Jump to content

Wrestling


Rich

Recommended Posts

New Japan Pro Wrestling put the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on Jay White, having him beat Tanahashi.  Interesting.... looks to be White vs Okada at WM weekend.

Sounds like the original plan if Omega stayed was him beating Tanahashi and then losing to Okada at WM weekend (I'd have had Kenny lose to Tanahashi and regain at MSG but I guess they were thinking they'd have their top two guys in the main event).  Jay White is good but he wont be the US draw Kenny was.

Speaking of Kenny, he did a long interview with Dave Meltzer where he confirmed that report of WWE offering him $3.5 million.  Well, to be fair he didnt confirm the number but said "everyone knows, you reported it.  Its out there."  He said WWE was awesome to deal with and had nothing but great things to say.

He said his AEW deal is 4 years and he's already been scouting.  Sounds like he's doing a lot of scouting for the women's division.

He said he nearly re-signed with New Japan with the idea of being based there and doing AEW when he could but wasnt happy with the direction of New Japan (lines up with what he told me last year).  Said his AEW contract lets him do just about anything he wants including New Japan but he doesnt know if New japan wants him.  He said he's open to working with WWE but didnt want to step on toes since thats not his call.

Mentioned that he packed only summer clothes for the Vegas rally but thankfully brought a suit (it was 5 degrees in Vegas lol).  

Other news: WWE was advertising Dean Ambrose vs Nia Jax but have suddenly pulled the advertising and said it was an error.  Rumor is they had backlash from sponsors...I dont know about that.  I dont have a problem with intergender matches though I do understand why WWE would need to be careful with man on woman violence.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

New Japan Pro Wrestling put the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on Jay White, having him beat Tanahashi.  Interesting.... looks to be White vs Okada at WM weekend.

Sounds like the original plan if Omega stayed was him beating Tanahashi and then losing to Okada at WM weekend (I'd have had Kenny lose to Tanahashi and regain at MSG but I guess they were thinking they'd have their top two guys in the main event).  Jay White is good but he wont be the US draw Kenny was.

Not a fan of Jay White at all...he's not a bad worker or anything but he just doesn't do anything for me.  He falls way short of being on the level of Omega or Okada, IMO. 

NJPW isn't doing him any favours with the way they have rushed to make him a star (ex: putting the strap on him so soon when Kenny struggled for so long to get there.  Or making him BC leader as soon as he joins and right after the turned on Kenny saying BC are all equal and have no leader).  It just seems very uneven compare to their past booking. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Not a fan of Jay White at all...he's not a bad worker or anything but he just doesn't do anything for me.  He falls way short of being on the level of Omega or Okada, IMO. 

NJPW isn't doing him any favours with the way they have rushed to make him a star (ex: putting the strap on him so soon when Kenny struggled for so long to get there.  Or making him BC leader as soon as he joins and right after the turned on Kenny saying BC are all equal and have no leader).  It just seems very uneven compare to their past booking. 

Yeah he never really did anything for me but he is like their home grown foreign star so he's going to get the push.  I would assume Okada wins it back at MSG and they do a long build to White regaining it.  Seems they didnt think they'd lose Kenny so now they're scrambling a bit which is definitely not Gedo's booking methodology.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reports of Dave Batista talking to both WWE and AEW about a return.

Also, here's my first negative remark about AEW...if they want to be seen as fan friendly, when hundreds of people dont get pre-sale codes, dont reply to the guy about Olive Garden, send out a tweet with an update.  Dont pretend it's not happening.  If you capped pre-sale, say you capped.  If there was a tech issue, say that.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont know about the rest of you, but Im All In.  😉  

Never did get a pre-sale code.  But someone hooked me up.

UPDATE: Got the pre-sale code at 2:30pm.  Sent to a friend who was thinking of going.  Eeeesh

I will say this, once you're in, the experience was awesome.  Never had a "waiting room" thing for tickets.  You could enter the waiting froom two minutes beforehand and enter all your info including Credit Card and ticket tier preference.  And you wait.  When it's your turn, you just basically push confirm purchase and its done.

P4 Sec. 9.  Anyone else here going?

I do have an extra pre-sale code from my gf if anyone wants...

 

EDIT: Pre-sale Sold out.

Edited by The Unknown Poster
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

The venue may have been too small but it creates a sort of buzz about selling out really fast. Also makes tickets really desirable. 

 

Good on you for getting tickets! I'm sure it will be a blast. 

 

I wonder how it will sound on PPV? The pop has always meant a lot. ECW could always create a loud pop through the TV (with some audio assistance, I'm sure).  I remember RAW in Toronto, at SkyDome, the first time. It was LOUD and it really played well on TV.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, JCon said:

The venue may have been too small but it creates a sort of buzz about selling out really fast. Also makes tickets really desirable. 

 

Good on you for getting tickets! I'm sure it will be a blast. 

 

I wonder how it will sound on PPV? The pop has always meant a lot. ECW could always create a loud pop through the TV (with some audio assistance, I'm sure).  I remember RAW in Toronto, at SkyDome, the first time. It was LOUD and it really played well on TV.  

I dont recall it not sounding good at the firt All In.  I read an interview with Tony Khan where he talked about the first rally and the first thing he said was he wished they had mic'ed the crowd.  

And when asked about starting AEW he said he thought the time was right for a "second national promotion with great production values".  I have a feeling he doesnt want to look second rate next to WWE (and also essentially thumbs his nose at ROH, Impact and MLW).  

While All In was the firs Elite ppv, this will be the first with Khan's money and backing.  Should be off the charts.

I agree with your first point.  I know some people are saying they could have sold 60,000 and maybe they could have but the urgency does create demand.  Its the hot ticket right now.  Even factoring everything, its probably a no-brainer they could have got 25,000+.  And they DID want T-Mobile Arena and only went with MGM because T-Mobile held the date in the unlikely event of a Knights game...basically, they'd have given it to AEW but if the Knight ended up playing that night, they'd have to move.

Im super excited.  I've been to Las Vegas three times and I really love the city.  Last time, in 2016, went for ROH shows which were cool.  This will be nuts... my gf vowed never to go to the US especially under Trump but she was willing for this so her first time to Vegas...should be a lot of fun.  But we're likely going in Friday and out Sunday so just a quick trip, show her a few things and get out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A **** ton of AEW tix are available on stub hub. Looks like they have the same issue with scalpers everyone else has. 

It will be intetesting if they get TV.. And obviously tape it from Jacksonville.. Not a huge wrestling town.. Wonder if they still will draw the same traveling fanbase they seem to be appealing too. Looking online here... Was thinking of going but... Prob next time but it seems the non scalpers who got tix are the same who went to All In. 

I wish them the best.. Hope they force WWE to change but i have this awful feeling that the Market just isnt there. Wrestling isn't hot at all right now. 

Wonder if that's 1. Sick of WWE or 2. if ppl want an alternative or if... 3. The market just isnt there for another major promotion. 

If its 1... They be good.. If its 2 they good but if its 3... They wont last. I personally dont see them making money with the rumored contract amounts they have given out. Millions here. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Goalie said:

A **** ton of AEW tix are available on stub hub. Looks like they have the same issue with scalpers everyone else has. 

It will be intetesting if they get TV.. And obviously tape it from Jacksonville.. Not a huge wrestling town.. Wonder if they still will draw the same traveling fanbase they seem to be appealing too. Looking online here... Was thinking of going but... Prob next time but it seems the non scalpers who got tix are the same who went to All In. 

I wish them the best.. Hope they force WWE to change but i have this awful feeling that the Market just isnt there. Wrestling isn't hot at all right now. 

Wonder if that's 1. Sick of WWE or 2. if ppl want an alternative or if... 3. The market just isnt there for another major promotion. 

If its 1... They be good.. If its 2 they good but if its 3... They wont last. I personally dont see them making money with the rumored contract amounts they have given out. Millions here. 

Chicago is a big wrestling market so had a lot of locals. Vegas is probably going to have more fly ins. 

By the way, wrestling is super hot right now. Weird. 

Also it’s not if they get tv. It’s when they announce it. 

I think they will tape tv on the road like wwe does but I could be wrong.  I doubt they’d tape in Jax every week because you’re right it’s not a great market. 

Scalpers sure are valuing the event high. But with only 14,000 tickets that was bound to happen. But amazingly it will be a wrestling attendance record in Vegas. 

There is a schedule out showing them running monthly big shows leading to tv in October. 

You javw to understand the economics of this. And how underpaid wwe wrestlers are compared to pro sports to understand why there is room for higher priced guys. 

Why would aew lose money on contracts  and wwe makes a killing?  It’s all about that tv deal. They’re not going to lose money.  

If you examine wwe demos you see an enormous amount of fans that have tuned out. Aew is appealing to those fans. The younger fans. 

Will it be a success?  It already is 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Scalpers sure are valuing the event high. But with only 14,000 tickets that was bound to happen. But amazingly it will be a wrestling attendance record in Vegas. 

Wrestlemania IX had 16,891, according to Wikipedia. Must be an indoor record. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, JCon said:

Wrestlemania IX had 16,891, according to Wikipedia. Must be an indoor record. 

I believe that was a false number.  WWE always uses false numbers.   And that WM was heavily comped with tickets given out all over Vegas.  

AEW held back about 3000 seats to put on sale to the general public tomorrow.  At the pre-sale, it was like when Jets tickets first went on sale.  It was officially a 23 minute sell-out, but unless you were in the cue in the first 3 minutes, you didnt get tickets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I believe that was a false number.  WWE always uses false numbers.   And that WM was heavily comped with tickets given out all over Vegas.  

AEW held back about 3000 seats to put on sale to the general public tomorrow.  At the pre-sale, it was like when Jets tickets first went on sale.  It was officially a 23 minute sell-out, but unless you were in the cue in the first 3 minutes, you didnt get tickets.

WWE uses false numbers? Say it ain't so, say it ain't so... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, JCon said:

WWE uses false numbers? Say it ain't so, say it ain't so... 

Meltzer always has the correct or close to it numbers (as other sites do).  He either has direct contacts at the venues or figures it out by WWE's reported gate receipts which never match their reported number.  In fact its usually easy to predict what they will announce because they always want to break records so whatever the previous record was for a venue, WWE will announce a bit more...lol

As I recall, that WM in Vegas was awful.  When was that, 95?  94?  Dreadful time for WWE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Meltzer always has the correct or close to it numbers (as other sites do).  He either has direct contacts at the venues or figures it out by WWE's reported gate receipts which never match their reported number.  In fact its usually easy to predict what they will announce because they always want to break records so whatever the previous record was for a venue, WWE will announce a bit more...lol

As I recall, that WM in Vegas was awful.  When was that, 95?  94?  Dreadful time for WWE.

It was horrible. Just try to watch it. Ugh. 

Unrelated but related, I found this article about attendance at the Montreal Grand Prix interesting on how they made up attendance numbers and just kept letting them grow. It's sort of an epidemic across many sports: Grand Prix Attendance Figures in Montreal Cut in Half 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh and Kota Ibushi signed an exclusive deal with New Japan so they must have thrown a brinks truck at him as he always refused to sign a contract with anyone (same reason he declined WWE's big offer a couple years ago).   This is a big move because Kota & Omega obviously have a great relationship and AEW expected to have him.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Dont be a ****.  

Plenty of Canadians dont like to travel to the US.  My gf has been to Europe many times.  Thats how she spends her travel dollars. 

Not for the reason that Trump is in charge that's a lame reason not to go.   If you don't go based on who is in charge then she would be severely limited on travel destinations as most leaders are shady/scummy.    Though it is funny that she would make an exception to go to "Sin City" lol.   

 

Edited by Brandon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Meltzer always has the correct or close to it numbers (as other sites do).  He either has direct contacts at the venues or figures it out by WWE's reported gate receipts which never match their reported number.  In fact its usually easy to predict what they will announce because they always want to break records so whatever the previous record was for a venue, WWE will announce a bit more...lol

As I recall, that WM in Vegas was awful.  When was that, 95?  94?  Dreadful time for WWE.

Didn't they have a really cheezy PPV at Caesar's Palace?    I remember it being sold out but the show itself was a bit lame.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...