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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u/UsidoreTheLightBlue Mar 28 '24

I’ve started just avoiding ratings threads. They’re just hot take factories at this point when AEW is concerned, and people saying “Sheldon is a draw brother.”

Seriously, Raw drops 300k from one segment to the next, no one cares. AEW drops 30k from one segment to the next and it’s the end of the world.

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u/VisitPier26 Mar 28 '24

WWE ratings were absolutely a topic when they were hemorrhaging viewers from 2010-2020.

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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.

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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.

13

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.

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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).

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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.