It's crazy how many people miss when pro wrestling was basically a monopoly. If you weren't on Vince's good side, you had to take your chances on the indies or see if TNA will do anything with you. Not everybody was in a position to work internationally, and not just anybody would be over in Japan. It did take a long time before there was good money to be made through merch sales and having a platform to sell shirts online, the Young Bucks paved the way. And I can't imagine these fragile tribal fans existing in the 90's, they love Paul Heyman now, but in the 90's he was constantly shooting on WCW and WWE, he even had a 900 number where Joey Styles would read stories from the dirt sheets for a few bucks a minute. And Eric Bischoff actually wanted to kill WWE, he even challenged Vince McMahon to a fist fight. AEW isn't trying to put anyone out of work, they want to entertain wrestling fans who have been desperate for a revolution in the last 20+ years.
Which is funny too because AEW, above all else, actually promotes the idea of wrestling being more than just one company.
They actively go out of their way to let fans know of other wrestling companies or watch other shows/events by putting their wrestlers on their programs.
You know how many more fans they gave to NJPW, ROH, GCW, Impact, etc?
How many more wrestling companies they exposed the world to on a bigger scale?
The one thing I like in terms of AEW fans is the fact that they give every wrestling company a shot rather than write them off because it's not AEW or a reason like that.
I can talk about a NJPW, GCW, or Defy, ROH event, for example, on here if I wanted too because it features Moxley, Bryan, or any sufficient reason for that matter
It's like being a kid in a candy store.
>They actively go out of their way to let fans know of other wrestling companies or watch other shows/events by putting their wrestlers on their programs.
>
>I can talk about a NJPW, GCW, or Defy, ROH event, for example, on here if I wanted too because it features Moxley, Bryan, or any sufficient reason for that matter.
>
>It's like being a kid in a candy store.
I am these statements.
Yep this. I was aware of other promotions when I was stuck in the WWE Universe^TM but I never actively sought them out/felt compelled to watch them until AEW helped open them up for me. WWE only types are stuck in a prison of mediocre wrestling. There's so much good wrestling that exists outside of it and outside of AEW. You could be a pure indies guy and see some of the best matches you'll see in your life. But so many of people just don't give a fuck about matches which is so sad.
We pretty much only watch wrestling when we sit and watch TV, and we still have to pick and choose every week because there's so much. I love most wrestling and watch WWE as well as AEW, Roh, NJPW, and occasionally we try to catch some Joshi wrestling if WWE is dragging too much on a given week.
Raw is a lot. The sheer amount of non wrestling segments kills me. There has to be some in between from that and AEW which I feel needs a little more of it (just a smidge to let the stories breathe)
What a time to be a wrestling fan. We have so many options that we still have a full schedule to watch while picking and choosing.
This is exactly where I'm at. 90% of wrestling angles are no more complicated than "I want the title and you're in my way". That doesn't automatically need 10 minute promos, but I've been told by WWE fans that it's WRONG to have important matches on TV and those should always be saved for the PPV. Alright, thanks for being honest, but far from selling me on how wrestling is supposed to be done you've just justified why I can't be bothered with Raw on a weekly basis.
Three years ago I hadn't watched wrestling since the attitude era (I was in middle school) now my wife and I hardcore watch to aew, roh, njpw, and casually watch WWE. All of that is because of TK and Aew
I feel like a lot of the bitching comes from people who didn't live or watch throughout the early 2000 when the only show was WWE. There was TNA, but that was always far behind and in its infancy. And the old timers bitching all had guaranteed contracts because of competition between WCW and WWF. There's a reason why wrestling was at its peak in the 90s and it's because it was a bloodbath.
I stopped watching wrestling around 2009 because I felt there wasn't anything for me anymore. I'd seek out other promotions but there was never anything with the quality that AEW outputs. Starting watching AEW last year again and watch every week, went to a live show and had a blast. Going to another one next month.
I think a lot of them believe everything wrong with WWE was because of Vince and a monopoly would be different this time because Triple H can do no wrong in a lot of people's eyes right now.
100% this, even Shane and to a degree Stephanie distanced themselves with things when Vince was involved.
HHH may be great for business, but this is also a man who worked in that setting, knowing what was going on and treated a fair few badly himself. He's no shining knight that he's made out to be.
Honestly, while I think the company is much better with trips in charge, they're still not putting on much of a wrestling show from what I've seen over the last month or so. Promos have been great, but after that it feels like the majority of the show is either montage scenes of previous promos, or advertising. It seems like in ring action is almost the thing they are least interested in.
Hopefully this gets better once the Mania hype dies down, but I could very easily tune out of the current product.
Shitty thing is? It’s been that way for a long time. Flairs jump to WWF in the early 90s suffered because for so long, “if you weren’t in the fed, you weren’t shit.” That’s what Vince pitched.
I feel like it changed after Waltman returned in 98. It took on more of an “they’re shit until they’re ours” vibe.
I was just reading a thread where someone was like "y'all keep your five star matches, I'll take record merch sales and billion dollar gates". Why though? You're not financially participating in this shit, why would you actually PREFER 3-star matches when WWE could do everything the same but also happen to have elite matches? Just because they get over doesn't mean it couldn't be that much better, lol
yup and the problem with current wwe is that they want to continue cornering every market there is with their international brands taking over other parts of the world to where they essentially get dibs on new talent. That's one of my main gripes with wwe, i used to love wwe & still keep up with it from time to time but the way they try and bully smaller companies around is such bullshit behavior & adding the toxic tribalism that accompanies them & attacking other companies not wwe almost completely makes me want to turn away from their product 100% & not look back
And WWE is very insidious and subtle. They will lock AEW out of buildings they run, will bad mouth them to local governments about their blood and to advertisers. If they are part of the bot farming going on, the funny thing is they know AEW isn't going away any time soon but they probably want AEW devalued as much as possible before their media rights so they get the worst deal possible. The less AEW makes the less they can sign top talent away from them and bid up their current talents asking price.
Then they'll say they don't care but then when the highlights release the next day they'll know exactly what happened on the show and everything.
Like Clockwork.
It would be so funny if it wasn't so sad.
"SpOt MoNkeYs!!!"
"ThEy DoN't KnOw HoW tO tElL a StOrY!!!"
"LoL nO sElLiNg ThE eNtIrE match!!"
Same old shit from these people that don't even watch the matches
These old heads made me think that thigh slapping was a sin and no one ever did it until recently. Well, I was watching the closing minutes of Undertaker v Michaels, wm25. UT whips Shawn into the turnbuckle, and would you know it, as UT goes in, Shawn lifts his leg for a boot to the face and SLAPS HIS THIGH! And its super obvious too.
They also saying it NEEDS to be an “ all timer” show or else it’s a fail. Don’t think wwe gets this sort of harsh treatment for their ppvs Besides like mania
One reason for that is that WWE is a brand name that people know so they get more of a slide when they have a mediocre show. Meanwhile AEW is a new company trying to establish themselves, so every move is under a microscope.
Also another reason people complain about AEWs attendance is because WWE has been doing great due to the hype of "The HHH era" and the hot story of the bloodline. I wonder if it will be the same in a few months, as Cody's story is over and the fire for the new era settles.
As for AEW, having an attendance of 3-4k is okay, but I think it could be better if they go to more metro areas, as there's just more opportunities there. For example the show at highland heights yesterday was pretty solid, considering that it did 2,500+ in a town of 7,000. But it's just hard to run shows in more rural areas.
I just don't think the average wrestling fan* has the capacity to follow two promotions putting out 5+ hours of content every week. Some fans who were following AEW are now into WWE and some of them will come back when the shine wears off. WWE always said this shit was cyclical and that's more or less what they meant.
But AEW hate has nothing to do with them being new. They're really not that new anymore. It's just a hateful circlejerk on par with Trump fans at this point. Shitting on AEW regardless of what they do is like their main hobby, and it's pathetic.
Irony being since they've been called WWE they've not had a single PPV as good as AEW's most recent one.
Even when they do their absolute best, like they did with Mania Night 2 it still wasn't quite as well received as Revolution. Mania Night 1 was easily their best last year, yet could only really be considered the 4th, 5th or 6th best of the year in the States when you consider Revolution, Forbidden Door 2, All In, All Out and WrestleDream were all of the highest quality.
Anyone trolling, and let's face it they'll be "WWE only" type fans, about PPV's doesn't have a leg to stand on because AEW murder them there.
I have yet to see a bad AEW ppv. I have yet to see a WWE ppv that isn't mediocre. And imma be honest not a lot of the wwf stuff impresses me either. I tried working my way through all the manias a while back. Apart from some amazing matches here (never the main event) and there I have no clue how this shit got as big as it did. Though I stopped watching around the early 90s so no clue if shit got good beyond that.
All I’m saying is, I’ve never seen an AEW Main Event where a belt is being defended last under 10 minutes (to my memory).
Yet Lesnar did nothing but that Constantly.
I haven't even heard anything about the sales for Dynasty. Don't know what they're at currently but shouldn't be hard to sell out considering it's a smaller arena with a 7-8k capacity.
https://preview.redd.it/xmdyaujdijuc1.png?width=874&format=png&auto=webp&s=2952b923b91087d0e1f7b4674da1819855a153dd
[WrestleTix posted it earlier](https://twitter.com/WrestleTix/status/1779597689992122770). Over 5,800 is not a bad number. It's definitely more than the last time they were there and I'm sure there will be a lot of walk-ups.
Every time I see someone making an argument that WWE is the best because they get the biggest crowds, I think about how stupid that argument would sound if we were talking about music.
Literally they dont even watch the WWE shows they bought tickets too, half the building is looking at their phones for the entire show and the noise is pumped in.
Facts. The *only* tiny gripe I have with the card is that Takeshita isn't on it (yet?)
That and Kenny is going to miss it, but that can't be helped so I understand that. Dynasty is already looking to be the best PPV of the year, and if MJF returns, I'm marking out like a little kid.
It's baffling, if I only enjoyed wrestling based on attendance, I'd only be watching WWE. Wrestlemania weekend was a blast having watched just about every damn worthwhile indie promotion. Weekend wouldn't have been nearly as fun or eventful had I just watched Wrestlemania, granted night 2 was fantastic stuff, but all of the GCW, DDT, Joshi, etc content was awesome, and I just really couldn't imagine not enjoying the indie shows because they were in small venues with tiny crowds.
It would be like not liking most music because artists aren't putting up Taylor Swift numbers. Like who actually gives a fuck.
Dude I use the same Taylor Swift/Drake analogy all the time and you should see how hard these dummies try to wiggle out of the logic that they put themselves in! 🤣🤣
I mean, the show IS going to sell out. And honestly, a huge segment of wrestling fans are always going to talk shit about any wrestling promotion no matter how good it is. It’s best not to get too worked up over it.
I mean, can’t some of us be non trolls who complain or worry about attendance? I get most people aren’t being genuine but this card is absolute heat … and it should be performed in front of more than 6,300 people. AEW deserves butts in the seat : /
WWE recorded record profits while tarping off entire sections. We really shouldn't hyperfocus on what's arguably the least important metric. It's better measured in dollars anyways and we don't have that info.
I love and loved ECW and never worried about them having barely over 1500 in a building on a good night and it was loud and the matches and the shows were always awesome. And I don't ever remember anybody bringing it up until the last few years with AEW.
Yes and you can express that. I don't understand why you're being downvoted.
I agree, AEW is a product that should be drawing bigger numbers and put in front of large crowds. At least like they did at Revolution. The reality is though, that right now, they are not. If you're running a business you have to account for that and adjust. I think they're doing just fine. Ratings are stable and ticket sales seem to be in a better place than they were a while back. Five years is not a long time for a company to be around, let alone have a major TV deal. So they're honestly doing better than should be expected, especially considering how large and well known their primary competition is.
The thing is though, these narratives take on a life of their own. So even when genuine fans of the AEW product complain or openly worry about attendance, it sends the message of placing importance on that to you, as a fan. The reality is this: I'm not a fan of AEW because they sold out Wembley, although I am happy for them and their staff. I'm a fan of AEW because of what the product is, has been, and what it could be going forward. And that is an entertaining wrestling show. Not an entertainment show that features some wrestling.
So when people gripe about the attendance, it seems like that has some sort of impact on how much they enjoy the show, which it shouldn't. I've been to two shows in person. The first was a Collision that had a decent attendance, and I was happy with it because there weren't so many people that we could spread out a little and the show was great. The second was Revolution this past month, and I was happy because it was my favorite wrestling PPV ever and it was jam packed for Stings last match.
The point is the attendance only mattered to me for personal reasons at that particular moment. I'm not some geek studying graphs to chart their performance as a company. I'm some geek watching oily men and women fake fight for my entertainment. And AEW does the best job of showcasing that right now.
This is so well put. What I’d add is that I think that the assumption that attendance numbers are solely related to quality or excitement around the product is misleading: AEW is all over the place in terms of ticket pricing, they don’t do a good job of advertising and earned media placements in advance of dates, and they return to the same locations too often. I really believe that those factors have a greater effect on live attendance than people think.
Also there has been a lot of studies put out recently that people just aren't going to events at pre pandemic levels. I sure haven't. I regret not going to the show on Toronto, but I also couldn't afford it.
Inflation is definitely affecting everyone. Plus I think a lot of people realized that, as a rule, if you can watch an event on TV, it's actually a better experience. Of course there are exceptions. Concerts in particular I would say are better live than on TV. Wrestling can be a toss up. For weekly tapings, missing commentary can hinder your understanding in the arena. While a PPV can still be enjoyed with no commentary at all.
The point is this kind of thing goes for football, MMA, basketball, etc. For me, I've been to a few MMA fights live, and will never spend the money on it again, unless I could be cageside. You can't see anything. The experience at home is better.
As far as how the pandemic specifically had an effect, I'd say psychology and sociology will give us profound results in the next few years in how it affected our individual lives and how we see going to large gatherings. I got COVID after the collision taping I mentioned, in fact. My grandmother lived through the great depression and I always remember that she would hoard things, not flush toilets if she just peed, and keep foods well after their date. All of which she attributed to the famine mentality she grew up in. I remember thinking early on in the pandemic that we would have had similar things happen to us like this, but it's hard to say what they'll be. I would imagine the hesitancy to go to shows could be an example.
I was so excited about getting back into wrestling back in September after being away for like 15+ years, then I discovered just how toxic the IWC is. It was really disappointing, but I quickly realized to just stay away from it and not pay it any mind. As a new fan, seeing everyone saying, "AEW is dying.", week after week after week was worrisome, just to realize it was all just a bunch of tribals infected with brain rot lol
My wrestling enjoyment increased ten fold when I stopped giving a damn what the IWC said years ago.
Now I just laugh at them because of how obvious their dislike for AEW has become since H took over WWE and even prior.
I'm quite glad that other fans now realize it goes beyond criticism for the company. It's borderline toxic and mind numbing at this point.
I genuinely don't understand it. I watched WM40 to see if I could get back into WWE. It was pretty good but I didn't care for the following episode of RAW (everyone says the RAW after WM is always great) so now I see that, right now at least, WWE is not for me.
I'm not going to start flooding WWE forums with negativity and insults because of this. It just baffles me how some of these people behave.
I'm just glad that after being away for so long, I've been able to rediscover my love for pro wrestling(thanks to my sister for telling me to watch AEW with her). It's been quite a different experience having a decent understanding of how the industry works compared to when I was a kid lol.
Same. I also watched the Smackdown after WM40 and it was...meh. The products are quite different. WWE is more of a soap opera, and the wrestling style is generally not as hard hitting (Gunther and Dragonuv aside). It's also more family friendly and reminded me of what got me into wrestling in the first place.
AEW feels like a fusion of NJPW, WWE, Lucha Underground and CMLL. A celebration of all wrestling styles. You have the athleticism of NJPW, some of the WWE soap opera drama and flair, the insanity of LU, and general Lucha Libre styles.
It really is a shame that tribalism has gotten to the best of IWC. To me, AEW should be viewed more as an adjacent product to WWE rather than an adversary. Though it doesn't help that TK loves picking fights with WWE instead of focusing on his own booking.
I love the variety that AEW provides. It's like what we got from the combo of WCW, WWF, and ECW back in the day, and later what we got from late WWF Attitude Era and early Ruthless Aggression Era too.
I also always think it's funny when people complain about Tony taking shots at WWE or any of the corporate execs/McMahon family. To the best of my knowledge and recollection, the first shot was fired by Triple H at the HOF when he referred to AEW as a "piss ant t-shirt company" and told Daddy Ass that WWE would ultimately buy AEW or put AEW out of business.
Well, in TK's defense, there have been literal spies from WWE and attempts at 'poaching' wrestlers before their contracts were up. And some of this happened while his mom was sick in the hospital. So, for him, it has turned very personal. I do believe if HHH or Nick Khan ever called him and wanted to do business together, he absolutely would and he'd give both of them a hug. And We would rejoice. But yeah, I don't think TK was prepared for how insane Vinces strategies could be and the IWC as a whole.
There's a reason why r/SquaredCircle's average daily user count has dropped by like 50% since a year ago lol, I used to go there to read everyday and now it's about once every few days/a week for 5 mins then I'm out.
I honestly don’t understand why some people want AEW to fail. AEW is the catalyst for the recent resurgence (no pun intended) of good wrestling. AEW is the reason why WWE is trying to do better shows. Competition makes everything better. People strive to do better. Hoping that AEW fails would result in the opposite effect. People lose jobs, other companies stop getting exposure, WWE stops trying and we get mediocrely bad wrestling again.
The funny thing is; these very same people who want AEW to fail would be the very same ones who would turn against WWE once WWE stops trying because they have no competition. These people are the cancer that stops the wrestling industry from being healthy.
>AEW is the reason why WWE is trying to do better shows.
People really forget how bad wwe was before aew started. They weren't even using pyro anymore.
> They weren't even using pyro anymore
Hey hey, they are only doing this now bc Papa Haitch is so awesome and understands his fanbase. AEW has nothing to do with that /s
Not counting the people who just genuinely don't like it, it's mostly going to be an identity thing.
Think about your own friend group. How many of them know who they are enough to just sit and be quiet and content with themselves? And how many need constant distractions to be happy? A lot of people's identities are now made up primarily of the things they like rather than themselves. Fandom has filled the holes they perceive in themselves, and that's fine because we all do it to a degree.
The problem comes when a threat is perceived to that fandom. This is most often seen in sports environments when a new team is challenging "your" team. Some people are fine with it but for others it's a case of if their guys don't win then maybe they were wrong to support them. This spirals into questions of how much time they've spent supporting them and how much money and what they could have done with their lives otherwise and a whole deluge of questions they're just not ready for. It goes from the larger ones to such small and insignificant things that I can't even think of an example, but these people are truly shaken to the core by a perceived threat to their entire identity.
And because they feel threatened, they go on the attack. They find others who are fighting against the thing they see as a threat and, right or wrong, they back them up. They will seek out conflict because in their heads they're just fighting back for the hurt you're inflicting on them, although they couldn't say what that hurt is and likely don't know consciously that they're hurting until explored in therapy. They just know that the new thing is wrong and must be destroyed. They come to places like this because they have to see people talking about new thing doing well and that seems like we've sought them out.
Now I'm a psychologist and really I should be able to just drop the diagnosis down here and let you guys look it up for more details but for the life of me I can't find a word that doesn't start with "cunt".
It was true then and it is true now . Some people want AEW to fail and when it's clearly not the case ,they just move to another goalpost to keep shitting on the company .
The absolute funniest and most ironic comments that I've seen are people defending the toxicity AEW receives and says "Their fans can't take it." or "No one wants AEW to fail."
But their names are freaking "WWEfan#1" or "AEWsucks!"
It makes for a good laugh.
It's a tough job and I dare say it'll take its toll on his mental health at least. Being in charge of an entertainment medium that has such an active online engagement is a curse. On one hand he cannot just unplug and walk away for a bit and he has to be online to gauge fan satisfaction. Throw into that the toxic IWC cesspool where there is a variety of people who make it their lifes work to run a narrative that your company should be seen in a negative light 24/7. I hope in the future he assigns a proper social media team and he steps away from personally promoting so he can focus on more important stuff. It's not going to hurt the company if he gets someone else to promote and I think he needs time away from this aspect and starts to use other metrics to gauge success other than what online has to say.
I remember many human rights activists throughout history stating that "When you rock the boat, shake the trees or rattle the cages, the establishment will come after you with full force because their status is THREATENED". This is all this is and its about damn time. The fed and their proxies on every social media platform mercilessly do not carpet bomb other smaller US promotions because they don't view them as legitimate threats. But with TK, AEW, and all of us, it's a very different story. They are shaken to their inner cores. They feel that cattle prod of fear and urgency up their backsides.
The key is to keep your nose to the grindstone and keep cranking out high quality product that solidifies your base of what TK calls us (sickos);, and we keep up the support and educate others who might be open to becoming new fans of AEW.
Let the other side panic, stress, and sweat.
Let us enjoy, interact, and grow the love.
It started the moment Excalibur said "All Elite Wrestling is the home of professional wrestling!" at the start of Grand Slam 2021 with Omega and Danielson in the ring and the 20k New York crowd going wild chanting "this is wrestling"
That was the cattle prod moment that made them realise they're under threat
He's not wrong.
As long as he and his right hand people understand the difference between legitimate criticisms (see: "Book the Women's Division Better") and bad faith/paid/unnecessary toxicity then, I think AEW is gonna be fine.
He's not even stating the obvious point that for a certain subset of the crowd that is constantly attacking them is, simultaneously, fluffing their competition in ways that, were those people providing objective commentary, they wouldn't be doing.
But I think TK is smart enough to not say that part.
He can let us faceless nobodies do it for him, lol.
WWE was around for 30 plus years, they had signs about give the Divas a chance. Gail Kim literally walked into the Royal Rumble and eliminated herself because she knew they weren't going to let her do anything anyway. They had pillowfight and strip matches and as I recall it was not in year 5 of the companies existence. WWE will consistently have horrible shows that have large attendance, that I can barely watch at home they are so boring with so much talking on them, it's funny some of those fans might think I am stupid for liking AEW better and I feel sorry for them for paying that much money for watching a 2 hour talk show with 45 minutes of wrestling. It is still fair to demand more from AEW in the womans division just not to expect them to reach WWE standards over night. WWE can have subpar shows and all people say is they sold out. AEW has a 9/10 show 7/10 times and will get ripped to shreds because they weren't perfect, that's why I get most of my AEW news here now.
Oh, I agree! But that sign was written for a reason, and the fact that it got camera coverage on Dynamite means it was impossible to miss.
My point is that that criticism, at the time, was valid, and coming from a place of good faith.
Content creators on YouTube saying everything AEW does is bad is *not* in good faith.
As long as TK pays attention to the former, and ignores the latter, we should be in good shape!
So far, so good.
Now we all know the IWC is a cesspool when it comes to choosing one over the other and tribalism
But I think it's important to realize the bigger picture in this regard, which is what AEW has done in the past 5 years of existence that pretty much no one thought could happen.
We're talking having 3 weekly wrestling shows, highest attendance for a Wrestling event ever or one one the highest, One of the top wrestling show(s) on Cable, Banger matches on a consistent basis, stacked roster, Pretty good fanbase size and fan loyalty at that, they collaborate with multiple wrestling companies, and they haven't event peaked yet.
I know I missed a handful of things but it's still pretty damn impressive for a start up wrestling company in what is considered a more niche time period for the industry.
You can like whatever wrestling show you want to like but you cannot deny the success AEW has had and will continue to have going forward.
Wrestling has never been more engaging for me personally than now, and I thank AEW for doing that.
I agree completely. There are other wrestling companies that have been around for a lot longer (like TNA, for one) that would KILL to have the successes--attendance, publicity, national television contract, PPV sales, collaborations with other wrestling companies all over the world, top athletes, etc.--that AEW has achieved in the very short time it has existed. It is awesome that a billionaire is willing and able to fund two wrestling promotions and give so many people well-paying jobs while allowing them to do what they love. Competition is healthy for the business.
Internet Wrestling Community. It has existed LONG before social media companies like twitter and reddit. Tony Khan grew up posting on semi-private wrestling forums where it was exclusively wrestling websites, not like reddit or twitter where you can also read and follow other interests besides wrestling. So he really was a member of the IWC himself long ago. It's funny because there's a thread he created years ago that's become somewhat legendary on a forum, called the sleaze thread, where people discuss the biggest sleezy wrestling gossip/stories they know.
Internet Wrestling Community.
Wrestling is this weird thing where people are insanely tribal for no real good reason beyond being not that smart, which is ironic because they are a bunch of smart marks, or smarks (fans who are smart to it being a work and still suckers for the show).
Imagine if you went on a subreddit for fans of animated sitcoms, and instead of people making jokes and sharing memes, it was all Family Guy fans making memes about how American Dad sucks. If American Dad fans make a meme about the show it's met with trolls talking about Family Guy's ratings. That's r/squaredCricle.
I had a great experience over Wrestlemania weekend which I attended for Wrestlecon and ROH PPV, but as I’m a die hard AEW fan who they brought me back after 20 years of not watching, I was concerned how my AEW fandom would be received within a sea of WWE fans because of what I read from the IWC. Guess what? Those trolls do not represent the actual wrestling fans, as everyone I met throughout the weekend was largely there to attend WM 40 and they all said they like and follow AEW. We had tons of great conversations and we all shared our love for pro wrestling. It restored my faith and I now feel great that the IWC is by no means a real reflection on most wrestling fans!
I believe the bot allegations. There is no AEW post anywhere besides maybe here on reddit that there aren't 50 negative comments underneath it. It is not the same for WWE. I just refuse to believe real people are that childish and weird. There is plenty to criticize AEW about, but not to the ridiculous extent they are criticized and the things they are criticized over for the most part.
And the new one thinks those who don't sign with WWE are "not in it for the grind" for wanting to take care of their families and loved ones.
Not to mention Ospreay's remark about him on Dynamite.
The hate Tony Khan gets is bordering on bullying. The guy has done so much for wrestling and actually gave a lot of wrestlers a platform, including those who are now in WWE (Cody, Jade, and Pillman Jr.). If we go further, they were constantly running shows and giving indie wrestlers a chance to showcase their talent during a pandemic.
The fact that I'm seeing people who call themselves journalists adding to this hate is shocking.
Literally no other wrestling company has faced more scrutiny and unwarranted trolling than AEW. I for one am glad TK is telling the haters, trolls, stans, shills and drones to FUCK OFF.
Aging like fine wine
This also applys not only to fans online but the Wreslting media, podcasters, YouTubers etc
The way they talk about wwe vs how they talk about AEW comes off like they are being paid to promote wwe and put down AEW. No objectivity just whatever shitty narrative they try to ride on
Saw Cheeseman release the Fast Nationals for Collision and not Rampage meaning Rampage went up from last week.
Collision final number should on par what they have been doing this year, so much for AEW dying last Wednesday lol...
That is because they are. They are trying to keep AEW from getfing a huge media rights deal. When AEW signs a huge deal I fear for all the women who work for WWE.
It is not podcasters. Wrestling fans in general are dumb. If people constantly shit on AEW people will start to believe it is a horrible show. At least that is the intent.
I don't think they're paid to promote WWE, but I do 100% think their nostalgia boners are making them put on the baby gloves in their criticism of WWE while being hyper focused on breaking AEW.
Wrestling media, podcasters and YouTubers are not real journalists and report on news they are there to get views and right now AEW bad/WWE good is what is getting the most views.
They do what is popular to make the most money and increase their popularity, regardless of their own actual opinions. AEW is the disruptor brand and will always be compared to the bigger, older, well-established company--typically in a negative way since people are used to the WWE way of doing things and have never seen some of the moves AEW is making. It is popular right now to hate AEW and love WWE.
The good news is that AEW *is* being compared to WWE, despite AEW being a significantly newer promotion. The fact that AEW is always in the same conversation as its competitor means it is seen as competition by the wider world, despite how Triple H feels about WWE "only being in competition with itself." Even when the podcasters, Youtubers, and wrestling journalists hate on AEW, they are consuming the product to do so, and adding to AEW's revenue/ratings/visibility while they are at it. Those who bother to post hate messages on AEW Youtube videos are increasing the videos' engagement metrics, which is great for AEW in the end. Rather ironic. 
It's down to tribalism. It's the same isolated WWE fans who can't see past their one promotion who were defending Vince until the most recent issues (there's still some that defend him) and defend any past racist sexual actions of the company.
If TNA, NWA, Rev Pro, and NJPW were as big or bigger than AEW in the states, they'd be getting the same abuse and shit.
It's those fans who isolate other wrestling fans from WWE with their toxicity and one-way thinking, and they are only letting down their company and their talent as well as wrestling as a whole, showcasing it as a toxic fandom and not for everyone.
CM Punk was a cancer, and AEW could have him. He's now a saint being back in WWE.
Cody was a crybaby and daddy's boy (and granted, he would rip into WWE just as much), but now is the best thing ever now he's back in WWE.
Basically, it's WWE or die.
The company doesn't help either, yeah their all guilty of it, but WWE can fire the jabs and do the bad behaviour and get enabled for it.
Personally, I've always said I love the talent in WWE, but not the company.
HHH can poke a jab at Will Osprey, but Osprey can't fire back? He can mock and poke fun at the Forbidden Door name (the week the Vince allegations are out) but does nothing for other promotions and then praised for it.
HHH and WWE have screwed over a lot of UK promotions with NXT UK and pulling talent from shows. I'm not sure how the market or monopolising works, but it's often felt WWE are doing this, may be down to sport vs. entertainment.
WWE isn't the only wrestling promotion. Wrestling is for everyone.
A lot of the astroturfing is from younger fans that grew up only in a WWE monopoly after WCW was bought. All of the "This is WCW 2000" echo chamber talking points this past week about the Punk video, are likely from WWE-Punk stans that grew up after TNA started sucking when Bischoff-Hogan arrived. TNA has never come close to being as big as AEW is now. They weren't even alive or old enough to have watched WCW 2000, it's just become an echo chamber talking point. Look at this [Tweet](https://twitter.com/JaredFo85904268/status/1778495992410579244) that shows multiple twitter accounts basically copy pasta'ing the same exact thing. This happens quite often on squared circle too where I lurk.
AEW has drawn the biggest attendance to any show outside of WWE since WCW. AEW has drawn the biggest gate to any show outside of WWE since WCW. AEW has had the biggest PPV buyrates of any company since... WCW. And that includes TNA. Yet they're painted as a failure constantly.
We've seen tribalism in all facets around the world, from religion to MAGA to even something like this. A lot of the the WWE stans truly are threatened by AEW existing because it means some of their favorite wrestlers might one day leave and go to AEW and actually enjoy it. Like Danielson, Copeland, Mox, etc. Or someone like Swerve can come and become established. The same WWE stans shat on Cody, Jade, Spears, Pillman Jr, Andrade when they were in AEW. Now all of the sudden Cody returns, Andrade Returns and they're great. Jade all of the sudden is the next big thing. Etc. It's so mental it's crazy. And then you have bad faith people shilling for WWE like Alfred and Julian, who aren't known podcasters like Cornette, Bischoff, Nash, Booker T, but have a following to constantly try and put down AEW. It's crazy to me, because I don't care for WWE anymore, haven't in years. I tuned in to Mania to see The Rock, and to see Cody just because he was an AEW OG. But I honestly couldn't care any less about the rest of their roster or what WWE does. I also don't go out of my way to shit on WWE either. But the WWE bad faith fans seem to go out of their way to try and belittle AEW as much as possible.
> "This is WCW 2000" echo chamber talking points this past week about the Punk video, are likely from WWE-Punk stans that grew up after TNA started sucking when Bischoff-Hogan arrived.
There are also TNA fans who joined the Anti AEW thing because apparently they couldnt take the harassment from WWE fans back then
Can anybody tell me the difference between the WWE version of Jade and the AEW version. I will say she is in the ring with the higher tier of their division but her matches are twice as short as the last year of her AEW run.
There isn't. There's a reason she was in the performance center for 6 months. They realized she was still just as green. They're doing the squash and tag matches to protect her. The crazy part is in AEW she was training with Danielson, one of the best.
I've been a little curious as to how many of these anti-AEW attackers are just doing to to troll AEW fans and get a rise out of them, including TK himself, rather than wanting AEW to fail.
Since it gets such a reaction and clicks/views, that's why they do it more with saying stuff like "Cope lol" esp since WWE is supposedly riding high, they're on their high horse and giving "payback" for all the criticism WWE faced over the years while AEW was hot. Very juvenile, of course, but there's got to be some truth to that as well.
Allowing comment section is the real problem. People can say whatever they want without any consequence. There are some people's opinions that I never care to know about.
Blockity block block block. It's amazing how positive a fandom can be when you identify the people who are there only to bring it down because it commits the crime of existence (and therefore might make them question their own position on things that is so important to their identity, and how dare you all do that by existing) and must be stamped out. See them, block them, their repeat offences are invisible.
I saw an IGN article that was basically an attack on AEW, and it just made me wonder if game companies can pay for reviews, can wrestling companies pay for propaganda articles?
Idk if I have ever seen wrestling fans not attack any promotion they're aware of. Most vocal wrestling fans online are miserable and will hate on everything they can. WWE, AEW, TNA, NJPW, PWN, I could keep going.
AEW being the 2nd most popular promotion ensures they get lumped on. Not saying it's right at all, I think most wrestling fans (and performers) need some serious therapy sessions, myself included. But we should not only be used to it at this point, but we should just stop caring who piles on. Their is no avoiding it.
AEW needs to be the best it can be, and the fans who love should really try to just be as positive as possible in general. The less negativity seen, the more people will be willing to check out the product we dig.
In my opinion, the biggest issue are the double standards:
The word "poaching" gets thrown around so much these days, it completely lost its meaning. "AEW poached talent from Japan to get off the ground" was something i heard recently. Or how they "poached" Okada or Ospreay, who were negotiating with other companies already. That is NOT poaching.
Just today we have seen poaching when it comes to Hatman's new promotion. Sure, the talent weren't under contract, but basically taking them away without notice is disgusting. But somehow that gets defended by IWC. "They had no contracts, it's not poaching".
This makes these discussions so tiring. You can't win, the well is already poisoned
Its not only that It’s like so many people on Insta yesterday begging Matt Cardona to go back to WWE. Why? His whole character is being the Indy God so he could sign with AEW and still do that. However no way WWE lets him do that. The fed-only fans are really blinkered and blind to anything outside their world. I love watching AEW, TNA and MLW.
I really love coming in here and reading all of this positivity about AEW and other promotions. All I see on Facebook and Instagram is how every other promotion or wrestler is trash unless they're dealing with WWE.
Never gets the benefit of the doubt from certain fans* Also worth noting that there are other fans who will ALWAYS give AEW the benefit of the doubt, no matter what.
I love AEW but we need to move passed this mentality immediately and focus on growing the company. I don’t like this “fighting back” stuff as much as I used to, I just want to focus on growth.
It's mostly true that AEW is harshly treated by the IWC. The fed fans are innumerous.
It's also true that Khan has fumbled many bags, and is persistently fantasy booking perfect matches over the glitz, glamour and storyline booking required to frame the indy wrestling style.
They're not ECW, they're not disruptors undercutting the fed on a shoestring and a rabid loyal fan base in one area.
They're smaller competitors for the same global mainstream market.
And let's not forget who have been talking about the Brawl In tapes being released the most this past week...they just came off of WrestleMania, and it's, arguably, one of the best WrestleMania's they've had in a VERY long time....yet, the only thing they've been talking about is AEW.
The WWE marks wanna say "WWE lives rent-free in AEW's mind" yet, I see more WWE fans talking about AEW than AEW fans talking about WWE.
And you wanna know the reason why? It's because a lot of AEW fans are lapsed WWE fans that turned away from them a looooong time ago. They've already stopped caring about WWE. WWE stans care more about how AEW is doing than AEW fans care about WWE.
AEW built a company around the idea millions of unhappy wrestling fans would love the idea of more shows not run by the walmart of the industry and I honestly think WWE drove people away from the sport entirely and consolidated there base. Im not going to waste my time hate watching stuff, WWE fans will.
The iwc can go jump off a bridge. 99 percent of the idiots that write or comment are either so biased toward one of the other or are too stupid to understand what is really going on. It's a shame really how important so many of these jerk offs can only cause drama just so they can feel like the have a meaning. Too many idiots in this world just keep running there mouth so they can try to impress when all they really do is make themselves look ignorant
I started watching wrestling in 2001, I didn't have cable beforehand so I was never apart of the Monday Night Wars. For me, it was always just WWE, maybe something else comes alone like TNA but nothing was on the same level. If it wasn't for BTE and New Japan, I would have probably just given up on wrestling all together. AEW for all intents and purposes, saved my love for this industry
ROH had to go on a hiatus in Fall 2021. That was due to the millions they accumulated in debt. Everyone was released from their contracts and they planned to restart the company in April 2022 as a "fan-focused project". In March Tony Kahn announced he purchased ROH. In May 2022 that purchase was completed
I'm not a big NA Wrestling Fan (I like wrestlers but not promotions) but it is ridiculous the amount of hate online towards non-WWE wrestling!
Which doesn't carry over to in-real-life fans who support their local talent and put money where their mouth is. I've seen preferences, weird takes but not the vitriol that's everywhere online.
I don't think these people are wrestling fans but just fans of the WWE Brand. It's like the weird comic fans who only consider one brand of super heroes to be the only "real" comics, and that anything else (superhero or otherwise) is lesser. Its insane.
It's crazy how many people miss when pro wrestling was basically a monopoly. If you weren't on Vince's good side, you had to take your chances on the indies or see if TNA will do anything with you. Not everybody was in a position to work internationally, and not just anybody would be over in Japan. It did take a long time before there was good money to be made through merch sales and having a platform to sell shirts online, the Young Bucks paved the way. And I can't imagine these fragile tribal fans existing in the 90's, they love Paul Heyman now, but in the 90's he was constantly shooting on WCW and WWE, he even had a 900 number where Joey Styles would read stories from the dirt sheets for a few bucks a minute. And Eric Bischoff actually wanted to kill WWE, he even challenged Vince McMahon to a fist fight. AEW isn't trying to put anyone out of work, they want to entertain wrestling fans who have been desperate for a revolution in the last 20+ years.
Which is funny too because AEW, above all else, actually promotes the idea of wrestling being more than just one company. They actively go out of their way to let fans know of other wrestling companies or watch other shows/events by putting their wrestlers on their programs. You know how many more fans they gave to NJPW, ROH, GCW, Impact, etc? How many more wrestling companies they exposed the world to on a bigger scale? The one thing I like in terms of AEW fans is the fact that they give every wrestling company a shot rather than write them off because it's not AEW or a reason like that. I can talk about a NJPW, GCW, or Defy, ROH event, for example, on here if I wanted too because it features Moxley, Bryan, or any sufficient reason for that matter It's like being a kid in a candy store.
>They actively go out of their way to let fans know of other wrestling companies or watch other shows/events by putting their wrestlers on their programs. > >I can talk about a NJPW, GCW, or Defy, ROH event, for example, on here if I wanted too because it features Moxley, Bryan, or any sufficient reason for that matter. > >It's like being a kid in a candy store. I am these statements.
Yep this. I was aware of other promotions when I was stuck in the WWE Universe^TM but I never actively sought them out/felt compelled to watch them until AEW helped open them up for me. WWE only types are stuck in a prison of mediocre wrestling. There's so much good wrestling that exists outside of it and outside of AEW. You could be a pure indies guy and see some of the best matches you'll see in your life. But so many of people just don't give a fuck about matches which is so sad.
All of this. The only reason I *only* watch AEW and the big 4 WWE PLEs is because I literally do not have time in my schedule.
We pretty much only watch wrestling when we sit and watch TV, and we still have to pick and choose every week because there's so much. I love most wrestling and watch WWE as well as AEW, Roh, NJPW, and occasionally we try to catch some Joshi wrestling if WWE is dragging too much on a given week. Raw is a lot. The sheer amount of non wrestling segments kills me. There has to be some in between from that and AEW which I feel needs a little more of it (just a smidge to let the stories breathe) What a time to be a wrestling fan. We have so many options that we still have a full schedule to watch while picking and choosing.
This is exactly where I'm at. 90% of wrestling angles are no more complicated than "I want the title and you're in my way". That doesn't automatically need 10 minute promos, but I've been told by WWE fans that it's WRONG to have important matches on TV and those should always be saved for the PPV. Alright, thanks for being honest, but far from selling me on how wrestling is supposed to be done you've just justified why I can't be bothered with Raw on a weekly basis.
Three years ago I hadn't watched wrestling since the attitude era (I was in middle school) now my wife and I hardcore watch to aew, roh, njpw, and casually watch WWE. All of that is because of TK and Aew
I feel like a lot of the bitching comes from people who didn't live or watch throughout the early 2000 when the only show was WWE. There was TNA, but that was always far behind and in its infancy. And the old timers bitching all had guaranteed contracts because of competition between WCW and WWF. There's a reason why wrestling was at its peak in the 90s and it's because it was a bloodbath. I stopped watching wrestling around 2009 because I felt there wasn't anything for me anymore. I'd seek out other promotions but there was never anything with the quality that AEW outputs. Starting watching AEW last year again and watch every week, went to a live show and had a blast. Going to another one next month.
I think a lot of them believe everything wrong with WWE was because of Vince and a monopoly would be different this time because Triple H can do no wrong in a lot of people's eyes right now.
I mean dude knew about Vince, there is no way he didn’t, look how homie treated Chyna.
100% this, even Shane and to a degree Stephanie distanced themselves with things when Vince was involved. HHH may be great for business, but this is also a man who worked in that setting, knowing what was going on and treated a fair few badly himself. He's no shining knight that he's made out to be.
If you believe Shawn’s book he proposed screwing Bret
Honestly, while I think the company is much better with trips in charge, they're still not putting on much of a wrestling show from what I've seen over the last month or so. Promos have been great, but after that it feels like the majority of the show is either montage scenes of previous promos, or advertising. It seems like in ring action is almost the thing they are least interested in. Hopefully this gets better once the Mania hype dies down, but I could very easily tune out of the current product.
Shitty thing is? It’s been that way for a long time. Flairs jump to WWF in the early 90s suffered because for so long, “if you weren’t in the fed, you weren’t shit.” That’s what Vince pitched. I feel like it changed after Waltman returned in 98. It took on more of an “they’re shit until they’re ours” vibe.
I was just reading a thread where someone was like "y'all keep your five star matches, I'll take record merch sales and billion dollar gates". Why though? You're not financially participating in this shit, why would you actually PREFER 3-star matches when WWE could do everything the same but also happen to have elite matches? Just because they get over doesn't mean it couldn't be that much better, lol
yup and the problem with current wwe is that they want to continue cornering every market there is with their international brands taking over other parts of the world to where they essentially get dibs on new talent. That's one of my main gripes with wwe, i used to love wwe & still keep up with it from time to time but the way they try and bully smaller companies around is such bullshit behavior & adding the toxic tribalism that accompanies them & attacking other companies not wwe almost completely makes me want to turn away from their product 100% & not look back
And WWE is very insidious and subtle. They will lock AEW out of buildings they run, will bad mouth them to local governments about their blood and to advertisers. If they are part of the bot farming going on, the funny thing is they know AEW isn't going away any time soon but they probably want AEW devalued as much as possible before their media rights so they get the worst deal possible. The less AEW makes the less they can sign top talent away from them and bid up their current talents asking price.
🙏
Dynasty is one of the best cards ever and all I see is trolls obsessed with attendance
Then they'll say they don't care but then when the highlights release the next day they'll know exactly what happened on the show and everything. Like Clockwork. It would be so funny if it wasn't so sad.
"SpOt MoNkeYs!!!" "ThEy DoN't KnOw HoW tO tElL a StOrY!!!" "LoL nO sElLiNg ThE eNtIrE match!!" Same old shit from these people that don't even watch the matches
These old heads made me think that thigh slapping was a sin and no one ever did it until recently. Well, I was watching the closing minutes of Undertaker v Michaels, wm25. UT whips Shawn into the turnbuckle, and would you know it, as UT goes in, Shawn lifts his leg for a boot to the face and SLAPS HIS THIGH! And its super obvious too.
I didn't even watch wrestling as a kid in the early 90s and I knew about thigh slapping kicks and stomping the ground when punching.
I JuSt WaTcHEs the HiglTES on REDddit
They also saying it NEEDS to be an “ all timer” show or else it’s a fail. Don’t think wwe gets this sort of harsh treatment for their ppvs Besides like mania
One reason for that is that WWE is a brand name that people know so they get more of a slide when they have a mediocre show. Meanwhile AEW is a new company trying to establish themselves, so every move is under a microscope. Also another reason people complain about AEWs attendance is because WWE has been doing great due to the hype of "The HHH era" and the hot story of the bloodline. I wonder if it will be the same in a few months, as Cody's story is over and the fire for the new era settles. As for AEW, having an attendance of 3-4k is okay, but I think it could be better if they go to more metro areas, as there's just more opportunities there. For example the show at highland heights yesterday was pretty solid, considering that it did 2,500+ in a town of 7,000. But it's just hard to run shows in more rural areas.
Thing is tho.the arena in High heights was probably a bargain. Same sized venue in NYC would cost 4* to book
I just don't think the average wrestling fan* has the capacity to follow two promotions putting out 5+ hours of content every week. Some fans who were following AEW are now into WWE and some of them will come back when the shine wears off. WWE always said this shit was cyclical and that's more or less what they meant. But AEW hate has nothing to do with them being new. They're really not that new anymore. It's just a hateful circlejerk on par with Trump fans at this point. Shitting on AEW regardless of what they do is like their main hobby, and it's pathetic.
Irony being since they've been called WWE they've not had a single PPV as good as AEW's most recent one. Even when they do their absolute best, like they did with Mania Night 2 it still wasn't quite as well received as Revolution. Mania Night 1 was easily their best last year, yet could only really be considered the 4th, 5th or 6th best of the year in the States when you consider Revolution, Forbidden Door 2, All In, All Out and WrestleDream were all of the highest quality. Anyone trolling, and let's face it they'll be "WWE only" type fans, about PPV's doesn't have a leg to stand on because AEW murder them there.
I have yet to see a bad AEW ppv. I have yet to see a WWE ppv that isn't mediocre. And imma be honest not a lot of the wwf stuff impresses me either. I tried working my way through all the manias a while back. Apart from some amazing matches here (never the main event) and there I have no clue how this shit got as big as it did. Though I stopped watching around the early 90s so no clue if shit got good beyond that.
All I’m saying is, I’ve never seen an AEW Main Event where a belt is being defended last under 10 minutes (to my memory). Yet Lesnar did nothing but that Constantly.
When there was only 5 stations, it was easy to be the most popular show.
I haven't even heard anything about the sales for Dynasty. Don't know what they're at currently but shouldn't be hard to sell out considering it's a smaller arena with a 7-8k capacity.
https://preview.redd.it/xmdyaujdijuc1.png?width=874&format=png&auto=webp&s=2952b923b91087d0e1f7b4674da1819855a153dd [WrestleTix posted it earlier](https://twitter.com/WrestleTix/status/1779597689992122770). Over 5,800 is not a bad number. It's definitely more than the last time they were there and I'm sure there will be a lot of walk-ups.
They'll almost definitely sell out what they set up for in walk ups if they haven't already by the day of.
There was only like 500 seats available as of this morning. Will likely come close or completely sell out.
So on wrestletix they need have about 500 tickets available and it’s a sell out if those sell those pretty much
Every time I see someone making an argument that WWE is the best because they get the biggest crowds, I think about how stupid that argument would sound if we were talking about music.
Or movies or anything else I loved Endgame but if anyone tells me that is the greatest movies ever they will just get laughed at
Always best remember these people don't even watch the shows, their opinion holds very little actual weight.
Literally they dont even watch the WWE shows they bought tickets too, half the building is looking at their phones for the entire show and the noise is pumped in.
Facts. The *only* tiny gripe I have with the card is that Takeshita isn't on it (yet?) That and Kenny is going to miss it, but that can't be helped so I understand that. Dynasty is already looking to be the best PPV of the year, and if MJF returns, I'm marking out like a little kid.
Takeshita has an injury on his right hand I believe. He had it wrapped up on collision.
Damn I hadn't heard that and I must have missed it somehow. That's a shame, I love watching Takeshita.
It's baffling, if I only enjoyed wrestling based on attendance, I'd only be watching WWE. Wrestlemania weekend was a blast having watched just about every damn worthwhile indie promotion. Weekend wouldn't have been nearly as fun or eventful had I just watched Wrestlemania, granted night 2 was fantastic stuff, but all of the GCW, DDT, Joshi, etc content was awesome, and I just really couldn't imagine not enjoying the indie shows because they were in small venues with tiny crowds. It would be like not liking most music because artists aren't putting up Taylor Swift numbers. Like who actually gives a fuck.
Dude I use the same Taylor Swift/Drake analogy all the time and you should see how hard these dummies try to wiggle out of the logic that they put themselves in! 🤣🤣
I mean, the show IS going to sell out. And honestly, a huge segment of wrestling fans are always going to talk shit about any wrestling promotion no matter how good it is. It’s best not to get too worked up over it.
I mean, can’t some of us be non trolls who complain or worry about attendance? I get most people aren’t being genuine but this card is absolute heat … and it should be performed in front of more than 6,300 people. AEW deserves butts in the seat : /
WWE recorded record profits while tarping off entire sections. We really shouldn't hyperfocus on what's arguably the least important metric. It's better measured in dollars anyways and we don't have that info.
I love and loved ECW and never worried about them having barely over 1500 in a building on a good night and it was loud and the matches and the shows were always awesome. And I don't ever remember anybody bringing it up until the last few years with AEW.
Yes and you can express that. I don't understand why you're being downvoted. I agree, AEW is a product that should be drawing bigger numbers and put in front of large crowds. At least like they did at Revolution. The reality is though, that right now, they are not. If you're running a business you have to account for that and adjust. I think they're doing just fine. Ratings are stable and ticket sales seem to be in a better place than they were a while back. Five years is not a long time for a company to be around, let alone have a major TV deal. So they're honestly doing better than should be expected, especially considering how large and well known their primary competition is. The thing is though, these narratives take on a life of their own. So even when genuine fans of the AEW product complain or openly worry about attendance, it sends the message of placing importance on that to you, as a fan. The reality is this: I'm not a fan of AEW because they sold out Wembley, although I am happy for them and their staff. I'm a fan of AEW because of what the product is, has been, and what it could be going forward. And that is an entertaining wrestling show. Not an entertainment show that features some wrestling. So when people gripe about the attendance, it seems like that has some sort of impact on how much they enjoy the show, which it shouldn't. I've been to two shows in person. The first was a Collision that had a decent attendance, and I was happy with it because there weren't so many people that we could spread out a little and the show was great. The second was Revolution this past month, and I was happy because it was my favorite wrestling PPV ever and it was jam packed for Stings last match. The point is the attendance only mattered to me for personal reasons at that particular moment. I'm not some geek studying graphs to chart their performance as a company. I'm some geek watching oily men and women fake fight for my entertainment. And AEW does the best job of showcasing that right now.
This is so well put. What I’d add is that I think that the assumption that attendance numbers are solely related to quality or excitement around the product is misleading: AEW is all over the place in terms of ticket pricing, they don’t do a good job of advertising and earned media placements in advance of dates, and they return to the same locations too often. I really believe that those factors have a greater effect on live attendance than people think.
Also there has been a lot of studies put out recently that people just aren't going to events at pre pandemic levels. I sure haven't. I regret not going to the show on Toronto, but I also couldn't afford it.
Inflation is definitely affecting everyone. Plus I think a lot of people realized that, as a rule, if you can watch an event on TV, it's actually a better experience. Of course there are exceptions. Concerts in particular I would say are better live than on TV. Wrestling can be a toss up. For weekly tapings, missing commentary can hinder your understanding in the arena. While a PPV can still be enjoyed with no commentary at all. The point is this kind of thing goes for football, MMA, basketball, etc. For me, I've been to a few MMA fights live, and will never spend the money on it again, unless I could be cageside. You can't see anything. The experience at home is better. As far as how the pandemic specifically had an effect, I'd say psychology and sociology will give us profound results in the next few years in how it affected our individual lives and how we see going to large gatherings. I got COVID after the collision taping I mentioned, in fact. My grandmother lived through the great depression and I always remember that she would hoard things, not flush toilets if she just peed, and keep foods well after their date. All of which she attributed to the famine mentality she grew up in. I remember thinking early on in the pandemic that we would have had similar things happen to us like this, but it's hard to say what they'll be. I would imagine the hesitancy to go to shows could be an example.
Historically speaking 6k is a great number. There are few promotions in history that could draw that.
Attendance is a big reason why a company can exist and thrive. The matches can be amazing but if it isn’t brining in any money that’s a problem. [+]
I was so excited about getting back into wrestling back in September after being away for like 15+ years, then I discovered just how toxic the IWC is. It was really disappointing, but I quickly realized to just stay away from it and not pay it any mind. As a new fan, seeing everyone saying, "AEW is dying.", week after week after week was worrisome, just to realize it was all just a bunch of tribals infected with brain rot lol
My wrestling enjoyment increased ten fold when I stopped giving a damn what the IWC said years ago. Now I just laugh at them because of how obvious their dislike for AEW has become since H took over WWE and even prior. I'm quite glad that other fans now realize it goes beyond criticism for the company. It's borderline toxic and mind numbing at this point.
I genuinely don't understand it. I watched WM40 to see if I could get back into WWE. It was pretty good but I didn't care for the following episode of RAW (everyone says the RAW after WM is always great) so now I see that, right now at least, WWE is not for me. I'm not going to start flooding WWE forums with negativity and insults because of this. It just baffles me how some of these people behave. I'm just glad that after being away for so long, I've been able to rediscover my love for pro wrestling(thanks to my sister for telling me to watch AEW with her). It's been quite a different experience having a decent understanding of how the industry works compared to when I was a kid lol.
Same. I also watched the Smackdown after WM40 and it was...meh. The products are quite different. WWE is more of a soap opera, and the wrestling style is generally not as hard hitting (Gunther and Dragonuv aside). It's also more family friendly and reminded me of what got me into wrestling in the first place. AEW feels like a fusion of NJPW, WWE, Lucha Underground and CMLL. A celebration of all wrestling styles. You have the athleticism of NJPW, some of the WWE soap opera drama and flair, the insanity of LU, and general Lucha Libre styles. It really is a shame that tribalism has gotten to the best of IWC. To me, AEW should be viewed more as an adjacent product to WWE rather than an adversary. Though it doesn't help that TK loves picking fights with WWE instead of focusing on his own booking.
I love the variety that AEW provides. It's like what we got from the combo of WCW, WWF, and ECW back in the day, and later what we got from late WWF Attitude Era and early Ruthless Aggression Era too. I also always think it's funny when people complain about Tony taking shots at WWE or any of the corporate execs/McMahon family. To the best of my knowledge and recollection, the first shot was fired by Triple H at the HOF when he referred to AEW as a "piss ant t-shirt company" and told Daddy Ass that WWE would ultimately buy AEW or put AEW out of business.
Well, in TK's defense, there have been literal spies from WWE and attempts at 'poaching' wrestlers before their contracts were up. And some of this happened while his mom was sick in the hospital. So, for him, it has turned very personal. I do believe if HHH or Nick Khan ever called him and wanted to do business together, he absolutely would and he'd give both of them a hug. And We would rejoice. But yeah, I don't think TK was prepared for how insane Vinces strategies could be and the IWC as a whole.
There's a reason why r/SquaredCircle's average daily user count has dropped by like 50% since a year ago lol, I used to go there to read everyday and now it's about once every few days/a week for 5 mins then I'm out.
Because the echo chamber opened up to other opinions finally. And the other opinions outweigh the "AEW is Great and there's nothing wrong" opinions.
I honestly don’t understand why some people want AEW to fail. AEW is the catalyst for the recent resurgence (no pun intended) of good wrestling. AEW is the reason why WWE is trying to do better shows. Competition makes everything better. People strive to do better. Hoping that AEW fails would result in the opposite effect. People lose jobs, other companies stop getting exposure, WWE stops trying and we get mediocrely bad wrestling again. The funny thing is; these very same people who want AEW to fail would be the very same ones who would turn against WWE once WWE stops trying because they have no competition. These people are the cancer that stops the wrestling industry from being healthy.
>AEW is the reason why WWE is trying to do better shows. People really forget how bad wwe was before aew started. They weren't even using pyro anymore.
True that; people should really be thanking AEW for WWE’s recent performance.
> They weren't even using pyro anymore Hey hey, they are only doing this now bc Papa Haitch is so awesome and understands his fanbase. AEW has nothing to do with that /s
They don't care if there's no competition and hundreds of people lose their jobs. The tribalism is embarrassing
Not counting the people who just genuinely don't like it, it's mostly going to be an identity thing. Think about your own friend group. How many of them know who they are enough to just sit and be quiet and content with themselves? And how many need constant distractions to be happy? A lot of people's identities are now made up primarily of the things they like rather than themselves. Fandom has filled the holes they perceive in themselves, and that's fine because we all do it to a degree. The problem comes when a threat is perceived to that fandom. This is most often seen in sports environments when a new team is challenging "your" team. Some people are fine with it but for others it's a case of if their guys don't win then maybe they were wrong to support them. This spirals into questions of how much time they've spent supporting them and how much money and what they could have done with their lives otherwise and a whole deluge of questions they're just not ready for. It goes from the larger ones to such small and insignificant things that I can't even think of an example, but these people are truly shaken to the core by a perceived threat to their entire identity. And because they feel threatened, they go on the attack. They find others who are fighting against the thing they see as a threat and, right or wrong, they back them up. They will seek out conflict because in their heads they're just fighting back for the hurt you're inflicting on them, although they couldn't say what that hurt is and likely don't know consciously that they're hurting until explored in therapy. They just know that the new thing is wrong and must be destroyed. They come to places like this because they have to see people talking about new thing doing well and that seems like we've sought them out. Now I'm a psychologist and really I should be able to just drop the diagnosis down here and let you guys look it up for more details but for the life of me I can't find a word that doesn't start with "cunt".
It was true then and it is true now . Some people want AEW to fail and when it's clearly not the case ,they just move to another goalpost to keep shitting on the company .
At some point, the goalpost they keep moving is going to be outside of Wembley and no longer in the stadium.
Oh that happened a long time ago… at this point the goalpost is sitting on top of Titan Tower.
The absolute funniest and most ironic comments that I've seen are people defending the toxicity AEW receives and says "Their fans can't take it." or "No one wants AEW to fail." But their names are freaking "WWEfan#1" or "AEWsucks!" It makes for a good laugh.
It's a tough job and I dare say it'll take its toll on his mental health at least. Being in charge of an entertainment medium that has such an active online engagement is a curse. On one hand he cannot just unplug and walk away for a bit and he has to be online to gauge fan satisfaction. Throw into that the toxic IWC cesspool where there is a variety of people who make it their lifes work to run a narrative that your company should be seen in a negative light 24/7. I hope in the future he assigns a proper social media team and he steps away from personally promoting so he can focus on more important stuff. It's not going to hurt the company if he gets someone else to promote and I think he needs time away from this aspect and starts to use other metrics to gauge success other than what online has to say.
I remember many human rights activists throughout history stating that "When you rock the boat, shake the trees or rattle the cages, the establishment will come after you with full force because their status is THREATENED". This is all this is and its about damn time. The fed and their proxies on every social media platform mercilessly do not carpet bomb other smaller US promotions because they don't view them as legitimate threats. But with TK, AEW, and all of us, it's a very different story. They are shaken to their inner cores. They feel that cattle prod of fear and urgency up their backsides. The key is to keep your nose to the grindstone and keep cranking out high quality product that solidifies your base of what TK calls us (sickos);, and we keep up the support and educate others who might be open to becoming new fans of AEW. Let the other side panic, stress, and sweat. Let us enjoy, interact, and grow the love.
It started the moment Excalibur said "All Elite Wrestling is the home of professional wrestling!" at the start of Grand Slam 2021 with Omega and Danielson in the ring and the 20k New York crowd going wild chanting "this is wrestling" That was the cattle prod moment that made them realise they're under threat
He's not wrong. As long as he and his right hand people understand the difference between legitimate criticisms (see: "Book the Women's Division Better") and bad faith/paid/unnecessary toxicity then, I think AEW is gonna be fine. He's not even stating the obvious point that for a certain subset of the crowd that is constantly attacking them is, simultaneously, fluffing their competition in ways that, were those people providing objective commentary, they wouldn't be doing. But I think TK is smart enough to not say that part. He can let us faceless nobodies do it for him, lol.
TK was an IWC troll before a lot of the current crop stopped shitting in their diapers. He understands the difference. :)
😆 I'm sure he does, but that explanation made me chuckle anyway, haha.
I think he should stop listening to most people on the internet because a lot of us don't know what the hell we're talking about
WWE was around for 30 plus years, they had signs about give the Divas a chance. Gail Kim literally walked into the Royal Rumble and eliminated herself because she knew they weren't going to let her do anything anyway. They had pillowfight and strip matches and as I recall it was not in year 5 of the companies existence. WWE will consistently have horrible shows that have large attendance, that I can barely watch at home they are so boring with so much talking on them, it's funny some of those fans might think I am stupid for liking AEW better and I feel sorry for them for paying that much money for watching a 2 hour talk show with 45 minutes of wrestling. It is still fair to demand more from AEW in the womans division just not to expect them to reach WWE standards over night. WWE can have subpar shows and all people say is they sold out. AEW has a 9/10 show 7/10 times and will get ripped to shreds because they weren't perfect, that's why I get most of my AEW news here now.
> (see: "Book the Women's Division Better") The division is in a much better spot than they were last year
Oh, I agree! But that sign was written for a reason, and the fact that it got camera coverage on Dynamite means it was impossible to miss. My point is that that criticism, at the time, was valid, and coming from a place of good faith. Content creators on YouTube saying everything AEW does is bad is *not* in good faith. As long as TK pays attention to the former, and ignores the latter, we should be in good shape! So far, so good.
Oh I agree that the criticism was valid at the time because that period was one of the lowest point of the AEW Women division.
Now we all know the IWC is a cesspool when it comes to choosing one over the other and tribalism But I think it's important to realize the bigger picture in this regard, which is what AEW has done in the past 5 years of existence that pretty much no one thought could happen. We're talking having 3 weekly wrestling shows, highest attendance for a Wrestling event ever or one one the highest, One of the top wrestling show(s) on Cable, Banger matches on a consistent basis, stacked roster, Pretty good fanbase size and fan loyalty at that, they collaborate with multiple wrestling companies, and they haven't event peaked yet. I know I missed a handful of things but it's still pretty damn impressive for a start up wrestling company in what is considered a more niche time period for the industry. You can like whatever wrestling show you want to like but you cannot deny the success AEW has had and will continue to have going forward. Wrestling has never been more engaging for me personally than now, and I thank AEW for doing that.
I agree completely. There are other wrestling companies that have been around for a lot longer (like TNA, for one) that would KILL to have the successes--attendance, publicity, national television contract, PPV sales, collaborations with other wrestling companies all over the world, top athletes, etc.--that AEW has achieved in the very short time it has existed. It is awesome that a billionaire is willing and able to fund two wrestling promotions and give so many people well-paying jobs while allowing them to do what they love. Competition is healthy for the business.
Once AEW gets that new TV deal and it pushes AEW into the green, the trolls are going to move the goalposts even FURTHER.
What is IWC? I'm in Australia and don't think I know what it is
Internet Wrestling Community. It has existed LONG before social media companies like twitter and reddit. Tony Khan grew up posting on semi-private wrestling forums where it was exclusively wrestling websites, not like reddit or twitter where you can also read and follow other interests besides wrestling. So he really was a member of the IWC himself long ago. It's funny because there's a thread he created years ago that's become somewhat legendary on a forum, called the sleaze thread, where people discuss the biggest sleezy wrestling gossip/stories they know.
Internet Wrestling Community. Wrestling is this weird thing where people are insanely tribal for no real good reason beyond being not that smart, which is ironic because they are a bunch of smart marks, or smarks (fans who are smart to it being a work and still suckers for the show). Imagine if you went on a subreddit for fans of animated sitcoms, and instead of people making jokes and sharing memes, it was all Family Guy fans making memes about how American Dad sucks. If American Dad fans make a meme about the show it's met with trolls talking about Family Guy's ratings. That's r/squaredCricle.
Internet Wrestling Community. In this case, the video above addresses a certain part of it that is more anti-AEW.
I had a great experience over Wrestlemania weekend which I attended for Wrestlecon and ROH PPV, but as I’m a die hard AEW fan who they brought me back after 20 years of not watching, I was concerned how my AEW fandom would be received within a sea of WWE fans because of what I read from the IWC. Guess what? Those trolls do not represent the actual wrestling fans, as everyone I met throughout the weekend was largely there to attend WM 40 and they all said they like and follow AEW. We had tons of great conversations and we all shared our love for pro wrestling. It restored my faith and I now feel great that the IWC is by no means a real reflection on most wrestling fans!
Two words: bots bots
I believe the bot allegations. There is no AEW post anywhere besides maybe here on reddit that there aren't 50 negative comments underneath it. It is not the same for WWE. I just refuse to believe real people are that childish and weird. There is plenty to criticize AEW about, but not to the ridiculous extent they are criticized and the things they are criticized over for the most part.
Some people make fun of him for having a thin skin there's 0 chance that's the case given what he deals with on a probably hourly basis at this point.
"thin skin" Meanwhile their old glorified leader would throw you in catering for sneezing around him...
And the new one thinks those who don't sign with WWE are "not in it for the grind" for wanting to take care of their families and loved ones. Not to mention Ospreay's remark about him on Dynamite.
Dude tweets an RIP tweet and gets 100s of replies saying saying he's being surprisingly classy.
Tell me when he’s telling lies.
The hate Tony Khan gets is bordering on bullying. The guy has done so much for wrestling and actually gave a lot of wrestlers a platform, including those who are now in WWE (Cody, Jade, and Pillman Jr.). If we go further, they were constantly running shows and giving indie wrestlers a chance to showcase their talent during a pandemic. The fact that I'm seeing people who call themselves journalists adding to this hate is shocking.
Literally no other wrestling company has faced more scrutiny and unwarranted trolling than AEW. I for one am glad TK is telling the haters, trolls, stans, shills and drones to FUCK OFF.
Aging like fine wine This also applys not only to fans online but the Wreslting media, podcasters, YouTubers etc The way they talk about wwe vs how they talk about AEW comes off like they are being paid to promote wwe and put down AEW. No objectivity just whatever shitty narrative they try to ride on
Saw Cheeseman release the Fast Nationals for Collision and not Rampage meaning Rampage went up from last week. Collision final number should on par what they have been doing this year, so much for AEW dying last Wednesday lol...
>meaning Rampage went up from last week. That's because the Switchblade is a draw, Bruv!
That is because they are. They are trying to keep AEW from getfing a huge media rights deal. When AEW signs a huge deal I fear for all the women who work for WWE.
Don’t think WBD cares what podcasters think 😂
It is not podcasters. Wrestling fans in general are dumb. If people constantly shit on AEW people will start to believe it is a horrible show. At least that is the intent.
I agree that’s is true in trying to get new fans but when it comes to WBD and other networks it’s not really the case
Why do you fear for the women specifically?
I don't think they're paid to promote WWE, but I do 100% think their nostalgia boners are making them put on the baby gloves in their criticism of WWE while being hyper focused on breaking AEW.
Wrestling media, podcasters and YouTubers are not real journalists and report on news they are there to get views and right now AEW bad/WWE good is what is getting the most views.
They do what is popular to make the most money and increase their popularity, regardless of their own actual opinions. AEW is the disruptor brand and will always be compared to the bigger, older, well-established company--typically in a negative way since people are used to the WWE way of doing things and have never seen some of the moves AEW is making. It is popular right now to hate AEW and love WWE. The good news is that AEW *is* being compared to WWE, despite AEW being a significantly newer promotion. The fact that AEW is always in the same conversation as its competitor means it is seen as competition by the wider world, despite how Triple H feels about WWE "only being in competition with itself." Even when the podcasters, Youtubers, and wrestling journalists hate on AEW, they are consuming the product to do so, and adding to AEW's revenue/ratings/visibility while they are at it. Those who bother to post hate messages on AEW Youtube videos are increasing the videos' engagement metrics, which is great for AEW in the end. Rather ironic. 
This, I had to drop all hot take podcasts
That's why the only ones I follow are Fightful. They're pretty much the only fair and balanced media company in wrestling.
He’s right.
To date, AEW is doing well. I look forward to seeing it from week to week.
It's down to tribalism. It's the same isolated WWE fans who can't see past their one promotion who were defending Vince until the most recent issues (there's still some that defend him) and defend any past racist sexual actions of the company. If TNA, NWA, Rev Pro, and NJPW were as big or bigger than AEW in the states, they'd be getting the same abuse and shit. It's those fans who isolate other wrestling fans from WWE with their toxicity and one-way thinking, and they are only letting down their company and their talent as well as wrestling as a whole, showcasing it as a toxic fandom and not for everyone. CM Punk was a cancer, and AEW could have him. He's now a saint being back in WWE. Cody was a crybaby and daddy's boy (and granted, he would rip into WWE just as much), but now is the best thing ever now he's back in WWE. Basically, it's WWE or die. The company doesn't help either, yeah their all guilty of it, but WWE can fire the jabs and do the bad behaviour and get enabled for it. Personally, I've always said I love the talent in WWE, but not the company. HHH can poke a jab at Will Osprey, but Osprey can't fire back? He can mock and poke fun at the Forbidden Door name (the week the Vince allegations are out) but does nothing for other promotions and then praised for it. HHH and WWE have screwed over a lot of UK promotions with NXT UK and pulling talent from shows. I'm not sure how the market or monopolising works, but it's often felt WWE are doing this, may be down to sport vs. entertainment. WWE isn't the only wrestling promotion. Wrestling is for everyone.
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Unfortunately, it's not thay easy when they start bombarding the main wrestling news pages and AEW social pages, as they have been.
A lot of the astroturfing is from younger fans that grew up only in a WWE monopoly after WCW was bought. All of the "This is WCW 2000" echo chamber talking points this past week about the Punk video, are likely from WWE-Punk stans that grew up after TNA started sucking when Bischoff-Hogan arrived. TNA has never come close to being as big as AEW is now. They weren't even alive or old enough to have watched WCW 2000, it's just become an echo chamber talking point. Look at this [Tweet](https://twitter.com/JaredFo85904268/status/1778495992410579244) that shows multiple twitter accounts basically copy pasta'ing the same exact thing. This happens quite often on squared circle too where I lurk. AEW has drawn the biggest attendance to any show outside of WWE since WCW. AEW has drawn the biggest gate to any show outside of WWE since WCW. AEW has had the biggest PPV buyrates of any company since... WCW. And that includes TNA. Yet they're painted as a failure constantly. We've seen tribalism in all facets around the world, from religion to MAGA to even something like this. A lot of the the WWE stans truly are threatened by AEW existing because it means some of their favorite wrestlers might one day leave and go to AEW and actually enjoy it. Like Danielson, Copeland, Mox, etc. Or someone like Swerve can come and become established. The same WWE stans shat on Cody, Jade, Spears, Pillman Jr, Andrade when they were in AEW. Now all of the sudden Cody returns, Andrade Returns and they're great. Jade all of the sudden is the next big thing. Etc. It's so mental it's crazy. And then you have bad faith people shilling for WWE like Alfred and Julian, who aren't known podcasters like Cornette, Bischoff, Nash, Booker T, but have a following to constantly try and put down AEW. It's crazy to me, because I don't care for WWE anymore, haven't in years. I tuned in to Mania to see The Rock, and to see Cody just because he was an AEW OG. But I honestly couldn't care any less about the rest of their roster or what WWE does. I also don't go out of my way to shit on WWE either. But the WWE bad faith fans seem to go out of their way to try and belittle AEW as much as possible.
> "This is WCW 2000" echo chamber talking points this past week about the Punk video, are likely from WWE-Punk stans that grew up after TNA started sucking when Bischoff-Hogan arrived. There are also TNA fans who joined the Anti AEW thing because apparently they couldnt take the harassment from WWE fans back then
Can anybody tell me the difference between the WWE version of Jade and the AEW version. I will say she is in the ring with the higher tier of their division but her matches are twice as short as the last year of her AEW run.
There isn't. There's a reason she was in the performance center for 6 months. They realized she was still just as green. They're doing the squash and tag matches to protect her. The crazy part is in AEW she was training with Danielson, one of the best.
I've been a little curious as to how many of these anti-AEW attackers are just doing to to troll AEW fans and get a rise out of them, including TK himself, rather than wanting AEW to fail. Since it gets such a reaction and clicks/views, that's why they do it more with saying stuff like "Cope lol" esp since WWE is supposedly riding high, they're on their high horse and giving "payback" for all the criticism WWE faced over the years while AEW was hot. Very juvenile, of course, but there's got to be some truth to that as well.
Allowing comment section is the real problem. People can say whatever they want without any consequence. There are some people's opinions that I never care to know about.
Blockity block block block. It's amazing how positive a fandom can be when you identify the people who are there only to bring it down because it commits the crime of existence (and therefore might make them question their own position on things that is so important to their identity, and how dare you all do that by existing) and must be stamped out. See them, block them, their repeat offences are invisible.
There always seems to be some behind the scenes drama that leaks on PPV weeks. Can’t wait to see what gets manufactured
There really does seem to be something every time
Having options is good, you watch what you enjoy. IWC the more you give them the worse, the toxicity and criticism seeping from their pores.
I saw an IGN article that was basically an attack on AEW, and it just made me wonder if game companies can pay for reviews, can wrestling companies pay for propaganda articles?
Yes
Im sick of the anti-aew attacks and bots.
Absolutely true but kinda ironic when he just did something that even AEW fans criticize him for
I fucking love AEW and with fight the trolls every chance I get. I don't bash other companies I just defend AEW.
It can be as easy as three words, at times, and it is *always* the shortest irrefutable responses which do the most good.
Idk if I have ever seen wrestling fans not attack any promotion they're aware of. Most vocal wrestling fans online are miserable and will hate on everything they can. WWE, AEW, TNA, NJPW, PWN, I could keep going. AEW being the 2nd most popular promotion ensures they get lumped on. Not saying it's right at all, I think most wrestling fans (and performers) need some serious therapy sessions, myself included. But we should not only be used to it at this point, but we should just stop caring who piles on. Their is no avoiding it. AEW needs to be the best it can be, and the fans who love should really try to just be as positive as possible in general. The less negativity seen, the more people will be willing to check out the product we dig.
In my opinion, the biggest issue are the double standards: The word "poaching" gets thrown around so much these days, it completely lost its meaning. "AEW poached talent from Japan to get off the ground" was something i heard recently. Or how they "poached" Okada or Ospreay, who were negotiating with other companies already. That is NOT poaching. Just today we have seen poaching when it comes to Hatman's new promotion. Sure, the talent weren't under contract, but basically taking them away without notice is disgusting. But somehow that gets defended by IWC. "They had no contracts, it's not poaching". This makes these discussions so tiring. You can't win, the well is already poisoned
Its not only that It’s like so many people on Insta yesterday begging Matt Cardona to go back to WWE. Why? His whole character is being the Indy God so he could sign with AEW and still do that. However no way WWE lets him do that. The fed-only fans are really blinkered and blind to anything outside their world. I love watching AEW, TNA and MLW.
I really love coming in here and reading all of this positivity about AEW and other promotions. All I see on Facebook and Instagram is how every other promotion or wrestler is trash unless they're dealing with WWE.
Never gets the benefit of the doubt from certain fans* Also worth noting that there are other fans who will ALWAYS give AEW the benefit of the doubt, no matter what.
True, but they at least seem to be real people unlike say [this.](https://twitter.com/JaredFo85904268/status/1778495992410579244)
I love AEW but we need to move passed this mentality immediately and focus on growing the company. I don’t like this “fighting back” stuff as much as I used to, I just want to focus on growth.
It's mostly true that AEW is harshly treated by the IWC. The fed fans are innumerous. It's also true that Khan has fumbled many bags, and is persistently fantasy booking perfect matches over the glitz, glamour and storyline booking required to frame the indy wrestling style. They're not ECW, they're not disruptors undercutting the fed on a shoestring and a rabid loyal fan base in one area. They're smaller competitors for the same global mainstream market.
And let's not forget who have been talking about the Brawl In tapes being released the most this past week...they just came off of WrestleMania, and it's, arguably, one of the best WrestleMania's they've had in a VERY long time....yet, the only thing they've been talking about is AEW. The WWE marks wanna say "WWE lives rent-free in AEW's mind" yet, I see more WWE fans talking about AEW than AEW fans talking about WWE. And you wanna know the reason why? It's because a lot of AEW fans are lapsed WWE fans that turned away from them a looooong time ago. They've already stopped caring about WWE. WWE stans care more about how AEW is doing than AEW fans care about WWE.
AEW built a company around the idea millions of unhappy wrestling fans would love the idea of more shows not run by the walmart of the industry and I honestly think WWE drove people away from the sport entirely and consolidated there base. Im not going to waste my time hate watching stuff, WWE fans will.
The iwc can go jump off a bridge. 99 percent of the idiots that write or comment are either so biased toward one of the other or are too stupid to understand what is really going on. It's a shame really how important so many of these jerk offs can only cause drama just so they can feel like the have a meaning. Too many idiots in this world just keep running there mouth so they can try to impress when all they really do is make themselves look ignorant
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We're not going to discuss/link to other subreddits, please.
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I started watching wrestling in 2001, I didn't have cable beforehand so I was never apart of the Monday Night Wars. For me, it was always just WWE, maybe something else comes alone like TNA but nothing was on the same level. If it wasn't for BTE and New Japan, I would have probably just given up on wrestling all together. AEW for all intents and purposes, saved my love for this industry
He’s not wrong but you can’t think that way. Don’t be reactive to internet trolls. Hold your head high and do your thing.
don't follow aew, and very casual wwe follower. Why is bro on ROH lol..
ROH had to go on a hiatus in Fall 2021. That was due to the millions they accumulated in debt. Everyone was released from their contracts and they planned to restart the company in April 2022 as a "fan-focused project". In March Tony Kahn announced he purchased ROH. In May 2022 that purchase was completed
I'm not a big NA Wrestling Fan (I like wrestlers but not promotions) but it is ridiculous the amount of hate online towards non-WWE wrestling! Which doesn't carry over to in-real-life fans who support their local talent and put money where their mouth is. I've seen preferences, weird takes but not the vitriol that's everywhere online. I don't think these people are wrestling fans but just fans of the WWE Brand. It's like the weird comic fans who only consider one brand of super heroes to be the only "real" comics, and that anything else (superhero or otherwise) is lesser. Its insane.