Jan 9, 2019 I've said before that wrestling should be far more tournament based. If I watch WWE around my roommates, I feel embarrassed. I watch New Japan and I have a 17 year old dude who hates wrestling getting invested in Ibushi/Ospreay. Cool s---, hard hitting, great matches, keep the storyline soap opera bs to the minimum and let the actual sport aspect of the simulated competition develop natural stories as they do in real sports. Doubt they'll go that far, actually a bit worried how much the BTE style comedy will come into play. That needs to be kept outside the ring. Wrestling will always be "gay" or lame to a lot of the population, but I believe something presented in a serious fashion can reach some degree of popularity. Hopefully the cult like WWE fans and older people who've been watching forever give it a shot, and word of mouth spreads enough to the lapsed fans. I'm reeling in a guy at work, we're gonna need them.
Jan 9, 2019 This makes me so happy. So who all we got at this point? Bucks Jericho Britt Baker Omega??? Hangman Page Neville Also this is lame af: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/all-elite-wrestling-merch-wwe/#.XDX2jbpMGEc
Jan 9, 2019 Janella and Penelope Ford, as well as some talent from some Chinese promotion they’re partnering with (CIMA is the only talent I remember off the top of my head)
Jan 9, 2019 Agreed, I believe that if those that think wrestling is faggoty were introduced to a good NJPW show/match that they would rescind their opinion at least a little bit. I feel like WWE is quite a large cause of the anti wrestling stigma https://www.sbnation.com/2017/4/3/1...first-time-watching-wrestling-oh-my-good-lord this is quite cool tho
Jan 10, 2019 What do you look for as a fan? Is it the characters, storylines, or wrestling? What would appeal to you as someone who hasn't been watching? This guy at work I'm trying to recruit is firmly in the entertainment over wrestling part of things, so finding that balance to appeal to them will be tough. He watched a compilation of The Bucks and was describing a Meltzer driver to the outside, it was hilarious but he thought it was cool as f--- lol.
Jan 10, 2019 Probably characters. Always been a promo guy. Loved Punk. Do love the wrestling when its good tho. I live in aus but can proudly say i've been to an ROH PPV so i was a pretty big fan when i was younger
Jan 10, 2019 You should watch the All In show they did last year and maybe check out some Being the Elite shows for the personality/character side of things. Edit Khan did a podcast with X Pac that's a must listen. Dude used to trade WAR tapes...
Jan 10, 2019 Yeah, I might suss it when I get a chance over the weekend. I still respect wrestling but yeah, I've even downgraded from the typical casual sort of fan who just does Rumble/WM every year to nothing pretty much. I lost interest in ROH too which I predominately watched, probably because a lot of them were going to WWE anyway and there's no chance I'm watching a RAW that's three hours. That time frame is just lunacy.
Jan 10, 2019 That ROH/PWG/indie crew in NXT is doing an incredible job, highly recommend checking out the Rumble Takeover show as well.
Jan 11, 2019 Man this whole thing is the epitome (no pun intended) of a perfect storm. ROH was main eventing with Adam Cole vs Kyle O'Riley at the end 2016. When the Undisputed Era guys' contracts were up at ROH, their biggest stars were now The Bucks and Cody (who had just joined the promotion) so they were now going to main event ROH shows due the Bullet Club being the hottest things going in NJPW. This coincides with Cody being in PWG Bola in September of 2016 and looking around, watching every match on the card in person, and saying to the Bucks, "Holy s---, there is more talent on this card than this year's Wrestlemania card...I can't believe how much unsigned talent there is on the indies right now." They apparently talked for hours after the show and their friendship was born. Would all of this still happened if Cole doesn't go to the WWE, it's a tricky question because WWE was always Cole's goal, but I say yes, it would have. An interesting question for me is if Cody had met the Bucks, and all this got sent in motion, a year earlier does Cole stay and build AEW with them instead of going to WWE? I think that answer is yes as well. Jericho getting hot again and doing the Kevin Owens program (giving him major confidence again), being told by Vince he was going main event WM that year against Owens for the Universal Title but then having Vince take that way from him and instead making it a lower card match for the U.S. Title (which really pissed Jericho off) gave him the itch to go show Vince he can be huge star without the WWE. That leads to the Omega feud, him enjoying the freedom the NJPW, and we know the rest. All of this (including the huge piece of the puzzle of Fox paying $1.2 Billion for SD showing rich people on the outside looking in like Kahn saying, "s---, maybe we can make money on wrestling now") is the perfect storm that lead to this!
Jan 11, 2019 really hoping this succeeds and can be an alternative to wwe while also becoming a competitor
Jan 11, 2019 He's a true fan, man...that's one of the most exciting things out of all this. Like I said, it was just of matter of time after the Fox SD deal that a rich guy would enter the wrestling market now that it's known money can be made, but the fact that the one that ended up doing it is such a huge fan as Kahn makes me so happy. The dude said his Dad he would take him anyway, as a reward for getting into a good private school, and he picked the ECW area lol That's what up right there I find it so cool I posted this a couple week ago and one of the first things Cody makes a point to say at the press conference, was the line about wins and losses mattering in AEW lol
Jan 11, 2019 Man, I think that Jericho/Owens match is the one where Owens asked Vince if it was good right after and he said no. How weird is it that Jericho's last appearance in WWE for the next three years was in The Greatest Royal Rumble? Hilarious how they removed him from their graphic and moved him to the alumni section immediately. So petty.