Ok, we are four days away from WWE vs AEW on Wednesday night. This is one of biggest weeks for wrestling (in North America anyway) in a while, with the WWE Fox premiere on Friday also a major story. As a Canadian, I'm a little pissed that no AEW viewing option has been announced at this late stage, but whatever, in 2019 it won't be hard to watch Dynamite if I really want to. I just prefer the convenience of a streaming option on Roku. Also, is Smackdown going to be on Hulu now that it's on Fox? Not that I want to watch weekly, but I wouldn't mind checking out the debut ep. Again, I'll find it if I really want to see it. Anyway, I'm pretty interested in seeing how all this plays out, the Wednesday war and SD on Fox. It's kinda neat that the decade began with the short-lived Monday night "war" between WWE and TNA (remember the hype for January 4, 2010? Seems like a lifetime ago considering how things have changed) and will end with another TV wrestling war, although this one seems to be much more serious.

So let's be civil and talk about this

If AEW reaches anything above 700k they might as well light them fireworks. At least put Pharaoh somewhere safe this time.

Doubtfully they are beating NXT in ratings although it's desirable, but having an average of 600-700k is really fucking good.

Seems like you guys up north kind of get boned on both sides. According to Dave the tie up in AEW getting international TV deals is that they have to run through TNT for approval and they seem to be taking their time. They are talking with TSN to be their partner in Canada but they sure are cutting it close. 

For Smackdown, I'm not sure. Fox is an over the air network in the US, are there any options for that in Canada? 

I dont think Fox is available over the air in Canada, but not 100% sure

This seems to indicate that Fox should be available in some parts.

In Vancouver we get our US TV from Seattle, so looks like a no for me. Lame 

It's available over the air in Eastern Canada for sure. Some cable companies offer it in their basic TV package.

Smackdown got pulled from regular Hulu. Now it's only available with a $40 (?) Hulu Live subscription.

On 9/28/2019 at 5:23 PM, KawadaSmile said:

If AEW reaches anything above 700k they might as well light them fireworks. At least put Pharaoh somewhere safe this time.

Doubtfully they are beating NXT in ratings although it's desirable, but having an average of 600-700k is really fucking good.

In all honesty, if the combined rating between the two shows ends up being a 1.5 on Wednesday night, I think that will be something worth celebrating, especially if it ends up being each show in the 700,000-800,000 range. I wouldn't be surprised if the first two weeks of NXT ratings get siphoned off a little bit, but I also think there's a chance that we could be surprised and find out there's 500.000 people that want to watch wrestling but am waiting for something else besides WWE to get some real prime-time television.

 

There are bound to be fans who want big time wrestling but are sick of WWE out there waiting in the wings. I just hope AEW finds them. They're going to be under so much pressure to hit the ground running and Vince is going to be hotshotting so much shit because he desperately needs WWE to turn their fortunes around going into the new deals. I just hope Tony Khan and co keep their heads and don't fall into the WCW trap of being obsessed with the competition and trying to hotshot all their own angles to keep up with Vince. They're got four or five big star acts and another four or five that can be long term projects for the next year. They've got to trust in themselves to tell their stories and work towards their long term visions. If I were them, I'd be looking to have Page and MJF as established main event guys 12 months from now with Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus as the top of the midfield pack. Build new stars and tell new stories as opposed to worrying about Punk or Del Rio or whoever else could be signed up.

I really, really hope they manage to do something with this opportunity. There are so many things working in their favour, not least only being only one show a week as opposed to WWE's 10 hours of programming which is totally inaccessible to new viewers. They just have to not panic and trust in themselves and their audience. 

Can I take back what I said about not worrying about who can be signed up if it's true that Lance Archer isn't locked down by New Japan? He would be a perfect heel for them.

25 minutes ago, FMKK said:

Can I take back what I said about not worrying about who can be signed up if it's true that Lance Archer isn't locked down by New Japan? He would be a perfect heel for them.

Archer falls more in that Shawn Spears space where he's a mid-card guy that can be added to the mix and (potentially) turned into a star. Del Rio's not a guy that can just get worked in.

I think a lot of people who are fans of wrestling will watch AEW, and prefer AEW to NXT. I can't imagine there are too many people who are interested in non-WWE wrestling who aren't already following another promotion though.

My illusions of grandeur want AEW to beat RAW in the ratings. Not NXT on Wednesday, but the numbers WWE get on Mondays. It felt disrespectful to me that WWE thought so lowly of AEW that they wanted to position them against basically their C-show. 

I really hope that AEW catches on. 

I'm really pulling for AEW to succeed bad. For the longest the narrative in the US has been that only WWE is the only wrestling promotion that can produce any kind of content and that's far from the case. 

I hope they stay the course and don't take any drastic measures if ratings doesn't catch on at first.

NXT doing a 15 minute overrun tomorrow to cut into the AEW replay is hilarious to me. Vince is really hotshotting the fuck out of everything and I hope it blows up in his face.

ITV 4 will be airing AEW on the following Sunday morning.

Per John Pollock, TSN should release a statement about AEW Dynamite incessantly. It will air on TSN2 tomorrow night live. However, it's not confirmed if TSN2 will be the permanent home for AEW Dynamite or it will air in different feeds across the TSN network from week to week.

It's really hilarious that no one seems to have the nerve to tell Vince that DVRs exist in 2019 so all this mid 90s level maneuvering won't mean dick today if people want to watch both shows. This isn't 1996 where you have to deal with pain-in-the-ass VCRs to tape one show while you watch another, or flip channels constantly. 

Yeah, I have two monitors so I'll just have both shows on (until I leave for work). I haven't really figured out what I'm going to do audio wise yet. 

Surely nobody chooses to listen to Mauro if they have the option not to

Such a shame about Mauro. I used to love him on SDL even if his name-dropping could be a bit much.

Since my work week is Tuesday-Saturday, I'll either watch both on DVR when I get home or watch one on my iPad at work and the other when I get home. 

Speaking of, when the next day ratings come out and the fanboys start claiming victory, remember most networks go by the live+7 where its the live viewings plus any DVR viewings within a week. 

37 minutes ago, FMKK said:

Surely nobody chooses to listen to Mauro if they have the option not to

This is valid.

I'm much more interested in NXT as the lineup and roster is more up my alley, but feel like I should check out AEW live as its potentially a much bigger event.  I've enjoyed most of their shows but not blown away to the point it feels like appointment viewing.  But the prospect of well funded competition with real exposure is definitely interesting.