WWE Discussion is Matt Hardy is Happy to be Working at AEW Wrestling for Tony Khan for June, 2020

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > WWE Discussion is Matt Hardy is Happy to be Working at AEW Wrestling for Tony Khan for June, 2020

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Blaise330 posted:

It's the go home show for

whatever the logo says. There's a non 0 chance that Drake gets kidnapped by ninjas tonight.

On a side note. Takeover is on Sunday now. I don't know if its the first Sunday Takeover but I was expecting Saturday until I looked it up.

I am listening to yesterday�s WOR and it sounds like tonight is a clip show. Which is wild since they basically are fresh off their most-successful post-pandemic show. The last clip show they did was death (and I think also came after a show where they finally looked to have some ratings momentum) so I am really curious how this one will do.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2020 19:05

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:17

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Incessant Excess posted:

It's about half a clip show, the interim cruiserweight championship match final is tonight.

Ha, drat. This poor title.

Well I am definitely interested in that.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2020 19:18

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

What a gross way to end that, to start that, and to execute it along the way.

It�s too bad because if you remove that story it�s just a lot of decent to good wrestling which is pretty much all I am asking from NXT.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 07:43

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Probably for the best. For the first time since the first tournament the division has some life to it, which I'm sure they'll promptly kill, but guys who I couldn't pick out of a lineup should really not be going for that title at the moment, even though it is probably the lowest title on the card (definitely below 24/7).

# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 22:33

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Mr. Carlisle posted:

Isn't this just phase one of completely devaluing the network so that they can force people back to PPV for the monthly shows

Probably. It could just be to get the numbers up overall although this assumes people will watch their free shows which might not be a great assumption.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 02:06

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Astro7x posted:

It's worth putting things in perspective.

They averaged 1.419 million per month last quarter and peaked at 2.10 million for Wrestlemania 36 with free subscriptions.

That's 640,000 people that likely got it for free.

Of the 1.024M paid US subscribers, 1.54M bothered to watch the 3rd hour of Raw live this week after 300,000 people tuned out. So 66% of their audience that are die hard fans are willing to pay $10 to watch the PPVs.

Two years ago, Raw drew 2.525 viewers and was the 3rd lowest Raw in history. This Monday it averaged 1.728M views and was the 2nd lowest Raw in history. So they they lost about 32% of their Raw audience in 2 years, but paid domestic subscribers only went down 7.4% over 2 years and 20% from its peak. So network subscribers are dropping at a slower rate than TV ratings

Say they drop another 7% by next year of those paid US subscribers. That's only 72K subscribers lost. If they lose another 20% domestic, that's 205K lost. They've lost on average 10,000 paid US subscribers per quarter.

The question is can they convert those 640K free trials viewers into paid subscribers faster than they are losing them? Some of those 640K people abusing the free trial each month are going to subscribe. Can they convert 72K of them to offset another 7% drop? Likely, yes. Can they convert 205K to offset a 20% drop? I don't think so.

Will more than 10,000 people sign up for The Network of those 640K free trial users in Q2 2020, causing Q2 paid subs to not crater and actually go up and appease shareholders? Definitely.

This actually makes the most sense and I think you got it. I assumed they were pushing towards tiered or that an ESPN deal is imminent so this was a setup to NOW THE ENTIRE WWE NETWORK IS FREE _{but the PPVs are $50 + ESPN+ Subscription a month} but I think your'e right that it's just an attempt to make the Q2 numbers better.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 06:39

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Bayley and Sasha honestly I'm glad it's still going.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 10:09

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I feel like with as popular as Bryan is, at least one of the shows should generally be built around him, and if you're doing that, then you can open the door to people like Adam Cole being champions too because they would be a good foil to him. But I doubt that will ever happen . . .

Blaise330 posted:

If that wasn't in all caps and had some hashtags in it I mighta believed it was real.

lmao

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 06:46

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Benne posted:

I'm collecting some loving receipts on y'all who used to say that Bayley was bad and had no charisma

I always tried to at least say that HER CHARACTER was the biggest geek in WWE, at least when Sami wasn't around.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 05:27

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I know if ratings and thread reaction are to be judged I'm the literal only person on earth besides Vince who enjoys the Vikings vs Street Profits but I am glad they're still going.

Quantum of Phallus posted:

"All these, these uhhhh.... moments... you know you've got these moments and it's like... these moments were... you know, you know, the moments were... lemme see here...uhhh you know, funny story, I interviewed Baba in the 80s at the Budokan... but like *4 minutes of coughing* so anyway, the moments were lost in time, OK? Like uh... what was it *10 minutes of loud keyboard noises* lemme see here... like uhhh... it was... I should have my notes here... they're pretty hot on tears in the rain right now, I have been told."

lmao

# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 00:57

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

flashy_mcflash posted:

why the gently caress was that beautiful man under a mask

I thought it was really weird that he started it without the mask, and then put the mask back on.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 02:56

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

flashy_mcflash posted:

On the show? I didn't watch obv but he went back to being masked??

He debuted unmasked.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 03:09

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

As far as I'm concerned the real El Hijo Del Fantasma is missing and that this Santos guy has been impersonating him for the last two months.

Decent show, it felt back to basics overall. Balor vs Keith Lee should be cool.

Jerusalem posted:

If you look at the WWE.com superstars pages, both Fantasma AND Devlin are both listed as Cruiserweight Champion, so given they never officially said it was for the actual title AND Devlin is still listed as champion, I'm gonna go ahead and assume Fantasma is the Interim Champion.

I mean, having an interim champion in the first place is a loving stupid idea, but they can't half-rear end it and try to have it both ways. Either he is the champion or he isn't.

They said on commentary today that Devilin wasn't champ anymore. Although of course things like that haven't stopped them before.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 09:46

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Blaise330 posted:

This is why it's handy to have the crowd on your payroll

https://streamable.com/yr8u6e

I give it like a 30% chance that the "fall and pray" chant woulda gotten over, or at the very least, full-sail-over. There's waaaay less than 1% chance the "tick... tock... tick... tock" chant would get over.

I was thinking this while watching the show too. Also there's no way the serial killer guy is getting anything but a confused reaction at this point without the paid crowd.

Lucha Underground really did solve wrestling for the modern age, crowds should be at least 30% extras on scale for every taping.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 20:49

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

CM Punk doing a Boogie Cousins to AJ rules.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 20:56

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

MJeff posted:

I haven't been watching so correct me if I'm wrong but what I've gathered from these threads is that Raw has still been too long and not particularly good under Heyman but they have been pushing new guys. Meanwhile SmackDown under Prichard is just unwatchably bad most weeks?

This is pretty my feeling. I actively enjoyed the show when it was just Zelina's group, Liv and Drew for 90% of the show but once more people started coming back it was boring again. I don't watch Smackdown anymore and I have a high tolerance for bad WWE.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 02:36

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I don't necessarily blame Prichard for Smackdown either, it's just the show that Vince pays the most attention to currently. And now there's no XFL to distract him from Raw.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 02:41

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

People were saying Matt got the better end of the Hardy deal by getting out but you'll be thinking twice once you see the how much royalties Jeff makes on WWE Jeff Hardy Piss In a Can

# ¿ Jun 13, 2020 21:05

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

My legal reading skills are a bit rudimentary but they're being sued by pension fund investors for the stock going down, because they did the Saudi disaster, even with foreknowledge it would go badly? Interesting.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2020 22:43

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Pylons posted:

Lol what a day to do this.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2020 22:01

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

jesus WEP posted:

it�s almost like if you build to a thing ppl want, they�ll watch!

it will be interesting to see what happens when you then poo poo all over that thing at the end. i wonder what happens then

I honestly respect them just mostly giving up on the third hour in the Heyman era and putting the actual main event in hour 2 and giving hour 3 to the Seth Rollins stuff no one watches. It felt honest.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2020 22:05

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Do we know that Christian actually got cleared? That was pretty much a zero contact angle.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2020 00:22

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Gaz-L posted:

The only other thing that maybe makes sense is this is a bizarre angle intended to get to Orton/McIntyre, but... like... just have Orton go "me win Greatest Match, me deserve title match".

He said he had a plan other than going for a title but Christian interrupted him so we will never know what that plan was.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2020 04:37

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Ganso Bomb posted:

This is, apparently, not true but something the governor said anyway because he is, in fact, an idiot.

https://twitter.com/MCO/status/1273273033252392961?s=20

100+ out of 500 is still really bad.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2020 21:14

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Gaz-L posted:

Uh, that's not what the statement says. They did 500 tests recently. There were 2 positives.

Also, they have done a bunch of testing since March, and out of ALL the tests, 132 staff were positive.

Ah okay, this is still above the target average but is more reasonable.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2020 21:39

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Codependent Poster posted:

The women's tag match was pretty good, but that's no surprise with Bayley involved.

Agreed. It was nicely laid out.

TV Zombie posted:

I'm sorry for the grammar. I'm just puzzled as to why Io would run and attack anyone in the tag match. Like what's the motivation?

It was kind of thin but they were running down NXT and Io's thing is that she is the best woman in the world. I am hoping it leads to Io/Bayley but also not on Smackdown since I don't want to watch Smackdown.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2020 09:22

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Lol what an awful policy. "Until there are arrests...not our problem!"

# ¿ Jun 19, 2020 22:11

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Hey, that tat got him like a one week push before they decided to instead do a tasteless firing angle.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2020 01:15

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

STAC Goat posted:

Something I never considered. Cinematic Matches unlock the inner pretentious artist rear end in a top hat in every wrestler.

I'm here for it.

---

loving hell. This was the only inevitable result but it's still hard to believe that we are here and 20+ people might be positive in one company. I just hope that they all are asymptomatic and don't have any permanent problems. And there are definitely people at risk, you can die in your 30s, you can die in your 40s, you certainly can loving die in your 50s of it. loving terrible.

Malcolm Excellent posted:

I live in America and I agree. They can't let Americans gently caress up the progress worldwide

I think other states should ban travel from Arizona, California, New York, Florida, and other hot spots I live in Arizona and my family is in California.

Chris James 2 posted:

drat it looks like I'm not the only one, I can't believe it actually happened. Yes I get most of my news from something awful now that FrankeeFrank is gone.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2020 02:51

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

STAC Goat posted:

I really wonder what AEW would have been like if WWE hadn't so spectacularly failed to crush it with NXT. Like would they have 1.5 million viewers unchallenged and people would be clamoring about when they'd beat RAW? Or would they be still below a million and without WWE blatantly trying and failing to counter program with NXT time and time again they wouldn't feel like "winners" so much as also rans or upstarts?

I like the idea that WWE is elevating AEW through their failed efforts to kill it.

I honestly think the ratings would be pretty similar since they're so demographically divided.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2020 05:09

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

STAC Goat posted:

I tend to lean that way too. Like if Dynamite was cancelled I wouldn't start watching NXT. So why would I assume NXT viewers would start watching Dynamite? Some probably would but I doubt it would be AEW just doubling its numbers. I wonder how much it would be and if that difference would do more for Dynamite than what they have now.

Because in a scenario where they had 1.0 or 1.1 or something it would be very natural to compare them to RAW and SD where they'd be in a pretty distant 3rd place (and thats assuming they're beating NXT). But by putting NXT up against AEW WWE screwed up and gave them a direct comparison they routinely beat. And by constantly doing transparent stunts like this to try and counter program AEW they just create more and more fights they keep losing.

Yeah putting NXT against AEW was a really dumb move. Had they just put it in Smackdown's old slot and got the numbers they get now it wouldn't be a raging success but it wouldn't look like the failure it does now.

I think a 1.0 for AEW would probably be realistic since when NXT did a clip show it was almost that.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2020 05:37

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I expect wrestling to be trash. What bothers me is that the MLB and NBA and NHL have cited the model used in wrestling as successful and are going to emulate it, and even seeing the results we see today, show no sign of actually pulling up. Like I actually think Adam Silver sucks pretty bad too (a point for a different forum) and always puts his thumb on the scale for the owners but he usually at least acts in a way that protects the players health but here he is thinking "great idea, Vince. I'll make sure all the cleaning staff have their temperature taken."

# ¿ Jun 26, 2020 06:51

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

blunt posted:

loving lmao

# ¿ Jun 26, 2020 22:18

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Last week the wrestling was good enough, and Orton is hot enough, that even though I was thinking the show was pretty dire in the first hour, in the end I liked it.

This week, not so much. The wrestling content that we did get, it's pretty good (particularly Auska and Sasha who are great together in any context, and Bayley's good fun on commentary), but there's so little of it and the storylines are not interesting. Also some dude, who I think is supposed to be a face, took his mask off and did a hot steamy breath on the glass during MVP's entrance which was pretty stupid and hosed up.

This feels like it's on the road to being even worse than the late 2018/2019 rock bottom of quality of modern Raw. Although in that era the wrestling sucked too which I think this group of people are all pretty competent for what little chance they get.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 10:01

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Tato posted:

Not only is it Dolph Ziggler in a main event feud again, but it's the same exact "feud" he's done with people 10 times over now.

Why. Even reading the words "Dolph Ziggler" just mentally exhausts me at this point.

Watching him, as a heel, do a Rockers Wrestlemania hot tag spot to a relaxed Sasha on a random Raw mixed tag match is a microcosm of his career.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 19:10

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I remember how hot Ron Killings was in TNA before they knocked the legs out from under him. I knew he would never get pushed to that level in the WWE when he signed in 2008, but I also did not think he would win any sort of title 37 times and be on Raw 10-20 minutes every week even as a joke; I figured he'd have a run in WWE then come back to TNA and they'd finally give him a real push.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 22:18

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Blaise330 posted:

AJ Lee + Big E + Nia Jax

AJ Lee + Big E + Baron Corbin

AJ Lee + Big E + Dexter Lumis......... k i wanna see this one.

Lumis as a dorky caricature artist who likes Dexter too much would be a great fit in a Big E/AJ Lee act.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 23:09

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Rarity posted:

I maintain that Heel R-Truth was a main event worthy character until WWE turned him into lol monkeycheese humour after 3 months

I completely agree. He's really good when serious.

E: Decided to watch the turn. drat this Raw feels like from another universe. The cig at the end is a really nice touch.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zg271

Rick fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Jun 30, 2020

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 23:19

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:17

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

blunt posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daQc3V5meeU&t=39s

Truth was so good as a heel that he briefly made Miz good.

This is great.

drat the police officer that calls for the bolt cutters is a great worker, I believed the hell out of that.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2020 01:43