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With the reported $4.5 Million per year contract for Kazuchika Okada, is this the end for AEW? The only reason I ask is because now every major free agent interested in going to AEW is going to want more. Everyone there that wants to stay is going to want more. It sounds like WCW all over again. Your thoughts?
First off, I don’t know that Okada really got that much but he was paid significant money to go to AEW and I am sure that the other talents have noticed it. Tony Khan obviously thinks that Okada is someone who deserves to be paid like a top tier talent. If he leads an increase in AEW’s business, Khan is right. It not, well then he overpaid…..again.
You had advocated for Corey graves to move to Play by play, because he had been it more or less when paired with Kevin Patrick. This is now reality, but a couple of things I've noticed. Corey is good at it: he’s the rare athlete like Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Summerall where the former athlete is an elite Play by play guy. That’s not the norm. But it seems WWE still clearly values him as their top color commentator, as he still did the color commentary job at the past PLE. Although it seemed like both were doing play by play, almost like when Coach was next to Cole back in the day. My question is, does this seem sustainable, or is to clear this is just a temporary solution? If your number one color guy for big events is doing play by play weekly, does that really work? I’m not advocating removing Corey, it just seems either they need a new play by play guy, or let wade or pat be the top color commentator.
The PLE teams were put together as a way to have a Raw and Smackdown guy on the shows. At the time, Corey was a color guy (though sitting next to Kevin Patrick he was also a de facto play by play man too). His job has changed but I am fine with having those two on PLEs. Those shows are more about calling the matches that the storylines have led up to as opposed to building the storylines. It doesn’t hurt to have two guys there who can do that.
As a long-time NJPW fan, I am glad for Okada in that he gets to work with his buddies and get paid millions of dollars, but still...I do feel sad in that I would have liked to see what he could do on the biggest stage, working for the biggest company. I'm sure AEW is a step up from New Japan, but the WWE would be on a whole other level and I'm sad we won't see what prime Okada could do at the top.
I hear what you are saying but being able to do promos, and thus connecting with the audience, is such a huge part of what WWE does now. I think that would have held him back in WWE while it’s not an issue in AEW.
I recently watched a clip of Sting's retirement match of Darby going through the pane of glass. The impact from the spot caused the glass to explode everywhere and you could visibly see it hitting members of the crowd. I'm not sure if anyone was seriously hurt, but will AEW be held liable for injuring it's fan base? I think the chance of being injured at an AEW show would definitely deter people from buying ringside tickets.
A lot of not-so-bright people think that because AEW posts a disclaimer on tickets and at the building about people sitting close to the action, it absolves them of all liability. It doesn’t work that way. It’s one thing to warn people about something reasonable, like someone could fall into the guardrail. It’s another thing altogether to do what Allin did. There is no way I would ever sit that close because I value my health, but I have seen some people on Twitter say that they would love to sit there and that they would have taken glass pieces home as a souvenir. Go figure.
So, with the apparent tag match happening on night one of WrestleMania, then both title matches will be on night 2. Does that take some away from Drew getting back to "Main Event" WrestleMania in front of a crowd instead of empty arena? Had been assuming he and Rollins would main event night one. Not sure "co main eventing" when they obviously won't be the last match means as much.
I could see if someone felt that way but to me? It doesn’t. This show will be loaded so there can only be two main events. I look at it like in baseball. A guy could hit cleanup for a bad team but his sixth for a good one. If I am hitting sixth on a good team, I understand why.
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