I was at Mania 20. Fun memories, although somewhat soured by what transpired later on.

I think if AEW wants to be what it is, then it's fine. It's fine to be a niche product for the biggest of wrestling fans who will pay 50 bucks for a show. But even someone like me who is a reasonably big fan but not a huge fan, that's too steep a price. 

It's also not even just about money, but about time. When I watch WWE PPVs I often watch them piecemeal. Some the night of, then maybe some on the way to work, some on the way back, and some at home. I believe if you buy the PPV you just get it the day of? Maybe you can DVR it? It's an archaic delivery system. 

People who want the WCW/WWF days again want AEW to move to Mondays, but that's just not the world we live in anymore. If AEW was going to try to become the number one company, then something like a deal with Netflix would be gamechanging move. Dunno how feasible that is, but that's where the battle would be.

BUM ASS BARON CORBIN!

why is everything on WWE so bad?

It's not? I find the Baron Corbin stuff amusing. It's comic relief and not everything has to be taken seriously. Smackdown is consistently a pretty good show. Roman Reigns is probably the best heel of the last decade. Had an awesome match with Finn Balor. Walter v. Dragonov was one of the best matches I've ever seen both times. Lots of good stuff. Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

I think Bum ass Baron Corbin is funny as hell :)

This interview is pretty fucking awesome. I love how CM Punk is watching his figure and understands the bloating effects of pizza... I mean, I eat vegan pizza - cheese and toppings typically less in calories than other pizza, and well, it's still like 350-400 calories a slice... and I mean, it's fine and all if you're eating 1 or 2 slices as a meal, but I don't find 2 slices of pizza nearly as filling as... say a kg of roasted potatoes - which has about the same caloric cost. So, if you're a pro-wrestler aiming for something like 8% body fat, then pizza is... yeah!

The Rock basically does high protein and high carb days, eating a lot of fish and eggs on the protein side, and tons of veggies, oatmeal, rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes. The sorts of foods you'd eat to lose weight and gain muscle... it doesn't specify the veggies, but I'm guessing it's stuff to round out his micros, stuff like vitamin c and vitamin a and others... although, the one veggie it DOES specify is spinach which is where he gets his vitamin k - which is one that people don't get enough of in general. Anyway: https://manofmany.com/featured/the-rock-diet-and-workout-plan

Oatmeal's fucking awesome, but I usually add cinnamon and brown sugar to it, and if I bite into a peach and it's a bit hard, I'll slice it up and throw it in the oatmeal, softens right up, goes well with the flavour. Apples work good too.

Is anyone else hungry?

AEW beat RAW in the key demographic ratings!

AEW Dynamite scored 1.319 million viewers, and 681,000 in the 18-49 key demographic range, which surpasses RAW's 678,000 viewers. That's pretty awesome that finally someone was able to surpass the ancien regime. Although, when it comes to aged 50+ viewers, RAW still leads. That's the next milestone for AEW, beating RAW.
I'm not American and have no idea what this "Cable TV" and "Network TV" thing means, but apparently AEW topped Cable TV for the night, and Big Brother topped Network TV ratings.

Also in the news: even though NXT is no longer on Wednesday nights, Adam Cole still is.

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2021/09/aew-dynamite-scores-best-audience-and-key-demo-rating-since-premiere/

Sadly, WWE hasn't cared about ratings in years. IT's been about the brand deals and merchandising. 

I greatly prefer AEW in virtually every way (WWE's women division is still marginally better), but like...they're fighting different battles here. Paraphrasing here, but you wouldn't judge its fish by its ability to climb a tree...Different promotions have different goals. 

That said, holy shit that's awesome. AEW is the only reason I'm still watching pro wrestling and I gotta say, I'm impressed! 

USA Network and NBCUniversal most certainly do. And that's reason enough for WWE to care very much about ratings too.

Now reportedly, WWE gets $265 million a year from USA Network and NBCUniversal for RAW

Meanwhile, AEW gets $43.75 million a year from TNT and WarnerMedia for Dynamite.

And the fact that the Key Demo, the 18-49 Adult demographic, the one ALL the networks pay attention to, is THIS high for them at THAT price for a show that's not even 2 years old yet is an absolute steal for WarnerMedia and TNT. They are absolutely thrilled with that number. Meanwhile, USA Network and NBCUniversal are paying a little over 6 times the amount TNT and Warner have to pay for similar results. I guarantee you they are absolutely NOT happy with that AT ALL. Especially considering how RAW's ratings have consistently being going down every year for last 7 years. And based on how shit RAW has consistently been, you can bet that drop will continue. And if AEW keeps the momentum rolling like they have, THEIR ratings will slowly but surely keep going up. So if that's the case, we're going to reach the point where Dynamite starts beating RAW in the demo more and more often (Hell, it may happen again in a few weeks at the Arthur Ashe show with now that Monday Night Football is back)... They may even overtake them entirely. And if we get to that point, overall viewership won't be too far off.

And BOTH of their TV rights deals are due to expire in 2023, and if both shows continue their trends, that's going to make those contract negotiations VERY interesting. 

I was mostly just posting because this is probably the first time in over 20 years a non-WWE Wrestling show has beaten RAW in any capacity, ratings wise. So it's more about it being a milestone than wanting WWE to be upset about getting beaten.

Speaking of WWE, there was news that Vince McMahon missed a couple of shows. Apparently Paul "HHH" Levesque had a cardiac event a few weeks ago and had a procedure done last week.