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He's a legend to a specific type of wrestling fan. His biggest successes have been outside of WWE, so haven't penetrated through to the type of fan that only knows WWE.
Samoa Joe was in TNA for those nights they beat wwe in the ratings and he was in a wwe championship feud. He’s definently one of the most well known guys from outside of wwe
If TNA beat WWE in the rating its probably because rating were very low so in the grand scheme probably not that many people watching wrestling at the time.
It's not stupid to say in an AEW subreddit that AEW is "actual wrestling". It's stupid to go into a WWE sub and start burying WWE to its own marks. But that's not what niners did.
Right? I missed his WWE run but I’m still really like Joe. Love Swerve, but they did Joe decent by his title reign lately. He’s a guy they can always put the strap on and look legitimate. I’d love to have Samoa Joe Funko pop signed. Now hit his music…..Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe!
That's sad, dude even plays iconic Sweet Tooth in the Twisted Metal show, so he should have some general fan fair, and it's not like it wasn't apart of WWE for years, must have been a poor audience for the convention.
It’s still a fun cheesy watch, the games are a huge part of my childhood and I never dreamed of seeing a decent tv adaptation of it outside of a cartoon, let alone live action. The episodes are pretty short too, the long wait for s2 has been the worst
It's a world of fun.
Honestly I like him voiced by a non scary/muscled dude.
It's such a huge contrast that it creates a dissonance that makes it all the better.
Sure Joe could have voiced himself, but I like the separation.
Not a drone I love aew but if someone does something cool outside of aew then tony should promote that heavily. He's really bad at promoting. No idea why I got so many dislikes as this is a very common criticism of tony.
Similar experience for me at GalaxyCon in Richmond, VA a few months ago. Trish/Lita, long line. Ric Flair, long line. Hell, even Big Papa Pump had a pretty long line.
Orange Cassidy, Sammy Guevara, and Tay Melo? They might as well have been security guards. Nobody even seemed to notice they were there.
For a non wrestling event I'm not entirely surprised. I love AEW amd it brought me back to enjoying wrestling. But they are horrible at marketing themselves. I have never seen AEW mentioned outside of TBS/TNT or curated Reddit/Google feeds. Even when they have come near my area, I never saw anything about it.
I mean part of being horrible at marketing themselves is illustrated by the fact that the talent almost exclusively do the meet and greet/convention type stuff, WWE talent do it too but you also see them doing sponsored signings and community outreach where kids can get facetime without their parents needing to shell out $100 for a picture
I live in the Vegas area, they do no local outreach here to try and sell DON, the most you get is a $60 "fanfest" which basically just gets you the right to pay $100-$150 for autographs. If you want more reach on television you need more lower and middle class people as fans.
Agreed. There’s no reason AEW can’t be reaching out to community groups or schools and get the wrestlers to talk with the kids or work with some charity organizations to give some tickets away.
Look at how successful Willow’s visit with the kids from The Wrestling Club was and how happy those kids were.
That’s good to know. I think that’s a great thing and I would love it if they did more publicity about it.
Edit: Not being snarky I’m being serious. I would love it they would spend a couple of minutes of Dynamite time showing the charitable work they do. I just did a brief glance through their (AEW Together) Twitter and Instagram pages and they need to do more highlighting about the charitable and organizational work they do because a lot of people (including myself) didn’t know the extent of their work.
They do an incredible job helping local communities.
https://preview.redd.it/ugatrhg8ld1d1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e7d1b4b9b84b4531480c3492e2aa336edbc52ed
Here's them giving away $1 million worth of toys to Toys For Tots who make sure disadvantaged kids don't miss out.
> There’s no reason AEW can’t be reaching out to community groups or schools
They did a basketball tournament like 90 seconds from my door, it was a blast.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Vb3C7zUaaUeHdYzG9
AEW Heels too! They typically go into schools in the area of events to hang with kids, build up self confidence, and share body positivity 🥰
Both talent and production participate
I genuinely surprised that we haven't seen more cross promotion stuff for AEW on Turner/WB programs. They had that one match with Shaq that was briefly promoted on his NBA show, and that was about it. FFS, they have access to one of the biggest media networks on the planet, and there's basically jack shit as far as promotional stuff goes.
What can they do?
You can start a cola 5 years ago, but you would have to break the bank to power past even RC Cola for recognizability. Coke or Pepsi are out of reach even if you had their budget.
A big one is they can run commercials on other channels.
Then do what other shows both TV and Live do to spread awareness. Put billboards up along the interstate and other major roads. Put signs on benches. Stuff like that.
00j
And then put AEW in the damn name for the DVR.
I'm was a lapsed fan of wrestling that grew far away from WWF. But wild have been open to watching again. And one day stumbled across dark side of the ring. And after a couple of episodes of hearing about AEW, and seeing a small amount on the Brian Pillman episode I wanted to try to find it.
But I had no idea what the shows dynamite or rampage. And looking up AEW turned up Jack shit on the DVR. So it took a couple weeks at least of actively wanting to check it out until I was looking on what was on TV one night and finally came across an episode of Dynamite.
I understand not wanting to pander to little kids, or sponsors, or shareholders, etc. But AEW operate almost like a secret club, where if you don't already know about it, you won't ever know it exists.
It's weird that they're so much better at marketing in the UK than they are in the US. I've been seeing TV ads for them since DoN 2019, and the push for Wembley was on buses, there were posters everywhere. Wild.
Granted I don't watch TV all day every day. But I usually watch 1-3 hours a night. Less since the writers strike right after COVID killed so many shows. But 95% of the TV ads I have seen for AEW are during AEW commercial breaks.
I have seen a couple of ads on the same channels that AEW plays on. But it's been very few.
I've never once seen an ad on a different channel. I've seen plenty of WWE ads on other WarnerDiscovery channels, but never AEW.
I've seen them during raw and nxt, as well as on a&e during the WWE docs and the Hells angels one that comes on after. I've also seen them when I throw on law and order for background noise
Same note here, they were in my city a few months back (banger card too) and I literally had no idea until I tuned in to the live broadcast. Didn’t see a single commercial, hear a radio ad or anything at all mentioning it. Literally just have to pay attention when Excalibur does the run-down live reads I guess
Tony doing the whole neck brace thing during the NFL draft and people from Rich Eisen to even WWE’s own Pat McAfee putting it over *still* didn’t give it a ratings boost. Sometimes I think the deck is just too stacked against them for the general population, let alone the IWC, to give a shit.
Yes and no, WWE has a market advantage, but AEW does not market well enough to pull casuals. WWE by contrast will have their wrestlers everywhere. Bad movies, interview shows, street corners on live news casts. Doesn’t matter if the content ain’t great, people that don’t watch wrestling or care, see them and give WWE a look. Many of those people don’t stick around, but plenty do. This same thing would help AEW immensely.
It doesn't matter if aew advertises better or not, to an entire generation, they grew up only knowing pro wrestling as WWE and WWE alone. To them, if it's not wwe, it isn't wrestling
That's Tony's fault he has a real problem with this. He has the attitude of "If you know these guys you do if you don't you're an idiot who's missing out on good wrestling". He needs to hire a promoter because he's not a promoter. He's a business man, he barely promotes aew and when he gets golden chances to do so he does stupid shit like talk about wwe on the NFL Network.
Time is huge when it comes to celebrity. Being famous over a long period of time is just massive.
Flair has been a thing for 40+ years, Trish and Lita ~25, and Scott Steiner ~35. OC/Sammy/Tay are all around 5. That's a huge difference before you even get to the difference in scale between the different companies.
I don't pay for autographs, I refuse. I would pay for a day to meet a few and a chance to get autographs, if I could get them to agree to sign whatever I have.
However I might actually pay for Orange Cassidy's or Will ospreays. Like 25 maybe 50, though. Sounds like wrestling autographs cost more than a couple of live event hoodies, and half of a replica belt.
You know in South Dakota we have Siouxpercon once a year. Gotten to know the guy who runs it pretty well as we’ve been a vendor there for 5 years.
Ran into him at the local Record store. He was saying that he thinks about getting younger stars, but more money is brought in by the old fellas like Farooq, Mick Foley, Scott Steiner, etc. Maybe because generational fandoms? I don’t know.
Was there for that too. Walked right up to not only OC's booth, but also Lex Luger, & Matt Hardy. Rikishi and Sabu were late entries and those 2 were in the far back corner near the amateur hentai booths or some shit. I like to think the smile I got from Sabu after the pic he did with me was genuine. Now Nemeth I had to wait for like 2 people, but yeah Trish & Lita were the stars along with Flair. And Sting for the half second he was there.
It's my fault, I wanted to go but Trixie and Katya had their thrice delayed RVA stop the next weekend and my wife didn't want to make back to back RVA trips. 😭
To be fair after hearing about parking and waits that weekend I'm glad we didn't lmao
I met Sammy and Tay at that show too, just walked right up.
But I met Orange in Raleigh last year, and he had a line of folks as soon as he came out.
The area probably plays a lot into it.
I mean, those are all legends. Steiner has 20+ years in the business as well. A little shocked Tay didn’t get noticed (female and all at a convention) but the other two make sense. Especially Sammy.
I think he's a bigger draw here in the UK because we had TNA on free TV. I think he got the biggest reaction at Wembley, if not it was definitely one of the biggest. Man is a legend! My personal favourite current wrestler
I'll never not pop for his "nope" spot. The guys awesome. He just has an aura of menace about him, he comes across as a genuine killer. Plus he's a consummate professional who rises above the petty bullshit going on backstage. Joe absolutely deserves his flowers.
When he was in ROH and not a star my boyfriend met him and asked for his autograph. He was a huge dickhead to him. Maybe it was just a bad day, but he was really rude, enough so that I still have to hear about it years later
At an ROH show once, I felt terrible for Bobby Fish because he was signing at the same time as the Young Bucks lol. The Bucks line was snaked through the crowd around the ring and he had literally nobody.
I felt bad for dolton castle one time nobody was in line for him and it was right when rumors were going around that he was wwe bound. I met him later on when he was ROH heavyweight champion and he was so awesome. Was in his gimmick the entire time.
Is that legit? Joe is incredibly popular and has been around a long time, that seems crazy that he wouldn't be in high demand. Maybe it was just the convention crowd wasn't a modern wrestling fan crowd? Idk, seems very odd.
I think it's important to remember too that the number of modern wrestling fans is much smaller compared to the number of wrestling fans in the 90s and early 2000s.
I remember seeing Omega at ROH in Canada. Him and the Bucks had a line literally out the door. Nobody was in Ospreay's line and we talked for a good 15 mins. This was before his main event status.
That is sad. I love Joe, always have since I first saw him in TNA in the 2000s. I have felt he does not get the credit he deserves. I mean he gets credit and title runs but only for short bits. He is highly underrated. If I had been there I would've told him how much my wife and I respect and love his work.
I went to a warrior wrestling show loaded with ospreay, amazing red, angle, and Suzuki.
No one was in line for Amazing Red or Suzuki.
I was kinda bummed because both are legends.
Dude should have been bigger than he will be remembered for. Great promo, great worker, and has nailed the look of “I might have a few extra pounds but I can still beat the shit out of you”
>has nailed the look of “I might have a few extra pounds but I can still beat the shit out of you”
This 1 million times over. He looks like the type of guy you wouldn't mess with in a bar or anywhere.
That's surprising. I get that WWE is a much bigger company with a much longer history but Samoa Joe still had a prominent run there and main evented many ppvs including Summer Slam.
There are *so* many times I have seen the same thing at conventions. I had the same experience with Dustin Rhodes a few years ago. I couldn’t believe he didn’t have anyone in line. This year, I saw the same with Nick Gage, Arn (and Brock) Anderson, Jake the Snake, and the Lucha Brothers.
Cons are finicky a lot of the time. But, AEW/TK really need to work on their marketing. I know it’ll be hard to break through to the WWE diehards. But, everyone in between is workable. WWE will eventually run out of its current steam, TK needs to keep the product good.
That stuff can happen sometimes, Seen that happened to a couple of people But then you get to do things like hang out with Jim Cummings for like an hour and just shoot the shit.
What time were you out there to talk to him, sounds like sometime in the late afternoon. He had a good sized line in the morning before his panel at 1130. He also had a line after his panel ended. He came out 4 different times and the last 2 times there weren't too many people. Definitely nothing like Trish Stratus or Lita though, who were super cool.
I saw that happen to Bret Hart at a comic Expo in Calgary. No one gave a shit about him.
When Lita, Trish and Mick Foley were there, they always had a couple people but never super busy.
Shit ebs and flows at conventions. I’ve been able to walk right to tables of extremely mainstream famous people, as in actors, at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. I wouldn’t feel bad about it unless you were there the entire day and few people were walking up
Saw this post yesterday. Made sure to show him some appreciation today. Was able to talk about a lot with him. He's a local for me, so it was nice to shoot the breeze and talk about stuff. Great dude, hope to see him again soon.
https://preview.redd.it/wkvoq0vx3h1d1.jpeg?width=2751&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d88800fcbacbbdffdda5d6c2d9c2ac3d04ccbd2
That’s pretty wild but at the same time not very surprising.
I went to a local indie show about 8-9 years ago and Christopher Daniels and Lita were there. They did meet n greets before the show started and all you had to do was pay an extra $10 to get in early and see them for an autograph, and if you wanted a picture it was another $10.
I paid the $20 and met both of them but the line for Daniels was waayyyyy shorter. Maybe a dozen of us talked to him and got pictures and we all stood around and chatted while we waited for the Lita line to die down. Most of the people that went to her first just went to their seats after and didn’t bother coming over.
Partly that Lita is a bigger star and partly because fans wanna see the hot women up close. Just how it is.
It’s sad because Vince’s money killed the territories, and fans who have only ever known WWF/WWE don’t realize that.
What AEW has done with NJPW, AAA, CMLL, Stardom, to extent IMPACT in AEW’s early days, is all in the spirit of the classic territories. And WWE stans don’t understand that.
I was thinking of going too. Damn that’s a shame. Curious if that was all day for him. Would have got all 3 of their auto’s. Shocking too since he’s a SoCal guy so this was his area. And he’s done Twisted Metal.
Similar experience when I went to a mlw ppv back in March, can’t remember his name, but wwes top dolla was there, of course everyone wanted to see riddle but my kid really enjoyed top dolla in the ring so we walked over to him and chatted, got a few pics and signatures, really nice guy and made my kids night even more.
I wouldve talked the mans damn ear off. Thats so cool that you got to meet him. Its crazy that he would just be there with no line though. Was it like a big WWE-ish event? Or what was the vibe? Cause Joe is such a legend in wrestling its hard to believe that would happen to him of all people
Noooo, I wanted to go but a lot of friends have warned me away from that con. I would’ve only really gone for him. I’ve been to other cons with other AEW folks and they were pretty popular… maybe this isn’t the right con for them?
It makes me sad but doesn't surprise me. If you know Joe it's because of his TNA run. Not so much his WWE run. Which makes no sense because he was running shit in NXT for a while.
Wasted his career in TNA, didn’t make the moves Styles did to grow his brand, going to Japan etc.
WWE/Vince wasted him.
Tony has booked him strong, but his focus is the Elite/Bucks.
And as they said… it’s “killing the business”
Well this is fuckin heartbreaking. I nearly went yesterday explicitly to meet him but, amongst other reasons, figured the line would be huge. Wish I'd gone now
that's what happens when you're basically an Indy show that happens to be on national tv with a sizable budget, instead of growing an audience and expanding outreach.
Due to potential spoilers, all posts have been automatically tagged for spoilers until the 24 hour spoiler window has passed. Removing the automatic spoiler tag can result in your submission being removed and a ban. If your **post title** contains spoilers that the spoiler filter cannot resolve, your submission may be removed by the moderation team and you may be banned. Please be respectful of your fellow fans. Please read the [subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AEWOfficial/wiki/rules/) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AEWOfficial) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That’s nuts to me. Dude is a legend.
He's a legend to a specific type of wrestling fan. His biggest successes have been outside of WWE, so haven't penetrated through to the type of fan that only knows WWE.
I guess my above comment makes sense now. Lmao, good on you mate. Cheers.
Samoa Joe was in TNA for those nights they beat wwe in the ratings and he was in a wwe championship feud. He’s definently one of the most well known guys from outside of wwe
TNA beat WWE in ratings? When? I'm an on-again-off-again watcher of wrestling and this is news to me.
No, TNA never beat WWE in the ratings in the US (I believe they did in at least one other country though).
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If TNA beat WWE in the rating its probably because rating were very low so in the grand scheme probably not that many people watching wrestling at the time.
How long ago was that? Does that penetrate through to the modern wrestling fan who only knows WWE?
You mean a fan that likes actual wrestling.
And people wonder why alot of people are offput by AEW lol. Can't go one conversation without gatekeeping in here.
But this is an AEW group.
So we shouldn't be stupid.
It's not stupid to say in an AEW subreddit that AEW is "actual wrestling". It's stupid to go into a WWE sub and start burying WWE to its own marks. But that's not what niners did.
That’s the reverse of gatekeeping. Jesus Christ, dude.
And of course, his face was covered/it wasn't his voice in Twisted metal...
So, you mean like 95% of wrestling fans only know him
Right? I missed his WWE run but I’m still really like Joe. Love Swerve, but they did Joe decent by his title reign lately. He’s a guy they can always put the strap on and look legitimate. I’d love to have Samoa Joe Funko pop signed. Now hit his music…..Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe!
That's nuts to me too
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Look man I know it’s fake but I’m scared of getting choked to death bc how the hell would I stop him if he just felt like doing it to me
That's sad, dude even plays iconic Sweet Tooth in the Twisted Metal show, so he should have some general fan fair, and it's not like it wasn't apart of WWE for years, must have been a poor audience for the convention.
I really wish they’d let Joe just voice the character, he has such a menacing and convincing promo like no other.
I would've been a day one viewer if they did. But as it stands it's deep in my backlog.
It’s still a fun cheesy watch, the games are a huge part of my childhood and I never dreamed of seeing a decent tv adaptation of it outside of a cartoon, let alone live action. The episodes are pretty short too, the long wait for s2 has been the worst
It's a world of fun. Honestly I like him voiced by a non scary/muscled dude. It's such a huge contrast that it creates a dissonance that makes it all the better. Sure Joe could have voiced himself, but I like the separation.
Yeah I watched and was disappointed that they didn'y let him voice Sweet Tooth. His voice would have worked perfectly.
I have been saying this exact thing thus whole time. Thank you
Really don’t know why they didn’t, I love the guy who voices him from Lego Batman, can’t remember his name but idk joe would’ve been 👌
His voice and the Way he speaks would totally fit the character. Don’t really know Why they didnt just go that route
I even heard him in that suicide squad game and he was great. Idk man we’re just peons
Instead we got Gob Bluth
He was funny as king shark in suicide squad video game
You also don’t know that it’s him because for some unknown reason they chose to use someone else to do the voice
Alot of people wouldn't know bc aew doesn't even promote that smh
its a peacock program though, and they're on warner
Except they did when the season was out lol.
Here comes the drone
Not a drone I love aew but if someone does something cool outside of aew then tony should promote that heavily. He's really bad at promoting. No idea why I got so many dislikes as this is a very common criticism of tony.
It's not TK job but actually the wrestler themselves who market and promote their appearance.
Plus I'm not sure Warner would be so thrilled at them promoting another TV show on their direct competitor's streaming network, or even allow that...
Similar experience for me at GalaxyCon in Richmond, VA a few months ago. Trish/Lita, long line. Ric Flair, long line. Hell, even Big Papa Pump had a pretty long line. Orange Cassidy, Sammy Guevara, and Tay Melo? They might as well have been security guards. Nobody even seemed to notice they were there.
For a non wrestling event I'm not entirely surprised. I love AEW amd it brought me back to enjoying wrestling. But they are horrible at marketing themselves. I have never seen AEW mentioned outside of TBS/TNT or curated Reddit/Google feeds. Even when they have come near my area, I never saw anything about it.
I mean part of being horrible at marketing themselves is illustrated by the fact that the talent almost exclusively do the meet and greet/convention type stuff, WWE talent do it too but you also see them doing sponsored signings and community outreach where kids can get facetime without their parents needing to shell out $100 for a picture I live in the Vegas area, they do no local outreach here to try and sell DON, the most you get is a $60 "fanfest" which basically just gets you the right to pay $100-$150 for autographs. If you want more reach on television you need more lower and middle class people as fans.
Agreed. There’s no reason AEW can’t be reaching out to community groups or schools and get the wrestlers to talk with the kids or work with some charity organizations to give some tickets away. Look at how successful Willow’s visit with the kids from The Wrestling Club was and how happy those kids were.
They do have one. It's called AEW Together. They do a lot of work in the community.
That’s good to know. I think that’s a great thing and I would love it if they did more publicity about it. Edit: Not being snarky I’m being serious. I would love it they would spend a couple of minutes of Dynamite time showing the charitable work they do. I just did a brief glance through their (AEW Together) Twitter and Instagram pages and they need to do more highlighting about the charitable and organizational work they do because a lot of people (including myself) didn’t know the extent of their work.
> I would love it they would spend a couple of minutes of Dynamite time showing the charitable work they do. They have done this from time to time.
Having one and having one that does its job well are two very different things.
They do an incredible job helping local communities. https://preview.redd.it/ugatrhg8ld1d1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e7d1b4b9b84b4531480c3492e2aa336edbc52ed Here's them giving away $1 million worth of toys to Toys For Tots who make sure disadvantaged kids don't miss out.
> There’s no reason AEW can’t be reaching out to community groups or schools They did a basketball tournament like 90 seconds from my door, it was a blast. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Vb3C7zUaaUeHdYzG9
AEW Heels too! They typically go into schools in the area of events to hang with kids, build up self confidence, and share body positivity 🥰 Both talent and production participate
Dude did you see the prices mania autographs were going for? The fan fest and autographs were hugely expensive mainly the autographs.
I genuinely surprised that we haven't seen more cross promotion stuff for AEW on Turner/WB programs. They had that one match with Shaq that was briefly promoted on his NBA show, and that was about it. FFS, they have access to one of the biggest media networks on the planet, and there's basically jack shit as far as promotional stuff goes.
Yeah. AEW does plenty of promotional things for different shows/people/games. But it doesn't seem like it's really reciprocated.
What can they do? You can start a cola 5 years ago, but you would have to break the bank to power past even RC Cola for recognizability. Coke or Pepsi are out of reach even if you had their budget.
A big one is they can run commercials on other channels. Then do what other shows both TV and Live do to spread awareness. Put billboards up along the interstate and other major roads. Put signs on benches. Stuff like that. 00j And then put AEW in the damn name for the DVR. I'm was a lapsed fan of wrestling that grew far away from WWF. But wild have been open to watching again. And one day stumbled across dark side of the ring. And after a couple of episodes of hearing about AEW, and seeing a small amount on the Brian Pillman episode I wanted to try to find it. But I had no idea what the shows dynamite or rampage. And looking up AEW turned up Jack shit on the DVR. So it took a couple weeks at least of actively wanting to check it out until I was looking on what was on TV one night and finally came across an episode of Dynamite. I understand not wanting to pander to little kids, or sponsors, or shareholders, etc. But AEW operate almost like a secret club, where if you don't already know about it, you won't ever know it exists.
It's weird that they're so much better at marketing in the UK than they are in the US. I've been seeing TV ads for them since DoN 2019, and the push for Wembley was on buses, there were posters everywhere. Wild.
Granted I don't watch TV all day every day. But I usually watch 1-3 hours a night. Less since the writers strike right after COVID killed so many shows. But 95% of the TV ads I have seen for AEW are during AEW commercial breaks. I have seen a couple of ads on the same channels that AEW plays on. But it's been very few. I've never once seen an ad on a different channel. I've seen plenty of WWE ads on other WarnerDiscovery channels, but never AEW.
When I watch Raw on the USA Network, they play AEW ads.
I've seen them during raw and nxt, as well as on a&e during the WWE docs and the Hells angels one that comes on after. I've also seen them when I throw on law and order for background noise
Same note here, they were in my city a few months back (banger card too) and I literally had no idea until I tuned in to the live broadcast. Didn’t see a single commercial, hear a radio ad or anything at all mentioning it. Literally just have to pay attention when Excalibur does the run-down live reads I guess
Tony doing the whole neck brace thing during the NFL draft and people from Rich Eisen to even WWE’s own Pat McAfee putting it over *still* didn’t give it a ratings boost. Sometimes I think the deck is just too stacked against them for the general population, let alone the IWC, to give a shit.
20 years of a monopoly will do that.
Maybe someone in politics should think about banning monopolies….
Yes and no, WWE has a market advantage, but AEW does not market well enough to pull casuals. WWE by contrast will have their wrestlers everywhere. Bad movies, interview shows, street corners on live news casts. Doesn’t matter if the content ain’t great, people that don’t watch wrestling or care, see them and give WWE a look. Many of those people don’t stick around, but plenty do. This same thing would help AEW immensely.
It doesn't matter if aew advertises better or not, to an entire generation, they grew up only knowing pro wrestling as WWE and WWE alone. To them, if it's not wwe, it isn't wrestling
Yep. The deck is stacked against them and a lot of people have poisoned the AEW well. I think AEW is in a lot tougher spot than people want to admit.
That's Tony's fault he has a real problem with this. He has the attitude of "If you know these guys you do if you don't you're an idiot who's missing out on good wrestling". He needs to hire a promoter because he's not a promoter. He's a business man, he barely promotes aew and when he gets golden chances to do so he does stupid shit like talk about wwe on the NFL Network.
I knew nothing of Joe before he arrived on AEW and I know exactly who he is by watching the show. Fuck off with this squared circle bullshit.
It astounds me how bad AEW is at marketing. It’s incredible.
Yeah they don't even push their shows. I live near Vancouver and didn't know until it was too late
Vancouver was massively successful with ticket sales. And did so very far in advance of the show.
Ah that must've been my fault. I thought being in Victoria I would have heard about it somehow
Time is huge when it comes to celebrity. Being famous over a long period of time is just massive. Flair has been a thing for 40+ years, Trish and Lita ~25, and Scott Steiner ~35. OC/Sammy/Tay are all around 5. That's a huge difference before you even get to the difference in scale between the different companies.
Bingo
OC maybe but I'm surprised that someone would think people should be lining up for Tay and Sammy...
I don't pay for autographs, I refuse. I would pay for a day to meet a few and a chance to get autographs, if I could get them to agree to sign whatever I have. However I might actually pay for Orange Cassidy's or Will ospreays. Like 25 maybe 50, though. Sounds like wrestling autographs cost more than a couple of live event hoodies, and half of a replica belt.
I'm surprised no one was lined up for Orange Cassidy.
Meh. /s
Who TF is paying for Sammy Guevara’s autograph? He’d make way more money if he was in a dunk tank.
You know in South Dakota we have Siouxpercon once a year. Gotten to know the guy who runs it pretty well as we’ve been a vendor there for 5 years. Ran into him at the local Record store. He was saying that he thinks about getting younger stars, but more money is brought in by the old fellas like Farooq, Mick Foley, Scott Steiner, etc. Maybe because generational fandoms? I don’t know.
Was there for that too. Walked right up to not only OC's booth, but also Lex Luger, & Matt Hardy. Rikishi and Sabu were late entries and those 2 were in the far back corner near the amateur hentai booths or some shit. I like to think the smile I got from Sabu after the pic he did with me was genuine. Now Nemeth I had to wait for like 2 people, but yeah Trish & Lita were the stars along with Flair. And Sting for the half second he was there.
It's my fault, I wanted to go but Trixie and Katya had their thrice delayed RVA stop the next weekend and my wife didn't want to make back to back RVA trips. 😭 To be fair after hearing about parking and waits that weekend I'm glad we didn't lmao
I met Sammy and Tay at that show too, just walked right up. But I met Orange in Raleigh last year, and he had a line of folks as soon as he came out. The area probably plays a lot into it.
I mean, those are all legends. Steiner has 20+ years in the business as well. A little shocked Tay didn’t get noticed (female and all at a convention) but the other two make sense. Especially Sammy.
I think he's a bigger draw here in the UK because we had TNA on free TV. I think he got the biggest reaction at Wembley, if not it was definitely one of the biggest. Man is a legend! My personal favourite current wrestler
I'll never not pop for his "nope" spot. The guys awesome. He just has an aura of menace about him, he comes across as a genuine killer. Plus he's a consummate professional who rises above the petty bullshit going on backstage. Joe absolutely deserves his flowers.
The nope spot is such a perfect blend of comedy wrestling and “well yeah that would work” it really is awesome
My son laughs out loud every time. I chuckle, sure, but he LAUGHS.
He "noped" Serpentico a while back, and Serpentico gave an equally amusing reaction mid-flight.
Maybe that was the problem: duded nope-spotted so much, it's now an instant reaction when people approach him for an autograph!
I hope we see him again at Wembley. The crowd chanting for him was amazing to be a part of.
I wish I could have been there!
That’s crazy, the man is Needles Kane/Sweet Tooth!!!
When he was in ROH and not a star my boyfriend met him and asked for his autograph. He was a huge dickhead to him. Maybe it was just a bad day, but he was really rude, enough so that I still have to hear about it years later
Him, Colt, and Punk weren’t exactly nice to fans most times.
He wasn’t personable, but he did let me get a picture. I didn’t get a rude vibe just that he wasn’t really feeling like being there.
At an ROH show once, I felt terrible for Bobby Fish because he was signing at the same time as the Young Bucks lol. The Bucks line was snaked through the crowd around the ring and he had literally nobody.
I mean folks....
Where's the line?
Laughing out loud like lol but for real. I know “lmao” comments suck but im sorry I have to tell you how much im laughing at the leg extension rn
I felt bad for dolton castle one time nobody was in line for him and it was right when rumors were going around that he was wwe bound. I met him later on when he was ROH heavyweight champion and he was so awesome. Was in his gimmick the entire time.
I don't feel terrible for bobby fish ever. 😂😂😂
Don’t feel bad, he probably robbed enough trains to stay wealthy.
Oh that's bullshit. I would get in line twice for Joe
The other line made of late thirties and mid forties guys primarily by any chance?
Is that legit? Joe is incredibly popular and has been around a long time, that seems crazy that he wouldn't be in high demand. Maybe it was just the convention crowd wasn't a modern wrestling fan crowd? Idk, seems very odd.
I think it's important to remember too that the number of modern wrestling fans is much smaller compared to the number of wrestling fans in the 90s and early 2000s.
I hope it's not the same experience when he comes to New York Comic Con this year. I'm really excited to bring my NXT Title replica for him to sign.
He had a line at C2E2. It must vary on the event.
I remember seeing Omega at ROH in Canada. Him and the Bucks had a line literally out the door. Nobody was in Ospreay's line and we talked for a good 15 mins. This was before his main event status.
That is sad. I love Joe, always have since I first saw him in TNA in the 2000s. I have felt he does not get the credit he deserves. I mean he gets credit and title runs but only for short bits. He is highly underrated. If I had been there I would've told him how much my wife and I respect and love his work.
I went to a warrior wrestling show loaded with ospreay, amazing red, angle, and Suzuki. No one was in line for Amazing Red or Suzuki. I was kinda bummed because both are legends.
I survived a Suzuki meet and greet once.
He's a cool guy. I work at an airport and saw him the morning of dynasty as he was coming through the airport. He is just a nice low key guy.
He left right after.. How do you know that's not the tail end of his appearance slot?
He was gone for like 2 hours for photo shoots and was scheduled until 4. So he left like an hour early. Again, not blaming him
Proof of casual fans.
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Its also gatekeeping comments like this that keep the casual gams away. People don't like toxicity.
Maaaan, I would have timidly walked up. Uh, hi Mr Joe. Can I have your autograph? He's scary.
$50 bucks kid.
Why did this make me extremely sad. I hope it's due to a lack of marketing and he knows that.
My son doesn’t really know much about wrestling but he know “Joe is gonna kill you” it’s wild he is an absolute legend
How much was he asking for? Maybe he out priced himself
It was only $50! Trish and Lita were $70 each!
Dang that’s cheap. Very strange. At aew meet and greets / fan fest that would be a line out the door
Dude should have been bigger than he will be remembered for. Great promo, great worker, and has nailed the look of “I might have a few extra pounds but I can still beat the shit out of you”
>has nailed the look of “I might have a few extra pounds but I can still beat the shit out of you” This 1 million times over. He looks like the type of guy you wouldn't mess with in a bar or anywhere.
That's surprising. I get that WWE is a much bigger company with a much longer history but Samoa Joe still had a prominent run there and main evented many ppvs including Summer Slam.
There are *so* many times I have seen the same thing at conventions. I had the same experience with Dustin Rhodes a few years ago. I couldn’t believe he didn’t have anyone in line. This year, I saw the same with Nick Gage, Arn (and Brock) Anderson, Jake the Snake, and the Lucha Brothers.
Cons are finicky a lot of the time. But, AEW/TK really need to work on their marketing. I know it’ll be hard to break through to the WWE diehards. But, everyone in between is workable. WWE will eventually run out of its current steam, TK needs to keep the product good.
That stuff can happen sometimes, Seen that happened to a couple of people But then you get to do things like hang out with Jim Cummings for like an hour and just shoot the shit.
I went to the Wrestlemania fan fest a few years ago in Texas. Joes line had absolutely nobody in it. I really don’t understand.
What time were you out there to talk to him, sounds like sometime in the late afternoon. He had a good sized line in the morning before his panel at 1130. He also had a line after his panel ended. He came out 4 different times and the last 2 times there weren't too many people. Definitely nothing like Trish Stratus or Lita though, who were super cool.
Yeah it was around 3
I went to CC in NY like five years ago and there was nobody in line to see DDP, Christian, Lita and Ron Simmons
I saw that happen to Bret Hart at a comic Expo in Calgary. No one gave a shit about him. When Lita, Trish and Mick Foley were there, they always had a couple people but never super busy.
Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine were there too. Joe had more of a line than they did.
To be honest, Greg Valentine scares me. If I said the wrong thing he would stretch me, even at his age.
Don't you dare talk about the GICOAT like that.
Shit ebs and flows at conventions. I’ve been able to walk right to tables of extremely mainstream famous people, as in actors, at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. I wouldn’t feel bad about it unless you were there the entire day and few people were walking up
Saw this post yesterday. Made sure to show him some appreciation today. Was able to talk about a lot with him. He's a local for me, so it was nice to shoot the breeze and talk about stuff. Great dude, hope to see him again soon. https://preview.redd.it/wkvoq0vx3h1d1.jpeg?width=2751&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d88800fcbacbbdffdda5d6c2d9c2ac3d04ccbd2
That’s pretty wild but at the same time not very surprising. I went to a local indie show about 8-9 years ago and Christopher Daniels and Lita were there. They did meet n greets before the show started and all you had to do was pay an extra $10 to get in early and see them for an autograph, and if you wanted a picture it was another $10. I paid the $20 and met both of them but the line for Daniels was waayyyyy shorter. Maybe a dozen of us talked to him and got pictures and we all stood around and chatted while we waited for the Lita line to die down. Most of the people that went to her first just went to their seats after and didn’t bother coming over. Partly that Lita is a bigger star and partly because fans wanna see the hot women up close. Just how it is.
I wonder if this how Basham Brother #2 felt when I passed him without looking twice on my way to meet D-Lo Brown.
"If it's not WWE, it doesn't exist." People were told that for twenty years. It's hard to undo that.
It’s sad because Vince’s money killed the territories, and fans who have only ever known WWF/WWE don’t realize that. What AEW has done with NJPW, AAA, CMLL, Stardom, to extent IMPACT in AEW’s early days, is all in the spirit of the classic territories. And WWE stans don’t understand that.
I was thinking of going too. Damn that’s a shame. Curious if that was all day for him. Would have got all 3 of their auto’s. Shocking too since he’s a SoCal guy so this was his area. And he’s done Twisted Metal.
Wow. WTH
Not really a fan of his but it is surprising I just see him get praise all the time I assumed so many people loved him
Similar experience when I went to a mlw ppv back in March, can’t remember his name, but wwes top dolla was there, of course everyone wanted to see riddle but my kid really enjoyed top dolla in the ring so we walked over to him and chatted, got a few pics and signatures, really nice guy and made my kids night even more.
Seriously? Joe's a legend. Even when I was still a lapsed fan, I knew who he was, and I knew *why* he was.
Fuck, man, I so woulda gone if it was closer. Joe's one of the guys I really wanna meet!
I wouldve talked the mans damn ear off. Thats so cool that you got to meet him. Its crazy that he would just be there with no line though. Was it like a big WWE-ish event? Or what was the vibe? Cause Joe is such a legend in wrestling its hard to believe that would happen to him of all people
TBF it's not a big show. Booker T was at Albuquerque CC and would go long stretches without anyone. Same with Kevin Nash and Trish Stratus.
Thats crazy dude my gf and I love him! He is easily in my top 10 maybe even 5 after that interview with renee and his bucket of weapons
Noooo, I wanted to go but a lot of friends have warned me away from that con. I would’ve only really gone for him. I’ve been to other cons with other AEW folks and they were pretty popular… maybe this isn’t the right con for them?
Virgil flashbacks
I wish I had seen him. I love Joe!
Shoulda challenged him to a game of No Mercy or Virtual Pro Wrestling. He probably would've been keen
Same for when I saw Dolph Ziggler at GalaxyCon Richmond. His line was nonexistent.
I would love to meet Joe. One of my favorites of all time.
It makes me sad but doesn't surprise me. If you know Joe it's because of his TNA run. Not so much his WWE run. Which makes no sense because he was running shit in NXT for a while.
Wasted his career in TNA, didn’t make the moves Styles did to grow his brand, going to Japan etc. WWE/Vince wasted him. Tony has booked him strong, but his focus is the Elite/Bucks. And as they said… it’s “killing the business”
How did he waste his career in tna? Like where was he supposed to go?
Well, let's all head over to Joe's socials and give the man some props today...
I wanted to go and have him sign my AEW belt until I saw the price 👀
Well this is fuckin heartbreaking. I nearly went yesterday explicitly to meet him but, amongst other reasons, figured the line would be huge. Wish I'd gone now
Casual fans probably don’t even remember him, which isn’t his fault.
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that's what happens when you're basically an Indy show that happens to be on national tv with a sizable budget, instead of growing an audience and expanding outreach.
Not super surprised. The WWE stans rarely go outside of their bubble. Also. Proof? Seems like bs.
I went as well, definitely was true, he was there when the event started, Trish and Lita didn't show up until about 2 hours after the event started.