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So they fire Eric Bischoff then do an invasion angle. Why not keep Eric as a consultant sine he did this so well in the past and knows of mistakes?
When someone leaves a position like Bischoff had, they almost all of the time leave the company that they work for. It’s just how business is done.
Who, in your opinion, performed the best Tiger Mask?
I will go with the original, Satoru Sayama. He was so, so revolutionary.
What would AEW fans say about Orange Cassidy if Vince Russo booked his ridiculous fake kicks?
I don’t stereotype groups of people but I am guessing you mean the hardcore AEW fans. My hunch is that if he booked it for AEW, they probably would like it. If they booked it for someone else they would probably not like it.
Why do you think AEW has gotten so cold so fast? They started out really hot but have seen people abandoned in droves.
I don't know if I would say they are cold right now, that is overstating it, but they have definitely lost steam since week one on TNT. To me, that just means that they aren’t capturing and keeping all of the people that gave them a chance in week one. In Shayna Baszler interview with Mike Johnson, which you can read by clicking here, she had a great quote about what I think it takes to get fans engaged with the wrestling product. She said, "The real challenge, and this has followed me from MMA to pro wrestling is, people don't care about the fight as much as they care about the story of the fight." At the end of the day I think the issue is Tony Khan’s vision. It hasn’t resonated with enough people to get them hooked or they wouldn’t have tuned out to the degree that they have. There is always some erosion with pretty much every show from week one to week two, but the over 40% that they are down from week one is beyond that. Some of the stuff with the top guys, like Cody, has been fantastic. But too much else is just this talent a fan doesn’t know fighting that talent that they don’t know. Khan needs to create people that the fans care about (just as WWE and every other company does) to grow the audience beyond the hardcore fans who watch just because it’s wrestling.
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Impact used to draw much better ratings that AEW does now?
They did yes but we can’t just look at it in a vacuum. Back when they were doing better numbers for Spike TV than AEW is doing on TNA, TV viewership on the whole was higher. There were less options then, less channels, streaming, video games, etc. We can’t fairly compare numbers from 7-10 years ago with the numbers of today because there has been so much change in the industry.
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