Major WWE Overhaul, Tony Khan On AEW CM Punk Footage | WrestleTalk - video Dailymotion

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Do you think Tony Khan will step down soon? Let us know in the comments! The Rise & Rise of The Rock  https://youtu.be/09KwOz0kXMU More wrestling news on https://wrestletalk.com/ Unlock the secrets to working in professional wrestling, sign up to https://www.wrestlingmasterclass.com/ 0:00 - Coming up... 0:22 - Tony Khan On Stepping Down As AEW Booker 4:53 - Tony Khan On Airing CM Punk Footage 8:05 - AEW Unifying Titles 9:12 - Major WWE Overhaul Major WWE Overhaul, Tony Khan On AEW CM Punk Footage | WrestleTalk #WWE #TonyKhan #AEW  Subscribe to WrestleTalk Podcasts   https://bit.ly/3pEAEIu Subscribe to partsFUNknown for lists, fantasy booking & more  https://bit.ly/32JJsCv Subscribe to NoRollsBarred  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UQPZe-8v4_UP1uxi4Mv6A Subscribe to WrestleTalk  https://bit.ly/3gKdNK3 SUBSCRIBE TO THEM ALL! Make sure to enable ALL push notifications!  Watch the latest wrestling news: https://shorturl.at/pAIV3 Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/   Follow WrestleTalk: Twitter: https://twitter.com/_WrestleTalk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WrestleTalk.Official Patreon: https://goo.gl/2yuJpo WrestleTalk Podcast on iTunes: https://goo.gl/7advjX WrestleTalk Podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3uKx6HD  About WrestleTalk: Welcome to the official WrestleTalk YouTube channel! WrestleTalk covers the sport of professional wrestling - including WWE TV shows (both WWE Raw & WWE SmackDown LIVE), PPVs (such as Royal Rumble, WrestleMania & SummerSlam), AEW All Elite Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, ROH, New Japan, and more. Subscribe and enable ALL notifications for the latest wrestling WWE reviews and wrestling news.  Sources used for research: https://www.cagesideseats.com/aew/2024/4/19/24134628/aew-collision-rampage-double-header-lineup-dynasty-go-home-rvd-return-special-match-420-day-high-fly https://www.cagesideseats.com/aew/2024/4/18/24134046/aew-dynasty-ppv-match-card-lineup-updated-two-new-pre-show-matches-trent-sydal-orange-shibata-shane  https://wrestletalk.com/news/aew-championships-big-change-confirmed/  https://wrestletalk.com/news/aew-dynamite-dynasty-go-home-ratings/  https://www.cagesideseats.com/aew/2024/4/18/24134270/tony-khan-comments-cm-punk-jack-perry-backstage-fight-footage-camera-ratings-stunt-tbs-network-happy  https://www.cagesideseats.com/2024/4/19/24134543/rumor-roundup-aew-billions-value-gulak-rousey-accusation-erick-rowan-wwe-return-azm-dynasty-ple-khan https://wrestletalk.com/news/tony-khan-discusses-stepping-down-aew-booker/  https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1465476-nick-khan-elaborates-on-keeping-certain-wwe-premium-live-events-in-north-america  https://www.cagesideseats.com/2024/4/19/24134543/rumor-roundup-aew-billions-value-gulak-rousey-accusation-erick-rowan-wwe-return-azm-dynasty-ple-khan https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1465621-report-wwe-has-discussed-hosting-wrestlemania-in-may

Transcript

00:00 Tony Khan talks about stepping down, airing the CM Punk footage and more.

00:04 AEW scrapping a title.

00:07 Three of them, no less.

00:08 A major WWE overhaul and more.

00:11 I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.

00:23 Even the best bookers only have 3-5 hot years.

00:26 After that, people start to repeat themselves, run out of ideas or lose touch with their

00:31 audience.

00:32 Like Gato's 5 incredible years booking New Japan from 2015 to 2020 - a run ended in part

00:38 due to a slight global pandemic, but also because his storylines and champions were

00:43 no longer connecting with his audience.

00:45 Vince McMahon went through a few 3-5 year periods, going through hot runs like the Rock

00:49 and Wrestling connection in the 80s and the 1997-2001 Attitude Era, with long, terrible

00:56 periods in between.

00:58 Like Oli Davis, who's hosted the WrestleTalk News for 7 years.

01:01 Who put that on the teleprompter?

01:03 All Elite Wrestling's booking properly launched with May 2019's Double or Nothing.

01:07 They began weekly TV four months later with the debut of Dynamite.

01:11 The show's first few months, however, was a promotion trying to find what it actually

01:15 is.

01:16 It was a supported group of bookers in the EVPs like Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes and the

01:21 Young Bucks.

01:22 This culminated in one of the company's worst ever angles - the Dark Order invasion

01:27 on the 19th December 2019.

01:29 It was so badly received that Tony Khan reportedly took control of the creative reins, properly

01:35 becoming AEW's head booker from the start of 2020.

01:39 In my opinion, despite that massive obstacle of the pandemic, he then went on the longest,

01:45 most consistent run of high quality wrestling TV of all time, lasting two and a half years

01:52 from the start of 2020 all the way through until their awkward Hangman Page CM Punk World

01:58 title feud and the purchase of Ring of Honor in 2022.

02:02 One trick some promoters had back in the territory days would be to cycle themselves out to creatively

02:07 refresh themselves and avoid burnout.

02:10 Six months on, then six months off where Jerry Lawler will do some weird s***.

02:13 But Khan, if anything, has taken on a workload only ever matched by the far more experienced

02:19 and established WWE.

02:21 And even they couldn't really do it most of the time.

02:24 In that 2020-2022 Glory run, Khan was booking the weekly two hour Dynamite and four four

02:30 hour pay-per-views per year - which is about 125 hours of wrestling content.

02:35 I'm not counting Dark and Dark Elevation.

02:37 In mid-2021, the promotion debuted the one hour Rampage, increasing that number to 180-ish

02:44 hours per year.

02:45 In 2022, AEW added Ring of Honor and Battle of the Belts.

02:49 Coincidentally, the same year it started to experience backstage personnel problems.

02:54 In 2023 came an extra two hour weekly show Collision.

02:57 In 2024, they've doubled their original pay-per-view schedule.

03:01 AEW is now responsible for producing 380 hours of wrestling content a year.

03:09 So probably with all that in mind, and two weeks of heavily criticised TV that saw Khan

03:13 rattled by WWE and CM Punk's shots at his company, someone has asked him if there was

03:19 any situation where he would step down as head booker and let someone else take over.

03:25 In the media call ahead of yet another new AEW pay-per-view, this Sunday's Dynasty,

03:30 Khan admitted that nobody lasts forever in any position, but he's having more fun than

03:35 ever right now.

03:36 He described his mindset towards the creative process as taking things year to year and

03:40 moment to moment.

03:42 He said many wrestlers are loyal to him right now, and he's going to do his best to pay

03:46 them back.

03:47 In short, no.

03:49 No, I'm not stepping down as AEW head booker.

03:52 What ideas do you have for AEW's creative direction?

03:55 Write Paul Heyman in the comments over and over again down below where I'll be replying

03:58 to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.

04:01 Before we get into Khan's comments on controversially airing the CM Punk footage, start getting

04:05 excited for our new WrestleTalk original going live tomorrow…

04:10 The Rise of Cody Rhodes.

04:14 But finally, at 19 years old, Cody plucked up the courage to tell his father what he

04:19 really wanted to do with his life.

04:21 Driving home from breakfast at the local Waffle House, he announced "I don't want to do

04:25 anything but wrestling" according to Cody.

04:28 Dusty sat silently behind the wheel of the car, processing what he'd just heard.

04:33 After a few minutes of contemplation, Dusty said "If you're going to do it, then be

04:39 the best."

04:40 He promised when Cody eventually won a world championship, Dusty would give him his treasured

04:46 gold Rolex watch.

04:48 Please subscribe and enable notifications to always on so you know first when that goes

04:53 live.

04:54 Back to AEW.

04:55 The thing is, this year, they've been putting on its most consistent best TV since those

04:59 glory days.

05:00 Bringing in Will Ospreay, the swerve Samoa Joe and Hangman hate triangle, Sting's retirement

05:05 run.

05:06 Yet it's all been undermined by Khan's decision to air the real backstage brawl footage

05:11 that got CM Punk fired with cause.

05:14 It was a decision so bad, it accomplished the rare feat of actually uniting all parts

05:18 of wrestling tribalism that universally said… not a good idea.

05:23 But despite that, Khan is still saying it was a good move because… ratings.

05:28 After the ratings came in, TBS called me and told me good job.

05:32 You have to remember that I'm responsible for everybody's job in this company, and

05:36 it is really important for us to please the Network.

05:39 And TBS was really happy with that show and that performance.

05:42 That's the most important thing.

05:45 And our fan feedback on the show that we got, the rating, is the number one source of fan

05:50 feedback in the end.

05:52 The Network were incredibly pleased.

05:54 It was over 400,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic, and that was a strong performance.

05:59 And that is how TBS judges the show.

06:02 And how TBS judges the show is the most important metric I have for the performance.

06:08 I think Tony's a smart enough guy where we can assume he's just saving face here.

06:12 Ratings are very important, of course, but there are plenty of examples in the past in

06:17 WCW, TNA, WWE, that a lot of people watching a bad show is a detriment in the long run.

06:24 Especially if you don't course correct fast.

06:26 Spill back the curtain here, for instance.

06:28 If we put out a video that gets loads of views, but is badly received in the comments, that

06:33 tells us we misjudged what the fans wanted, and we do everything we can to make up for

06:37 it from that point on.

06:38 You might get a high one-off quantity of views, but the quality of those views will damage

06:44 you in the long run.

06:45 And by Khan's own most important metric, airing the Punk footage wasn't really a

06:50 long term success.

06:52 Because it seems like none of those viewers it brought in have stuck around, with the

06:56 following week's Dynamite falling back to 762,000 viewers with a .26 rating in the 18-49

07:03 demographic.

07:04 Which is right back to their third lowest viewership and demo of the year.

07:09 It is important to remember, though, it's not all doom and gloom.

07:13 Even with those figures, Dynamite was still the top cable show excluding NBA programming,

07:18 and the year-on-year numbers are up from the overall decline of cable viewership.

07:22 Yes, AEW had a bad two weeks, and yes, WWE is molten hot right now, but All Elite remains

07:30 a very sustainable alternative.

07:33 Which is why Forbes have recently ranked AEW as the third most valuable combat sports promotion

07:39 in 2024, just behind the UFC and WWE, valuing it at $2 billion.

07:45 That'll only help AEW's TV rights negotiations, which will soon be coming out of the Warner

07:51 Bros Discovery exclusive period, meaning they can talk to other networks.

07:56 Khan has said on the Dynasty Media call that AEW's archive library will likely be a part

08:01 of any new deal, implying there will be a streaming platform element to it.

08:05 It is, of course, AEW Dynasty this Sunday - go watch mine and Luke's predictions for

08:09 it over on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel.

08:12 And also sign up to WrestleLeague for the brand new season - link in the video description

08:15 below - where you could win prizes up to $250 and we've got two more matches added to

08:21 the Dynasty Zero Hour card - Trent Barretta vs Matt Sydal and Orange Cassidy and Shibata

08:26 against Shane Taylor Promotions.

08:28 Khan also announced Rob Van Dam for a special match on the go-home episode of Collision,

08:33 which will air on the 20th April.

08:37 The 20th of the 4th month.

08:41 4/20.

08:42 Drugs.

08:43 Most significantly of all, however, is news that Bullet Club Gold vs The Acclaimed and

08:48 Daddy Ass will unify the Ring of Honor and AEW Six Man belts respectively.

08:53 The reason this has all been announced so late is because of an injury to one of the

08:57 wrestlers involved, though we don't know who, they're now clear to compete on Sunday.

09:01 But while AEW is ramping up its North American pay-per-view schedule, the new era of WWE

09:08 is overhauling how it books its biggest shows.

09:12 WWE President Nick Khan has revealed "We sat down together a few years ago and decided,

09:18 so the Big Five Premium Live events should be in the United States or Canada.

09:23 All of the other events, the goal is to have them from international locations."

09:29 But Khan lists the Big Five as the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, SummerSlam

09:33 and Survivor Series.

09:35 This means that WWE will be aiming to host seven Premium Live events a year in other

09:40 countries.

09:41 This has been underway since Vince McMahon was removed from power the first time, with

09:45 2023 seeing Backlash in Puerto Rico, Night of Champions and Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia

09:50 and Money in the Bank in London.

09:52 2024 has already seen Elimination Chamber in Australia, and will have Backlash in France,

09:57 Bash at the Castle in Scotland, Bash in Berlin in Germany and King and Queen of the Ring

10:02 in Saudi Arabia.

10:04 Additionally, Fightful Select is reporting that people in WWE are discussing next year's

10:09 WrestleMania to be moved to May to avoid the NCAA Final Four matches - which will fundamentally

10:16 change the wrestling calendar and how stories are paced coming out of the Royal Rumble.

10:21 The road to WrestleMania is going to be about two months longer.

10:24 This can seemingly be traced back to a mindset shift in WWE, with the TV industry changing,

10:30 Peacock and their future partner Netflix are most interested in the 24 hour number - which

10:35 is the amount of viewers who watch in the whole first day of a show's release, not

10:39 just the people who watch it live.

10:41 This is why WWE is becoming so comfortable with holding international events, which have

10:46 unconventional start times for the US.

10:49 Viewers in the US can watch it whenever they want.

10:51 This is why WWE didn't hold a major pay-per-view in the UK for decades despite the record setting

10:57 success for SummerSlam 1992.

11:00 Remember to subscribe for our Cody Rhodes documentary tomorrow!

11:03 In the meantime, watch our one on the Rise and Rise of the Rock.

Major WWE Overhaul, Tony Khan On AEW CM Punk Footage | WrestleTalk

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