re: Report: Tony Schiavone Turns Down WWE, Signs Deal With AEW

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Bout like Vince paying ppl to sit at home so they wont go to AEW

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That's the only reason why they tried to sign Tony back in the first place,so good on him for wanting to get paid to do actual work. Plus he's probably way more loyal to a Rhodes than he ever would be to Vince.

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Schiavone sucks

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You shut your mouth. But seriously if you had to choose between him and any current WWE announcer Tony would win every time.

I'm starting to think that if I photoshop myself into some old pictures with wrestlers, doctor some match results online, and forge a wikipedia entry on myself, WWE will offer me a nice contract just to keep me away from AEW.

WE'RE OUTTA TIME!!! SEE YOU ON THUNDER!!!!

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Is AEW going to be an actual threat to WWE? 

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Are they going to put WWE out of business, or come anywhere close? No.

Are they going to provide an alternative product on a nationwide top-tier cable TV channel and a touring show that gives wrestlers another place to work and sells out 10,000+ seat arenas? Yes.

I don't want WWE to fail. Some of what they put out is great. I want wrestlers to have several legit options for where they can work so that they can negotiate for good pay and conditions, and I want fans to have more variety in easily available wrestling shows.

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they have tranny wrestlers

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Didn’t WWE have Chyna nearly two decades ago?

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AEW

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Anyone trying to take on WWE needs to learn the lessons that led to TNA's rise and fall.

1. Separate the heels from the faces.
---Yes, we all know it's fake but the genre itself is every bit as much escapism as an Avengers movie. Feed that instead of detracting from it. This also gives an old-school feel (for those of us from back in the NWA/Mid-South/AWA/Etc days).

2. You can pull big names from other programs but don't forget to push your newer people and then take care of them when they get over.
---AJ Styles, Austin Aries, LAX (although Konnan came from WCW, the group was a TNA original), ODB, Eric Young, etc. While TNA did a great job pulling great talent from WWE, they began focusing too much on them instead of the talent that helped bring them to the point where a Kurt Angle would even consider jumping ship to join them.

3. Do something unique instead of trying to be "WWE Light".
---One of the interesting draws of TNA was the octagon ring. It added a whole extra level of possibilities and it was starkly different than what WWE was doing. Changing to the square ring was a definite visual queue about the direction TNA was moving into.
---Another thing they did that was different was not to just have women that actually wrestled but they PUSHED them. ODB's spots were always gold. BANG!!

4. Good storylines + good wrestlers = win!
---This is probably the most difficult part because "good" can be so very subjective when discussing storylines. A great example was LAX, that group still had plenty of mileage left to it but TNA allowed them to become faces and this killed their militant angle. Instead of replacing Konnan (who was great on the mic for the militant angle) when he left, they just let the group dissolve.

See also: the original Beautiful People.

5. Don't mix personal and professional.
---Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter

6. Stick to recording your weekly show.
---There's nothing to be gained by doing a live show versus what you do with a pre-recorded event that has a little polish on it. Also, apparently live broadcasts are more expensive. One of the worst financial decisions TNA made was to listen to the advice of the newly hired team of Bischoff and Hogan and not only go live but to do so in the same timeslot as WWE. Which leads me to the final point...

7. Don't hire Hogan and Bischoff.
---Hogan was built by McMahon and he can barely move now. Bischoff grabbed lightning in a bottle with NWO then didn't know what to do with it (and thus fricked it up so bad WCW was sold to WWE).

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AEW

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So is this kinda how WCW was back in the day?

Tenay knew his luchadors and Japanese wrestling.

Tenay knows the sportbooks real well.

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Tenay knew his luchadors and Japanese wrestling.

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Tenay actually sounded perfect as like a cruiserweight/international wrestler expert

ETA: along with the "professor" nickname to go with it

Vince won. He feigns some interest in an awful announce guy, AEW "steals" him, but are now saddled with a shitty commentator.