The Russo Pill
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
The draw of WrestleMania III Photo Credit: WWE.com  Hypothetical question, if you had a wrestling company on national television and worldwide pay-per-view, would you rather have a television segment draw two million viewers, which today would be a boffo number, or would you rather have your quarterly, or even monthly, paid event draw a quarter-million buys? The answer, to me at least, is quite clear. You want to cultivate a large, faithful audience that will spend more money on you than average, that will be loyal through the lean times, that will proselytize during the good on ..read more
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Poachers Delight, Case Number Four: Bron Breakker
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
Breakker, on the right here with Tommaso Ciampa, may find fulfillment in AEW Photo Credit: WWE.com  All Elite Wrestling is here to stay. Whether you're a WWE partisan, a wrestling-promotion agnostic, or a lapsed fan leery that the surging Jacksonville-based promotion is for real, you have to take notice that even if WWE is still number one in all financial metrics, AEW is a threat to their hegemony. That's a good thing, unless you're Vince McMahon or one of his sycophants. A second wrestling company that provides the mainstream access to stardom AND competitive pay is everything ..read more
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Poacher's Delight, Case Number Three: Big E
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
Big sweaty men slappin' meat in AEW? Maybe... Photo Credit: WWE.com  All Elite Wrestling has done what WWE has conditioned people to think could never be done. They got Tony Schiavone and CM Punk to return to wrestling and overcome the malaise they developed for that business in their prior stints. They made a deal to honor Owen Hart with Hart's widow and family when WWE CONVINCED everyone that Martha's problem was with wrestling and not with the negligent and callous company that killed her husband. And they've overrun New York City, WWE's home base for DECADES, setting attenda ..read more
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Instant Feedback: He Has 'Til Five, Ref
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
He's back  I didn't know what to expect from Bryan Danielson's return to a ring outside of WWE's purview. Honestly, I should have gone with my gut. He is, after all, the greatest wrestler in the history of the sport, the art, the whatever the fuck this thing everyone reading this rag loves. You don't lose the ability to have a great wrestling match, especially against Kenny Omega, who takes his craft more seriously than anyone ever has at least since Randy Savage was still alive and active. The means by which you have a great match may change. Genichiro Tenryu did not have the s ..read more
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The TWB Draft: Judgment Day, Part One
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
The winning roster had these two guys on it Roster construction is the first phase of creating a wrestling promotion. For this exercise, a hypothetical scenario was created where the WWE was dismantled and the McMahon family was jailed for their crimes. In the ashes, six promotions in six different distinct North American territories sprang up, and the talent in this country was allocated via draft and a post-draft free agency period. Everyone's rosters are complete, and before the second part of this exercise, the booking of the first pay-per-view cycle, is begun, judgment must come ..read more
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Poacher's Delight, Case Number Two: Charlotte Flair
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
Would Flair be too big to succeed in AEW? Photo Credit: WWE.com  With Bryan Danielson, Ruby Soho, and Adam Cole debuting at All Out and more names rumored to be on the way, AEW is well on its way to becoming a legitimate contender to WWE's wrestling hegemony. If you read into the ratings numbers and think Dynamite's larger draw of the much-desired 18-49 male demographic is not an aberration and a sign of a trend to come, then they already are a competitor. Folks who were not around when World Championship Wrestling was in business don't know the excitement of wres ..read more
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On Representation in Modern Booking
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
Sky has been a missed opportunity for AEW so far Brian Cage is not happy in All Elite Wrestling. He hasn't said anything, but his wife, former Lucha Underground ring announcer Melissa Santos, has been vocal on social media about how he's been "misused." As an interested observer, I was baffled by the notion that Cage, who has been a fixture on AEW television since his debut at the Double or Nothing 2020 Casino Battle Royale, was misused. He has been in a feud with Sting and Darby Allin, including a payoff in a memorable cinematic match where Sting wrestled for the first time since hi ..read more
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Poacher's Delight, Case Number One: Baron Corbin
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
Corbin, All Elite? Not as shocking as you think Photo Credit: WWE.com All Out was the best mainstream American wrestling pay-per-view of all-time even without the shock of all the debuts into All Elite Wrestling. However, those debuts, namely, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, have opened a lot of minds to the possibility of big names from WWE leaving the company and signing with AEW not because they've been jettisoned from their deals in cost-cutting measures (the way FTR and Ruby Soho were), but because they now had choices for places of employ. WWE wanted to keep Danielson and Cole ..read more
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The TWB Draft: Free Agency
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
Mauro and Corey, together again Screengrab via SportsKeeda When I last left off describing the TWB Draft to one and all, I summarized the actual draft portion. It's called the "TWB Draft," so that should be the most important thing, right? Well, sure, but what good is roster allocation if you don't use it? Twenty-five wrestlers comprise a good start for any promotion, but post-draft, so many other viable wrestlers were left available, as well as all the non-wrestling staff that had now become bereft of employment. The commentators, managers, and agents of the world needed to be signe ..read more
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The Best Wrestling Pay-Per-View, Ever: An All Out 2021 Conceptual Review
The Wrestling Blog
by TH
2y ago
He's here The last time I did one of these "conceptual reviews," I called Double or Nothing earlier this year the "best show since WrestleMania XXX." I thought it would be hard to top, especially with such a rushed build and the lack of All Elite Wrestling's rising star and possible Most Valuable Wrestler, Hangman Page. With his desire to be present for the birth of his first child, a desire that I understand, support, and think AEW was absolutely correct to accommodate, the presumed tension point at the top of the card was out the window. They replaced him with Christian Cage, which ..read more
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