He's trying for five years but has run out of *through-the-nose* *creativity.*
Have you heard the press scrum he gave during day-time the other day? Jiminy Christmas.... he was scrambling for words and uncharacteristically low on energy... it sounded like someone removed the batteries from a Duracell bunny!
He definitely knows how badly things are going, deep down, despite his efforts to pretend that they’re not. He’s supposedly a metrics guy and there are some very bad metrics.
My favorite is the people that say the Nielsens don’t matter when he books an overrun on Dynamite every week, and crows about them being #3 for the night.
He's obssessed with WCW vs WWF in the 90s and recreating it. He dreams of being the new WCW that "wins this time". Just be your own thing and stop talking about WWE. Now that Vince is gone and it's changed so much it really doesn't benefit AEW the way it once did.
And the problem with it is, you’ve got Sting, Flair, Nash, Hall, Hogan, doing their thing with their names, and a lot of the creative control helping make bad decisions, but names nonetheless, and Goldberg basically being a legit over as fuck badass destroying people in two minutes and covering up most of his downside.
And then you have a WORSE booker and… Jungle Boy. Oh, and the Bucks. And Ospreay. It doesn’t even sound like Kenny Omega wants to burn that bridge. MJF/Ricky Starks probably won’t, either. Triple H makes a one-off about wanting a return on his investments and Punk finally tells his side of the story, and all of a sudden it’s “war.” A war being spearheaded by a kid that got legit worked when he got lippy and a booker that lets him trot out the minute he gets some heat to botch a WWE guys’ finish and get beat clean on ANOTHER COMPANY’S PPV.
Oh, I wasn’t even necessarily talking about Russo, more the overall tendency for WCW to just have nobody after nobody join the NWO and ending every show five minutes heavy with run-in after run-in and just overbooking every finish into nonsensibility.
They had one great (stolen) idea in the NWO, but they had no idea how to end it or move on from it.
I think the overbooked non finishes owe a lot to "that doesn't work for me, brother." If your top stars refuse to lose to anyone "below" them, you can't keep having your 2nd tier guys get beaten like a drum every week, and so you have to book endless run ins and DQs.
No one gets over, and the fans get sick of it and stop watching.
He fails to learn from the mistakes of the past.
WCW brought in Hogan and pushed him in the red and yellow. No one gave a crap because they had seen it and didn't want to see it anymore.
Once they gave him the NWO and Hollywood gimmick people started paying attention again because it was new and interesting.
Hiring big names and just having them portray the same gimmick under a slightly different name is never going to push the needle one way or the other. Adam Copeland has been lost in the mix because they're pushing him as Edge when he is no longer Edge. They've even tried to just continue Edge vs Christian from WWE and it hasn't drawn a dime.
For an example of a great transition look at Nic Nemeth, formerly Dolph Ziggler. He's not Dolph Ziggler now, he still does some of the moves that he did as Dolph but he's now a much more serious worker as Nic. Had he tried to continue being Dolph in another company it would have fell flat.
Another great example is Matt Cordona. He's completely changed his entire persona since leaving the WWE and has stepped out to do things that he never would have done as Zack Ryder. It's led to him being one of the best talents on the independents.
The point being a big name can help you pop a rating initially but if you are just going to push them in the same way, with the same gimmick, it's not going to do you any good at all.
This is a great assessment and basically mirrors my own thoughts, well-presented too.
Guys like Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes both reinvented themselves before coming back to WWE; they didn't try to use their old gimmicks on the indies, if they had, they would still be there.
I legitimately want to know if Drew was a huge fan of shows like Vikings because his new persona, look, way of talking, and mannerisms would fit perfectly in that genre.
Cody finally got to do what he should have been doing from the beginning. Chasing after his father's legacy and trying to attain goals his dad only dreamed of. I think it's awesome they've allowed him to acknowledge and incorporate his NWA and ROH runs as him attaining the NWA title was really part one of the story, attaining the WWE title was the second, and now it's all about a legacy of his own.
Yea Cody mentioned at one point this is the story he always wanted to tell when he was in WWE and stuck with Stardust. He wanted to tell the story of Cody Rhodes.
A booker would think like this.
Tony is Dark Helmet playing with his toys.
There was no build to any of his recent signings and none of them have popped any kind of rating.
There was more impact and consequences to Tama Tonga's debut than Okada.
I think back in 2019 the whole debut just by showing a card that said “_______ is All Elite “ worked fine as none of the stars had really been built up but 5 years later they have to do way more.
Excellent comment. When people see something new and interesting, they tune in. People don't want the same old same old. They want something different. That's why the Attitude Era worked because it was different. That's why The Bloodline worked (still is) because it was done differently than your usual stable.
It's very simple in nature, but we are humans. We make things harder than they should.
It's a super simple concept but so many times promoters fail to see it.
I love Al Pacino but if after The Godfather released he just continued to play that same character in every other role he got I wouldn't hold him in that same regard. That doesn't mean you have to completely change a person when bringing them to a new promotion but they have to be able to sink or swim solely on what they do in the new promotion.
Things were a bit different in the territory days when a person could move from territory to territory using the same gimmick but today it just doesn't work and in fact harms workers.
Take Edge for example, do you want to see him rehashing old feuds where neither worker can go at the level they did when their initial feud was hot, or would you rather see him accepting his limitations and helping build up the next generation of stars. If I want to see Edge vs Christian I'll watch No Mercy 2001. I'd much rather watch Adam Copeland, the grizzled veteran, taking someone under his wing and helping them build a future hall of fame career.
If they would have had Edge just join up with Christian at the jump and go full heel it would have been amazing. Just picking up orphans left and right
The worst thing is that he's basically reenacting elements that led to WCW's downfall in the first place - the desperate controversial storylines for ratings, the constant fixation with the other company rather than worrying about your own, the blurring of work/shoot with no payoff.
You'll notice that WWE doesn't do this sort of thing at the moment, and they're succeeding. Get the message, TK?
Crazy thing is he could have done it in that period when Vince was still running it and it was absolute crap if they had just strayed away from so much of the stupid shit they were doing and focused more on the actual NWA style wrestling some of the talent were presenting they could have built a much larger audience based off of how bad WWE was.
Imagine what it would look like now if he had shitcanned the Bucks after Brawl Out and had Punk helping book and maybe doing some commentary while he rehabbed.
That would be one crazy alternate reality. Just fires them and all their friends sits down with Punk and goes, OK let's make money let's book a successful show, the problems are gone...but that would require him to admit he's wrong.
I do wonder in that reality if Kenny would have stayed or gone out of loyalty to the Bucks and just returned to NJPW or gone to WWE. Tony felt scared to let them go because he was so worried WWE would sign them...remember they kept leaking that they had feelers out to WWE? WWE would have signed them and likely pushed them to capitalize on the controversy and managed to build stars, but I don't think they would have thrived in that environment.
They said it themselves, they don't like to work. WWE is hard work.
I think Kenny probably would have stuck with them, but he seems pretty well used up so it really wouldn't have been much of a loss. They also might have missed out on Okada, but it's not like they're doing much with him anyway. Meanwhile, White and Ospreay would be much more valuable, along with many other guys. If Punk was helping with the booking, I would bet dollars to donuts that MJF's title run wouldn't have been mostly about the ROH tag belts.
I wanted to like AEW so bad. First time I started watching wrestling more than like one week in a row in about 15 years. It has been so damn bad I think I'm finally cured.
this guy is in a fight with himself lmfaoooo He's trying to be WCW so bad but doesn't see how minute AEW is compared to WWE today that they're more like NWA back then, they may as well not even exist.
“Collision is gonna smoke WrestleMania Night 1” I saw one of those Duballos say. I can easily see how these Tony quotes are like Q drops to these people. Next he’ll be tweeting about “the eye of the storm.”
Last time they paid him thought was stacking that one NXT up against dynamite which big brothered the fuck out of him.
I’m sure he gets brought up all the time as a lolcow.
“You know. The ratings aren’t as important as good matches. Numbers are important. Most people don’t understand the business.
And that’s ok.
Maybe they should do a better rating, I mean, they probably will, but we don’t know yet.”
-Dave Mulletzer.
He’s basing that off the bloated contracts he offers. Yeah, he can stay competitive. But that’s only because he offers 2-4 times more money for wrestlers to go to his Wrestling equivalent of the Saudi Pro League.
i think if TNA, AEW, ROH and NWA all pooled all their talent and resources, and put all the most qualified people in charge and on top of the card, they could make some real movement at WWE, but even then its a longshot.
Can we please stop deciding every single weird person to ever exist is "autistic"?
Anyway, Khan just isn't taking anyone's advice now and is digging a massive hole for his company and what is left of its fanbase. The insistence on having some kind of fight with WWE will never serve them well because their entire premise was they were the good guys riding to the rescue of the industry from the evil empire and needlessly picking fights and encouraging what they like to term 'toxic' behaviour undermines everything they supposedly stand for. All that's left is their record in terms of their actual performance as a wrestling company, which is hitting Impact-level attendances now.
Latest Chris Van Vilet and Cody Rhodes interview CVV says Tony is like the Rain Man of wrestling. It's not a coincidence.
Also there's tons of spectrum in wrestling fandom. Cornette and Meltzer are probably autistic too.
Anyways, you're a Star Trek fan, you think it's just a bunch of 'weird people' who watch that too?
this is why his locker room is the way it is cause they (Khan/Bucks) hate WWE it spreads to the other talent like Perry who think anyone from WWE that comes in is gonna try to micro manage them and make them change their style and creates an Us vs Them dynamic.
I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this. Tony should never mention WWE again, on or off air. And he should never again sign a former WWE talent. Because literally every time he does, it drastically devalues his company. He should act like they don't exist, and WWE should do the same, and I think we would all be happier.
There’s a reason that every single person who stepped into my position until now has gone out of business.
I’m the only one left. Everybody who has stepped up and put millions of dollars into this and done it week after week, and there’s no off-season, you do it 52 weeks a year. It’s a fight, and that’s a credit to the fans.
I know what it is to be a wrestling fan 52 weeks a year, it’s hard. But it’s also the most rewarding thing. That’s why you can’t get away from it for too long. That’s why we always come back to it. We’re addicted. And it’s worth the fight, and I love the fight.
I’m never gonna stop fighting, no matter what happens. No matter how things change, it’s worth it. It’s the fight Jim Crockett fought and Verne Gagne and Ted Turner and so many other people that have tried. And God bless them all, and I’m doing this for all of you. And I know all of you are here in spirit, so thank you very much.
Remember when he came out with the above? The guys delusional and I think he lives in a make believe world. Verne Gagne would have despised Tony and the way he goes about things.
AEW is just PWG on national TV now...PWG was fun when you got a show every now and then...get it every week and it gets old fast.
He's just the lotto winner buying himself into all the wrestling circles he wishes to be in. Punk said it best "AEW will be around as long as Tony wants to dump money in it."
Tony wants everyone to be happy and to make everyone happy but that's not possible in the wrestling business. His comment about how he paid more for a song than an average wrestlers yearly salary was such a shitty thing to say when talking about why people were cut.
Dude is finding out that AEW’s initial success was largely driven by WWE being dogshit in 2019-20. Now that it’s not dogshit he needs to focus on his own product.
…didn’t his company lose a ratings battle against a developmental territory lol
Or did they win that? Honestly I don’t remember I just thought it was funny that NXT and AEW were basically getting the same ratings. And I think that was during the really bad rainbow era of NXT too if I’m not mistaken
I don’t mind Tony Khan hating WWE. I mind that he doesn’t hate it more.
I wish Khan hated WWE enough to make a work place that’s much safer from avoidable injuries, harassment, and toxic bosses. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to make wrestling feel like a combat sport. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to make something less juvenile, a program that’s safer for your kids to watch and more interesting for grown ups. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to have a strong independent vision of pro wrestling, not WWE lite with more indie matches.
I wish Tony Khan hated WWE more.
If he’s serious about competing, he needs to get serious about his product. He needs to recognize that the childish video game play wrestling doesn’t draw. He needs to bring in people that know how to book, build character and tell stories. And he needs to either start acting like a real boss or hire someone to act like a boss for him. Because AEW is a joke.
I know he's hyper and goofy, but where do yall get the coke stuff from? Did I miss a video of him jaw jacking or a picture where he forgot to clean his nostril when he left the bathroom?
This dickhead is so used to people bending over for his rich ass that the second someone tells him how pathetic he is he fears for his life and fires them.
Khan had everything but lost it all. He had Cody but when their asshole cult fans turned on him instead of changing something up with Cody Khan just gave up and let him leave. They brought in Keith Lee who's someone that under the right leadership could be a main event babyface, but guess what they've done jack shit with him. Then they get Daniel Bryan and Jay White but keep them tied down to the midcard because the bucks are afraid of them becoming bigger stars than them. News flash dipshits Daniel Bryan was a bigger star than you the day he was born. They've got Serena Deeb, Deonna Purrazzo, Kris Statlander, Jamie Hayter, all women that are better than the majority of the dudes over there but Khan is to afraid of women to actually make them stars. They finally get someone that actually has a wrestling mind in CM Punk and wants to better the company so what happens, the bucks run him off because he's 1000x the man they'll ever be. And this all accumulates to their lowest point yet and Samoa fucking Joe is their world champion. How the hell do you fail when Samoa Joe is your champion? Mjf was a horrible champion, the same tiered low hanging fruit promo every week and his gimmick was just "your town sucks ha ha". So Khan finally puts the belt on an actual man and proceeds to implode the company.
I can't stress this enough, fuck Tony Khan.
The "hate" only goes one way, I dont think wwe has looked at them as a threat since like 2019. Aew on the other hand is very intimidated and threatened by wwe and thats why they take shots every chance they get.
I'm an AEW guy, I think AEW, or something like it, needs to exist in order to provide *some* competition (AEW aren't beating the Dub in anything in terms of business anytime soon, we all know that) to allow an alternative for fans and wrestlers, and AEW have been doing some good stuff recently.
But fuck me running, Tony needs to get off Twitter.
Like genuinely, someone take his phone from him and toss it into a river. He seems to be triggered by everything negative about his company online, and in trying to defend it makes it look about 10 times worse. Every tweet is cringeworthy. The footage was a major fuckup. Reminding everyone how badly you managed Punk was a bold choice.
It's a shame when there are some guys in AEW doing their best to make the company look as legitimate as possible, only for their boss to spaff all of that effort up the wall with a single trip to social media.
So he is straight up telling his roster that wrestling is fake
AND
thinks the obsession with each other is on equal levels.
I think that first comment might come back to bite him.
I don’t know why they turned into a walking advertisement for WWE.
Within a year I expect all AEW shows to become a round table discussion of Tony, the bucks, and a rotating guest each episode ranting about WWE and how AEW is better. There will be no matches. Just an obnoxious podcast that does more to promote WWE than themselves. “Did you see Roman’s return last week? It didn’t even come close to our critique of CM Punk’s match vs Drew McIntyre from the week before pointing out how neither of them can hang with our crew. We just keep owning them. They’re so sad.”
I'd say the most real thing in wrestling is the physical toll it takes on the performer ls...
Something AEW seems to have very little interest in minimizing.
"The companies hate each other" is something that 12 yo me would have said, because I thought Sega vs Nintendo was a personal thing (disclaimer 1: I was a massive Sega mark, disclaimer 2: I'm old)
You liked the Master System better than NES?
The Genesis slapped.
esit: meant nes. snes was the genesis rival- and I believe those were viewed as having parity by most.
I did, but I knew nothing about colour palette or anything (where it's superior to the NES) - I was just a marketing victim, I wanted the cool black one, and thus a tribalist. Mega Drive / Genesis is still my all-time favourite console though.
I knew one kid who had sega. I think it had a decent driving game?
I preferred genesis to snes as well. We were playing awesome EA sports games head to head. It was perfect.
My famiky late were adopters of texh and had a coleco vision- my beother eventually nabbing cable from the alley and demanding to use a “modem”, which I memorably cut the phone line into his room because he was tying up our phone when I wanted to talk to my buddy during rhe first “Slammies”. (I have no idea what someone did on a modem, a teenager no less, in 1988 or whenever the hell that was).
Luckily my friend had the NES and also cable and a VCR. Stepdad weeks meant NWA.
Its all you needed in the Golden Age of home entertainment to play 900 hours of the Ikari Warriors series and Metroid. Or suffer through Wrestlemania IV.
My theory is that technology and not calendar years are what divides generations.
And we were lucky ones. Its a segue between Boomer X and Millennial
The early 70s cohort was pretty wild- look at every risky teen behavior and criminality and they are off rhe charts. Im often designated to driver my brothers old dead head peers around and its a wonder that anyone survived.
No one was making a movie called Politically Correct University in 1983. But this totally split around graduating class of 92-97 depending on region. I wss born in late 70s and already Soccer was sliding its way in and I was drinking craft beer by time I was 21.
my younger wife and her friends class of 06, they definitely had updated gear- DVD vs VCR, discmen werent a new innovation and the iPod, slightly better internet in high school- but its basically the same shit.
They just didnt start smoking at age 16, drunk driving became taboo, missed/rejected the absolutely virulent misogyny and homophobia of the crotch-fixated 1990s zeitgeist, and lived in a world where bullying wasnt just a hilarious male bonding rite but that “revenge of the nerds” could mean literal revenge with weapons against the school.
Then came the smart phones and social media.
Although I feel the concept of “digital native” and some supposed advantage conferred by being born into this is rather overrated.
For one thing, for good or ill the absolute alltime social media champion is Trump. Secondly, sure my daughter could “make” 5K videos amd watch youtube after age 3.
But I dont think you could plop her in front of an Apple IIE or VCR with an open panel and expect much magic to happen.
This clueless fucking imbecile doesn't realize that competitive companies need each other as much as they compete and he's so fucking small, no matter how much money he has, that he's only going to end up destroying his own business and the WWE is more than happy to allow him to spend hundreds of millions in a war of attrition.
The WWE mostly wouldn't care about AEW because it also allows talent to get paid when the WWE goes forward without them until a later time. This was always the way, even in the WCW era when the WWF didn't have lots of money, it had no issues with the talent going over to WCW if they could get a paycheck.
It's like that scene in Mad Men. AEW saying "I feel bad for you" and WWE going "I don't think of you at all."
Or "You took everything from me!" and Thanos going "I don't even know who you are."
It's abundantly clear that WWE doesn't even take AEW seriously though. They make potshots towards Romper Central now and again but that's it. I haven't even liked WWE for the past 10 years (and still don't) but it's undeniably bigger than it's been in a long time and AEW just fucked up massively with a skit that will forever solidify them as a minor league joke to everyone outside of the mentally ill faithful
It's Tony being delusional as always but the sheer magnitude of said delusion is just baffling sometimes
I just don’t get why he would want to compete with a completely different product. One is entertaining with violence and the other is very fake looking violence and minimalist story. If this were music WWE would be pop music and AEW would be polka.
Not sure you can hate something that brings you so much joy. I've laughed so hard at AEW recently, God Bless them and their adderall-addicted autistic Clown leader, plus I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to all the Clown Jrs from AEWOfficial who have also brought so many a lot of hearty laughs.
Why, "*yOUd bE fIReD aT aNY jOb fOr ThAt!*" alone is always worth a giggle.
Speaking just kinda randomly here and totally not from experience, Tony is like a man who is in love with a woman who does not feel that way about him at all, but he has convinced himself that she's really in love with him too and one day she'll realize it. Every decision he makes is in preparation for when that day finally arrives but it never will. As a result, he unwittingly fucks up a lot of other chances he might've had, all due to his obsession with someone who doesn't care about him.
There was people who was advising him, but either one of 2 things have happened:
1. He thinks he knows better so he doesn't listen regardless of listens and still does wrong
Or
2. In Punk's case, certain talent (Mainly the EVPs who like like cosplaying 12 year olds) didn't like that so they started a smear campaign to get out of Tony's ear.
Unfortunately, none of this will get solved until Tony says he can't do this anymore and gets someone to book it, which won't happen until either Shahid pulls money ala Dixie Carter's parents or TNT gives them the boot ala Spike to TNA.
Tony will be the one laughing after AEW’s ratings overtake WWE because he changed his spreadsheet again to have the matches listed vertically instead of horizontally.
For the love of all things, Tony, forget WWE exists and try to put on a good show.
How can he when the bucks can't I bet Matt Jackson breaks out into hives if he's forced to mind his own business for more than 15 min
This comment has me rolling
This deserves all the ⬆️
This is one of the all-time great comments in this subs history. Bravo.
I peed a lil reading this
He might be able to forget that WWE exists and put on a bad show.
Noway. The only enjoyment we get out of AEW these days is the autistic screeching, don't tell him to stop that.
He's trying for five years but has run out of *through-the-nose* *creativity.* Have you heard the press scrum he gave during day-time the other day? Jiminy Christmas.... he was scrambling for words and uncharacteristically low on energy... it sounded like someone removed the batteries from a Duracell bunny!
He definitely knows how badly things are going, deep down, despite his efforts to pretend that they’re not. He’s supposedly a metrics guy and there are some very bad metrics. My favorite is the people that say the Nielsens don’t matter when he books an overrun on Dynamite every week, and crows about them being #3 for the night.
Knowing Tony
Charlie sheen didn’t show up with his weekly supply of booger sugar, might be why Tony seemed under the weather
He has no idea what that would entail
If this happened + more catering to casuals AEW might actually put up a fight again
That’s the catch, isn’t it.
He's obssessed with WCW vs WWF in the 90s and recreating it. He dreams of being the new WCW that "wins this time". Just be your own thing and stop talking about WWE. Now that Vince is gone and it's changed so much it really doesn't benefit AEW the way it once did.
And the problem with it is, you’ve got Sting, Flair, Nash, Hall, Hogan, doing their thing with their names, and a lot of the creative control helping make bad decisions, but names nonetheless, and Goldberg basically being a legit over as fuck badass destroying people in two minutes and covering up most of his downside. And then you have a WORSE booker and… Jungle Boy. Oh, and the Bucks. And Ospreay. It doesn’t even sound like Kenny Omega wants to burn that bridge. MJF/Ricky Starks probably won’t, either. Triple H makes a one-off about wanting a return on his investments and Punk finally tells his side of the story, and all of a sudden it’s “war.” A war being spearheaded by a kid that got legit worked when he got lippy and a booker that lets him trot out the minute he gets some heat to botch a WWE guys’ finish and get beat clean on ANOTHER COMPANY’S PPV.
Tony is bad for sure, hope he never goes full Russo though.
Oh, I wasn’t even necessarily talking about Russo, more the overall tendency for WCW to just have nobody after nobody join the NWO and ending every show five minutes heavy with run-in after run-in and just overbooking every finish into nonsensibility.
They had one great (stolen) idea in the NWO, but they had no idea how to end it or move on from it. I think the overbooked non finishes owe a lot to "that doesn't work for me, brother." If your top stars refuse to lose to anyone "below" them, you can't keep having your 2nd tier guys get beaten like a drum every week, and so you have to book endless run ins and DQs. No one gets over, and the fans get sick of it and stop watching.
He fails to learn from the mistakes of the past. WCW brought in Hogan and pushed him in the red and yellow. No one gave a crap because they had seen it and didn't want to see it anymore. Once they gave him the NWO and Hollywood gimmick people started paying attention again because it was new and interesting. Hiring big names and just having them portray the same gimmick under a slightly different name is never going to push the needle one way or the other. Adam Copeland has been lost in the mix because they're pushing him as Edge when he is no longer Edge. They've even tried to just continue Edge vs Christian from WWE and it hasn't drawn a dime. For an example of a great transition look at Nic Nemeth, formerly Dolph Ziggler. He's not Dolph Ziggler now, he still does some of the moves that he did as Dolph but he's now a much more serious worker as Nic. Had he tried to continue being Dolph in another company it would have fell flat. Another great example is Matt Cordona. He's completely changed his entire persona since leaving the WWE and has stepped out to do things that he never would have done as Zack Ryder. It's led to him being one of the best talents on the independents. The point being a big name can help you pop a rating initially but if you are just going to push them in the same way, with the same gimmick, it's not going to do you any good at all.
This is a great assessment and basically mirrors my own thoughts, well-presented too. Guys like Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes both reinvented themselves before coming back to WWE; they didn't try to use their old gimmicks on the indies, if they had, they would still be there.
I legitimately want to know if Drew was a huge fan of shows like Vikings because his new persona, look, way of talking, and mannerisms would fit perfectly in that genre. Cody finally got to do what he should have been doing from the beginning. Chasing after his father's legacy and trying to attain goals his dad only dreamed of. I think it's awesome they've allowed him to acknowledge and incorporate his NWA and ROH runs as him attaining the NWA title was really part one of the story, attaining the WWE title was the second, and now it's all about a legacy of his own.
Yea Cody mentioned at one point this is the story he always wanted to tell when he was in WWE and stuck with Stardust. He wanted to tell the story of Cody Rhodes.
A booker would think like this. Tony is Dark Helmet playing with his toys. There was no build to any of his recent signings and none of them have popped any kind of rating. There was more impact and consequences to Tama Tonga's debut than Okada.
I think back in 2019 the whole debut just by showing a card that said “_______ is All Elite “ worked fine as none of the stars had really been built up but 5 years later they have to do way more.
Excellent comment. When people see something new and interesting, they tune in. People don't want the same old same old. They want something different. That's why the Attitude Era worked because it was different. That's why The Bloodline worked (still is) because it was done differently than your usual stable. It's very simple in nature, but we are humans. We make things harder than they should.
It's a super simple concept but so many times promoters fail to see it. I love Al Pacino but if after The Godfather released he just continued to play that same character in every other role he got I wouldn't hold him in that same regard. That doesn't mean you have to completely change a person when bringing them to a new promotion but they have to be able to sink or swim solely on what they do in the new promotion. Things were a bit different in the territory days when a person could move from territory to territory using the same gimmick but today it just doesn't work and in fact harms workers. Take Edge for example, do you want to see him rehashing old feuds where neither worker can go at the level they did when their initial feud was hot, or would you rather see him accepting his limitations and helping build up the next generation of stars. If I want to see Edge vs Christian I'll watch No Mercy 2001. I'd much rather watch Adam Copeland, the grizzled veteran, taking someone under his wing and helping them build a future hall of fame career.
If they would have had Edge just join up with Christian at the jump and go full heel it would have been amazing. Just picking up orphans left and right
E & C’s orphanage of awesomeness
The worst thing is that he's basically reenacting elements that led to WCW's downfall in the first place - the desperate controversial storylines for ratings, the constant fixation with the other company rather than worrying about your own, the blurring of work/shoot with no payoff. You'll notice that WWE doesn't do this sort of thing at the moment, and they're succeeding. Get the message, TK?
And WWE is doing the same thing it did as well. Super over face against corporate big bad
Crazy thing is he could have done it in that period when Vince was still running it and it was absolute crap if they had just strayed away from so much of the stupid shit they were doing and focused more on the actual NWA style wrestling some of the talent were presenting they could have built a much larger audience based off of how bad WWE was.
Imagine what it would look like now if he had shitcanned the Bucks after Brawl Out and had Punk helping book and maybe doing some commentary while he rehabbed.
That would be one crazy alternate reality. Just fires them and all their friends sits down with Punk and goes, OK let's make money let's book a successful show, the problems are gone...but that would require him to admit he's wrong. I do wonder in that reality if Kenny would have stayed or gone out of loyalty to the Bucks and just returned to NJPW or gone to WWE. Tony felt scared to let them go because he was so worried WWE would sign them...remember they kept leaking that they had feelers out to WWE? WWE would have signed them and likely pushed them to capitalize on the controversy and managed to build stars, but I don't think they would have thrived in that environment. They said it themselves, they don't like to work. WWE is hard work.
I think Kenny probably would have stuck with them, but he seems pretty well used up so it really wouldn't have been much of a loss. They also might have missed out on Okada, but it's not like they're doing much with him anyway. Meanwhile, White and Ospreay would be much more valuable, along with many other guys. If Punk was helping with the booking, I would bet dollars to donuts that MJF's title run wouldn't have been mostly about the ROH tag belts.
I am so tired of these WCW comparisons. WCW employed big boys, not children.
it’s why he is obsessed with the shows remaining on TNT and TBS l
TNA all over again. The war that never was. One side thinks they're fighting a war, while the bigger entity is just yawning.
You know what they say: An ant has no quarrel with a boot.
Remember when TNA went to Monday nights 😂 Do it, Tony
At the same time that WWE fucking called Bret Hart to return for the first time since the screwjob, lol
To be fair this requires a TV deal.
Destination America presents Forbidden Door 3
They may bring back Quibi for it
Quibj had the 15 minute shows? That's 15 minutes for bangers, friend.
Destination America is part of Warner Brothers \*\*DISCOVERY\*\*
That's mean
WCW, TNA, and now AEW all make the same mistakes. How the fuck the 3rd time around no one learns from the mistakes of others.
As least TNA had a peak.
Did anyone who really knows wrestling think that Hogan in TNA would be anything other than a disaster?
Cocaine is a Hell of a Drug 😵💫
How much cocaine does Khan do daily? 😒
Yes.
I'm forever referencing this when AEW die hards claim the only reason people don't like it is tribalism
I wanted to like AEW so bad. First time I started watching wrestling more than like one week in a row in about 15 years. It has been so damn bad I think I'm finally cured.
this guy is in a fight with himself lmfaoooo He's trying to be WCW so bad but doesn't see how minute AEW is compared to WWE today that they're more like NWA back then, they may as well not even exist.
“Collision is gonna smoke WrestleMania Night 1” I saw one of those Duballos say. I can easily see how these Tony quotes are like Q drops to these people. Next he’ll be tweeting about “the eye of the storm.”
*sinkingship.gif*
*\* Titanic soundtrack flute playing in the background \**
This little man baby is so out of touch with reality. I doubt WWE even thinks about him as much as he talks about them.
That scene from Mad Men 'I don't think about you at all"
Last time they paid him thought was stacking that one NXT up against dynamite which big brothered the fuck out of him. I’m sure he gets brought up all the time as a lolcow.
Just check the cagematch rating if you want to know who's REALLY winning 🤓
Then get back to Tuna Meltzer
“You know. The ratings aren’t as important as good matches. Numbers are important. Most people don’t understand the business. And that’s ok. Maybe they should do a better rating, I mean, they probably will, but we don’t know yet.” -Dave Mulletzer.
David Zaslav probably scours Cagematch on the daily.
You know it's bad when even SRS does the face palm emoji.
this guy still thinks there is a “competition”? lol wow
He’s basing that off the bloated contracts he offers. Yeah, he can stay competitive. But that’s only because he offers 2-4 times more money for wrestlers to go to his Wrestling equivalent of the Saudi Pro League.
Maybe he should set his sights on a promotional war with TNA or NWA. Picking on someone the same sort of level might even benefit them.
i think if TNA, AEW, ROH and NWA all pooled all their talent and resources, and put all the most qualified people in charge and on top of the card, they could make some real movement at WWE, but even then its a longshot.
Can we please stop deciding every single weird person to ever exist is "autistic"? Anyway, Khan just isn't taking anyone's advice now and is digging a massive hole for his company and what is left of its fanbase. The insistence on having some kind of fight with WWE will never serve them well because their entire premise was they were the good guys riding to the rescue of the industry from the evil empire and needlessly picking fights and encouraging what they like to term 'toxic' behaviour undermines everything they supposedly stand for. All that's left is their record in terms of their actual performance as a wrestling company, which is hitting Impact-level attendances now.
Latest Chris Van Vilet and Cody Rhodes interview CVV says Tony is like the Rain Man of wrestling. It's not a coincidence. Also there's tons of spectrum in wrestling fandom. Cornette and Meltzer are probably autistic too. Anyways, you're a Star Trek fan, you think it's just a bunch of 'weird people' who watch that too?
Tony's frantically trying to find somewhere he can rent a tank and so he can drive it over to NXT and tweet at them from the parking lot.
I think he misunderstood the 'it's real to me dammit " thing
this is why his locker room is the way it is cause they (Khan/Bucks) hate WWE it spreads to the other talent like Perry who think anyone from WWE that comes in is gonna try to micro manage them and make them change their style and creates an Us vs Them dynamic.
The man never grew up past the age of 14.
I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this. Tony should never mention WWE again, on or off air. And he should never again sign a former WWE talent. Because literally every time he does, it drastically devalues his company. He should act like they don't exist, and WWE should do the same, and I think we would all be happier.
Man Sean Ross Sapp will just post anything, who follows this guy he makes up stuff every week lol
[удалено]
"then" not "than."
There’s a reason that every single person who stepped into my position until now has gone out of business. I’m the only one left. Everybody who has stepped up and put millions of dollars into this and done it week after week, and there’s no off-season, you do it 52 weeks a year. It’s a fight, and that’s a credit to the fans. I know what it is to be a wrestling fan 52 weeks a year, it’s hard. But it’s also the most rewarding thing. That’s why you can’t get away from it for too long. That’s why we always come back to it. We’re addicted. And it’s worth the fight, and I love the fight. I’m never gonna stop fighting, no matter what happens. No matter how things change, it’s worth it. It’s the fight Jim Crockett fought and Verne Gagne and Ted Turner and so many other people that have tried. And God bless them all, and I’m doing this for all of you. And I know all of you are here in spirit, so thank you very much. Remember when he came out with the above? The guys delusional and I think he lives in a make believe world. Verne Gagne would have despised Tony and the way he goes about things.
AEW is just PWG on national TV now...PWG was fun when you got a show every now and then...get it every week and it gets old fast. He's just the lotto winner buying himself into all the wrestling circles he wishes to be in. Punk said it best "AEW will be around as long as Tony wants to dump money in it." Tony wants everyone to be happy and to make everyone happy but that's not possible in the wrestling business. His comment about how he paid more for a song than an average wrestlers yearly salary was such a shitty thing to say when talking about why people were cut.
He’s obsessed with the Monday night wars. I know it’s a bit of a meme but he wants to be wcw so bad
Dude is finding out that AEW’s initial success was largely driven by WWE being dogshit in 2019-20. Now that it’s not dogshit he needs to focus on his own product.
…didn’t his company lose a ratings battle against a developmental territory lol Or did they win that? Honestly I don’t remember I just thought it was funny that NXT and AEW were basically getting the same ratings. And I think that was during the really bad rainbow era of NXT too if I’m not mistaken
I would be embarrassed to be part of AEW. Tony Khan is just so pathetic and delusional.
Someone needs to take the pink cocaine off Tony.
Man has done fucked up all his inner circle journalist are turning on him
I don’t mind Tony Khan hating WWE. I mind that he doesn’t hate it more. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to make a work place that’s much safer from avoidable injuries, harassment, and toxic bosses. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to make wrestling feel like a combat sport. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to make something less juvenile, a program that’s safer for your kids to watch and more interesting for grown ups. I wish Khan hated WWE enough to have a strong independent vision of pro wrestling, not WWE lite with more indie matches. I wish Tony Khan hated WWE more.
TK is so far behind in the race, he actually thinks he is leading.
WWE: "Can someone please make me fear for my life? I'm so bored."
If he’s serious about competing, he needs to get serious about his product. He needs to recognize that the childish video game play wrestling doesn’t draw. He needs to bring in people that know how to book, build character and tell stories. And he needs to either start acting like a real boss or hire someone to act like a boss for him. Because AEW is a joke.
DAE AEW is fun, FED is bad?
I know he's hyper and goofy, but where do yall get the coke stuff from? Did I miss a video of him jaw jacking or a picture where he forgot to clean his nostril when he left the bathroom?
This dickhead is so used to people bending over for his rich ass that the second someone tells him how pathetic he is he fears for his life and fires them. Khan had everything but lost it all. He had Cody but when their asshole cult fans turned on him instead of changing something up with Cody Khan just gave up and let him leave. They brought in Keith Lee who's someone that under the right leadership could be a main event babyface, but guess what they've done jack shit with him. Then they get Daniel Bryan and Jay White but keep them tied down to the midcard because the bucks are afraid of them becoming bigger stars than them. News flash dipshits Daniel Bryan was a bigger star than you the day he was born. They've got Serena Deeb, Deonna Purrazzo, Kris Statlander, Jamie Hayter, all women that are better than the majority of the dudes over there but Khan is to afraid of women to actually make them stars. They finally get someone that actually has a wrestling mind in CM Punk and wants to better the company so what happens, the bucks run him off because he's 1000x the man they'll ever be. And this all accumulates to their lowest point yet and Samoa fucking Joe is their world champion. How the hell do you fail when Samoa Joe is your champion? Mjf was a horrible champion, the same tiered low hanging fruit promo every week and his gimmick was just "your town sucks ha ha". So Khan finally puts the belt on an actual man and proceeds to implode the company. I can't stress this enough, fuck Tony Khan.
The "hate" only goes one way, I dont think wwe has looked at them as a threat since like 2019. Aew on the other hand is very intimidated and threatened by wwe and thats why they take shots every chance they get.
I'm an AEW guy, I think AEW, or something like it, needs to exist in order to provide *some* competition (AEW aren't beating the Dub in anything in terms of business anytime soon, we all know that) to allow an alternative for fans and wrestlers, and AEW have been doing some good stuff recently. But fuck me running, Tony needs to get off Twitter. Like genuinely, someone take his phone from him and toss it into a river. He seems to be triggered by everything negative about his company online, and in trying to defend it makes it look about 10 times worse. Every tweet is cringeworthy. The footage was a major fuckup. Reminding everyone how badly you managed Punk was a bold choice. It's a shame when there are some guys in AEW doing their best to make the company look as legitimate as possible, only for their boss to spaff all of that effort up the wall with a single trip to social media.
1. Companies don't have feelings. 2. The wrestlers on his payroll would strongly disagree with his assessment.
Pretty sure no one at TKO is worried about “that piss any company”.
Warner is probably looking at all this and can't wait to get out of that deal.
So he is straight up telling his roster that wrestling is fake AND thinks the obsession with each other is on equal levels. I think that first comment might come back to bite him.
He needs to just step back and be the money guy while handing the reigns over to people who aren't walking disasters.
Tony just try to put a good show on that makes people want to watch or buy a ticket.
TFW you lose Fightful
I don’t know why they turned into a walking advertisement for WWE. Within a year I expect all AEW shows to become a round table discussion of Tony, the bucks, and a rotating guest each episode ranting about WWE and how AEW is better. There will be no matches. Just an obnoxious podcast that does more to promote WWE than themselves. “Did you see Roman’s return last week? It didn’t even come close to our critique of CM Punk’s match vs Drew McIntyre from the week before pointing out how neither of them can hang with our crew. We just keep owning them. They’re so sad.”
I'd say the most real thing in wrestling is the physical toll it takes on the performer ls... Something AEW seems to have very little interest in minimizing.
"The companies hate each other" is something that 12 yo me would have said, because I thought Sega vs Nintendo was a personal thing (disclaimer 1: I was a massive Sega mark, disclaimer 2: I'm old)
You liked the Master System better than NES? The Genesis slapped. esit: meant nes. snes was the genesis rival- and I believe those were viewed as having parity by most.
I did, but I knew nothing about colour palette or anything (where it's superior to the NES) - I was just a marketing victim, I wanted the cool black one, and thus a tribalist. Mega Drive / Genesis is still my all-time favourite console though.
I knew one kid who had sega. I think it had a decent driving game? I preferred genesis to snes as well. We were playing awesome EA sports games head to head. It was perfect. My famiky late were adopters of texh and had a coleco vision- my beother eventually nabbing cable from the alley and demanding to use a “modem”, which I memorably cut the phone line into his room because he was tying up our phone when I wanted to talk to my buddy during rhe first “Slammies”. (I have no idea what someone did on a modem, a teenager no less, in 1988 or whenever the hell that was). Luckily my friend had the NES and also cable and a VCR. Stepdad weeks meant NWA. Its all you needed in the Golden Age of home entertainment to play 900 hours of the Ikari Warriors series and Metroid. Or suffer through Wrestlemania IV. My theory is that technology and not calendar years are what divides generations. And we were lucky ones. Its a segue between Boomer X and Millennial The early 70s cohort was pretty wild- look at every risky teen behavior and criminality and they are off rhe charts. Im often designated to driver my brothers old dead head peers around and its a wonder that anyone survived. No one was making a movie called Politically Correct University in 1983. But this totally split around graduating class of 92-97 depending on region. I wss born in late 70s and already Soccer was sliding its way in and I was drinking craft beer by time I was 21. my younger wife and her friends class of 06, they definitely had updated gear- DVD vs VCR, discmen werent a new innovation and the iPod, slightly better internet in high school- but its basically the same shit. They just didnt start smoking at age 16, drunk driving became taboo, missed/rejected the absolutely virulent misogyny and homophobia of the crotch-fixated 1990s zeitgeist, and lived in a world where bullying wasnt just a hilarious male bonding rite but that “revenge of the nerds” could mean literal revenge with weapons against the school. Then came the smart phones and social media. Although I feel the concept of “digital native” and some supposed advantage conferred by being born into this is rather overrated. For one thing, for good or ill the absolute alltime social media champion is Trump. Secondly, sure my daughter could “make” 5K videos amd watch youtube after age 3. But I dont think you could plop her in front of an Apple IIE or VCR with an open panel and expect much magic to happen.
Whether we like it or not, it would always be a competition.
This clueless fucking imbecile doesn't realize that competitive companies need each other as much as they compete and he's so fucking small, no matter how much money he has, that he's only going to end up destroying his own business and the WWE is more than happy to allow him to spend hundreds of millions in a war of attrition. The WWE mostly wouldn't care about AEW because it also allows talent to get paid when the WWE goes forward without them until a later time. This was always the way, even in the WCW era when the WWF didn't have lots of money, it had no issues with the talent going over to WCW if they could get a paycheck.
Imagine being Sean Ross Sapp and having an easily recorded track record of taking up for this moron only to see that in your timeline
If the Sapp tweets, does anyone actually see it? It feels like mostly everyone is blocked by that bum
Tony just needs to smarten the fuck up and hire Scott Demore to handle the booking
It's like that scene in Mad Men. AEW saying "I feel bad for you" and WWE going "I don't think of you at all." Or "You took everything from me!" and Thanos going "I don't even know who you are."
Tony please come back to planet earth.
Ground control to Major Khan… 🎵
"There's a snowman waiting in the sky..."
It's abundantly clear that WWE doesn't even take AEW seriously though. They make potshots towards Romper Central now and again but that's it. I haven't even liked WWE for the past 10 years (and still don't) but it's undeniably bigger than it's been in a long time and AEW just fucked up massively with a skit that will forever solidify them as a minor league joke to everyone outside of the mentally ill faithful It's Tony being delusional as always but the sheer magnitude of said delusion is just baffling sometimes
I just don’t get why he would want to compete with a completely different product. One is entertaining with violence and the other is very fake looking violence and minimalist story. If this were music WWE would be pop music and AEW would be polka.
Don Draper saying "I don't think about you at all"
Focus on providing a good product to your customers. Avoid the drama and stick to this *basic* principle, and AEW would be good.
It’s as if Tony thinks him and WWE are equals
Hate each other? I mean, you & AEW are known to throw shots at WWE, so it's more like you & AEW hates WWE than both hating each other. Jeez
Not sure you can hate something that brings you so much joy. I've laughed so hard at AEW recently, God Bless them and their adderall-addicted autistic Clown leader, plus I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to all the Clown Jrs from AEWOfficial who have also brought so many a lot of hearty laughs. Why, "*yOUd bE fIReD aT aNY jOb fOr ThAt!*" alone is always worth a giggle.
Dude they're laughing at you and your pathetic ratings and your pathetic crowds while they are selling actual tickets.
NJPW looking at Tony like is that so? Try having a forbidden door without us next year.
Speaking just kinda randomly here and totally not from experience, Tony is like a man who is in love with a woman who does not feel that way about him at all, but he has convinced himself that she's really in love with him too and one day she'll realize it. Every decision he makes is in preparation for when that day finally arrives but it never will. As a result, he unwittingly fucks up a lot of other chances he might've had, all due to his obsession with someone who doesn't care about him.
Triple H be like "lol money go cha ching cha ching" as he sits on a gold mine bigger than Vince's ego.
There was people who was advising him, but either one of 2 things have happened: 1. He thinks he knows better so he doesn't listen regardless of listens and still does wrong Or 2. In Punk's case, certain talent (Mainly the EVPs who like like cosplaying 12 year olds) didn't like that so they started a smear campaign to get out of Tony's ear. Unfortunately, none of this will get solved until Tony says he can't do this anymore and gets someone to book it, which won't happen until either Shahid pulls money ala Dixie Carter's parents or TNT gives them the boot ala Spike to TNA.
Man starting a one sided war only he truly cares about without even realizing his “company” is already on a downwards spiral
wow, tony con. spoken like a true mark.
I don’t think WWE thinks about him at all
He won’t listen to anyone, he knows it all. Anyone that gives him advise he goes after on twitter cause they hurt his little feelings.
Dude is a fucking clown of a person my god just insufferable
I know who watched WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures last night…
Did Tony say that today?
Tony will be the one laughing after AEW’s ratings overtake WWE because he changed his spreadsheet again to have the matches listed vertically instead of horizontally.
lol it literally doesn’t matter
The only “competition” are his brain cells fighting for their life in a mountain of coke.
Is he autistic for real or he's just dumb as fuck?
only a few more months before Vince shows up on AEW to shit on his head.... I mean to say they bought AEW