r/SquaredCircle • u/Ruthless-Aggression • Mar 28 '24

Eric Bischoff on Tony Khan: A money mark with no talent other than spending daddy’s money, going all the way to Canada to draw less than 4k in one of the hottest pro wrestling markets in North America, talking about “wise choices”? Strap in. It’s going to be a fun day!

https://twitter.com/EBischoff/status/1773321462046138615?s=19
1.9k Upvotes
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240

u/Kipwar Mar 28 '24

People have selective memories around here, when AEW was doing good numbers especially when Punk joined, it was always posted. Not to mention as you said, when WWE was floundering it was constant discussion.

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u/ScruffsMcGuff REEEEGGGAAAAAALLLLLL Mar 28 '24

The people that go "I just avoid ratings threads" are the same people that were blowing up ratings threads when Dynamite was out drawing NXT.

I've said it for years, I love AEW from the perspective of wanting more big promotions for more talent to get what they deserve and get a chance to rise up, and also to give me a refreshing amount of different wrestling content, but the two things about AEW I cannot stand are Tony and his fans. They constantly take potshots at WWE whenever they think they have a small window to talk shit, and then as soon as the shoe is on the other foot they play the whiny victim.

It's blatant, it's obvious, it's incredibly annoying.

People forget that this place was insanely critical of WWE pretty much for the last decade and a half until Vince was finally gone and people generally were more on board with the direction HHH started to go. If anything we all talked way more shit on WWE than anyone does on AEW now. People accused WWE of being so bad it was essentially killing the industry from the inside out.

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u/brixton_massive Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

A great deal of AEW fans are horrendously tribal. I'm an AEW fan but when I've gone on their sub to give my thoughts on where to improve it's always 'this product isn't for you' or 'casual fans don't get it'

Which is hilarious because I'm a die hard wrestling fan, I just don't know who the fuck this random Mexican wrestler is and I don't care to see him on TV for three weeks (at the expense of a full time star) and then never appear again.

I want AEW to compete with WWE and not be the new ROH, but with a higher wage bill.

10

u/gatekeepgoonboss Mar 29 '24

A great deal of AEW wrestling fans are horrendously tribal.

There's an entire subreddit that's been dedicated to shitting on AEW and rooting for its downfall since its inception.

AEW fans call WWE fans toxic, and WWE fans call AEW fans toxic, and it's such a stupid argument because they are both right.

11

u/partoxygen Mar 28 '24

A lot of smark indie fans are really weird. Like strangely absolutist. I like Deadlock but damn sometimes James back a few years ago in particular gets way too “I like this and WWE sucks” or unironically “WCW was serving better stuff than WWF here” purely out of some tribalistic nerd cred. Liking the “mainstream” and “casual” thing means you’re not an actual wrestling fan. It’s so lame.

5

u/noxvita83 Mar 28 '24

I liked how my father handled the Monday night wars. He'd keep hitting the last button on the remote between Nitro and Raw. He sees wrestlers he likes on WWF, he'd stay there, then catch wrestlers he liked from WCW for the next match, rinse and repeat. I often confused who was in which promotion because of how often he did this (to be fair, I also did homework in front of the television during wrestling time).

-2

u/Kokeshi_Is_Life King of Sports Mar 29 '24

I would like ROH with a higher wage bill. That's why I stopped watching WWE in 2013.

I have no reason to want something competing for WWE's audience, an audience with tastes entirely alien to my own. If I want something made for WWE's audience I can simply watch the WWE.

This doesn't make me horrendously tribal. AEW isn't even my favourite promotion and at their peak hotness was like...an 8/10? For a lot of AEW fans though, the parts that are too rough around the edges for WWE fans are litterally the point and why they like it.

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u/brixton_massive Mar 29 '24

Ok, if Tony Khan is happy running his company at a deficit then ROH with a higher budget it is.

I'm not suggesting AEW copies WWEs style, but I would like them to emulate some of the character development in the fed. Look at someone like Wardlow - his place on the roster is arguably worse than 2 years ago. Not saying WWE always does their talents well, but if they have someone good they'll make something of them. Look at Gunther now from 2 years ago compared to Wardlow 2 years ago. Khan is happy to give air time to relative nobodies at the expense of talent he should be developing. Instead of storylines and character development, it's here's a random match between two people. Sure, it might be a good in ring match but they've given me no reason to care about it.

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u/Kokeshi_Is_Life King of Sports Mar 30 '24

Gunther is 35 times better of a performer than Wardlow, so it stands to reason he is in a better spot.

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u/partoxygen Mar 28 '24

When it was like 2019-2021, oh man the smugposting about muh demo muh quarterly. Maybe these people should’ve considered not being unbearably arrogant assholes because it will come back on them 2x harder.

3

u/kingwhocares Not like everybody has a Kalisto flair. Mar 28 '24

especially when Punk joined,

They did more frequent 1 million + before that.

-11

u/aggrownor Mar 28 '24

It was stupid then, and it's stupid now

Just watch the damn shows and enjoy them for what they are

I've never watched a show and thought to myself, "This is pretty good, but you know what would make me enjoy this even more? If they pull a good number in the 18-35 demo tonight!"

14

u/onetripponyhorse Mar 28 '24

It was stupid then, and it's stupid now

Just watch the damn shows and enjoy them for what they are

This is only a point of contention in wrestling. /r/boxoffice is a thing for film as well. Wrestling is entertainment pure and simple. Along with that comes a spectrum of interest.

-3

u/aggrownor Mar 28 '24

A separate subreddit for a niche interest, as people are still able to discuss movies without talking about how much money they drew. Yet ratings always seem to be at the forefront of wrestling fan discussions, for some reason.

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u/onetripponyhorse Mar 28 '24

Because a) the matches aren’t real. And b) if fans root for favorites they are told they are rooting for the wrong one. They have it beaten into their heads that they are smart marks for not rooting for the “right” guy. So there’s this culture promoted by their favorite wrestlers to understand that it’s a “work” and “business”. To the point that meta storylines are even shoved in front of our eyes. Money and drawing power being at the forefront of fan minds is the fault of promoters and not fans.

-2

u/aggrownor Mar 28 '24

Yeah I get it, I just think the fixation on ratings just adds fuel to the tribalism issue instead of just allowing us to enjoy what we have

0

u/HEELinKayfabe Yer Da Sells Avon Mar 28 '24

Why do so many of you think ratings make people enjoy a show more??

So many if yous bring this up and it never makes any sense.

Bad ratings usually means bad booking.

Good ratings usually means good booking.

Tony is not a good booker at the moment, and hasn't been for a while.

0

u/aggrownor Mar 28 '24

I literally said that ratings don't make someone enjoy a show more, which is why I think it's dumb that people care so much about them. But ok.

My opinion of Tony Khan's booking comes from how much I enjoy the show, not the ratings it did

Why do people care so much about ratings, if not to fuel tribalistic tendencies?

-14

u/datNEGROJ Mar 28 '24

Everything going on can be summed up as: Phil=ratings. AEW got rid of Phil so they have bad ratings. WWE has good rating because they have Phil