CI Wrestling Thread #56

[Col. Angus]

WWE dropped 2.2M and AEW can’t even get close to 2.2M.

Is that right? How it works?

 

[K-mac18]

It's Wednesday, from the home of Smoky Mountain Wrestling

Adam "Cope" Copeland vs. Pac.
AEW Tag Team Champions Private Party vs. Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin.
Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega go face to face.
Jamie Hayter vs. Julia Hart.
Samoa Joe vs. Nick Wayne.
AR Fox vs. Swerve Strickland.
Rock And Roll Express to appear.

 

[TCurtis75]

In for the rumble

 

[CrittendenWildcat]

Make me the winning entrant of the Rumble please.

 

[Wesley91581]

BREAKING: Indianapolis is reportedly is discussions with WWE as a possible host for WrestleMania 43 in 2027

The event was originally expected to take place in Tennessee in 2027, but those plans have been dependent on the new Stadium in Nashville being built on time

It appears that is no longer guaranteed as the company is now engaging in discussions with other cities such as Indianapolis to host the yearly extravaganza

— Source PWInsider

 

[GeraldV]

I’m kicking myself for not going to Knoxville tonight for the 15 minute Ospreay/Kenny opening segment. Those two are amazing.

 

[Col. Angus]

Never seen this clip before. Made me laugh pretty good. Starting at 3:30. Just great stuff.

 

[CrittendenWildcat]

Never seen this clip before. Made me laugh pretty good. Starting at 3:30. Just great stuff.

View embedded media

Scorpio Sky sighting as well.

 

[RMP82]

I'm in for the Rumbles!

 

[Wesley91581]

 

[Wesley91581]

Liam Coen hanging out with the Khan family was not on my 2025 bingo card.

 

[AmericanDragon]

Serious question: Which black talents in 2025 WWE are top of the card guys/gals? Or if you were holding the book, which black talents would you elevate to the main event to avoid being called RacistDragon by basement dwellers who watch 30 hours of wrestling a week?

Men:
Carmello? Nope. Maybe in 5 years

Street Profits? Nope. There is potential to build Ford into a singles attraction down the road but the team has to split first. That could leave Dawkins in Janetty land. That would probably be considered racist somehow by the IWC.

R-Truth? Nope. Vince booked him as a comedy character for 14 years. He’s pushing 50 as well. No amount of repackaging can change the fact that R-Truth is perhaps the most lovable class clown in modern wrestling history

Kofi and Woods: Currently involved in a well featured, slow burn heel turn that’s gotten them more heat than anything babyface New Day did for the last 5-7 years. I don’t see how anyone could complain about the spot they’re in. They’re also teasing an eventual return or former WWE champion Big E, likely in a prominent spot.

Women:
Bianca Belair - has held all the women’s world titles multiple times. Was placed in a tag team with a green horn to help carry Jade through their matches. Current women’s tag champ with Naomi.

Naomi - Current WWE women’s tag champ. It likely will be revealed she is the one who attacked Jade. This will be a prominent story in a decent spot.

Jade - Looks great, still needs work in the ring. Has been presented as a star in WWE after being presented as female Goldberg for years in AEW until she wasn’t.

That’s not including several black talents who have prominent roles in NXT (Trick Williams, Oba Femi, Lash Legend/Jakara Jackson, etc.)

I’m still not seeing any racism. It’s not like everyone featured prominently is a white American. Several international talents have prominent spots, Samoans are running the place, Asian and Latino stars are adequately represented.

I get MVP was saying these things, but that dude plays the race card on everything. I used to listen to his VIP Lounge podcast before he went back to WWE. Just about anything in life that didn’t go MVP’s way is because of racism. Eventually, the boy who cries wolf is ignored.

I haven’t watched anything from WWE since WrestleMania so I can’t answer your question.

 

[AmericanDragon]

I’m kicking myself for not going to Knoxville tonight for the 15 minute Ospreay/Kenny opening segment. Those two are amazing.

Going to suck to be the people that are going to have to wrestle after that Omega/Opsreay vs. Takeshita/Fletcher match at Grand Slam. That’s an impossible standard to live up to.

That should be the main event for that reason alone, but that’s not how TK books so I’m not expecting it.

 

[AmericanDragon]

WWE dropped 2.2M and AEW can’t even get close to 2.2M.

Is that right? How it works?

Well we’ve also never been provided a full week’s worth of viewership numbers for AEW, which are the numbers Netflix is supplying for WWE. All we ever get for AEW is cable tv live + same day. That’s 6 days of cable and 7 days of Max viewership we know nothing about.

I’d be interested to know what their Max numbers are looking like since the cable numbers have gradually increased every week since the Max deal kicked in. I would have thought it would have been a lock the cable numbers would drop after being simulcasted on Max with people switching to watch on there, I most certainly was not expecting any increases.

Almost every single person I know on my social media switched to watching Max. Obviously that’s a very tiny fraction of 1% of their viewers, but these are people who’ve been diehard viewers for years.

I even canceled my YouTube TV last month once they announced the price increase since AEW was going to be on Max a couple weeks after canceling.