*AEW Chat*

[Big Pete]

I'm surprised they pulled the plug so early. They only just released a new promotional ad catered towards casual fans that promoted the product far more clearly. Before hand, all their promotional material centered around the Gates of Agony and Aussie Open.

That's one of the issues when you promote quantity over quality. You might have a more consistent product, but it's tough to sell tickets when you can't guarantee who will be on the show and what the fans are exactly paying for.

At this stage, I'd expect the show to be based around Toni Storm and Kyle Fletcher. Toni only just returned to TV after spending months on the sideline, so I don't know how they expected to sell tickets without their biggest stars. Meanwhile Fletcher has really only just started to be pushed and for all we know he's about to have the rug pulled out from underneath him.

I thought it was a ballsy move to run Suncorp, but it's not like Tony can't afford to take the hit and if he discounted the tickets he could have established a nice foot-hold here in Australia.

 

[Pippen94]

From Variety today about deal makers in entertainment industry:

"Tony Khan, CEO, All Elite Wrestling (AEW)

In October, five years to the week after Khan launched professional wrestling promotion AEW as a direct competitor to Vince McMahon’s long-dominant WWE, he closed a multi-year media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, worth a reported $185 million a year, that calls for AEW’s shows and events to be broadcast on TBS and TNT and stream on Max. The company is now valued at more than $2 billion, making it the third-most-valuable combat sports company in the world."

 

[Big Pete]

Be curious to see whether that's true or just a figure that's been floated online for a year.

Best of luck to Tony if he can sell it for that price.

 

[Pippen94]

Be curious to see whether that's true or just a figure that's been floated online for a year.

Best of luck to Tony if he can sell it for that price.

As a general rule I favour variety & Forbes over Cornette & Russo, but I find people believe what they want to be true.

 

[Big Pete]

Good for you mate, let's see Tony sell it for over two billion.

 

[Pippen94]

Good for you mate, let's see Tony sell it for over two billion.

WWE is dominating business at the moment but it's not my flavour. Always good for other companies to emerge and present a different approach to the sport. It's hard going at the moment, but things go in cycles.

 

[Big Pete]

More the merrier.

Like I said, this was a figure that's been floated around for over a year at this point and there was nothing really concrete behind it other than the opinion of one Forbes reporter and even he didn't sound confident. Do you know who else writes for Forbes? Alfred Konuwa and I wouldn't take his opinion seriously either.

AEW has never relied on it's financials. It's Tony Khan's project and unless something tragic happens to him or he goes full Foxcatcher it'll remain on TV.

 

[Pippen94]

More the merrier.

Like I said, this was a figure that's been floated around for over a year at this point and there was nothing really concrete behind it other than the opinion of one Forbes reporter and even he didn't sound confident. Do you know who else writes for Forbes? Alfred Konuwa and I wouldn't take his opinion seriously either.

AEW has never relied on it's financials. It's Tony Khan's project and unless something tragic happens to him or he goes full Foxcatcher it'll remain on TV.

Konuwa is part of Forbes contributor program. He's not a staff writer. He's not really a journalist. I think you know that. Valuation is just a valuation, but credentials of person who came up with that figure are highly known. Be my guest and google. I don't know what aew is worth & I don't care really. If you're questioning tv deal then that's venturing onto qanon territory.

 

[Big Pete]

Konuwa is Forbes' Pro Wrestling expert which goes to show you how seriously they take it.

I just find it odd that the company was worth two billion minimum and that was before their TV deal that supposedly made them profitable. You would think that would add to the value but supposedly not - something doesn't add up.

I guess we'll find out someday, maybe after Tony releases the report on all the online bots that post mean things about AEW.

 

[Pippen94]

Konuwa is Forbes' Pro Wrestling expert which goes to show you how seriously they take it.

I just find it odd that the company was worth two billion minimum and that was before their TV deal that supposedly made them profitable. You would think that would add to the value but supposedly not - something doesn't add up.

I guess we'll find out someday, maybe after Tony releases the report on all the online bots that post mean things about AEW.

Staff writers are full time & do in-depth reporting. The figure of $2 billion came from a CNBC business reporter & a person who runs a sports data company. A contributor may or not be paid and are used to drum up traffic to websites by providing content. They're not journalists and their content is low grade click bait that the media outlet doesn't look at.

Tv deal was reported by biggest entertainment sources like variety & sports business journal. We don't know who provided that number but it would be a reliable source generally from somebody who works with WBD. Wbd is one of the biggest media companies in the world & has shareholders, so it wouldn't want an inaccurate number there. Contrast this with Jim Cornette who has no connection to media industry & makes up stuff his listeners want to hear to gain subscriptions.

This is world we live in today. People can't discern reliable information hence the spreading of conspiracies etc.

 

[Big Pete]

It wasn't an in-depth report. I believe it originally came from a TV appearance Ozanian made and a clip emerged that set twitter abuzz. Even Meltzer was sceptical of the evaluation but used Forbes' evaluation of Bellator to justify his one billion evaluation. Bellator reportedly sold for a fifth of that so not exactly a vote of confidence. Then Ozanian responded to Meltzer and said it was minimum and they've run with that figure ever since and that was before the TV deal. If anything AEW's evaluation should have gone up.

I'm not questioning the legitimacy of the TV deal. The only question is who's right between Variety and SBJ is it 185 million? Or is it 175 million?

And that's the thing with AEW. It's not a publically traded company so this information isn't public. It's all speculation that ultimately doesn't matter. Forbes could come out and say AEW is now worth $3 billion and it wouldn't faze anyone because Tony isn't going to sell the company.

Maybe if it goes to $10 billion, Shad might have to step in.