AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Reminder again tonight (for those reading this blog on
Monday), that RAW airs live from London today on Netflix at
3:00 pm ET/12 noon PT (the UK went to British Summer Time
yesterday) with replays available afterwards. This RAW will
be the final TV of this European series of shows; with the
next series happening in late summer (head-to-head with
AEW's Forbidden Door and any possible TV AEW might have
planned to do while in the UK). RAW will be available on-
demand after the show ends.
First...the incompetence in wrestling award for 2025 has an
early winner: Anthem Sports and Entertainment for the firing
last Tuesday of Gail Kim (among other executives). There are
few others as identified with TNA/IMPACT as Gail Kim; and
few, if any, others in wrestling period that are so
universally respected and admired as Kim. She's the reason
TNA/IMPACT had such a well-respected women's division over
the years, and why the promotion survived the firing of
Scott D'Amore.
The only explanation besides complete incompetence is that
TNA is preparing for sale and Anthem is dumping payroll to
make the acquisition look better on the books for a
potential buyer. Most recently, such payroll dumping
happened when WWE was purchased by TKO with WWE mass firing
experienced firing staff and executives. This was followed
by more staff consolidation after the merger itself.
Sean Ross Sapp reported Wednesday TNA President Carlos Silva
made the decision to fire Kim and the others; and apparently
didn't give any kind of justification, other than "changes".
Sapp reported on Fightful Select that there has been
"significant push back from the roster, with one talent
telling [Fightful] they'll be leaving when their deal is
up.".
Sapp suggested in a podcast with John Pollock and Brandon
Thurston last Wednesday that Silva was (to put it
charitably) less than knowledgeable, with Silva referring to
the guard rails around ringside as "bike racks". This
mindset comes across as reminiscent of the worst days of
Turner management of WCW and references to "international
objects".
What also needs to be said is that Gail Kim was the highest
placed woman in a major administrative role in a major North
American wrestling company. Veda Scott put it simply: "We
need MORE women in pro wrestling management/leadership
positions, not fewer." The fortunate side is that Gail
Kim apparently has interest from both AEW and WWE, per Sean
Ross Sapp on The Hump podcast this past Wednesday. No doubt,
she'll be contributing her talents to someone soon; someone
that treats her in a way more deserving of her talent and
experience.
Then....this past week, we saw Chad Gable's "El Grande
Americano" introduced. His "signing" was announced with a
badly modified AI "lucha history lesson" showing lucha
legends, involving El Grande Americano's "role in that
history". Toward the end of the segment, WWE took the
segment into MAGA territory as they showed a map of the
Americas; with the Gulf of Mexico labeled as the Trumpspeak
"Gulf of America". The excuse for doing so was that heat is
supposed to be directed at the heel, and "isn't being done
by the promotion". First, people aren't three years old. We
know what wrestling is. Chad Gable isn't doing this, and
isn't getting real life heel or wrestling heat. WWE is
getting it, and they should be.
Box Y Lucha and other lucha publications in Mexico, as well
as Mexican fans are pissed at WWE for doing the segment.
Ernesto Ocampo, Editor-in-Chief of Super Luchas, wrote
“[The skit] is an insult on many levels, both to Mexican
wrestling and to Mexico itself. They could have left out the
‘Gulf of America’ reference"
People watch wrestling to escape the real world's insanity,
not be reminded of it or have it force-fed to them by a
company increasingly willing to associate itself with the
current Administration, including Paul Levesque sitting in
on the confirmation hearing of Linda McMahon; and whose
partners in UFC openly associate with Donald Trump at
ringside for UFC shows. Even Vince McMahon knew better and
knew Democrats and independents bought tickets and
merchandise during the first Trump administration, and kept
references to Trump off WWE TV.
WWE's track record with black and Latino talent over the
years has hardly been the greatest; and the booking of
talent of color (particularly male) has been spotty at best
most recently. There are claims of a desire for bilingual
Latino talent, yet someone as talented as Santos
Escobar...perfectly bilingual, experienced in multiple
companies and multiple styles...is stuck in the lower to
mid-card. The LWO plays jobbers to the stars.
So...in some ways...none of this should be a surprise.
In positive wrestling news....AEW fans will be able to catch
Collision live during Wrestlemania week. According to the
TNT website, AEW Collision Spring Breakthru will air LIVE on
Thursday, April 17 at 8:00 pm ET on TNT and MAX from the
MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, MA. Warner Brothers
Discovery sees Collision as enough of a priority to not dump
Collision in a suicide slot.
Following up on last week's blog, Andrew Zarian reported on
his Beyond the Bell podcast that Warner Brothers Discovery
is looking to schedule a three-to-four-hour AEW special
block in June during the Stanley Cup Finals, which airs on
TNT.
“Spoke to someone a couple weeks ago, and they were
telling me that these are experiments that Warner is willing
to try,” Zarian said. “College basketball takes
precedence; the NBA All Star weekend takes precedence.
Rather than canceling the show, let’s put it on a different
time slot and see if we could do something with it, maybe
you’re going to attract different types of fans.... [They]
have another opportunity for this during the Stanley Cup,
during the NHL Playoffs. So listen, anything could change
here... I heard from two sides, from Warner, that during the
Stanley Cup, there’s going to be an opportunity to do
something very big. And the way that it was presented to me
is that it is a possibility of a four-hour special
happening. The idea is still soft. it could be just Dynamite
on and then followed by a Collision, so a four-hour
block.”
It's a happy coincidence that the Stanley Cup Playoffs will
begin soon; and it happens to be TNT's turn this year to air
the Stanley Cup Finals, which will start late May/early
June.
Dave Meltzer follows up on this news in this week's Observer
Newsletter, indicating that on June 18, the NASCAR Quaker
State 400 from Atlanta will be airing on a rare Saturday
night in prime time on TNT (a one-time event). He's not
aware of how Collision will be aired that specific night,
but indicated he's been told that AEW and Warner Brothers
Discovery already have plans for all sports and other
programming preemptions on Wednesdays or Saturdays for the
rest of 2025.
If you need statistical proof that these special TV slots
are succeeding for AEW came out last Tuesday when
Programming Insider published the weekend ratings.
Saturday's one-hour AEW Slam Dunk Collision, airing after
NCAA March Madness Gonzaga vs. Houston round 2 game; had
554,000 viewers (up 146,000 viewers) from last week's
episode with an 0.20 rating (identical to last week) in 18-
49 cable. Sunday's one-hour AEW Slam Dunk Collision, airing
after the NCAA March Madness New Mexico vs. Michigan State
round 2 game had 588,000 viewers (up 176,000 viewers) from
last week's episode with an 0.22 rating (up .12 from last
week) in 18-49 cable. This was the highest viewership for
Collision since July 29, 2023 and highest rating since
December 21, 2024.
Keep in mind that neither figure includes those viewing on
MAX.
Another interesting comment from Zarian seemed directed at
the professional doomposters and podcasters that have
created a whole cottage industry of being AEW 24/7. Zarian
said he’s been hearing positive feedback from WBD in regards
to AEW. "...“I’ve been hearing very positive stuff from
WBD, and I’ve brought up the ratings and the internet
chatter to them...It doesn’t even resonate. The messaging on
the internet’s not even resonating with these people and
they’re in key positions there.”
That includes attempts by E-trolls to contact the MAX
customer service address to complain about the Jon Moxley-
Adam Copeland match, and the nailed bat in Moxley's bat. The
"customer" was told to watch other programming or to re-set
his parental controls..
Further proof of a positive relationship between WBD and AEW
was shown by Warner's willingness to use Dynamite to promote
The Minecraft Movie on last Wednesday, including an in-show
promo by Jack Black.
Additionally, AEW content has started appearing on Disney+
in Australia and New Zealand with the integration of ESPN
into the service. ESPN on Disney+ launched in Australia and
New Zealand on March 26. As part of regular ESPN Australia
programming, AEW Dynamite and Collision will also be
streamed live on the platform. ESPN Australia joined Disney+
as the first English-speaking market outside of North
America to launch on the streaming network, following the US
debut in December 2024.
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