All Elite Wrestling Thread (It's Wednesday...you know what that means.)

[Big Boss Man]

They made it sound like they had a great deal with ITV after Double Or Nothing.

Yea they did. I wonder if it was performance motivation and All Out didn't match the expectations of DON and ITV backed out a bit on their deal somewhat. Maybe they are getting a good cut of the PPV buys and were referring to that.

[Bandit]

So a sleeper hold is edited?

WWE used to have a show called Mania on Saturday at 9am where they showed an edited Raw for kids, but they didn't edit any of the wrestling, just the language. And in the US Superstars came on immediately after Saturday cartoons. Also WCW Pro was on at 9:05 am.

[Big Boss Man]

Anything involving choking/strangulation is banned/edited, I believe UK broadcasters are very strict on that. In the past I believe something like the mandible claw was edited out during the morning showings. When Daniel choked out Justin Roberts with his tie on a late night Raw repeat back in the day was cut too. It only aired on the live show where I guess they couldn't remove it in time.

[Bandit]

The main thing I remember Saturday morning WWF editing out was most of Goldust after he started the gay crush angle with Razor Ramon. Although they showed it on Superstars which was on only an hour later.

The US is more lenient about violence than the UK, but looks down on sexual content far more. Although that is changing.

[Big Boss Man]

[Big Boss Man]

The main thing I remember Saturday morning WWF editing out was most of Goldust after he started the gay crush angle with Razor Ramon. Although they showed it on Superstars which was on only an hour later.

The US is more lenient about violence than the UK, but looks down on sexual content far more. Although that is changing.

OK thanks. With regards to content here if it's after 9pm then it's usually covered but going back to when the BBFC rated horror etc movies certain things had to be taken out, which is why pre-very/pre-classification horror movies on VHS are collectible. I think if they had to air it after 9pm or 10pm but when the Wrestling Channel had TNA they had to move the Sabu/Abyss barbedwire match to comply with OFCOM.

Back to AEW, I don't know if ITV can put up a disclaimer and add the complete show without any edits or due to the time slot they still have to edit it. I think a late night replay wouldn't be so bad but putting the live show behind a paywall when it was insinuated we'd get the live show free is real disappointing. Also for 4.99 per month = 8 hours (or more like 6 taking into account ads) vs 9.99 per month for thousands of hours including WCW, ECW, World Class, AWA etc then I can't see many international fans going for AEW when for an extra 5 they can get so much more.

[Big Boss Man]

Cool gesture if they do help them out

[Big Boss Man]

Update from TK



So the Sun/Mon shows are additional broadcasts apparently. It won't be live but a day or two delay unedited version I'll be OK with.

[Big Boss Man]

Good that he's trying to work this out

[Big Boss Man]

[Big Boss Man]

TK seems a good dude so this guy acting a douche towards him isn't cool. Not his or Cody, Nick, Matt and Kenny's fault. Hopefully they'll announce a better timeslot asap, if not for the first episode maybe the second and put a repeat of the first show after that.

[Bandit]

Cooling tries to be the Meltzer of the UK wrestling community. He's been on WOR a few times and seemed okay. But he's definitely being weird here towards Tony. I don't think saying "it's a fucking lie" to anyone is very journalistic at all. Was Khan trying to spin something out of Cody announcing what they thought was the deal too early? Maybe. But I think his point about the ad breaks was they want to make money from advertisers and not just run generic adverts from the network. It's worth it to WWE to get a deal with just Sky or whatever network they're on now ads because they make money touring in the UK a few times a year. But it doesn't sound like AEW will be anywhere outside of North America for a while. So it seems that he wants to make some kind of money, be it for a worse timeslot that runs real advertising or subscribers. But a lot of this doesn't make sense to me because I don't understand the television industry in the UK so I really don't know.

[Bandit]

[Big Boss Man]

Cooling tries to be the Meltzer of the UK wrestling community. He's been on WOR a few times and seemed okay. But he's definitely being weird here towards Tony. I don't think saying "it's a fucking lie" to anyone is very journalistic at all. Was Khan trying to spin something out of Cody announcing what they thought was the deal too early? Maybe. But I think his point about the ad breaks was they want to make money from advertisers and not just run generic adverts from the network. It's worth it to WWE to get a deal with just Sky or whatever network they're on now ads because they make money touring in the UK a few times a year. But it doesn't sound like AEW will be anywhere outside of North America for a while. So it seems that he wants to make some kind of money, be it for a worse timeslot that runs real advertising or subscribers. But a lot of this doesn't make sense to me because I don't understand the television industry in the UK so I really don't know.

Yea it's just disrespectful how he acted towards TK. If it wasn't for Tony and Shadid they'd be no All Elite Wrestling. They have spent who knows how many millions on AEW and given fans a viable alternative again. I get being pissed off about the early morning showing but Tony said he's still working on it. If ITV told him they can't broadcast live then it's not his fault. Saying he's a liar is silly because he never said they'd show Dynamite live here in the first place, it was just assumed. You'd think for a "journalist" he'd conduct himself better and went a different route with his approach towards finding out what's going on. If Tony can get a Thursday night broadcast that would be good. At least he's trying to fix it and that guy being rude towards him is counterproductive.

[Bandit]

He re-tweeted some guy who said "British AEW fans have been abused like dogs." So it seems like he's just angry he can't see AEW live. I'm sure someone will be livestreaming it, or he can download it a half an hour later on XWT if it's that important to him.

[Big Boss Man]

Yea I think he's gone OTT about this. So far only the 8.20am showing Sunday for ITV4 (which is listed as 120 minutes) and the replay (50 minutes) on the Monday are appearing on the channel guide thus far. So no planned Thursday showing listed as of yet. I do think if ITV are committed to supporting AEW they'll make sure it's sorted out.

[Bandit]

I fully understand being mad. All of the surprises will be spoiled long before Sunday unless a person just stays off of the internet. But I don't think Tony is the bad guy here. He can only take what he's given. I don't even think Vince can make demands in the UK like he can with American networks. It's just a different landscape where wrestling isn't as popular in England besides the Big Daddy era where he was pulling some legitimately good ratings. Even with Hogan or the Attitude Era WWE wasn't bossing around networks and PPV providers like they did here and in Canada, or how Inoki and Baba could with Japanese networks in the 80s and 90s.

If anything Cody is at fault for announcing something they didn't have. But people shouldn't be angry at him either, just let him know this should be a learning experience to keep your mouth shut until the ink dries on the contract.

I think for any malicious intent for lying about a deal there'd have to be a situation like with ECW where Heyman felt he had to hype negotiations that ended up not happening because people were leaving or staying but hopeless. AEW certainly is not in ECW's position right now. I think Shad guaranteed 5 years where even if they don't turn a profit he will not shut AEW down. Plus the UK isn't where they're planning on making money anyway because they've said the US and Canada are the priorities right now and Europe, Australia and Japan will be in a year or so. And you're really expecting too much of a football owner and his son and three wrestlers whose qualifications are two of them sell a lot of t-shirts and the other one had a father who used to be in charge of a promotion over 30 years ago to do an instant worldwide expansion. It's like if you tried to start a record label with Russell Simmons' son and two guys from a indie rock band that sold more shirts than albums. I don't think people would expect you to rival Sony Music overnight.

[Big Boss Man]

Exactly, very good points. From what I've read ITV were the hold up in regards to the adverts and a Thursday/Friday night showing was (I'm assuming still is) planned. Since live is out of the equation, I think ITV will concede to Thursday or Friday. Waiting til Sunday morning is a lot to ask for a new fanbase especially when it will have to be edited due to OFCOM regulations.

Like you've mentioned it's unfair for Tony, Cody and Matt & Nick to be blamed. Because ultimately the buck stops with ITV and they can only do what they can. ITV made a big mistake with WOS and it's ratings plummeted as the weeks went by so they might be of the opinion that AEW will follow a similar pattern. WWE played a part in WOS downfall too since they hired up talent that were going to be on that show for NXT UK.

With AEW if they get behind it I think if they do put it on say Thursdays and put some promotion behind it then fans will support it. In its current slot I think just to be difficult some fans won't watch which is counter productive. Like the fans ranting at Tony and co on social media. That achieves nothing and it makes them come across wrongly. If there's big enough interest I do think ITV will remedy the situation and maybe down the line they could change their opinion regarding airing it live.

[Big Boss Man]

Good interview with Cody

[Ocelot]

There's gonna be mistakes and potholes on the road to success, but the strength comes from how Cody navigates and works over/around them. He's doing fine. His investor has a great head on his shoulders and they're working together well so far. This is all a giant learning experience for the future for them, and the future is very bright indeed.

Also, Cody has excellent taste in ties.