I think Tana/Jericho will amount to a "home/home" series where the hometown guy wins their match. I would love it if Tana got the belt though for a PPV to PPV run.

So Dave mentioned the Ford GT used in the Jericho segment was Shad Khan's personal car. They were going to rent a Lamborghini for the segment and Shad's so high on AEW at the moment they said they could use his car for it.  This was in context of people being all "oh AEW will be dead soon because it's owned by money marks".

Also mentioned that Jericho and Tanahashi came up with the idea to involve the AEW title as a way to add intrigue to their match, and they asked Tony Khan if it was okay for New Japan to mention it. It should be noted that AEW did *not* mention New Japan on TV or on their website and that was also a Tony directive. Dave summed up the relationship as better than it has been, but there is still a lot of work to be done to fully smooth things over. Apparently a lot of it is on the New Japan side as it seems like they didn't take it well when the Elite left and were doing some petty bullshit because of it. Possibly referencing the visa issues Omega had a while back. 

8 hours ago, Stiva said:

They’ve released the Memphis legends being “honoured” next week and Dave Brown’s name is on the list. If he’s not on Dark, then something has went wrong.

 

AEW just announced Dave Brown will be announcing on Dark.

I hope they give Dave something not amateurish/bad like a Jimmy Havoc match or something. A nice competent Shawn Spears type match instead is probably the safest route.

If he's been watching the TV and likes it for the shits and giggles I'd love to hear him react to a spot fest. 

That'll be the first non Dustin vs Cody AEW I'll be seeing. 

It takes a lot to draw me to current stuff but Dave Brown is more or less going to do it.

- Jericho's post-match comments should be very interesting to anyone hoping for more NJPW vs AEW moving forward.

Jericho clearly wants it to happen, and Tony seems to as well since he allowed the use of the belt in the build for Wrestle Kingdom, let's just hope they can get the Elite guys out of their feelings and make them realize it's Best for Business to turn a phrase.

I feel that maybe it's more an issue with The Young Bucks than it is for Cody. At least, by what I read, that's the feeling that I get. But also, New Japan has a large part of the blame to take in that approach. I mean, they're still not over how Okada, Tanahashi & Naito were used in TNA, despite the change of ownership since the Dixie regime ended. At the end of the day, New Japan needs to also do their part. And I feel like Tanahashi really did that by going along with Jericho's idea.

1 minute ago, SirEdger said:

I feel that maybe it's more an issue with The Young Bucks than it is for Cody. At least, by what I read, that's the feeling that I get. But also, New Japan has a large part of the blame to take in that approach. I mean, they're still not over how Okada, Tanahashi & Naito were used in TNA, despite the change of ownership since the Dixie regime ended. At the end of the day, New Japan needs to also do their part. And I feel like Tanahashi really did that by going along with Jericho's idea.

Tbf, it sounds like Tanahashi was the one who originally brought the AEW title into play in the build

Possible but either way, at least, someone in NJPW tried something and it's great that it was Tanahashi who did, if that's the case.

Tanahashi, Jericho, Gedo, and Rocky Romero were all involved in the idea. 

I don't watch Dynamite purely because I don't have cable or satellite and they don't stream anywhere, but Dynamite is going to be in Broomfield, CO in March. That's only 20 minutes away from me so I think I might go. I've seen a few WWE house shows there.

And, I just got my ticket. It was $37.50 but after service charges it was 58 bucks, which is a fucking scam. I remember when Ticketmaster service charges were like 5 bucks. The same level seats on the hard camera side are $82.10 each and hard camera ringside are fucking 373 bucks a piece. That's fucking insane. Who spends that much on a wrestling ticket? I'm sure WWE prices are similar for RAW and Smackdown and that's nuts, too. 

Service charges like that are total bullshit.

There is a Monday Night Raw episode coming to Winnipeg in February. I can get upper deck tickets for as low as $29.25 right now. There are 44 floor seats, opposite the hard cam that cost $648.50 plus a $97.70 service fee, which is completely ridiculous.

I've come to the conclusion that the people who have the money to sit there are also soulless. Outside of the occasional two old guys dressed up as wrestlers and a few kids, they all just sit there, barely reacting. All the noise during matches is coming down from kids and smark dudes, depending on which town. 
 

On the plus side, this AEW Dynamite show is at a place with only floor seats and one level. I've been to some WWE house shows and concerts there. The worst seats for wrestling are on the floor. There's not a bad seat in the stands.

I might also be going to the Denver/Broomfield show, and the service charges completely put me off too. It looked like plenty were available, so I might take a little roadtrip to just go buy them at the box office. Even what I'd spend on gas would be cheaper than that service charge.

On 12/9/2019 at 11:35 AM, World's Worst Man said:

This makes me think guys like Undertaker and JBL were the biggest marks of all. Pro wrestling is a performance, not dissimilar to a play or television show. Trying to maintain the act in normal, real-life situations is just pathetic. Treat the art properly during the show or in relevant situations, but outside of that, get a life.

You know I haven’t gotten a chance to respond this line of thinking. I know Jordynne Grace and Jim Cornett got into this among others. Here’s the thing. Pro wrestling exists in our universe. It is presented in front of us. It is the original version of reality TV. Like if Rusev and Lana took pictures on vacation together during their divorce angle it would severely undercut their storyline. Pro wrestling is more like music. I’m inclined  to keep kayfabe for best viewer experience. Taylor Swift has to be Taylor Swift at all times that means posting a billion pictures of cats and being lovey-dovey. The rappers have to be drinking their alcohol of choice and be at strip clubs. I mean we know now that Alice Cooper is a super nice guy but it is important back in the day that he was a creep. Music is presented in front of you live and so the gimmick exists beyond the stage in a way that TV/movies isn’t. I’m in favor of keeping kayfabe but we live in a different era but for some crucial storylines it is critical. I think the best way to keep kayfabe is be yourself and in turn the performance would be better.

TNT has renewed Dynamite until 2023.

They are also getting another show apparently. From the WON website: 

Quote

Additionally, the Wednesday press release mentioned that WarnerMedia and AEW will launch another show, but didn't provide any additional information other than it being on "another night". WarnerMedia oversees TNT, TBS, and truTV in addition to HBO Max, a new OTT streaming service that is launching this May, so it's not a definite the new program will also be on TNT.

Meltzer said that, "When the new show launches, the Wednesday tapings would expand and also include matches taped for the streaming show Dark which is not going away. This means there will be four hours a week of the product, allowing more time to showcase more talent, which has been limited by the current format."

 

Terrible idea in my opinion. Regardless of what money they get from it.

One of the big problems with modern wrestling, and wrestling during the tail end of the Monday Night Wars, is oversaturation. People don't want to watch RAW in large part because it's 3-hours long. No one cared to watch WCW Thunder either. WWE alone has 3-hour RAW, 2-hour NXT & 2-hour Smackdown a week, just from the main televised shows. Hopefully AEW doesn't think that they need that too.

So now AEW already had Dynamite - which isn't firing on all cylinders & they're adding more programming? They already do the Being the Elite stuff & AEW Dark. How thin do they think they can spread that roster? No one tuned into WCW Thunder to watch nWo b-team members battle the jobbers of Raven's Flock. Who out here is thinking AEW needs more hours a week to fill with The Librarians, Sonny Kiss, QT Marshall & Britt Baker shit? AEW has more bad than good right now, roster wise, and they want to spread themselves even thinner?

I don't like it.

It doesn't make any sense, other than they need the money badly. They only have the roster to do 1 hour of decent tv, and they are burning through their matchups on the 2 hour show now. Bloat is killing wrestling for me. The extra hour of NXT has killed that show, stretching it out with meaningless matches. The wrestling organizations seem intent on squeezing all they can out of the hardcore fans like there is no tomorrow, and don't worry about the long term consequences of adding more low quality content.

Wrestling in the US lives and dies on TV money. If the people giving you that money want more shows, you give them more shows. Which is why WWE can't get rid of the third hour of Raw despite it being a show killing anchor most weeks. 

AEW would be the one group at the moment that would benefit from more time. They can expand on their storylines and gimmicks that currently play out on their various YouTube shows. WWE was already over saturated before NXT got an extra hour, AEW wasn't.  Now if they end up with 7 hours a week like WWE has, then you can make the case they are overextended too.

Plus I also get the feeling we're going to see a lot of names appearing in AEW soon that will easily fill out any extra TV time they get.

If the secondary show is a place where they can stretch out a bit and air some of those great promo packages that have mostly been consigned to youtube, that would be great. Those, some studio-style promos and two lower midcard matches would be the perfect format. 

2 hours ago, Moonsault Marvin said:

It doesn't make any sense, other than they need the money badly. They only have the roster to do 1 hour of decent tv, and they are burning through their matchups on the 2 hour show now. Bloat is killing wrestling for me. The extra hour of NXT has killed that show, stretching it out with meaningless matches. The wrestling organizations seem intent on squeezing all they can out of the hardcore fans like there is no tomorrow, and don't worry about the long term consequences of adding more low quality content.

Aew has lots of talent on the books that don't get any showtime - that stops company building characters & storylines. MJF hasn't wrestled a match in sometime I think. Ring time would establish his role stronger - he could back up his promos.

Yeah we need to not look at this like it's WWE adding time to their already bloated list of shows, it's adding another hour to a promotion that clearly can use it to build their characters and storylines better.