Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2019 6:22:58 GMT -5
From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
All Elite Wrestling officially announced that, as expected, its time slot would be 8-10 p.m. Eastern time on TNT starting weekly on 10/2.
The debut event will be at the Capital One Center in Washington, DC, which is quite an ambitious start given the building would sell out at about 14,000 fans for a WWE Raw or Smackdown configuration. It is also the arena, as the Verizon Center, where WCW ran several Starrcade shows including the biggest show in its history headlined by the 1997 Hulk Hogan vs. Sting match. While AEW would have easily sold that number of seats for Saturday night holiday weekend shows with a Starrcast event, a midweek show will be far more difficult, especially since from a media standpoint, their launch will be secondary to WWE’s debut on FOX two nights later.
The company’s release said that ticket prices and the on-sale date would be announced on 7/29.
AEW and TNT put together a tremendous two-and-a-half minute trailer for the product, talking about setting a new standard, having the best talent, pushing themes like harder hitting, higher flying, a paradigm shift, a revolution and the best tag team division, with heavy focus on the expected key guys with a strong emphasis on the voice of Jim Ross.
The term Wednesday Night Dynamite was never used in the release and only All Elite Wrestling, but Tony Khan said that All Elite Wrestling would not be the name of the television show. It is believed the show name will be announced in the next week or two. Dynamite is a possibility but there are other names being test marketed.
They will run weekly on TNT with the exception of a preemption on 12/25.
They will be running different sized arenas depending on demand with buildings for the most part set up to hold 6,000 to 11,000 and occasional unique location shows. The shows will start at 7:30 p.m. Eastern to have a warm-up match prior to the television show beginning.
This is ambitious because that’s the level of attendance Raw has been doing of late and Smackdown usually these days falls below 6,000, although that is expected to change in the fall with FOX promotions and moving to easier to draw live Fridays.
With the day and time official, this should be able to lead to try and finalize negotiations for international television deals, most notably with ITV 4 in the U.K., which is expected to air the shows live from 1-3 a.m. early Thursday mornings, Canada, and other markets. It is known that German television officials were at Double or Nothing attempting to broker a deal.
The 10/2 date means it will go head-to-head with major league baseball playoffs, which are likely for at least three of the four Wednesdays up through 10/23 including the World Series on the latter date. There is a National League playoff game on 10/2, an American League playoff game on 10/16, and the second game of the World Series is 10/23. If there is a seventh game of the World Series, it would be on 10/30. But all wrestling in October will have major baseball competition.
It’s also not a secret that WWE is looking to counter program this show with an FS 1 airing of NXT. Whether that show would be one hour or two hours, or live or taped, is not known. The talks are serious enough that in a FOX call to Northeastern affiliates last week, they brought up that possibility. Sources within WWE had confirmed the idea is being strongly talked about and the reason was competition with AEW, and the idea was fairly recent in planning, coming from the AEW signing with TNT.
It should be noted that FS 1 had a contract to air Big East basketball on Wednesday nights, so there may be a scheduling issue in the early months. The idea of NXT on FS 2 would be counter productive since the goal is to beat AEW in ratings with a developmental show, not to draw lower numbers than AEW.
AEW would have the advantage of being on a much stronger station that is also available in more homes.
TNT is in about 89 million homes as compared to 82 million for FS 1 and 57 million for FS 2.
Among WWE plans for the show, if the deal is done, would be to have more main roster talents appear on NXT, but it would not be a haven for main roster talents. The idea right now is a few guys here and there and not t have them dominate the show.
Even though A.J. Styles made a remark to Shawn Michaels about he knows he’s in NXT, which some felt was leading to the O.C. going to NXT for a program, we were told that was not the current plan.
Of course, all plans will change greatly as time comes closer and in particular, after the early ratings come in.
What would make the most sense, if it can be logistically done, is for NXT to tape two one hour shows per week, one as a WWE Network exclusive to focus on the actual developmental talent as well as promoting the Takeovers, and another for FS 1, which would focus more on the guys on Takeovers and cameos by the main roster talent. But that would require bi-weekly four hour tapings and that could be a problem.
There will still be a lot of maneuvers to sort out from both sides as October approaches, and even more after.
If WWE only does a one hour show, and perhaps does a second hour with its weekly talk show on FS 1, that also could prove in the long run to be advantageous to AEW as a live wrestling show when fans are already tuning in would be superior to a talk show.
PPV data has shown that the most affluent of the WWE fan base has not sampled AEW PPV shows in any significant way, and also that the AEW PPV audience has far more unique fans of the product than fans who are buying content from other wrestling companies than first believed.
That said, the U.S. PPV audience, between television and streaming, was probably around 75,000. For television to be a success, they would need multiples of that. The belief is they would have to find and draw both more lapsed fans from the past, which is where moves like using Jim Ross as an announcer come in. They would also have to draw from the fan base turned off by WWE in recent years, which does, from live shows, appear to be a significant percentage of their audience since anti-WWE skits get tremendous reaction. The appearances of WWE performers like Dustin Rhodes, Shawn Spears and most notably Jon Moxley all got similar major reactions.
But TNA was formed on the idea that they were going to get the disenfranchised WCW fan base that sampled and left WWE quickly after the Invasion angle. That really never worked, and that was a goal in 2002. It’s now 2019. When WWE tried to grab the disenfranchised ECW fan, it did work in 2005, for one night as nostalgia, but when trying to remake it as a brand, it also failed, but that was also because they were giving an ECW product that felt very little like ECW.
AEW has shown far more ability to get money spending fans into its camp with no television than ECW, TNA, ROH or anyone else has been able to do with television. There was far more demand for AEW tickets for All Out than any event in WCW history, and Las Vegas had more demand than all but a few events in WCW history, which are both amazing given the exposure levels and mainstream name recognition of the talent. They, in their first PPV show without television, nearly doubled TNA’s best number with a television viewing audience of 1.5 million and more, beat any ECW number even when ECW had national television, and beat every WCW number after it started nosediving at the end of 1999.
But television viewership is more difficult, particularly with a start-up product.
The elite talent in NXT can at least be competitive with the elite talent in AEW when it comes to in-ring, with both groups having a strong top tier. While in-ring is usually not what drives ratings, it is more important now in a group’s popularity than at any time in history and if there is a Wednesday night battle, it will be a key part of it.
But it’s still about marketing strong personalities that resonate with the audience, or hooks them into carrying out their stories.
While we’ve heard nothing official on this, one idea that has been floated from both the AEW and TNT side has been to air the U.S. debut of “Omegaman,” the TSN in Canada documentary on Kenny Omega, as a promotion vehicle for the launch in some form and to expose Omega to a wider audience as a top superstar. The documentary is very strong in Omega coming across as someone who can carry a promotion, but the flip side is much of the documentary focuses on the Omega & Kota Ibushi Golden Lovers tag team, and there is no movement at all right now regarding Ibushi working for AEW. At this point it seems like it’s something that has been brought up, but I don’t know the odds of it happening are particularly good.
AEW did heavy media on 7/24 with TNT at the Television Critics Association Convention. They were one of two shows that TNT was heavily pushing. AEW brought a crew of Tony Khan, Omega, The Young Bucks, Cody & Brandi Rhodes, Michael Nakazawa (who, besides wrestling, works as an international liaison for the company and an agent for women’s matches), Nyla Rose, Awesome Kong (likely because she’s a part of the cast of the GLOW television show that is critically acclaimed) and Jungle Boy, who got a ton of attention when people found out he was the son of Luke Perry. It was noted that a lot of the media was unfamiliar with pro wrestling and pro wrestlers and many didn’t know who Dusty Rhodes was when Cody would talk about his father.
The debut event will be at the Capital One Center in Washington, DC, which is quite an ambitious start given the building would sell out at about 14,000 fans for a WWE Raw or Smackdown configuration. It is also the arena, as the Verizon Center, where WCW ran several Starrcade shows including the biggest show in its history headlined by the 1997 Hulk Hogan vs. Sting match. While AEW would have easily sold that number of seats for Saturday night holiday weekend shows with a Starrcast event, a midweek show will be far more difficult, especially since from a media standpoint, their launch will be secondary to WWE’s debut on FOX two nights later.
The company’s release said that ticket prices and the on-sale date would be announced on 7/29.
AEW and TNT put together a tremendous two-and-a-half minute trailer for the product, talking about setting a new standard, having the best talent, pushing themes like harder hitting, higher flying, a paradigm shift, a revolution and the best tag team division, with heavy focus on the expected key guys with a strong emphasis on the voice of Jim Ross.
The term Wednesday Night Dynamite was never used in the release and only All Elite Wrestling, but Tony Khan said that All Elite Wrestling would not be the name of the television show. It is believed the show name will be announced in the next week or two. Dynamite is a possibility but there are other names being test marketed.
They will run weekly on TNT with the exception of a preemption on 12/25.
They will be running different sized arenas depending on demand with buildings for the most part set up to hold 6,000 to 11,000 and occasional unique location shows. The shows will start at 7:30 p.m. Eastern to have a warm-up match prior to the television show beginning.
This is ambitious because that’s the level of attendance Raw has been doing of late and Smackdown usually these days falls below 6,000, although that is expected to change in the fall with FOX promotions and moving to easier to draw live Fridays.
With the day and time official, this should be able to lead to try and finalize negotiations for international television deals, most notably with ITV 4 in the U.K., which is expected to air the shows live from 1-3 a.m. early Thursday mornings, Canada, and other markets. It is known that German television officials were at Double or Nothing attempting to broker a deal.
The 10/2 date means it will go head-to-head with major league baseball playoffs, which are likely for at least three of the four Wednesdays up through 10/23 including the World Series on the latter date. There is a National League playoff game on 10/2, an American League playoff game on 10/16, and the second game of the World Series is 10/23. If there is a seventh game of the World Series, it would be on 10/30. But all wrestling in October will have major baseball competition.
It’s also not a secret that WWE is looking to counter program this show with an FS 1 airing of NXT. Whether that show would be one hour or two hours, or live or taped, is not known. The talks are serious enough that in a FOX call to Northeastern affiliates last week, they brought up that possibility. Sources within WWE had confirmed the idea is being strongly talked about and the reason was competition with AEW, and the idea was fairly recent in planning, coming from the AEW signing with TNT.
It should be noted that FS 1 had a contract to air Big East basketball on Wednesday nights, so there may be a scheduling issue in the early months. The idea of NXT on FS 2 would be counter productive since the goal is to beat AEW in ratings with a developmental show, not to draw lower numbers than AEW.
AEW would have the advantage of being on a much stronger station that is also available in more homes.
TNT is in about 89 million homes as compared to 82 million for FS 1 and 57 million for FS 2.
Among WWE plans for the show, if the deal is done, would be to have more main roster talents appear on NXT, but it would not be a haven for main roster talents. The idea right now is a few guys here and there and not t have them dominate the show.
Even though A.J. Styles made a remark to Shawn Michaels about he knows he’s in NXT, which some felt was leading to the O.C. going to NXT for a program, we were told that was not the current plan.
Of course, all plans will change greatly as time comes closer and in particular, after the early ratings come in.
What would make the most sense, if it can be logistically done, is for NXT to tape two one hour shows per week, one as a WWE Network exclusive to focus on the actual developmental talent as well as promoting the Takeovers, and another for FS 1, which would focus more on the guys on Takeovers and cameos by the main roster talent. But that would require bi-weekly four hour tapings and that could be a problem.
There will still be a lot of maneuvers to sort out from both sides as October approaches, and even more after.
If WWE only does a one hour show, and perhaps does a second hour with its weekly talk show on FS 1, that also could prove in the long run to be advantageous to AEW as a live wrestling show when fans are already tuning in would be superior to a talk show.
PPV data has shown that the most affluent of the WWE fan base has not sampled AEW PPV shows in any significant way, and also that the AEW PPV audience has far more unique fans of the product than fans who are buying content from other wrestling companies than first believed.
That said, the U.S. PPV audience, between television and streaming, was probably around 75,000. For television to be a success, they would need multiples of that. The belief is they would have to find and draw both more lapsed fans from the past, which is where moves like using Jim Ross as an announcer come in. They would also have to draw from the fan base turned off by WWE in recent years, which does, from live shows, appear to be a significant percentage of their audience since anti-WWE skits get tremendous reaction. The appearances of WWE performers like Dustin Rhodes, Shawn Spears and most notably Jon Moxley all got similar major reactions.
But TNA was formed on the idea that they were going to get the disenfranchised WCW fan base that sampled and left WWE quickly after the Invasion angle. That really never worked, and that was a goal in 2002. It’s now 2019. When WWE tried to grab the disenfranchised ECW fan, it did work in 2005, for one night as nostalgia, but when trying to remake it as a brand, it also failed, but that was also because they were giving an ECW product that felt very little like ECW.
AEW has shown far more ability to get money spending fans into its camp with no television than ECW, TNA, ROH or anyone else has been able to do with television. There was far more demand for AEW tickets for All Out than any event in WCW history, and Las Vegas had more demand than all but a few events in WCW history, which are both amazing given the exposure levels and mainstream name recognition of the talent. They, in their first PPV show without television, nearly doubled TNA’s best number with a television viewing audience of 1.5 million and more, beat any ECW number even when ECW had national television, and beat every WCW number after it started nosediving at the end of 1999.
But television viewership is more difficult, particularly with a start-up product.
The elite talent in NXT can at least be competitive with the elite talent in AEW when it comes to in-ring, with both groups having a strong top tier. While in-ring is usually not what drives ratings, it is more important now in a group’s popularity than at any time in history and if there is a Wednesday night battle, it will be a key part of it.
But it’s still about marketing strong personalities that resonate with the audience, or hooks them into carrying out their stories.
While we’ve heard nothing official on this, one idea that has been floated from both the AEW and TNT side has been to air the U.S. debut of “Omegaman,” the TSN in Canada documentary on Kenny Omega, as a promotion vehicle for the launch in some form and to expose Omega to a wider audience as a top superstar. The documentary is very strong in Omega coming across as someone who can carry a promotion, but the flip side is much of the documentary focuses on the Omega & Kota Ibushi Golden Lovers tag team, and there is no movement at all right now regarding Ibushi working for AEW. At this point it seems like it’s something that has been brought up, but I don’t know the odds of it happening are particularly good.
AEW did heavy media on 7/24 with TNT at the Television Critics Association Convention. They were one of two shows that TNT was heavily pushing. AEW brought a crew of Tony Khan, Omega, The Young Bucks, Cody & Brandi Rhodes, Michael Nakazawa (who, besides wrestling, works as an international liaison for the company and an agent for women’s matches), Nyla Rose, Awesome Kong (likely because she’s a part of the cast of the GLOW television show that is critically acclaimed) and Jungle Boy, who got a ton of attention when people found out he was the son of Luke Perry. It was noted that a lot of the media was unfamiliar with pro wrestling and pro wrestlers and many didn’t know who Dusty Rhodes was when Cody would talk about his father.