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I heard Tony Khan tell Dan Le Batard that AEW is doing its best work because of show ratings that he got from a website. I went to the website and 138 people voted on the February 8 Dynamite. 138 PEOPLE? So Tony really believes 138 people over the 100,000 that have tuned out over the last few weeks? Doesn’t that say everything we need to know about how clueless Tony is?
It’s an embarrassing statement for any businessperson to make but let’s be honest about Tony, he has never sought out criticism that will help him make his product better. He has always embraced anyone who will tell him what he wants to hear about his booking. It would have surprised me if he cited that website three years ago but now? I would be surprised if he didn’t use suspect data like that to put over how “great” his booking is. It’s really embarrassing that he embraces such a ridiculous metric while ignoring legitimate ones.
On that same show Kahn said: “Now, what’s interesting is the story that is the most real, the most intense and the most hatred in all of pro wrestling is that between the two wrestling promotions. I think we truly, truly hate each other.” What are your thoughts on that?
After I stopped laughing out loud after reading that, my first thought is Tony needs to stop doing interviews. My second thought is that I totally believe that there is hate there, but it’s one sided. I didn’t hear the interview but if he really said that, he would be admitting he hates WWE. I am sure some of his fan base does too. WWE took him seriously at first but once he was a year or so in and they saw what his product would be, they realized that AEW was not the threat that it could have been, given the money behind them and the TNT time slot.
I don't get Darby's short title reign. Defeated Samoa Joe and lost it one month later against Joe. Do you think Khan made this decision so he could appear at NOAH's Great Muta Final Bye Bye with the title belt?
As you can probably guess, I don’t try to figure out Tony’s booking but I will give it a shot. I think he wanted Darby to win the Title at home and then let him hold it through the Muta match. Me? I would have never put it on him in the first place but I am not one of the 138 people that Tony listens to.
What is going on with Baron Corbin? He's only just been repackaged, I really thought the route with JBL was going to go somewhere but clearly not. In my opinion the only thing WWE did right with him was his lone wolf gimmick. He's got the potential, hopefully we see him carry a world title.
Personally, I think JBL’s character doesn’t work in 2023, especially when he is just a manager. He did in his time, for sure, but trying to make someone the new anyone is aways a hard sell. Corbin needs to be the first Baron Corbin. It’s a shame he has been saddled with bad gimmicks. I think the best thing for him would be to go away for a while and come back as a new character. Mike Eps and I talked about Corbin and an idea I had to repackage him on our show last Saturday, if you are interested in checking it out.
You have mentioned many times how many viewers tune out when Kenny & The Bucks are in the final segment of Dynamite or Rampage. Whether you like The Elite or not, there can be no denying that your observation is 100% correct because the quarter-hour viewership numbers prove it. However, a certain journalist (who just so happens to have a certain finishing move named after him) would counter that since viewership naturally drops toward the end of every show, including RAW and Smackdown, you would have to put equal blame for viewers tuning out on people such as Roman or Becky Lynch, or whoever else closes the show in WWE. The significant viewership loss in the 3rd hour of RAW has been well-documented in the numbers as well, so how would you respond to the argument that you can't put the blame solely on Kenny and the Bucks for any big viewership loss that occurs if their segment happens to close the show?
Wow, that is the second question today that made me laugh out loud in one column! Here is the truth. If I said that The Elite were a ratings bomb and the data proved otherwise, I would own that I was wrong and say so publicly. The absolute last thing I would do is soil my credibility by not acknowledging the truth and making lame excuses like the one above. Honestly, to use the THIRD hour of a show to compare to what happens on a two hour show? Weak. To make excuses rather than admit you were wrong? Weak. To ignore the fact that the highest rated segment on the February 6th edition of Raw was IN THE THIRD HOUR? Weak. Here’s the fact. No act on Smackdown or the first two hours of Raw, which is the length of Dynamite, consistently loses the significant viewership that The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega do. Hell, they have even had a big ratings drop on a ONE hour show, Rampage. If a writer can’t be honest and acknowledge the truth he would be better served to just say nothing. Every ridiculous comment takes another shot at his credibility. So how would I respond to him? I would say his bias is ridiculous and makes him look really bad.
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