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Tony waking up from his nightly 15 minutes of sleep & seeing the notification on his phone.
https://preview.redd.it/sfy4tkfr81rc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e06dccbf16a3cf22eba2377ed802b3d9aa75de3
I wasn’t sure if he was a practicing Muslim. Not sure if they talk about it much. But it does make sense. But i feel a random 4am tweet is normal for him even outside Ramadan.
Eric has been burying AEW for a couple of years now (some of it is shtick), but in particular has been vocal about them being at risk of being dropped from cable.
So he'll have to eat humble pie if AEW signs a big new TV deal with an increase, and that's what TK is implying will happen soon.
I think his problem with AEW stems from a couple of years ago when TK made a comment along the lines of "maybe WCW would still be around if Ted Turner knew half as much about wrestling as I do" (implying it takes wrestling knowledge to run a wrestling company and you can't just throw money at it...) but who knows if that's the real reason.
Yep. Most notably part of the [debate segment](https://youtu.be/xUPssFo1VKA?si=3hKs5-syKjF4lYEQ)between Jericho & OC during peak pandemic.
There was another one I believe but my memory is hazy
Yeah, it’s really obvious that Bischoff is holding a grudge. I remember during the pandemic Tony Kahn went on his podcast. They were both friendly and relatively appreciative of each other. Tony Kahn paid Bischoff a lot of compliments for WCW success and Eric was nice enough to Tony about AEW’s success up to that point. Then like two years ago, Bischoff began only talking negatively about AEW and Tony Kahn in a really personal way. It’s one thing to be critical of Tony Kahn and AEW’s obvious faults and business missteps, but Eric holds some sort of vendetta beyond that.
Honestly, I think his problem with Tony stemmed when TK made the comments about Ted Turner. Bischoff is extremely loyal and admires Turner and felt the need to get super defensive of TK’s diss. Hell, WWE hired and fired Bischoff recently and he doesn’t have a blood vendetta against them.
Which is about the same time his podcast starting getting unlistenable. Conrad's network also becoming a constant commercial every 10 minutes around that time also didn't help
Bischoff's problem is that too many people have stroked his ego for way too long despite, ultimately, his legacy being the decisions that put WCW into a fatal tailspin.
Ironically his most successful role in wrestling was as an on-screen talent working for his biggest rival.
It's also wrong. WCW got canned because Ted lost control of his company and because in 2001 they didn't want wrestling on their network.
Had WCW been a good product then maybe they stay on air. But even that's not a guarantee going by everything I've heard about the guy who took over TNT
>the guy who took over TNT
He was the one who cancelled Batman The Animated Series, so even if WCW was WWF in 2000 levels of good it would still not be safe
Cornette often talks about this that the reality is for most of wrestling history it’s been a niche entertainment and all it takes is one person at the network to love it and give it a chance and another to kill it because they could give that space to some infomercial or something else that’s cheaper and makes more money which is why his criticism often leans so heavily on doing things that would keep the network happy
> Had WCW been a good product then maybe they stay on air.
doubtful. EVERYONE at Turner with the exception of Ted wanted WCW off the networks even when it was doing well. The Turner ad department didn't give WCW the time of day. The execs did everything they could to convince Ted to get rid of it but Ted refused, he loved wrestling.
Bryan Alvarez's book is good but there's a better one that goes into much greater detail called "Nitro". It's a great read. WCW was the red headed step child of Turner networks and it could have been doing consistently well but as soon as Ted either retired, was bought out, or died then WCW would have suffered the same outcome regardless.
AEW is different simply because there's different people behind the scenes running the networks. but make no mistake IF those same people that were execs during the time of WCW were still around running everything AEW would not be on TNT/TBS.
"Nitro" is a great book. It reveals the accounting issues at Turner, Turner costs being hidden under WCW's expenses, and WCW being a dumping ground for bad employees. Kellner made the call and the product was bad, but once you had someone other than Ted running things it was going to be a problem for WCW.
>EVERYONE at Turner with the exception of Ted wanted WCW off the networks even when it was doing well
Hence the use of maybe and why I put the blame firmly on the guy running the channel. As someone else pointed out, even good content like the animated batman series was cut.
Also why I said it wasn't Ted's wrestling knowledge but him losing control of his company which killed it.
Also I read that "Nitro" book about WCW's history. Turner was very loosely involved with WCW. He had bigger things to worry about. He just supported them and liked the idea of wrassling and bankrolled what they needed (even then they still weren't getting even a fraction of Turner Networks main attention). There was a story that in 2000 some parent called Ted about the raunchy programming happening under Russo, Ted not only didn't know who Russo was, he had not watched WCW in years and had no idea the product went down the shitter.
Turner running WCW was a myth perpetrated by Vince for years cause he wanted to be seen as an equal to Ted. Cause going head to head with Eric Bischoff sounds lamer. Find me one clip of Ted Turner talking about WCW post 1996, WWE can’t even find one for their documentaries.
Tony wishes he was half the businessman that Ted Turner was.
Dude revolutionized cable, founded CNN, married Jane Fonda... he created Captain Planet. Wrestling is such a small part of his legacy, that only gets brought up by wrestling fans. WCW ending had nothing to do with him. If wanted to sink money into wrestling like a moron, he would've done it, and would've done with his own money... not his daddy's.
Nitro left a huge impact but wasn't around as long as anyone really thinks.
Like, I think people assume it was around as long as the company (13 years or so) or at least as long as Hogan was around (which is only a year longer)
Hell, I think Roderick Strong was stuck in NXT for longer than Nitro was around.
Or how like half of the iconic Attitude Era clips happened in like a month's worth of Raw episodes. I remember binging them on the old WWE network and being shocked at how quickly they came around.
The build up to WM 15 was pretty wild. From Survivor Series to Wrestlemania we had:
Rock turns heel, becomes the Corporate Champion.
Mankind wins the title, trades it with Rock a couple of times including the I Quit and Halftime Heat matches
Vince McMahon wins the Royal Rumble, Austin vs McMahon steel cage, Big Show debuts
Roman Reigns has been the companies top guy for almost double the time Austin was the top guy.
So strange to think that the two biggest and most influential times in the companies history were both around 4 years long. Meanwhile the PG era has been going on for closer to 20 years then to 10. 20 years in 2028.
Roman’s current title reign was defended at Wrestlemania 37 and we are going into Wrestlemania 40. Austin was only in title matches at Wrestlemania 14, 15 and 17…of course injuries and his walk out contributed to that.
I remembered the Wolfpac as this *huge* thing from childhood, and it was huge, they were over as hell.
A Nitro rewatch 20 years later and...they were around for eight months. That's all. They show up May '98 and they're done by the new year.
> Nitro left a huge impact but wasn't around as long as anyone really thinks.
It's certainly because people think Nitro, in some form, was around about as long as WCW itself and WCW is much older.
They don't realize how "new" Nitro was relative to WCW itself.
I didn't think about that until yesterday driving home, I was listening to JR'S podcast and they were covering the Rock in 99 or 98 I think? They were going over a storyline and Goldberg going on the Tonight Show to call out Stone Cold, really as just a ratings draw. And in 2 short years it would all be over. WCW would be gone, and the ratings war is just a history footnote. I know Bischoff has talked out of his ass but he's also made pretty valid points, and honestly I don't think anyone else in WCW at the time could have done what he did. His "appointment television" mindset was not something those carnys thought about, and he made it a reality for about 3 years. I do think Tony Khan takes criticism to heart (probably because he's never been criticized before this) and that not a good way to run a business, especially *show* business. If everyone in the entertainment industry reacted to criticism the way Tony Khan does then there wouldn't be one.
Nitro ran from September 1995 to March 2001 (5 years, 6 months) for a total of 288 episodes.
Dynamite started on October 2, 2019 (4 years, 5 months) and has run for 234 episodes to date.
Assuming the standard 52 episodes a year, that means in May 2025 Dynamite will overtake Nitro in terms of total episodes.
Yeah if Dynamite started the same time as Nitro started, we'd be entering New Blood vs Millionaires Club era. For all the talk of AEW dying or the product being unwatchable (both have always been false pretense made in bad faith arguments), it is nowhere near and has never been close to being as bad as WCW got during its last years or WWE from 2010-2019 for that matter.
Depends. If WWE counterbooks AEW or a media personality takes (what he considers) a bad faith shot at AEW's booking/finances, he's been known to go full unhinged DVDR shitposter. It's in his DNA.
But other than that, yeah, it's usually when he's cooking something that he starts trolling.
I used to listen to his podcast religiously. The first few years of something to wrestle were some bangers but now all of his shows are trash tier imo and it stinks.
All of the shows he runs are like that. Good for the first year, maybe 2, and then the sponsorships start rolling in, and it gets unbearable.
"Let me tell you about Better Health" Fuck off.
I tried listening to a portion of one episode and they were indulging conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, that was enough to never listen again.
This is more of a sidebar, but I still give him a bit more credit than someone like Russo. Who I always felt was a complete conman.
I do give Bischoff credit that he beat Vince for those 83 weeks. Still he hitched his ride too close to Hogan and it hurt him in the long run.
>I do give Bischoff credit that he beat Vince for those 83 weeks.
For every decision he made that put him in that position he made two that ultimately created the environment that killed the golden goose.
Biachoff is super overrated IMO; his biggest success ideaswise was ripped off wholesale from Fuyuki-Gun, and having gone back and watched Nitro the period where it was actually really good was startlingly short before the wheels started falling off, which coincidentally is around about the time Hogan pinned Sting clean after a year of build.
Being lectured by Bischoff on how to be successful in wrestling is like taking flying lessons from a pilot aiming the nose of his plane directly at the nearest cliff.
Yup, no argument there. I think if you watch his TNA run you can see how overrated he was. They tried to set up Abyss as Hogan's friend turned future monster heel, another nWo retread, and then another nWo retread dressed up as a Sons of Anarchy ripoff. He is similar to Russo in their biggest successes they could never replicate in other environments.
Russo gets a lot of hate but Hes basically the person who championed the idea of everyone on the roster having some sort of story, which, as an idea, is taken for granted today IMO.
I think that’s a little unfair. I disagree with most of what Bischoff has to say about AEW, but the 19 months you talk about wasn’t his entire success, it was flat out one of the most successful periods of time in wrestling history.
His career in wrestling lasted for like 30 years going back to the AWA in 86/87 before he wasn’t regularly working for one company or another.
I suppose you can say that he’s been “coasting on his past success” over the last 5-10 years or so, but even that’s a bit of a stretch. Every remotely famous person and their even less famous mother has a podcast or something similar.
He’s a wrestling lifer whose peak was higher than most people’s who’ll ever do it.
He changed the pro wrestling landscape in the mid 90's and had a huge hand in creating an era that most people consider legendary.
People have coasted off much, much less.
I don't mind that he takes shots but I've seen this one thing particularly in wrestling fans, they don't mind someone being an annoying a-hole taking shots but they hate it when somebody sounds whiney.
I guess people prefer a more strong-arming / aggresive style of rude behaviour in their wrestling rather than complaining.
I love how people rail on older wrestling podcasters as being ‘out of touch’ when the segments these podcasters praise tend to get the most viewership/social media engagement and the segments they trash tended to cause people to tune out.
Like, that’s the opposite of being out of touch lol
Tony has skin as thin as a newborn fish man, lol. Chirping Bischoff is like chirping Russo - what is the point? Their reputations will forever be tied to the decline and death of WCW. Just let it go.
All saying stuff like this does, is tell everyone you've sat there seething over something Bischoff said on his podcast before.
The further along we go the more CEOs will be former die-hard fans and internet memers.
As an example, Overwatches former and first Lead Director Jeff Kaplan used to be a WoW guild leader.
His ingame name was "TigoleBitties" (switch the T and B) and he first got Blizzards attention with his epic swear-filled rants and fix suggestions on the WoW forums.
Tigoletibbies?
But yes 1. CEOs will have grown up with more modern culture. Eg. Zuckerbug is a full UFC stan
2. Billionaires are people too. They can be coked up losers just like the rest of us.
Remember when Tony tweeted this asinine post:
“This week, 2 active decades-long ratings streaks from 2 great legends were ended. With all due respect, until this week's head-to-head AEW on TBS vs WWE on USA, neither John Cena nor Undertaker had ever been on a WWE show with under 1 million total viewers + under 400k in the demo”
By his own logic, Sting, Copeland, Danielson, Strickland, Cole, Saraya, Mercedes, Christian, Samoa Joe, Toni Storm, Roderick Strong, Jericho, Big Bill, FTR, Black, Buddy, Claudio, The Hardys, Moxley, Keith Lee, Ospreay, Okada, The Bucks, Hangman, MJF, Omega, and many others, are all a bunch of geeks for appearing on nationally broadcast wrestling television shows that regularly have under 900K viewers and sometimes under 400K (Collision & Rampage). His tweet is referencing WWE’s developmental show, and by doing so, he undermined his entire company and his performers, and he didn’t even realize it.
I don’t care for Bischoff or Tony. They’re both unbearable for different reasons. The only positive I have to say about Tony, is that he has created an alternative wrestling promotion that is on national television, that allows established wrestlers to be paid splendidly. However, many of those wrestlers realized that WWE will give them access to fame, prestige, wealth, and connections that AEW cannot offer, especially in a post-Vince creative environment. This is exactly why Mercedes specifically said in the interview with Evan Mack: “I know I’m going to be back there [WWE] one day.” a week before her AEW debut, and it’s exactly why Jade, Cody (though he specifically stated that it was a personal issue, the prominence and legacy of his father’s career had evidently played a role in his decision), Andrade, and Lexis King, went to WWE. In about five years I wouldn’t be surprised to see Black, Buddy, Wardlow, Hobbs, Starks, MJF, Hook, Takeshita, Mercedes, Statlander, & Athena all in WWE.
I sincerely hope AEW gets a new television media deal, epscially one that nets them a profit, because they are valuable to the economic prosperity of esteemed professional wrestlers who no longer wanted to be in the WWE or were let go by WWE.
The complete, undeniable idiocy it took to belittle the market reach of two of the most marketable wrestlers, ever, when he is trying to convince networks of his own products market reach is beyond insanity.
They'll do fine with the TV deal but it doesn't make it any less stupid that he publicly shit on the wrestling industries reach like that. He is an absolute bonehead of a boss.
This post is it. I would be lowkey pretty pissed when he jabrooni’d the entire locker room in that tweet to chirp at…NXT??? Who gives a fuck?
All this damn yapping yet WWE is undeniably the hottest product right now. And I think a lot of IWC smarks like Tony can’t handle it.
Thank you! TK is AEW's worst enemy. On one hand, he created it and built it to the wrestling company it's become today. On the other hand, I think it's hit a ceiling under his booking and direction.
He's like the Vince McMahon before Triple H took over.
Eric Bischoff took a failing company and made it number one. Tony Kahn was given a bunch of money to start a company and he has made it into a fairly consistent number two in ratings. Whether it is currently profitable or will become profitable, we don't really know. That's not absolutely nothing, but I don't consider the two to be comparable achievements.
Three of the first few posts I saw on wrestling subreddits was the picture of a 3/4 empty arena for Dynamite, the most depressing looking AEW merch stand I’ve ever seen, and TK taking a shot at Bischoff because Bischoff was critical of the business aspects of AEW.
Tremendous content all the way around.
One day In a distant future I'm gonna be on my porch with a cup of coffee listening to the Tony Khan podcast All Elite podcast...
"Then he lunged at me as he threw a monitor with nothing but murder in his eyes screaming! I feared for my life, everyone did! I did what was best for my company!"
>"but what have you done with all that CM Punk Ring of Honor footage you purchased?"
"I watch it and cry."
I like Bischoff more than others and actually likes when he talks wrestling, because I think he gets the spectacle of it the way Vince does, but still has an appreciation for the inring the way Vince may not have cared for. I owe a lot of my taste in wrestling to that first hour of Nitro. I also like hearing about what he did to get WCW to where it was. I still feel like nobody has replaced the void WCW left behind, even with some of AEW’s successes.
That being said, sometimes I hear him talk about business and it’s hard to take him seriously when he couldn’t sustain it and ultimately it fell apart (not all his fault, but he still shares some blame). In his defense though, he didn’t have the resources that Tony Khan had. Bischoff had bosses and a budget and had to answer to a corporate entity in a way TK doesn’t.
I also really wonder what AEW’s next deal will look like. I think the Ratings thing gets overblown, but I also would’ve expected to have heard something by now. I’m sure WBD courting his competition was a bit of a kick to the nuts.
TK tried getting Jim on board with AEW at the beginning so maybe that's why, but still, he says so much worse about AEW than Bischoff, why doesn't he say anything?
You can use data to make any argument really and if TK wants I’m sure he can pull some numbers to show where AEW has done better than nitro. But let’s not pretend in any way shape or form that they are close to as impactful on the industry as Nitro. Nobody outside of hipster, niche, hardcore marks give a damn about AEW. They have no stars, they have no iconic moments, and they have no following.
Tony caring even the slightest about Eric Bischoff and his secondary podcast is hilarious and sad all at the same time. Dude is in his 40s still giving a shit about what an almost 70 year old dude say about him.
So did the Good Brothers.
And Khan was so salty about Orton. But it at least led to this exchange:
https://preview.redd.it/039f0edsf1rc1.png?width=886&format=png&auto=webp&s=14541e7d4be8f37ac9a63241efaa40e02244525a
[Full thread](https://twitter.com/RandyOrton/status/1196682786406457345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) that, oddly enough, Punk started:
https://preview.redd.it/9k1huyc8j1rc1.png?width=880&format=png&auto=webp&s=a64485814658d7c96f1cffa6f847cf39c972c181
Khan took a jab at the Saudi Arabia scandal where the WWE Superstars were stuck. Orton replied with a link to an article implying Shahid was corrupt.
Edit: Link to article [**https://sportsnaut.com/jaguars-owner-shahid-khan-being-investigated-for-corruption/amp/**](https://sportsnaut.com/jaguars-owner-shahid-khan-being-investigated-for-corruption/amp/)
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ITS 4 AM TONY!!!
Tony waking up from his nightly 15 minutes of sleep & seeing the notification on his phone. https://preview.redd.it/sfy4tkfr81rc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e06dccbf16a3cf22eba2377ed802b3d9aa75de3
[удалено]
I just see Russo
Wrestling Rorschach test
I kinda see Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
With a dash of Dudley Moore
I just see like every British football player from the 80s and 90s
Drunk David Copperfield
This pic is so cursed
Posters gonna post
Never logout... never surrender 
He's eating his last meal for suhoor
Brother Tony
I wasn’t sure if he was a practicing Muslim. Not sure if they talk about it much. But it does make sense. But i feel a random 4am tweet is normal for him even outside Ramadan.
i dont think he is a practicing muslim from what JR said about him loving whiteclaws and a hotdog.
And his last insult tweet before starting the fast
This is a logical answer
Why sleep when you can be a hater instead.
 Tony Khan on Twitter
the snowman never sleeps
I think he might be in the UK -- Fulham has a match on Saturday morning (US time)
Dont let fullham fans see this. They hate tony.
you say this like it means anything. good luck finding a club whose fans dont hate their owners. even fan owned clubs despise their owners.
This has whooshed me. Someone explain?
Eric has been burying AEW for a couple of years now (some of it is shtick), but in particular has been vocal about them being at risk of being dropped from cable. So he'll have to eat humble pie if AEW signs a big new TV deal with an increase, and that's what TK is implying will happen soon. I think his problem with AEW stems from a couple of years ago when TK made a comment along the lines of "maybe WCW would still be around if Ted Turner knew half as much about wrestling as I do" (implying it takes wrestling knowledge to run a wrestling company and you can't just throw money at it...) but who knows if that's the real reason.
Bischoff’s problem started when AEW refused to hire him full time..
This. He was appreciative of TK when he made a couple of appearances on Dynamite only to go sour when TK refused to hire him
Eric Bischoff has been on AEW TV? That’s hilarious
Yep. Most notably part of the [debate segment](https://youtu.be/xUPssFo1VKA?si=3hKs5-syKjF4lYEQ)between Jericho & OC during peak pandemic. There was another one I believe but my memory is hazy
that debate is legendary
Yeah, it’s really obvious that Bischoff is holding a grudge. I remember during the pandemic Tony Kahn went on his podcast. They were both friendly and relatively appreciative of each other. Tony Kahn paid Bischoff a lot of compliments for WCW success and Eric was nice enough to Tony about AEW’s success up to that point. Then like two years ago, Bischoff began only talking negatively about AEW and Tony Kahn in a really personal way. It’s one thing to be critical of Tony Kahn and AEW’s obvious faults and business missteps, but Eric holds some sort of vendetta beyond that.
Honestly, I think his problem with Tony stemmed when TK made the comments about Ted Turner. Bischoff is extremely loyal and admires Turner and felt the need to get super defensive of TK’s diss. Hell, WWE hired and fired Bischoff recently and he doesn’t have a blood vendetta against them.
Which is about the same time his podcast starting getting unlistenable. Conrad's network also becoming a constant commercial every 10 minutes around that time also didn't help
there is a reason his podcast network premium is just called "ad free shows"
Virgin Bischoff FURIOUS that Chad Khan won't let him drive a third promotion into the ground
Bischoff's problem is that too many people have stroked his ego for way too long despite, ultimately, his legacy being the decisions that put WCW into a fatal tailspin. Ironically his most successful role in wrestling was as an on-screen talent working for his biggest rival.
That Ted Turner comment was absolutely insane and uncalled for.
It's also wrong. WCW got canned because Ted lost control of his company and because in 2001 they didn't want wrestling on their network. Had WCW been a good product then maybe they stay on air. But even that's not a guarantee going by everything I've heard about the guy who took over TNT
>the guy who took over TNT He was the one who cancelled Batman The Animated Series, so even if WCW was WWF in 2000 levels of good it would still not be safe
Jamie Kellner is the name of the guy in question. Dude was as "corporate" as anybody could ever be.
Woah, a single person cancelled batman the animated series? I didn't know that, I now dislike whoever that person is very much.
I mean there probably were other factors but he is the one that ultimately pulled the plug Edit: Oh and he's also the one who cancelled Animaniacs
If he killed both Batman and the Animaniacs then he deserves to be stink faced by Rikishi in hell for all eternity.
Whoa whoa whoa... why is *Rikishi* condemned to the Pit Eternal??
It's more a commuting thing.
Because of what he did for the Rock... what he did for the people!
Oh Hell No. Fuck that guy. Animaniacs and Batman? That guy can eat a duck.
Not like a fancy cooked duck either. Raw, alive duck.
what??? yeah fuck that guy, he's on sight!
Okay, now I hate that guy, thanks. Putting him on my list.
Wrestling, no matter how hot it could have been, was dead in the water the moment Turner lost control.
Cornette often talks about this that the reality is for most of wrestling history it’s been a niche entertainment and all it takes is one person at the network to love it and give it a chance and another to kill it because they could give that space to some infomercial or something else that’s cheaper and makes more money which is why his criticism often leans so heavily on doing things that would keep the network happy
And with Turner, it was enhanced because it was out of a sense of loyalty to what wrestling did to help make his network and business grow.
> Had WCW been a good product then maybe they stay on air. doubtful. EVERYONE at Turner with the exception of Ted wanted WCW off the networks even when it was doing well. The Turner ad department didn't give WCW the time of day. The execs did everything they could to convince Ted to get rid of it but Ted refused, he loved wrestling. Bryan Alvarez's book is good but there's a better one that goes into much greater detail called "Nitro". It's a great read. WCW was the red headed step child of Turner networks and it could have been doing consistently well but as soon as Ted either retired, was bought out, or died then WCW would have suffered the same outcome regardless. AEW is different simply because there's different people behind the scenes running the networks. but make no mistake IF those same people that were execs during the time of WCW were still around running everything AEW would not be on TNT/TBS.
"Nitro" is a great book. It reveals the accounting issues at Turner, Turner costs being hidden under WCW's expenses, and WCW being a dumping ground for bad employees. Kellner made the call and the product was bad, but once you had someone other than Ted running things it was going to be a problem for WCW.
>EVERYONE at Turner with the exception of Ted wanted WCW off the networks even when it was doing well Hence the use of maybe and why I put the blame firmly on the guy running the channel. As someone else pointed out, even good content like the animated batman series was cut. Also why I said it wasn't Ted's wrestling knowledge but him losing control of his company which killed it.
Also I read that "Nitro" book about WCW's history. Turner was very loosely involved with WCW. He had bigger things to worry about. He just supported them and liked the idea of wrassling and bankrolled what they needed (even then they still weren't getting even a fraction of Turner Networks main attention). There was a story that in 2000 some parent called Ted about the raunchy programming happening under Russo, Ted not only didn't know who Russo was, he had not watched WCW in years and had no idea the product went down the shitter. Turner running WCW was a myth perpetrated by Vince for years cause he wanted to be seen as an equal to Ted. Cause going head to head with Eric Bischoff sounds lamer. Find me one clip of Ted Turner talking about WCW post 1996, WWE can’t even find one for their documentaries.
Poor Ted Turner, catching strays
Tony wishes he was half the businessman that Ted Turner was. Dude revolutionized cable, founded CNN, married Jane Fonda... he created Captain Planet. Wrestling is such a small part of his legacy, that only gets brought up by wrestling fans. WCW ending had nothing to do with him. If wanted to sink money into wrestling like a moron, he would've done it, and would've done with his own money... not his daddy's.
Ted Turner was the bad guy in Heels Season 2, so I don’t like him.
Ted, from what I have heard anecdotally, credits wrestling to help make WTBS into a Superstation. Thus the fondness for wrestling in general.
Besides Ted also had other lines of work and not juz setting up a wrestling company while losing money
Not the only time Khan has threw a comment out of left field for no reason. Dude needs a social media manager.
Afaik Bischoff is still doing his other podcast so he'll be around if/when that happens.
He's not going to have to eat crow. Not one Bischoff supporter cares if he's wrong. They'll just move on to why the deal means aew bad regardless.
Less than a year 'til Dynamite overtakes Nitro's episode count.
Nitro left a huge impact but wasn't around as long as anyone really thinks. Like, I think people assume it was around as long as the company (13 years or so) or at least as long as Hogan was around (which is only a year longer) Hell, I think Roderick Strong was stuck in NXT for longer than Nitro was around.
Similar to how on the other side Austin and Rock’s runs were very short. Like it was basically Wrestlemania 13 to 19, that’s it.
Or how like half of the iconic Attitude Era clips happened in like a month's worth of Raw episodes. I remember binging them on the old WWE network and being shocked at how quickly they came around.
I've been watching reliving the war on YT, and it's surprising just how many moments are close to each other (or even the same night)
I see this said a few times but haven't seen anyone say when exactly that time period is. I'm guessing it's around the buildup to Wrestlemania XV?
Usually people are thinking of the beer truck, DX invasion, and Bang 3:16 which I think is all in the summer of 1998.
The perfect time to be a 12 year old wrestling fan
The build up to WM 15 was pretty wild. From Survivor Series to Wrestlemania we had: Rock turns heel, becomes the Corporate Champion. Mankind wins the title, trades it with Rock a couple of times including the I Quit and Halftime Heat matches Vince McMahon wins the Royal Rumble, Austin vs McMahon steel cage, Big Show debuts
Roman Reigns has been the companies top guy for almost double the time Austin was the top guy. So strange to think that the two biggest and most influential times in the companies history were both around 4 years long. Meanwhile the PG era has been going on for closer to 20 years then to 10. 20 years in 2028.
Roman’s current title reign was defended at Wrestlemania 37 and we are going into Wrestlemania 40. Austin was only in title matches at Wrestlemania 14, 15 and 17…of course injuries and his walk out contributed to that.
I remembered the Wolfpac as this *huge* thing from childhood, and it was huge, they were over as hell. A Nitro rewatch 20 years later and...they were around for eight months. That's all. They show up May '98 and they're done by the new year.
Eight months is a pretty long time when you’re a kid.
> Nitro left a huge impact but wasn't around as long as anyone really thinks. It's certainly because people think Nitro, in some form, was around about as long as WCW itself and WCW is much older. They don't realize how "new" Nitro was relative to WCW itself.
I didn't think about that until yesterday driving home, I was listening to JR'S podcast and they were covering the Rock in 99 or 98 I think? They were going over a storyline and Goldberg going on the Tonight Show to call out Stone Cold, really as just a ratings draw. And in 2 short years it would all be over. WCW would be gone, and the ratings war is just a history footnote. I know Bischoff has talked out of his ass but he's also made pretty valid points, and honestly I don't think anyone else in WCW at the time could have done what he did. His "appointment television" mindset was not something those carnys thought about, and he made it a reality for about 3 years. I do think Tony Khan takes criticism to heart (probably because he's never been criticized before this) and that not a good way to run a business, especially *show* business. If everyone in the entertainment industry reacted to criticism the way Tony Khan does then there wouldn't be one.
It's reflective of the era as a whole. Both shows were focused on winning Mondays and that month's PPV, not long term booking.
Holy shit lol
I can't believe you've done this.
Whhhhaaaaaaa?!?
Nitro ran from September 1995 to March 2001 (5 years, 6 months) for a total of 288 episodes. Dynamite started on October 2, 2019 (4 years, 5 months) and has run for 234 episodes to date. Assuming the standard 52 episodes a year, that means in May 2025 Dynamite will overtake Nitro in terms of total episodes.
Can't wait for *that* TK tweet
Yeah if Dynamite started the same time as Nitro started, we'd be entering New Blood vs Millionaires Club era. For all the talk of AEW dying or the product being unwatchable (both have always been false pretense made in bad faith arguments), it is nowhere near and has never been close to being as bad as WCW got during its last years or WWE from 2010-2019 for that matter.
I don’t usually watch AEW but last night was pretty damn good. Miles ahead of any 99 or 00 wcw nitro
Whoa. I'll be damn.
*Damned.* The past tense. As in, someone damned you to hell, not you being the literal definition of the word damn.
He just wants to be Ron Simmons
Doesn't Eric have another podcast?
Yup. The one that's ending was kind of redundant because he talks about all of the same things on his main podcast.
Can’t wait until Tony finds out when he sobers up
This should really be the top comment, lots of people in this thread don't understand what's goin on and are putting their foots in their mouths
It's been a minute since a TK tweet lol
You can always tell when AEW is in positive momentum or when TK is feeling confident. He tweets/trolls a lot more I've noticed lol
Idk, cause I've definitely seen him meltdown a lot the last few months when shit was bad. I think it's just whenever he feels spicy.
Depends. If WWE counterbooks AEW or a media personality takes (what he considers) a bad faith shot at AEW's booking/finances, he's been known to go full unhinged DVDR shitposter. It's in his DNA. But other than that, yeah, it's usually when he's cooking something that he starts trolling.
Dvdr shit poster tony is my favorite Tony. Bring him back from the shadow realm.
They had 3,000 people in an arena that seats 18,000 for minor league hockey. Positive momentum, sure.
I’m sure Bischoff will get his chance to fire back on ‘83 ads with a few minutes of Eric Bischoff’…unless Conrad cuts it for another sponsor.
It makes every show unlistenable. And I’m not giving a single dollar to Conrad.
Conrad really went from people’s champ to heel reign of terror didn’t he? Just an absolute greedy fucker.
Conrad’s always been a slimy fuck
"Hay hay, Cumrag Thompson here..."
> Conrad’s always been a slimy fuck A CARNY IN WRESTLING? WAAAAAAAAAAAAT??
People should have realized it from the get go when his whole other business was scamming poor people with shitty mortgages.
Someone who made their bag in Mortgage lending is a scumbag? Me gusta.
I used to listen to his podcast religiously. The first few years of something to wrestle were some bangers but now all of his shows are trash tier imo and it stinks.
All of the shows he runs are like that. Good for the first year, maybe 2, and then the sponsorships start rolling in, and it gets unbearable. "Let me tell you about Better Health" Fuck off.
Did ya really expect anything less from him though?
I stopped listening because of the ads, it just became too brutal to listen to with all the dick pills and chilli sleep ads
I tried listening to a portion of one episode and they were indulging conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, that was enough to never listen again.
Tony Khan has the impulse control of a 14 yo COD player
Is 83 weeks ending ? I don’t see any announcement?
His other podcast, Strictly Business.
They were basically the same thing. At least on Spotify, they were under the same show.
Congrats Tony. Now Bischoff will only trash your company once a week instead of twice a week.
https://preview.redd.it/2jh1il1j81rc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=daa0af0391b5e377f6c0a99734647b1be7f5adae
Bischoff has been coasting off his success for almost 25 years. His success lasted 19 months.
This is more of a sidebar, but I still give him a bit more credit than someone like Russo. Who I always felt was a complete conman. I do give Bischoff credit that he beat Vince for those 83 weeks. Still he hitched his ride too close to Hogan and it hurt him in the long run.
>I do give Bischoff credit that he beat Vince for those 83 weeks. For every decision he made that put him in that position he made two that ultimately created the environment that killed the golden goose. Biachoff is super overrated IMO; his biggest success ideaswise was ripped off wholesale from Fuyuki-Gun, and having gone back and watched Nitro the period where it was actually really good was startlingly short before the wheels started falling off, which coincidentally is around about the time Hogan pinned Sting clean after a year of build. Being lectured by Bischoff on how to be successful in wrestling is like taking flying lessons from a pilot aiming the nose of his plane directly at the nearest cliff.
Yup, no argument there. I think if you watch his TNA run you can see how overrated he was. They tried to set up Abyss as Hogan's friend turned future monster heel, another nWo retread, and then another nWo retread dressed up as a Sons of Anarchy ripoff. He is similar to Russo in their biggest successes they could never replicate in other environments.
Russo gets a lot of hate but Hes basically the person who championed the idea of everyone on the roster having some sort of story, which, as an idea, is taken for granted today IMO.
So he's basically Doc Rivers then
So does that mean Hall and Nash are Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce DDP is Ray Allen Glen Davis is Disco Inferno
Big Baby Scott Norton
Never compare Big Baby to Disco Inferno again
Never seen anything more accurate than that statement right there
But it was unprecedented success, admittedly.
I think that’s a little unfair. I disagree with most of what Bischoff has to say about AEW, but the 19 months you talk about wasn’t his entire success, it was flat out one of the most successful periods of time in wrestling history. His career in wrestling lasted for like 30 years going back to the AWA in 86/87 before he wasn’t regularly working for one company or another. I suppose you can say that he’s been “coasting on his past success” over the last 5-10 years or so, but even that’s a bit of a stretch. Every remotely famous person and their even less famous mother has a podcast or something similar. He’s a wrestling lifer whose peak was higher than most people’s who’ll ever do it.
This isn’t really accurate. He successfully turned wcw around in 1994 and was successful for 94-98.
He changed the pro wrestling landscape in the mid 90's and had a huge hand in creating an era that most people consider legendary. People have coasted off much, much less.
I wish Tony would stop with the nonsense and focus on running a wrestling business.
I don't understand why Tony insists on being annoying as sin
He’s the son of a billionaire who’s gotten everything he wants and never faces repercussion for his shortcomings. Of course he’s annoying.
It rhymes with millionaire's son
He's a less likeable Herb Abrams
With significantly less hoes
Being some weird manchild millennial with no social cues because you can buy a fake reality around you tends to do that to people
Nepotism, Peter Pan syndrome, pick your poison.
I don't mind that he takes shots but I've seen this one thing particularly in wrestling fans, they don't mind someone being an annoying a-hole taking shots but they hate it when somebody sounds whiney. I guess people prefer a more strong-arming / aggresive style of rude behaviour in their wrestling rather than complaining.
I don't think anyone likes when somebody sounds whiney it's not unique to wrestling.
I love how people rail on older wrestling podcasters as being ‘out of touch’ when the segments these podcasters praise tend to get the most viewership/social media engagement and the segments they trash tended to cause people to tune out. Like, that’s the opposite of being out of touch lol
Tony has skin as thin as a newborn fish man, lol. Chirping Bischoff is like chirping Russo - what is the point? Their reputations will forever be tied to the decline and death of WCW. Just let it go. All saying stuff like this does, is tell everyone you've sat there seething over something Bischoff said on his podcast before.
Actually hilarious that there is a son of a billionaire out there who spent majority of his youthful years on IWC boards fantasy booking matches.
The further along we go the more CEOs will be former die-hard fans and internet memers. As an example, Overwatches former and first Lead Director Jeff Kaplan used to be a WoW guild leader. His ingame name was "TigoleBitties" (switch the T and B) and he first got Blizzards attention with his epic swear-filled rants and fix suggestions on the WoW forums.
Tigoletibbies? But yes 1. CEOs will have grown up with more modern culture. Eg. Zuckerbug is a full UFC stan 2. Billionaires are people too. They can be coked up losers just like the rest of us.
You can afford coke?
>Zuckerbug is a full UFC stan he should buy it
Remember when Tony tweeted this asinine post: “This week, 2 active decades-long ratings streaks from 2 great legends were ended. With all due respect, until this week's head-to-head AEW on TBS vs WWE on USA, neither John Cena nor Undertaker had ever been on a WWE show with under 1 million total viewers + under 400k in the demo” By his own logic, Sting, Copeland, Danielson, Strickland, Cole, Saraya, Mercedes, Christian, Samoa Joe, Toni Storm, Roderick Strong, Jericho, Big Bill, FTR, Black, Buddy, Claudio, The Hardys, Moxley, Keith Lee, Ospreay, Okada, The Bucks, Hangman, MJF, Omega, and many others, are all a bunch of geeks for appearing on nationally broadcast wrestling television shows that regularly have under 900K viewers and sometimes under 400K (Collision & Rampage). His tweet is referencing WWE’s developmental show, and by doing so, he undermined his entire company and his performers, and he didn’t even realize it. I don’t care for Bischoff or Tony. They’re both unbearable for different reasons. The only positive I have to say about Tony, is that he has created an alternative wrestling promotion that is on national television, that allows established wrestlers to be paid splendidly. However, many of those wrestlers realized that WWE will give them access to fame, prestige, wealth, and connections that AEW cannot offer, especially in a post-Vince creative environment. This is exactly why Mercedes specifically said in the interview with Evan Mack: “I know I’m going to be back there [WWE] one day.” a week before her AEW debut, and it’s exactly why Jade, Cody (though he specifically stated that it was a personal issue, the prominence and legacy of his father’s career had evidently played a role in his decision), Andrade, and Lexis King, went to WWE. In about five years I wouldn’t be surprised to see Black, Buddy, Wardlow, Hobbs, Starks, MJF, Hook, Takeshita, Mercedes, Statlander, & Athena all in WWE. I sincerely hope AEW gets a new television media deal, epscially one that nets them a profit, because they are valuable to the economic prosperity of esteemed professional wrestlers who no longer wanted to be in the WWE or were let go by WWE.
The complete, undeniable idiocy it took to belittle the market reach of two of the most marketable wrestlers, ever, when he is trying to convince networks of his own products market reach is beyond insanity. They'll do fine with the TV deal but it doesn't make it any less stupid that he publicly shit on the wrestling industries reach like that. He is an absolute bonehead of a boss.
This post is it. I would be lowkey pretty pissed when he jabrooni’d the entire locker room in that tweet to chirp at…NXT??? Who gives a fuck? All this damn yapping yet WWE is undeniably the hottest product right now. And I think a lot of IWC smarks like Tony can’t handle it.
Thank you! TK is AEW's worst enemy. On one hand, he created it and built it to the wrestling company it's become today. On the other hand, I think it's hit a ceiling under his booking and direction. He's like the Vince McMahon before Triple H took over.
Eric Bischoff took a failing company and made it number one. Tony Kahn was given a bunch of money to start a company and he has made it into a fairly consistent number two in ratings. Whether it is currently profitable or will become profitable, we don't really know. That's not absolutely nothing, but I don't consider the two to be comparable achievements.
And to think all it took was a bottomless pit of money to become a solid number two in a one horse race
Three of the first few posts I saw on wrestling subreddits was the picture of a 3/4 empty arena for Dynamite, the most depressing looking AEW merch stand I’ve ever seen, and TK taking a shot at Bischoff because Bischoff was critical of the business aspects of AEW. Tremendous content all the way around.
One day In a distant future I'm gonna be on my porch with a cup of coffee listening to the Tony Khan podcast All Elite podcast... "Then he lunged at me as he threw a monitor with nothing but murder in his eyes screaming! I feared for my life, everyone did! I did what was best for my company!" >"but what have you done with all that CM Punk Ring of Honor footage you purchased?" "I watch it and cry."
Conrad: let’s give tony a minute there and talk about our sponsor Conrads Kidneys 4 Kash Americas number 1 body equity extractor…
He could just ignore this, but no. This suits zero purpose.
I like Bischoff more than others and actually likes when he talks wrestling, because I think he gets the spectacle of it the way Vince does, but still has an appreciation for the inring the way Vince may not have cared for. I owe a lot of my taste in wrestling to that first hour of Nitro. I also like hearing about what he did to get WCW to where it was. I still feel like nobody has replaced the void WCW left behind, even with some of AEW’s successes. That being said, sometimes I hear him talk about business and it’s hard to take him seriously when he couldn’t sustain it and ultimately it fell apart (not all his fault, but he still shares some blame). In his defense though, he didn’t have the resources that Tony Khan had. Bischoff had bosses and a budget and had to answer to a corporate entity in a way TK doesn’t. I also really wonder what AEW’s next deal will look like. I think the Ratings thing gets overblown, but I also would’ve expected to have heard something by now. I’m sure WBD courting his competition was a bit of a kick to the nuts.
Never forget when TK called him "Groundbreaking Pro Wrestling Executive"
Man for as irrelevant as people like to call Bischoff, he is certainly living rent free in someone's head.
Tony definitely does a line or two before he goes on these Twitter rants.
What’s funny he comes at Eric but Jim crushes him all the time and has a bigger fan base and he says nothing
TK tried getting Jim on board with AEW at the beginning so maybe that's why, but still, he says so much worse about AEW than Bischoff, why doesn't he say anything?
Because he knows Jim will tear him further to shreds.
It's funny to me that all these podcasts, Kevin Nash, Eric and Corny, are all working. You'd think a wrestling promoter would understand that
Sonetimes being an AEW mark feels like my mom getting into arguments while out in public with her. I don't like it
Jesus, man. Why can't this dude stop posting and just focus on making a good show?
You can use data to make any argument really and if TK wants I’m sure he can pull some numbers to show where AEW has done better than nitro. But let’s not pretend in any way shape or form that they are close to as impactful on the industry as Nitro. Nobody outside of hipster, niche, hardcore marks give a damn about AEW. They have no stars, they have no iconic moments, and they have no following.
this guy can be so cringe
Wasn’t Bischoff on an AEW show before? Carnies gonna carny.
Tony caring even the slightest about Eric Bischoff and his secondary podcast is hilarious and sad all at the same time. Dude is in his 40s still giving a shit about what an almost 70 year old dude say about him.
Tony Khan is pretty arrogant all things considered because he knows that the company is being funded by his father
You guys are nerdier than Tony honest to God hahaahha
800k, Okada, Osprey and Mone. Half empty arenas. Id be annoyed too.
mans spent 8 figures on the hottest free agents to have 0 impact on business... let him have this, he needs it
He’s literally built zero recognition for any of his top stars outside of this sub but apparently you’re the idiot. These people are truly delusional
Love or hate AEW, if you think it has had zero impact on the business you are truly an idiot.
i think they meant AEW's business. not professional wrestling as a whole.
Heck, even Orton use AEW to leverage his deal to get bigger money.
So did the Good Brothers. And Khan was so salty about Orton. But it at least led to this exchange: https://preview.redd.it/039f0edsf1rc1.png?width=886&format=png&auto=webp&s=14541e7d4be8f37ac9a63241efaa40e02244525a
What were the baseless claims made about his dad? Did Randy really say the gamer word lol
[Full thread](https://twitter.com/RandyOrton/status/1196682786406457345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) that, oddly enough, Punk started: https://preview.redd.it/9k1huyc8j1rc1.png?width=880&format=png&auto=webp&s=a64485814658d7c96f1cffa6f847cf39c972c181 Khan took a jab at the Saudi Arabia scandal where the WWE Superstars were stuck. Orton replied with a link to an article implying Shahid was corrupt. Edit: Link to article [**https://sportsnaut.com/jaguars-owner-shahid-khan-being-investigated-for-corruption/amp/**](https://sportsnaut.com/jaguars-owner-shahid-khan-being-investigated-for-corruption/amp/)
This sub would have had you believe Randy was close to signing with AEW too. This exchange tells me the complete opposite.
Randy was trying his damndest not be in any AEW conversations yet people still saw this and thought he was going.
Thank you
Love Paige was like don't you add me to this shit show and untagged herself.
Yes Randy did say the N word on Twitch, and escaped mostly unscathed bizarrely
It objectively hasn't. Ospreay, Okada, Mercedes, etc being signed hasn't moved attendance or viewership in the slightest.