That is the reason I despise the hardcore AEW fans : they always have random excuses for everything and come of as delusional. Khan throws the gauntlet and goes on a week long tantrum on podcasts and Twitter because he signed a cheque he cannot cash? Oh he's just "working" you brother, GO TONY!!! Punk's (and many more) return is at best underwhelming and at worst awful? Oh it's longterm storytelling, just let it breathe bro. Rampage """wins""" in some very specific quarter-hour in a very specific demo against Smackdown, whilst being almost 300k behind overall? IT'S A TIE GUYS, WRESTLING WON WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT (because WWE is pro wrestling when the plot demands it)!!! I could go on, but this one is really the worst to me. When you do a quick Google search for "key demo" and "fast national ratings", it's filled with pro wrestling results because those are specific terms that Uncle Dave/Khan/whoever decided to use and abuse one day and clearly, no one seems to care outside the wrestling bubble.Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 17th, '21, 19:43Yeah, this is not Tony "working" anyone. This is Tony saying things. Saying that he is "working" people is a post-facto defense that marks use to try to defend him when he turns out to be wrong (and he's not the only person in the wrestling business this happens with). It's the wrestling version of "take him seriously, but not literally," as the Trump supporters used to (and maybe still do?) say.
The sad thing is that Khan is much closer to Turner than he's willing to admit. Both are wrestling fans who didn't know how to run a wrestling company, but while Ted knew that and delegated pretty much everything WCW-related to TV production/wrestling people (also he had bigger fishes to fry, but details you know), Khan has been taking more and more tasks for himself while also not caring too much about whatever he's supposed to do for the Jaguars and Fulham, which could potentially explain why he's been getting increasingly unhinged lately.Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 17th, '21, 19:49This is actually pretty damning, to me, as it shows a complete and total lack of understanding of the power structure in WCW and Turner. Ted was about five levels above where Bischoff/Watts/Herd/Busch/Frey/whoever were. Ted Turner's job wasn't to manage WCW; it was to manage the entire Turner media empire on the macro level. The idea that Ted Turner was the one "running" WCW is the sort of thing that only people who buy into WWE propaganda think.
Punk's debut and maybe Christian winning the Impact title are the only things I'd call important, and those happened on the first couple of shows. They have some decent matches sure, but what show doesn't nowadays?Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Oct 17th, '21, 19:55To be fair, you actually did see Rock and Austin on Heat early in its run. Ditto with Cena and Take on Main Event. Vince treated those shows as important when they started. The big stars stopped appearing on them when he lost interest and decided that they weren't important. I think Tony Khan has done an excellent job at keeping Rampage feeling important thus far.
wXw would make the most sense since I can pretty much call them local (well not really, but actual belgian local shows are both scarce and unappealing), but I've never cared for them to be quite honest. Even going to Carat weekend in 2015 was more of an impulse thing than something I wanted to do.I'd recomend wXw, but their weekly show is usually about two hours, too.
What you should do is use your Peacock subscription and go back and watch the golden days of 205 Live, from when Enzo is stripped of the title to when NXT takes the belt.
Two-hour shows aren't a deal breaker, but I grew up watching the one-hour version of Nitro that aired here (+ half the PPVs) and I tend to gravitate towards those nowadays. You just need to keep me entertained, and for better or worse really. I've watched and reviewed TNA for almost two years not because all shows were great (mid-2013 to early-mid-2015), but because I enjoy ripping a dumbass angle/storyline/match/gimmick to shreds (which I'm sure is shocking absolutely no one) as much as I can appreciate and praise an entertaining/well done one. The worst things a show can be to me is to be boring or overly trash. That's generally what makes me drop a specific show/promotion from my schedule.