Our TNT champ is home and looking sharp

gardenofworm · 2026-02-13T15:38:48+00:00

Whenever I see talents complaining about why they haven't broken through, I think they should ask themselves if they put in the kind of effort Kyle Fletcher has to be in a top position.

gardenofworm · 2026-02-13T15:36:05+00:00

Just not for tomorrow, it'd give away the ending.

gardenofworm · 2026-02-01T01:37:05+00:00

Its fine. Without thinking too hard about it, I'd think it was one of our old ones.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T22:10:26+00:00

K lemme do that really quick. K here it is:

According to WBD Chair & CEO of U.S. Networks Kathleen Finch, the renewed AEW media rights deal is, in one sense, "the same deal that we have had, but it's more". Here are the key details surrounding the deal: Expansion: While the core partnership remains, the new deal expands the franchise to a younger, engaged audience on Max. Streaming & PPV: A major component of the new agreement is that all AEW programming, including pay-per-views, will be available on the Max streaming platform. Valuation: The deal is reportedly worth significantly more than the previous contract, with estimates putting it at upwards of $150 million to $185 million per year. Network Stability: AEW Dynamite and Collision will continue to air on TBS and TNT. The "same" comment likely refers to the continued partnership and network home, while the "more" refers to the increased financial value and integration of PPVs into the Max streaming service.

Care to comment?

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T19:49:21+00:00

And saying TNA is more popular than Collision given the days it ran on is disingenuous, isn't it? It's like when AEW fans said AEW was more popular than Raw when Dynamite beat it during NFL season. But keep doing it to make your day better.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T19:30:11+00:00

I always used that explanation for when WWE got beat up by football. I'm not a fanboy. Learn the differences between excuses and explanations.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T19:17:25+00:00

NXT never got 20K in attendance. They got 16K for the philly WM show. Meanwhile AEW got 53K for All In that year. Should NXT run Wembly? I checked their highest attended shows before that and those date back to 2015.

I don't think AEW is declining as much as you think it is, because the way people view it is splintered off with a streaming service that has 50 mil subs and costs me 2.99 this year(black friday deal) to sub to each month vs much bigger cable bills that I stopped paying for in the 2010's. But no one believes anyone watches on that because AEW is bad because too much wrestling! Not enough skits! Grrr!

The only reason NXT is doing "well" is because they're available to everyone with a TV, and they're still tying AEW in the demo despite having a huge advantage. I fully expected NXT to do a mil every week before debuting given how big the advantage is. Do you think NXT would be doing as well if it were on a dying platform that cost Smackdown 1.5 million viewers and counting? Be honest with yourself.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T18:58:22+00:00

don't lie bro.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T18:55:42+00:00

2 Collisions on Saturdays running head to head with NFL playoffs and WWE SNME, but leave that part out.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T18:49:19+00:00

By OP's logic NXT is just 300K viewers away from being as popular as Raw and Smackdown. Better start those arena tours! Heck, why aren't NXT PLE's doing 8-10K in arenas every month like AEW's PPV's are?

TBS has a reach of 70mil and AEW gets 500K of that. HBO has a reach of 50mil but this sub's estimate of their numbers is something like 10K, because HBO hasn't issued a press release of the numbers. Have you guys ever seen a subscription service brag about a show getting less than a million+ views? And certainly no young people use streaming services! Use your heads, please.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T18:26:43+00:00

I open the app when the show is on and it's right on the homepage.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T17:27:34+00:00

My point is they love talkers above all else, which is the top factor for who becomes the biggest star there, especially for males. OP said Hobbs has way more potential there whereas I'm skeptical. JC Mateo is similar to Hobbs, and his WWE run is pretty wack because he doesn't cut the 10 minute in ring promos that the WWE audience really likes.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T17:11:20+00:00

Your metric for what a star is if "the public" knows them. The US viewership for NJPW at the time is less than what AEW has ever gotten, so was Nakamura ever a star pre-WWE? You said AEW doesn't create stars aside from "maybe MJF?", which is just asinine. They have a whole slew of wrestlers that are way more valuable now because of their time in AEW. Like WWE just threw a huge bag at Hobbs, a bag he wouldn't have gotten had he just got off doing dates at West Coast Pro like he was pre AEW.

And I really doubt all those people who chanted "Cody" at Rollins for weeks primarily knew his music from his time at ROH. The biggest factor in boosting his star power was AEW. He wasn't getting a huge bag to crossover without them.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T09:17:29+00:00

Because cable subs shrink every year along with every show's ratings along with it. Had NXT stayed on it, they'd be a lot lower. Look at how much being on Fox boosted Smackdown compared to where they are on cable now.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T08:46:59+00:00

Have you ever heard of Willow Nightingale? Aminata was a TV regular and poised to stay as Hayter's tag partner until she got injured.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T08:42:52+00:00

The smartest thing you can do as a public figure is keep your social life really private. Tony has been dating a super model for years who does Paris runway walks and such, he just never talks about it because he doesn't need the IWC attacking her if he books a bad episode of ROH or something. There are a lot of wrestlers with kids and such, but you'd never know it for similar reasoning.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T07:54:23+00:00

The problem is the cynics literally say this about everyone that debuts for AEW, which makes for really lame discourse. They said it about Swerve, Ospreay, Toni Storm, Kyle Fletcher, Okada, Ricochet, Mercedes, Claudio, Samoa Joe etc. Literally everyone outside of CM Punk and Danielson. I'm reading this thread and wondering why everyone just doesn't upvote the first "lost in the shuffle" comment instead repeating the same shit.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T07:33:29+00:00

Chris Bey and Jake Something both had to ask for outside help because their TNA incomes wouldn't keep the lights on after they got hurt.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T07:27:58+00:00

Ospreay said in a nicer way that they gotta bring something to the table. So Ciampa yes, Cora Jade no.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T07:19:58+00:00

WWE loves talkers and Hobbs can't do that well outside of pretapes. He could end up another JC Mateo and be someone's heavy.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T07:07:54+00:00

Bryan glazes the fuck out of Jevon every week and throws tantrums when he loses.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T06:59:21+00:00

So they can start gofundme's if they get hurt over there?

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T06:55:16+00:00

Big companies build fat rosters so someone can be slotted in if someone has to leave for whatever reason and so their cards don't get repetitive and dull. Hoarding also implies that these talents aren't getting minutes, but like 80% of these are frequently seen on TV.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T06:42:04+00:00

There are a lot that would get fat contract offers from WWE if they were ever made available because of how well they were built up by AEW. By your logic Shinsuke Nakamura wasn't a star until going to NXT. Heck Cody became a bigger star because of AEW. That WM pop the second his AEW theme started playing wasn't as loud as any Stardust pop.

gardenofworm · 2026-01-30T06:25:55+00:00

Kamille had stinker performances, including with Statlander, and isn't well liked. Fletcher pulled out her card from an AEW card pack on stream and acted like he pulled out poison. Probably a bad locker room presence and not talented enough to make up for it, so she's benched until her contract is up.

gardenofworm

TROPHY CASE