The Wrestling Thread: AEW Dynasty

Chatter about Roman Reigns going part time after his title run ends, doesn’t feel like he’s the type that would pull a big rating if they brought him back similar to Brock or Cena.

ROH was heavy decent eh

Another wild news day - Triple H is now head booker across all of WWE

It was a huge morning of news from WWE with the official confirmation that Paul Levesque will assume the Vince McMahon role as having the final say in creative.

The current system will remain in place with a writing team as Bruce Prichard will head things up and report to Levesque. This dynamic was in place last Friday for SmackDown.

The new 8-K report filing noted that the McMahon departure was a resignation and not a retirement as was stated publicly.

In addition, the company has made a preliminary determination that certain payments that McMahon had authorized (approximately $14.6 million) were never recorded in WWE financial statements. These payments took place between 2006 and 2022.

A WWE official stated that despite the wording in the released 8-K reported, that the $14.6 million in question was paid by Vince McMahon from his own personal funds and not from WWE money. The statement in the release was that the expenses were or will be paid by McMahon personally. They said there were corporate accounting reasons that they released the information and will be adjusting the corporate books for 2019, 2020 and 2021 to account for those expenses.

They are aiming to publicly revise the documentation by August 9, although stated there is no assurance it will meet that deadline.

The company has also received regulatory, investigative and enforcement inquiries, subpoenas or demands arising from, related to, or in connection with the the matters related to the conduct of McMahon and the expenses.

It was not specified if the payments to women, that had previously been claimed were by McMahon personally and not from company funds, constitute some or all of that $14.6 million. But this would likely be something that, when uncovered, forced McMahon out of the company.

The key to this revelation is that it would be almost impossible for McMahon to return to power and this won't be a temporary departure until the heat dies down as many in wrestling over the past few days had believed, noting the company track record over the years with people who had gotten negative publicity over different things.

They did say that the investigation by the board's special committee, meaning all members of the board aside from McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Levesque and Nick Khan, remains ongoing.

The WWE released its expected second quarter (the WrestleMania quarter) financial results early. It showed $328 million in revenue with $92 million in OIBDA and $70 million in operating income. The numbers were above what most analysts had projected. This release was done today to attempt to keep any potential share price drop due to McMahon leaving to a minimum.

But the opposite happened. At the time of this writing, WWE stock price has risen $5.15 per share to $71.77.

This came after analyst Alan Gould of Loop Capital raised his guidance price for the stock from $59 to $90 per share based on an increased likelihood the company would be sold. Within Wall Street, there had been some talk of that in recent weeks even before the resignation of McMahon. Gould said that he expected a rise in U.S. television rights fees in 2025, and mentioned Comcast, Disney Amazon or Netflix as potential buyers.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/dave ... ense-story

Something poetic about tonight’s RAW also being at Madison Square Garden.

Watched the first half hour of Raw last night before going to sleep out of curiosity. It started with an already in progress brawl between Logan Paul/Miz, gave the show a feel of urgency it's not had in a while. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

I watched that and immediately thought of WCW Nitro, which that I can recall were the first to ever interrupt the title graphics for an in-progress brawl or happening. And that's definitely the Triple H influence, as I noticed with the black and gold NXT that he was more likely to use WCW characteristics and tropes, like how NXT programming was at times a mirror image of nWo's Souled Out. Hunter's a lot more aware of wrestling outside of the WWF bubble than Vince McMahon ever was. Vince was told about it, Triple H has actually watched it.

What with SummerSlam's PPV also the first WWE programme to be listed as TV-14, maybe the shows will begin to take on a less glossier look than has become the norm under Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn.

Kevin Nash on his new podcast said the look of AEW reminded him of WCW Thunder. I kind of get his point - it looks like a '90s wrestling programme filmed with HD cameras - but in terms of the set itself (which appears to now feature up and downgrade alterations depending on the building they're running on any given week) - it's an amalgamation of TNA's dual entrances, the WWF PPV tunnel (King of the Ring, Royal Rumble) and Nitro's screens. Tony Khan has also brought back the hanging banner(s) from the ceiling, currently advertising All Out, which WWE retired at some point after the mid 2000s.

Talking of Thunder, that's exactly what Rampage has ended up as in terms of being the B-show. Some weeks are definitely still better than others - usually when it's a Live edition - but it's feeling too skippable all of a sudden. Which was always the fear when they announced the show. Then of course there's also the 2 YouTube shows, Dark Elevation and Dark.

Dark and Dark Elevation give me major Metal/post 2001 Sunday Night Heat/Velocity vibes. I'm glad these guys are getting paid but who CARES? Even Taz and Excalibur take it as an hour to banter with each other and I don't really blame them, the commentary is the highlight more often than not.

Not often you see something genuinely new on a WWE PPV these days but last night was certainly it.

I had a feeling something was going to happen, such as the ring collapsing again, when I noticed they’d removed the LED boards from the apron and shifted them to the barricades (I was also hoping maybe that was a Triple H move as perhaps he hates the damn things) but all was revealed come the main event.

Nice to see Bayley back again.

KK wrote:Not often you see something genuinely new on a WWE PPV these days but last night was certainly it.

I had a feeling something was going to happen, such as the ring collapsing again, when I noticed they’d removed the LED boards from the apron and shifted them to the barricades (I was also hoping maybe that was a Triple H move as perhaps he hates the damn things) but all was revealed come the main event.

Nice to see Bayley back again.

I haven't got round to watching it yet but all the talk seems very positive about Summerslam, which is great news with clash at the castle round the corner.

Seems a pretty decent event with plenty of headline grabbing moments. It's going to be really interesting to see how the UK fans react to Drew. It doesn't feel like he is seen as a big star like they managed with Davey Boy at Wembley, and I don't think anyone thinks he is going over.

One thing I don't want to see is more BS with the Usos getting involved. I feel like they have done that 100 times now.

Clash at the Castle could have some pretty good matches, or at least ones that feel a bit fresher than the sort we've been getting the last 4-5 months. Reigns vs Drew, Rollins vs Riddle, and we're surely going to get some kind of Edge vs someone from Judgement Day. Would really like to see Kevin Owens there too. It's been well over a year since the IC title was defended at a PPV, but maybe with Gunter's association with NXT UK, we might see it there. Not sure his feud with Shinsuke can be dragged out another 5 weeks though.

I'd kind of like to know what the plan was for Theory last night, if Vince was still around, and what the plan is for him now. One F5, even onto a briefcase, essentially putting him down for good made him look weak as, but they made sure he didn't get to cash in before that happened.

I have to say Logan Paul absolutely killed it at summerslam. I’m incredibly impressed.

Ric Flair currently wrestling in a t shirt with a pacemaker in a real dangerous move. One wrong bump and we’ve got a Misawa situation.

He had the best last match ever and then ruined it in TNA and again now.

Johnny Ryall wrote:Ric Flair currently wrestling in a t shirt with a pacemaker in a real dangerous move. One wrong bump and we’ve got a Misawa situation.

He had the best last match ever and then ruined it in TNA and again now.

I just watched it, even his entrance makes you wince, you imagine the old Ric styling and profiling now it looks like he should have a walking aid. I cant believe he bladed.... I will say I think it was better than I expected but he just doesnt know when to quit.

I can understand the hunger to follow your sport , I was a rugby player until I got hit by a car and had to have metal plates in my leg and stuff and I have always missed playing and the thrill of the chanting and the energy but you need to know when you need to go....

If I spot it on DailyMotion or YouTube I'll probably watch it now that it's over, but watching Live would have been a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. I don't even know what the rest of the card was like, worth bothering with at any point?

Rest of the card looks like a good indie show tbh.

This is my thoughts on the match..... I haven't watched the whole card though just the match

I’m currently watching it now on DM, and it’s terrible. Nice to see a few familiar faces again (Doug Dillinger!) but on the whole the whole thing is just sad. All the people enabling this to happen are part of the problem too.

Let’s be real, apart from the odd anomaly (Jeff Hardy being completely out of it in TNA) it’s the worst PPV main event I’ve ever watched but I’m sure people will and have made excuses for it. The whole theme of the night from various talking heads was making excuses for it. As far as I could make out, not only did Flair look drunk before the match even started, but his shoulders were also down when applying the (extremely loose) Figure Four for the finish. He looked out of it. I don’t know if that was intentional (gotta set up the rematch!) but moments prior he also appeared to be struggling to even grip the brass knuckles. Standing on the apron at various points…well, let’s put it this way, it would have made Dennis Rodman in ‘98 look wide awake.

Flair/Michaels was the perfect send off and unfortunately both men have since gone on to stink the joint out in 2 of the most dire tag team encounters you’ll ever see.

Possible big return rumours, unconfirmed:

WWE have reportedly sacked John Laurinaitis.

The Wrestling Thread: AEW Dynasty

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