The "let's not take this shyt so seriously" AEW news & fukkery thread

[Cattle Mutilation]

The ticket price thing seems so obvious to me... there were a load of cheap All In seats moved late, but they want pretty much the same money as WWE for ringside/hard cam seats and that's not how you act like a challenger/punk/alternative brand to me.

It's always been the case that you can go and see Common Sense for less money than Jay-Z.

It doesn't mean you're getting worse music or even a worse show, it's just a reflection of the fame and demand for tickets for each artist in any given city... likelihood is seeing smaller acts you'll get a more intimate venue AND that little buzz that you're getting to see something the masses are missing out on.

I don't get why they don't just run with the same model - set ticket prices at 60-70% of WWE and book venues that you have a chance of filling to minimise costs. Make a big deal out of the fact fans are getting to see something that not everyone knows about rather than have it feel that it's something people don't care about.

It's not rocket science... music has been making it work for nearly a century.

As far as ticket prices go…

They need to either be the company that offers a quality product that’s affordable for families of all economic levels to be able to attend - even if it’s a shytty seat. Asses in seats is better than no asses in seats even if they only paid $1 for a ticket where they can’t even see the ring because they are sitting behind a cement column. Maybe those people are new fans, they buy some merch, next time to buy more expensive seats, they bring friends with them next time, they buy a PPV, they sub to Max (assuming AEW gets on there) to see AEW content, etc. Yeah you can argue they devalue their ticket by doing this, but if your goal is to be an affordable ticket, is that really all that bad?

OR

They need to be the product that charges premium prices for an in-arena product that’s even more premium than WWE. And booking aside, they don’t have the infrastructure to beat WWE at that.

I mean it’s just basic business. There’s only so many ways you can differentiate yourself by going middle of the road and those options become much more limited as long as you’re a live, touring product.

 

[TheAlbionist]

As far as ticket prices go…

They need to either be the company that offers a quality product that’s affordable for families of all economic levels to be able to attend - even if it’s a shytty seat. Asses in seats is better than no asses in seats even if they only paid $1 for a ticket where they can’t even see the ring because they are sitting behind a cement column. Maybe those people are new fans, they buy some merch, next time to buy more expensive seats, they bring friends with them next time, they buy a PPV, they sub to Max (assuming AEW gets on there) to see AEW content, etc. Yeah you can argue they devalue their ticket by doing this, but if your goal is to be an affordable ticket, is that really all that bad?

OR

They need to be the product that charges premium prices for an in-arena product that’s even more premium than WWE. And booking aside, they don’t have the infrastructure to beat WWE at that.

Yep. If prices had been lower this year we would've taken my niece and nephew - but when that meant turning a £400 day out into an £800 day out it stopped being an option.

They stayed at home in Bristol and went to see Massive Attack with their parents instead - kids were 25% full price there. Taking them to that turned a £160 day into a £200 day to include the kids. AEW missed out on two new fans who would've definitely convinced me to buy them a couple of shirts.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Yep. If prices had been lower this year we would've taken my niece and nephew - but when that meant turning a £400 day out into an £800 day out it stopped being an option.

They stayed at home in Bristol and went to see Massive Attack with their parents instead - kids were 25% full price there. Taking them to that turned a £160 day into a £200 day to include the kids. AEW missed out on two new fans who would've definitely convinced me to buy them a couple of shirts.

Being an affordable option can make for a wildly successful and sustainable business. McDonald’s didn’t become the behemoth it is because they are charging Chi-Fil-A or Five Guys prices.

And the TV wrestling industry is extremely dependent on that TV money these days, there’s no reason why AEW, with their significantly leaner operation compared to WWE, can’t be an affordable price when WWE is charging out the ass.

Even with WWE back in 2022 when they were charging big ticket prices saw their gate revenue (123.1 million) barely being even 1/10 of what they were making on Media (1,033.9 million). And that was with their gate revenue having increased 113% over the previous year. Then they spent 98.0 million of that 123.1 million live gate revenue on operating, marketing, and selling expenses for live events.

That’s not to dismiss the value of gate revenue to the business, but when the ticket sales are down the drain, you have a relatively lean business (once again, compared to WWE), and ticket revenue is a small part of the overall revenue (even more so for AEW than WWE given low ticket sales), ticket prices is one area where you can go cheap and hope it has some trickle down positive effects to offset it.

And the revenue gap between gate and media is only going to get bigger for both WWE and AEW when new media rights deals kick in.

 

[mannyrs13]

I don't know if TK can take full blame of the booking tho it has improved, but def still have things to work on.

Agree that the high ticket prices can be a factor. That's especially true for international fans. Don't know about the differences with Canada since its right over the border compared to Europe, altho All In is the biggest event. Guess the Cardiff show could be used in comparison tho that being a first time thing it may have been high as well. I know WWE has been charging more for their international PLEs, not sure about the house shows or SD episodes they done out there.

But domestically is where the ticket focus needs to be. I just feel it doesn't cost them anything to have as much available as possible. Critics are gonna talk whether they fill 10% of the arena or 90%. They'll see a tarped section and use that as ammo in their imaginary war. So that's unavoidable.

Who knows what a good price point may be to attract fans or to deter them. I'm sure WWE may possibly run into that point eventually cuz unless it's a big ppv, not sure how many are willing to pay big bucks to see a random Raw or SD or even less a house show. There's def a breaking point between I'll attend and I'd like to attend but can't afford it so I'll just watch at home and hope I can go next time.


They just gotta get better as far as picking arenas and their setups go. One example is this past week where I think they only had a 2k seat setup. At least the crowds have been active to make it sound better.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

AEW is in the enviable position where they can potentially use WWE’s hot streak and being a public company to their advantage in a way.

AEW is a private company. They don’t have shareholders to answer to and don’t have to maximize profit to appease them.

So he can charge cheaper ticket prices and as long as they can keep talent to do what they want and can pay back investors, TK can define whatever level of profitability (or even unprofitability) he wants as a success.

And if cheaper prices work, then guess what? WWE can’t get in a race to the bottom for ticket prices just to try to cut AEW off at the knees because WWE is selling out, or nearly selling out, everywhere they go. So as long as WWE is hot, all a race to the bottom would do is harm WWE/TKO.

 

[mannyrs13]

Also WWE has more people they employ so charging less for tickets could lessen the money they have for payroll. We shall see when roster cuts come, usually not for a while tho, how those go and if any changes are made.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Also WWE has more people they employ so charging less for tickets could lessen the money they have for payroll. We shall see when roster cuts come, usually not for a while tho, how those go and if any changes are made.

AEW is a bare bones operation compared to WWE from even like 30 years ago. Like they don't even have a "real" corporate office as mostly everyone works remotely and their business address is the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

This tweet below is a perfect summation of why for a while I stopped watching Dynamite in the early years and why I find it to be a worse product back then than now despite the ratings and ticket sales being worse.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Mark Sterling is a fukking manager and they had him go five minutes with the AEW champion in the main event of the Dynamite go home show to All Out.

Don’t come at me with some bullshyt nonsense about how AEW was better back then. It was only better because it’s compared to the complete fukking shyt show that WWE was back then.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

bUt aEw wAs bEtTeR BaCk tHeN

fukk out of here p*ssy

 

[NoMorePie]

bUt aEw wAs bEtTeR BaCk tHeN

fukk out of here p*ssy

Cattle talking spicy.

I like it.

 

[NoMorePie]

Look at them not taking shyt so seriously

 

[Heelish]

Don’t come at me with some bullshyt nonsense about how AEW was better back then.

I thought most of us here agree that the early AEW days of Marko Stunt and Sonny Kiss were the drizzling shyts? Do people really hold those days to high standard? I wasn’t watching back then though.

Now that I think about it more, they’re probably talking about AEW from August 2021-September 2023

 

[Flex Luger]

Who done pissed Cattle off