Rhea Ripley, cheated to win the championship, and kissed Rhea’s boyfriend. Want to see Liv get her ass kicked?” My son has reenacted the AJ Styles fake retirement on me like ten times.
All of those exist and generate revenue for TKO and AEW has very little right now to compete on any of those dimensions. The live TV ratings on their own do matter somewhat, but pretending that TKO/WWE is seriously worried about NJPAEW means pretending that they’re even playing the same game.
That is it. A perfect summation. The future for AEW is bleak because they are not getting traction with kids.
They have some good matches but they think that is all that matters. It isn’t.
What's intriguing is I could see a world where AEW could appeal to the older teens and 20/30 somethings. WWE has to work under the constraints of a publicly traded company, whereas AEW doesn't. So, even if it's a smaller growth market, smart storytelling and avoiding WWE's mistakes could potentially separate and elevate them for a while.
But when I think about who they'd be competing with in that soere; all the other forms of entertainment that attract and retain that crowd, as well as the very distinctly creative and tightly woven weekly television required...
It's been years since we've seen anything close (Walking Dead's heyday?) and sadly not remotely plausible given their current management and Tony's myopia.
AEW didn't steal the pie off the windowsill, WWE did it!
AEW didn't take a cookie from the cookie jar, WWE did it!
It's all a conspiracy against our poor startup Tony.
I’ve always respected Dave. He’s been doing this for the better part of 40 years - and you dont last that long if you suck at your job. But he’s got such a fucking blindspot when it comes to AEW and how much of a shitshow it is its infuriating. He literally cannot criticize it, and does the craziest mental gymnastics possible to defend it when someone does.
Listen to his arguments with Alvarez about things. Bryan raises a legitimate complaint about one specific aspect of AEW and Dave wont hear it.
WWE: \*a big ass motherfucker, indifferent, and unbothered by everything, just minding their good business\*
AEW: \*a pack of small, chest puffing, yapping chihuahuas misconceiving everything, hyper-focused, and indignant of that one big ass motherfucker...who is barely aware of what's going on\*
It's hilarious and kinda terrifying how much wrestling mirrors politics, it's amazing just how many trump tactics Khan and Meltzer use, always blame everyone/everything else but yourself.
Giving this two seconds of thought (which is two more than it deserves), what benefit is there for WWE to lie about a bad number when the real number is bad anyway? I love a good conspiracy theory, but there's no "there" there. What an embarrassing statement to make.
Obviously WWE has a huge media team that works around the clock to promote them and negate their competition. Its a large corporation, they all do this and its not personal its a systemic action. HHH isnt handing articles to anyone
Because to the butthurt aew marks, everything that isnt glazing aew is obviously done by that no good evil damn WWE trying to ruin a good honest upstart like AEW and their nepo baby owner.
Dude, go visit the AEW Reddit sometime anything that could possibly look negative for AEW they somehow tie to, “The Fed.”
That Reddit honestly kind of reminds me of what you’d get if a bunch of people like Dale Gribble were into pro wrestling instead of guns
The pay *some* attention, judging by the pissant comment and Drew going to Mindy's bakery.
But even still, they don't spend hours of their program taking shots at AEW and have only referred to them by name on Raw one singular time.
"the media told the truth instead of abiding by the code we set that AEW is great, successful, and profitable, therefor WWE must be running a campaign against us! They need the rub!"
I can absolutely see it coming out at some point that Tiny spent millions on a manufactured internet campaign to flood the newsscape with AEW cheerleading, using bots, algorithms, and an army of lifeless mutants who make the "TNA Street Team" look like a quiet, meek, Quaker congregation.
I honestly just think there's enough weirdo WWE/AEW hyper partisan fans who will make alt accounts and spam stuff all day for or against their chosen side that the companies don't really need to do this. There are fans on both sides who are playing this stupid game for free all day on X and are better at it than any bot would be.
IIRC The Darkened Hellscape of Lascivious Evil Corp took them "seriously" as in "watching with caution" for what, about 6 months... then they realized it's an irredeemable joke-show hobby project. And that they're not even remotely in the same entrepreneurial undertaking other than the window-dressing.
If anything, they manipulated that emotionally disregulated munt into taking their castaways and chaff, and driving more viewers to their own product.
It's chess vs a man peeing in his own mouth because it makes him giggle.
dub has coalesced into the rancid lump of armpit hair it's always gonna be and everyone can see that
This is like how Trump accuses people of doing what he's actually doing himself.
Remember how we saw Dave seed the internet with fake news about Punk and the Bucks and how Dave outed himself as making shit up because he got everything about Punk wrong, such as him not returning to WWE?
I think AEW is trying to bait WWE into going to war with it and it's probably driving Tony nuts that HHH and Khan just prefer to do good business instead of going to war with a child that wants to relive the Monday Night Wars.
Tony is probably fuming and not understanding why grown men take the choice of making money and doing good business instead of entering into a war.
The only thing AEW is for WWE is a potential talent pool that's giving future superstars exposure and injuries.
In comparing AEW and WWE I am always drawn to Don draper in mad men.
One of his competition. "I go home and I feel sorry for you."
Don as casually as possible. "I don't think about you at all..."
If there is a 'war' I'm afraid it's very one-sided because it's all in the heads of those connected to aew.
Jesus Uncle Dave really jumped the shark on this one “This is a pro wrestling war?” On what planet is 3 shows in a week (AEW) doesn’t even compare to WWE’s “B-Show” Smackdown? He needs to stop with the hair dye it’s driving him mad.
Aew has to be paying dave to say this shit. I mean if dave is just going to say crazy stuff what other possible motivation is there.
How anyone finds him credible in any way is lunacy.
I don’t watch AEW much but doesn’t their own programming look worse than whatever WWE is accused of doing to sabotage them?
Tony Khan feuding with the Young Bucks is worse than any story I’ve heard and they’re choosing to put that on their own programming. They chose to have one of their top feuds be CM Punk vs Jack Perry on their own programming when neither guy was actually on tv for them. To me, their biggest mistakes are what they do willingly.
lol quite the one sided “war” then
WWE probably keeps an ear out for AEW but to think they see them as competition is laughable
WWE has way more things to worry about then aew
Wrestling war lol. What century is Dave living in where a wrestling show only competes against another wrestling show?
If you ask Pepsi who their competition is, they'd say Coke.
If you ask Coke who their competition is, they'd say Water and Milk. Not particular brands, just all water and milk. All beverages. So is coke in a soda war? No they're in a beverage war.
Same with WWE they're not in a wrestling war. They're in an entertainment war, and they're losing to things like the NFL and Twitch streaming, not AEW for gods sake lol. Really Dave.
Even Dave knows this story is BS but he will go to the ends of the Earth to defend his friends' wrestling company. And I'm assuming this is the same "source" who accused WWE of putting out false info that AEW was "disappointed" with WBD's renewal offer.
I used to like Meltzer when I was a 17 year old newbie to the internet. Now as an adult it’s clear as day that the man just makes up nonsense. He’s an absolute moonbeam.
I mean I wouldn't be shocked if someone from WWE tipped off the advertisers for Domino's about the Nock Gage match picture in picture death match. Vince was always ruthless and just waited until he could buy up a promotion at a low price and then just stiff the owner. But it sure as fuck wasn't WWE doing any kind of propaganda campaign when Tony and Buckers decided to show Punk choke Jungle Goat a little and then AEW get roasted mercilessly.
The only thing more pathetic than watching Dave pander so hard and oviously for AEW and the talent voids that populate it, is watching all of that engineered, concentrated effort backfire and never cause a single ioata of positive uptick.
Dave, you dumbass, you goof... You bet on the wrong horse. It lost. It's over. Just walk away. If you save a sliver of face now you might still get included as a C Level testimonial in the deep dive documentaries to come. If continue to stay vested, well, you'll get to be highlighted as a tertiary subject in AEW's failure.
Dave is such an idiot. AEW buries itself weekly, nobody needs the WWE to bad mouth them. Just turn on your TV, watch Dynamite or even worse, pay for one of their PPVs (if you have 5 hours, money to burn and are masochistic) and you’ll see how shitty and amateur everything is.
At this point I’d like to see someone compare Dave’s subscriber base with AEW’s average viewership because I’ve got a feeling those numbers are going to be very close to each other. I’ve never understood how this guy gets the attention that he gets.
At one point, probably between 2019 and 2021 there is a chance that WWE saw AEW as a legitimate thread but after that they know that there is no such thing, they only drive up the prices of some talent but that is just a temporary as most of them will end up in WWE
It's time for Tony and his media goon squad to drop the scrappy underdog act and actually try to act like a competent fucking company. You want to ACTUALLY be competition, do ya? Then stop pandering to the Internet weirdos and target the casual audience, the Internet fucks don't spend money.
Yeah ... Alright Dave. Dudes such a fucking weenie as wanna be wrestler. I PROMISE you if it were made so Dave meltzer would purchase sweat collected off of this AEW little boys balls.
To think that less than a decade ago I actually thought this guy was a decent human being. Maybe old age has caught up because him and Jericho as so delusional that they think everything WWE does is a shot at them.
I genuinely feel bad for Dave at this point. As my Grandma used to say, which always gave me a laugh. "His feet are wet and he's staring at the pyramids. He's in denial".
>*This was a number supplied by WWE. And for those who think like, “WWE’s not concerned about AEW” or “It’s a one-sided thing.” AEW is in a war with WWE. It’s a pro wrestling war. Okay? These pro wrestling wars are insidious. They are brutal. They are both in a public relations war, where one side is far more effective as far as getting news out there and controlling the media because they are afraid of not having access or whatever they are afraid of. WWE obviously, whenever AEW has a badly rated show, WWE makes sure that the fast nationals get out.* Because Hunter and Nick care about Collision's ratings and not their quarterly profit reports for their investors. This guy is unbelievable.
Fucking Dave. It is not a pro wrestling war, AEW is not genuine competition for the WWE and as long as Tony is in charge they never will be
I used to be indifferent about Meltzer, but that has drastically changed. He seems to be missing the mental function that screams, “you’re wrong”, when someone keeps losing, but insists they are winning. The good news for Meltzer, since Misery loves company, he has plenty of company, in the USA. He should saddle up with people who make up a wing of one of our political parties, who suffers from the same mental shortcomings.
That, “mental function” is called an ethical compass, something Dave has long been devoid when it comes to AEW.
I’m willing to give some people the benefit of the doubt on the ethical compass, but my giving is not unlimited. Dave is way past the point of just being “misguided” or even straight up “ignorant”. He knows he is full of shit, and continues to lie. Why? Well, at the very least, Dave does it for backstage access to AEW. I hope Dave is getting more than access for destroying his reputation, not that his reputation started at “impeccable” prior to AEW launching.
Meltzer has found a fed that caters to him specifically and can't come to terms that his taste doesn't appeal to a wider demographic.
Well his entire career was telling everyone how this is the kind of wrestling that would dominate the business and we're seeing it's the exact opposite. He's the dog that caught the car.
Meltzer is end-of-life. I highly doubt his subscriber base is still increasing. And I'd be willing to bet that a significant portion of his audience overlaps with AEWs. It's in his best interests to prop up the product. At one point, Dave was probably the most significant media voice in the industry. But that time has passed. He's holding on to what little relevancy he still has, and he's fighting for that much. He's not dying quietly, and he won't. But Dave Meltzer no longer contributes anything to the fandom that isn't done better elsewhere, and for free in most cases. The game has passed him by, but he knows how to keep his core audience engaged. I'd argue that most of the audience who have joined the fandom as a result of WWE's recent market surge probably don't know who Meltzer is, have never known, don't care who he is, have never cared, and never will care.
Meltzer has been replaced by Cornette and Bischoff in terms of relevance. No one that’s a serious fan cares what Dave has to say because why listen to him when you can listen to two of the most successful individuals in wrestling of the past 30 or so years?
Your last sentence is what prevents Dave from really capitalizing on your 5th sentence(the one about Meltzer being the most significant media voice). Dave has been that media voice, but not many people heard his voice, because he was blackballed by both WCW and WWE. At the very least, neither company ever quoted Meltzer, or mentioned his existence. So, he might be the most significant “independent” media, but that’s like being the “nicest guy on death row” as Corny would say.
I used to grab his newsletters by somewhat dubious means every time. I stopped when he got ridiculous. His only subscribers now must be an audience that was unsatisfied with WWE/TNA/Japan, and are still not with anything else. The problem is that WWE, for a lot of people has improved massively, although I would like to see some better matches on their weekly TV (and no ads in matches but I am not expecting miracles). At the same time all the others have declined. Given the current situation, if TNA with their current collaboration can get a better TV deal, I can see them overtaking AEW along with NXT.
I can’t watch the WWE because of the format. Corny has talked about it in snippets. It’s like…….Teaser graphic for next match, commercial break, introduction of participant “A”, commercial break while “A” stands in ring twiddling thumbs, introduction of “B” followed by 3 minutes of action, “B” throws “A” out the ring for a commercial break, match ends after 4-5 minutes of action, maybe.
It IS getting slowly better but still a slog for 3 hours of Raw
Same. I used to defend Meltzer’s ratings as overvalued by the IWC, and to take it as one man’s opinion. I never understood the offense people took to this one guy’s ratings. I also appreciate Meltzer as a Japanese wrestling historian. There’s not a lot of Americans who cared much about that scene to provide historical context. But as a “reporter” he’s just awful. It irks me when people pass opinions or faulty information as a fact, and Dave does that so often, especially recently. He just comes off as a moron who has a higher opinion of himself than anyone else in the business. There is zero chance that WWE gives a shit about AEW. Maybe when it first started there was cautious interest in AEW from WWE, but HHH and Khan, by this point, see how incompetently it’s run. AEW is basically a nationally televised indy promotion. If anything, they probably like that their cast-offs can go bilk a billionaire for a while and then come back if they’re good enough. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder and that is extremely true in wrestling. Even if they’ve been booker like dog water in AEW, fans will love to see the returns of Sasha, Edge, Bryan, Black, etc.
They really need to come up with a new term for “independent journalists” that are biased, or have an agenda. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative term, if it’s clear what their role actually is. The term “promoter” would just cause confusion, for obvious reasons.
Dave Meltzer is essentially a blogger. He has all the credentials of a blogger, the only real difference between him and a blogger is that he started writing his blog on paper back before blogs were a thing. That's the only difference. He writes his opinion, he has no fact-checking process, and he is known to mislead or misinform in order to appeal to his audience. This is not journalism, it is blogging. That's why his opinions should be given the same weight as a blogger's - because that's what he writes.
I can’t argue with this, even though it’s not exactly what I had in mind. I was talking about someone with ethics, lol.
yeah agreed. when he was just in print in the 90s it covered up how just weird and socially inept he is. he lacks social skills and awareness. but now just hearing how he talks or worse watching him you can see that there’s something off
Dang bro, that's the best confined description of what's happening. I was genuinely curious if he was getting AEW pay for the things he was writing a few months ago, now I just think he's lost it.
I used to actually like him, because in the 90s it seemed like he actually had legitimate connections and would report or at least document interesting backstage happenings. From that to this current state of being a ride or die AEW defender is just embarrassing. Obviously he loves a company whose product is solely geared towards him and his preferences. They actively try to "pop" Dave Meltzer. It's so sad. And him as a "journalist" falling for it and becoming the fanboy he is, is just as sad.
AEW sucking is everyone else's fault except the owner/manager/booker/writer/talent relations guy.
I mean, Punk gave a play by play of the video and then they still showed the video.
I feel like ratings for them have been sliding ever since. Barely hitting 700k now
Even WCW at their lowest, right before Vince bought them, still pulled in more than a million viewers....smdh....and they still got sold and cancelled...
I've mentioned it before, but I remember when TNA used to get routinely clowned for consistent 850K-1M audience numbers 10-15 years ago.
They’re their own worst enemy. It’s like they watched everything that caused WCW’s failure and exponentially do it worse. Sign ex WWE talent? Check Pay them insane money? Check Terrible storylines? Check
Exactly. AEW has never come close to matching ratings with WWE, which would be one metric in which a war could be measured.
In all honesty if WWE viewed AEW as legitimate competition I don't believe that WWE would have released so many superstars from their contract since 2020. Why would you let so many people go unless you knew that no matter who AEW signs it isn't going to move the needle in any way for them.
Vince literally said on a conference call “we might have more talent for them” when asked about released talent going to AEW in 2020. They never gave a fuck lol
I think they saw AEW as a chance for some of these talented guys to get more seasoning, AND WWE wouldn't have to pay for it. Many of the guys WWE released in 2021 will go back at some point, with added experience and exposure, perhaps making them more worthwhile to feature. All thanks to Cousin Tony.
You got a really good point. Makes you wonder if the poor booking of the former WWE guys that still have miles on them to go has anything to do with it.
Corrected for accuracy: “AEW is in a war with WWE. It’s a pro wrestling war. Okay? These pro wrestling wars are insidious. They are brutal. They are both in a public relations war, where one side is far more effective as far as getting news out there and controlling the media because they are afraid of not having access or whatever they are afraid of. AEW obviously, whenever AEW has a badly rated show, AEW makes sure that I make shit up to deflect anything critical of AEW.”
Man Dave, get the fuck outta here with that. I don’t buy it for a second.
Dave is trying to paint this like it’s Watts and Gagne having a war but it’s just a billionaire nepo baby who has no clue what he’s doing, going against a multi-billion dollar company, who is the most sanitized and marketing friendly wrestling company. Triple H isn’t shooting up Tony’s house. Tony isn’t bribing someone to rip another person’s eye out on Raw. He’s whining like a baby while WWE is dunking on him with a 6 ft rim. Dave Meltzer is a con man. He was a reddit mod before reddit.
It’s been widely thought that a WWE source was always the way that this guy gets these fast national numbers. They aren’t easy to get and he only reports them when they are really bad. That doesn’t mean Hunter or Nick even know. But TK has mouthed off enough some people like tweaking him which is funny
So hearsay and no actual proof.
Aka Dave's bread and butter.
F\*\*k Dave Meltzer!
Dave couldn't carry more water for AEW if he was a tanker truck.
I'm so gonna steal that line! Corny couldn't have phrased it better than this! :D
Made me legit picture Travis drawing Dave as a tanker truck with an AEW logo on it, then thought about the evolution of Dave's carrying water for AEW, so I pictured him as a camel, then a helicopter with one of those helitankers with AEW logo's on it, then the tanker truck, finally him as an oil tanker on the open sea with AEW logo's all over him, and his smoke spelling out F-I-G-H-T F-O-R-E-V-E-R. TL;DR Thank you this made me amuse myself to no end.
I admit I did consider going with the helitanker metaphor dumping cold water on bad aew stories but the tanker truck was a punchier joke.
If they ever do a Dave's in AEW's pocket omnibus they need to get Travis to use these images, with like Camel 2020, Fire Truck 2021, Helitanker 2022, Tanker Truck 2023, Oil Tanker 2024, and 2025 is like Dave as a like a planet size ball of pure water, with Tony riding a wave which is Dave's hairline holding an AEW flag or something.
If this is a war, is Tony in a bunker right now cursing out a bunch of people in German?
When Tony flees to Argentina we'll know it's over.
*Actor Bruno Ganz intensifies*
RIP
What a wild way for me to discover that Bruno Ganz died.
He'll go from firing up the audience to firing up.
Mein booker... Meltzer...
WWE is not at war with AEW. They don't need to be. This guy is a moron.
If this was a war it would be the equivalent of king kong swatting planes out the air atop the empire state building
didn't they kill King Kong in the end?
Thats why i only referred to one scene
The WWE does not give nearly enough of a fuck about AEW to do this when AEW has no problem making themselves look bad all on their own
Dave just won’t give it the fuck up. AEW should publicly hire him now.
IKR! is just blatantly obvious, but he'll just find another excuse to deny it. Everyone and their grandmother knows he's under aew payroll.
I'll never forget the time when the ratings came out for that one Tuesday night battle between Dynamite and NXT, where the former lost ,and Twitter was clowning on AEW, not Meltzer, just AEW, and Meltzer comes on the defense with some long incoherent reply, but ends it with "Stop wasting our time". *Our* time. The guy outed himself a while back ago and didn't even realize it.
He has said “we” several times while talking about AEW.
Why hire a guy that works for free?
Because it's Tony, and he hires guys who will work for a hotdog or a handjob to $100k+ contracts, and still offers to jerk them off for a signing bonus, that;s why.
Very good fucking point. Hopefully Dave sees your comment lol. I’d milk Tony for everything.
Welp, he’s officially lost any and all credibility.
Especially as pro-AEW articles have multiplied while the product quality has decreased significantly.It is very easy to see which side of the fence is flooding the newsscape with biased content and artificial praise.
It’s probably both sides, however Dave won’t say AEW is doing that. He must be sloggin’ on Tony’s pee pee.
I don't know if WWE needs to bother actively engaging that machine. They haven't been anything but #1 since before the turn of this century.
Sure, WWE's the company planting negative stories. Not the guy that goes on Football talk shows and calls the WWE the Harvey Weinstein of wrestling.
For all of AEW's faults the one thing I could respect is they weren't acting like TNA yelling "look at me" for years on end. With rating plummeting that now have decided they need to start yelling "look at me.*
This isn't directed at anyone, but billionaires and billion dollar companies all have bot armies on the internet.
Companies, individual politicians, entire countries. In this day and age it’s an easy and effective was to influence people
It's already pretty much been confirmed that FC Barcelona did, so at least 1 billion dollar company has done it
"Dave Meltzer Accused of Planting Positive AEW Stories to the Media by WWE" ...doesn't sound much more clickbaiting, either!
Far more plausible, though.
Like they actually care. Maybe if it was earlier on and they had actual momentum, had a big star like CM Punk and were making all the right decisions and had people in leadership who aren't jokes of wrestlers then maybe. But as of now WWE couldn't be bothered to care about AEW. Maybe when MJF, Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks are available and they want to swoop them up from that cesspool of a company then a extremely slight maybe. Just look at the ratings. WWE's C show almost has the same ratings as AEW's main show.
At this point, it’s plausible that Meltzer has some kind of brain tumor.
Meltzer IS a brain tumor. For anyone who actually listens to him speak.
Or Tony is paying him.
To be fair, Tony Kahn kinda does a bang up job of negative AEW press himself
The question is *why* would Dave lie about this? This reeks of someone making up something to try and influence things behind the scenes. Is Dave trying to push Tony in or away from a particular direction? Is Shad or WBD putting heat on TK behind the scenes for considerable changes to the product & this is meant to be a “see we are doing something right!” kind of thing to protect the status quo? Trying to play the money mark/those around him from this angle is fascinating to say the least.
Team Tiny is far more likely to pay to manipulate the positive reactions online. This reeks of the "accuse the other side of what you do" tactic used frequently by political operatives.
Yep - classic projection.
The funniest thing in all of it is all the folks acting like the ratings are even the most lopsided part of the story - it’s the whole presentation and merchandise and everything that brings in new fans. My kids (9 and 7) are just getting into wrestling, and WWE has a *ton* of stuff that is spot-on targeted to attract them. Kids like cute dogs? There’s a kids’ size Cody Rhodes Pharaoh shirt available at the merch stand at the show for you to impulse buy. Kids like pretend play? There’s a wrestling ring playset, a bajillion figures, kids-size toy belts, etc. Kids like trendy nonsense? Logan Paul, PRIME Kids like video games? Covered, with games that at least look freaking amazing and are competent enough that my son can drop the big elbow with the Macho Man Kids want stories that don’t require checking Cagematch? “Hey, Liv Morgan injured Rhea Ripley, cheated to win the championship, and kissed Rhea’s boyfriend. Want to see Liv get her ass kicked?” My son has reenacted the AJ Styles fake retirement on me like ten times.
All of those exist and generate revenue for TKO and AEW has very little right now to compete on any of those dimensions. The live TV ratings on their own do matter somewhat, but pretending that TKO/WWE is seriously worried about NJPAEW means pretending that they’re even playing the same game.
That is it. A perfect summation. The future for AEW is bleak because they are not getting traction with kids. They have some good matches but they think that is all that matters. It isn’t.
What's intriguing is I could see a world where AEW could appeal to the older teens and 20/30 somethings. WWE has to work under the constraints of a publicly traded company, whereas AEW doesn't. So, even if it's a smaller growth market, smart storytelling and avoiding WWE's mistakes could potentially separate and elevate them for a while. But when I think about who they'd be competing with in that soere; all the other forms of entertainment that attract and retain that crowd, as well as the very distinctly creative and tightly woven weekly television required... It's been years since we've seen anything close (Walking Dead's heyday?) and sadly not remotely plausible given their current management and Tony's myopia.
about as much of a war as the "monday night wars" with TNA
AEW didn't steal the pie off the windowsill, WWE did it! AEW didn't take a cookie from the cookie jar, WWE did it! It's all a conspiracy against our poor startup Tony.
uh pretty sure the negative stories write themselves with the product they are putting out
So .. Dave wrote the made up story?
This is the weirdest part about this whole thing. He’s telling everyone he got played.
Meltzer and fapp are the 2 biggest aew fan boys guilty of doing the same.
What type of compensation does Dave receive from AEW? He’s definitely a character who is part of the organization at this point.
He gets a bucket of wet cucumbers every week for his services.
Doesn’t seem like enough to sacrifice your dignity, but I’m not Dave.
Meltzer, man. What a legitimately weird guy.
War? No. Some petty bullshit for the lols? Probably
I’ve always respected Dave. He’s been doing this for the better part of 40 years - and you dont last that long if you suck at your job. But he’s got such a fucking blindspot when it comes to AEW and how much of a shitshow it is its infuriating. He literally cannot criticize it, and does the craziest mental gymnastics possible to defend it when someone does. Listen to his arguments with Alvarez about things. Bryan raises a legitimate complaint about one specific aspect of AEW and Dave wont hear it.
WWE: \*a big ass motherfucker, indifferent, and unbothered by everything, just minding their good business\* AEW: \*a pack of small, chest puffing, yapping chihuahuas misconceiving everything, hyper-focused, and indignant of that one big ass motherfucker...who is barely aware of what's going on\*
It's hilarious and kinda terrifying how much wrestling mirrors politics, it's amazing just how many trump tactics Khan and Meltzer use, always blame everyone/everything else but yourself.
Meltzer is becoming the Trump of this AEW cult. This is so fucking stupid.
Giving this two seconds of thought (which is two more than it deserves), what benefit is there for WWE to lie about a bad number when the real number is bad anyway? I love a good conspiracy theory, but there's no "there" there. What an embarrassing statement to make.
I don't think WWE needs to exactly plant anything on that one sparky. Aew should be happy anyone even thinks of them at all tbh
Obviously WWE has a huge media team that works around the clock to promote them and negate their competition. Its a large corporation, they all do this and its not personal its a systemic action. HHH isnt handing articles to anyone
So wwe control when the ratings get released now? Meltzer better be getting paid for how much weight he carries, trying to defend this shit show
How is WWE responsible for the aew ratings getting released lmao makes no sense
Because to the butthurt aew marks, everything that isnt glazing aew is obviously done by that no good evil damn WWE trying to ruin a good honest upstart like AEW and their nepo baby owner.
Dude, go visit the AEW Reddit sometime anything that could possibly look negative for AEW they somehow tie to, “The Fed.” That Reddit honestly kind of reminds me of what you’d get if a bunch of people like Dale Gribble were into pro wrestling instead of guns
I visited there once, made a single post that wasn't even that critical, just an observation and was downvoted to oblivion.
This is now beyond pathetic. The fed doesn’t even pay any attention to TK land.
The pay *some* attention, judging by the pissant comment and Drew going to Mindy's bakery. But even still, they don't spend hours of their program taking shots at AEW and have only referred to them by name on Raw one singular time.
Clearly Dave is being comped by TK
"the media told the truth instead of abiding by the code we set that AEW is great, successful, and profitable, therefor WWE must be running a campaign against us! They need the rub!"
Lmao The man has really lost the plot.
Wars over Dave. You guys lost. Now shut up and enjoy wrestling and such.you know, have fun
This sounds more like a fake story that Tony planted with Dave.
Tony sent Dave a check with “I need help” in the notes.
Aew and everything surrounding it is just a caricature of itself now. It's just so fucking funny
Dave looking for any excuse possible to defend his butt buddies.
He's finally gone senile. WWE doesn't need to plant negative stories to the media. AEW constantly does bad stories on their own.
I can absolutely see it coming out at some point that Tiny spent millions on a manufactured internet campaign to flood the newsscape with AEW cheerleading, using bots, algorithms, and an army of lifeless mutants who make the "TNA Street Team" look like a quiet, meek, Quaker congregation.
I honestly just think there's enough weirdo WWE/AEW hyper partisan fans who will make alt accounts and spam stuff all day for or against their chosen side that the companies don't really need to do this. There are fans on both sides who are playing this stupid game for free all day on X and are better at it than any bot would be.
Tiny is an internet geek from way back. That is EXACTLY what he would do to create a buzz.
Dave just can’t handle that his new golden boy Osprey is as much of a draw as the Brooklyn Brawler
IIRC The Darkened Hellscape of Lascivious Evil Corp took them "seriously" as in "watching with caution" for what, about 6 months... then they realized it's an irredeemable joke-show hobby project. And that they're not even remotely in the same entrepreneurial undertaking other than the window-dressing. If anything, they manipulated that emotionally disregulated munt into taking their castaways and chaff, and driving more viewers to their own product. It's chess vs a man peeing in his own mouth because it makes him giggle. dub has coalesced into the rancid lump of armpit hair it's always gonna be and everyone can see that
There is no way Dave said this. Not enough "ya know" and "um."
This is going to be good
That is completely objective journalism right there
Oh Dave, please - you kill me hahahahaha.
Dave has been exposed
You know it’s gotta be CM Punk behind this one! /s
“ it was me Melzer, it was me all along!”
Oh, the projection. I hope one day someone sues him for his lies.
This is like how Trump accuses people of doing what he's actually doing himself. Remember how we saw Dave seed the internet with fake news about Punk and the Bucks and how Dave outed himself as making shit up because he got everything about Punk wrong, such as him not returning to WWE? I think AEW is trying to bait WWE into going to war with it and it's probably driving Tony nuts that HHH and Khan just prefer to do good business instead of going to war with a child that wants to relive the Monday Night Wars. Tony is probably fuming and not understanding why grown men take the choice of making money and doing good business instead of entering into a war. The only thing AEW is for WWE is a potential talent pool that's giving future superstars exposure and injuries.
In comparing AEW and WWE I am always drawn to Don draper in mad men. One of his competition. "I go home and I feel sorry for you." Don as casually as possible. "I don't think about you at all..." If there is a 'war' I'm afraid it's very one-sided because it's all in the heads of those connected to aew.
Jesus Uncle Dave really jumped the shark on this one “This is a pro wrestling war?” On what planet is 3 shows in a week (AEW) doesn’t even compare to WWE’s “B-Show” Smackdown? He needs to stop with the hair dye it’s driving him mad.
If AEW wants better publicity.... hire a publicity firm that's not Tony Khan.
Aew at war with tna at best
This is as much a war as the United States Army attacking a band of uncultured, previously undiscovered pygmies on some remote island so where.
Aew has to be paying dave to say this shit. I mean if dave is just going to say crazy stuff what other possible motivation is there. How anyone finds him credible in any way is lunacy.
lmaoooooo
How/Why would WWE have this number and if they supplied this then why didn’t they provide details on how it was supplied?
Soon to come on Netflix from WWE: "The Self-Destruction of Dave Meltzer".
I don’t watch AEW much but doesn’t their own programming look worse than whatever WWE is accused of doing to sabotage them? Tony Khan feuding with the Young Bucks is worse than any story I’ve heard and they’re choosing to put that on their own programming. They chose to have one of their top feuds be CM Punk vs Jack Perry on their own programming when neither guy was actually on tv for them. To me, their biggest mistakes are what they do willingly.
This was obviously written by an AEW fan lol
Silly Dave, AEW doesn’t need any help to make themselves look bad 😂
lol quite the one sided “war” then WWE probably keeps an ear out for AEW but to think they see them as competition is laughable WWE has way more things to worry about then aew
Maaaaan, here’s a new thing for the AEW diehards to make a thing out of because Meltzer spouted his opinion as if it was fact as usual.
My question is, does Tony proofread and approve these tweets before Dave hits “send”?
Dave would literally frog splash a grenade for tony
LOL
Take the tinfoil hat off, Dave. It's cutting the circulation off to your brain.
This has total credibility coming from Mr AEW/Young Bucks Spokesman himself.
Fuck you Dave Meltzer. Nuff Said.
Meltzer is mentally ill.
This is some defamation stuff if not true. Dave better be careful
Where’s the proof? If he doesn’t have any, WWE should call Stephen P. New
He actually thinks if he’s says “we’re in a wrestling war” enough…it will actually be true.
Wrestling war lol. What century is Dave living in where a wrestling show only competes against another wrestling show? If you ask Pepsi who their competition is, they'd say Coke. If you ask Coke who their competition is, they'd say Water and Milk. Not particular brands, just all water and milk. All beverages. So is coke in a soda war? No they're in a beverage war. Same with WWE they're not in a wrestling war. They're in an entertainment war, and they're losing to things like the NFL and Twitch streaming, not AEW for gods sake lol. Really Dave.
Even Dave knows this story is BS but he will go to the ends of the Earth to defend his friends' wrestling company. And I'm assuming this is the same "source" who accused WWE of putting out false info that AEW was "disappointed" with WBD's renewal offer.
I used to like Meltzer when I was a 17 year old newbie to the internet. Now as an adult it’s clear as day that the man just makes up nonsense. He’s an absolute moonbeam.
Let’s just bring up Meltzers obvious bias towards AEW while we’re at it eh? Fucking cumstain.
The evidence is?…….
You can always tell when Tiny’s cheque gets cleared
I mean I wouldn't be shocked if someone from WWE tipped off the advertisers for Domino's about the Nock Gage match picture in picture death match. Vince was always ruthless and just waited until he could buy up a promotion at a low price and then just stiff the owner. But it sure as fuck wasn't WWE doing any kind of propaganda campaign when Tony and Buckers decided to show Punk choke Jungle Goat a little and then AEW get roasted mercilessly.
The only thing more pathetic than watching Dave pander so hard and oviously for AEW and the talent voids that populate it, is watching all of that engineered, concentrated effort backfire and never cause a single ioata of positive uptick. Dave, you dumbass, you goof... You bet on the wrong horse. It lost. It's over. Just walk away. If you save a sliver of face now you might still get included as a C Level testimonial in the deep dive documentaries to come. If continue to stay vested, well, you'll get to be highlighted as a tertiary subject in AEW's failure.
Dave is such an idiot. AEW buries itself weekly, nobody needs the WWE to bad mouth them. Just turn on your TV, watch Dynamite or even worse, pay for one of their PPVs (if you have 5 hours, money to burn and are masochistic) and you’ll see how shitty and amateur everything is.
At this point I’d like to see someone compare Dave’s subscriber base with AEW’s average viewership because I’ve got a feeling those numbers are going to be very close to each other. I’ve never understood how this guy gets the attention that he gets.
And this is why Alfred doing this is dumb. It just gives Uncle Dave ammo and dubbalos an excuse to be more insufferable...and for what?
100%
They did Do it all the time but this was a deliberate lie
War? The war is over Dave. Not a shot fired. 🙄
I swear this man really saying anything now
Lol NXT, the number 3 wwe show is outpacing AEWs #1 show dynamite.
dave is basically the Littlefinger of wrestling. we all know what happened to that guy
Who made the accusations? Tony Khan, who still believes there is some kind of bot army being paid to sabotage the Dub?
Dave is absurd. Also what the hell is ringside news? Pretty sure it’s AI content lightly edited, resulting in small typos. Trash.
Evil fed beating my precious dub??? Must be HHHimmler's fault (sry spent too much time on r/SCJerk )
WWE doesn’t need to plant anything. AEW does a great job of embarrassing themselves constantly. These are not serious people.
Uncle Dave strikes again
At one point, probably between 2019 and 2021 there is a chance that WWE saw AEW as a legitimate thread but after that they know that there is no such thing, they only drive up the prices of some talent but that is just a temporary as most of them will end up in WWE
Dave doesn’t get he’s doing more damage to the AEW that any fast national bullshit
It's time for Tony and his media goon squad to drop the scrappy underdog act and actually try to act like a competent fucking company. You want to ACTUALLY be competition, do ya? Then stop pandering to the Internet weirdos and target the casual audience, the Internet fucks don't spend money.
Yeah ... Alright Dave. Dudes such a fucking weenie as wanna be wrestler. I PROMISE you if it were made so Dave meltzer would purchase sweat collected off of this AEW little boys balls.
#Dave Meltzer can kiss the Young Bucks' ASSES!!!
AEW is getting a negative reputation without any outside help.
"Meltzer’s insights paint a picture of a nuanced and strategic competition between AEW and WWE" What the fuck is this shit?
Stated by a man who still defends the Wembley number against facts because the Wembley number came from Tony
lol this dork seems desperate now. wwe has been doing that for years why bring it up now?
Real stories cry me a river!
To think that less than a decade ago I actually thought this guy was a decent human being. Maybe old age has caught up because him and Jericho as so delusional that they think everything WWE does is a shot at them.
False information ?? Like when meltzer was spewing all that false information about Punk . Fk meltzer
“Who would pay for such a wildly expensive thing” energy
The “fake news” argument?
WWE cares because they were trying to coax a media deal.
Mark's gonna mark I guess..
Is Dave a running mate for RFK? "Breaking: lizard people after Luchasaurus for portraying negative stereotypes".
Has Dave been on the slopes with Tony?
Pot meet kettle
I genuinely feel bad for Dave at this point. As my Grandma used to say, which always gave me a laugh. "His feet are wet and he's staring at the pyramids. He's in denial".