I’m Oli Davis, this is the WrestleTalk News - where in this episode we’ve got behind-the-scenes
scoops on LA Knight’s backstage heat, news of a wrestler who’s just left AEW signing
with WWE, and my one minute one take recap of AEW Collision.
But before any of that, we begin with our top story.
The kind that wrestling fans who live on the Internet can’t get enough of.
It’s the juiciest, the hottest, the oh-my-I-can’t-believe-he-just-said-that-est… …detailed consequences of TV rights negotiations
fees and analysis of quotes from Disney’s CEO.
I’m not even being sarcastic.
I love this stuff, and I love Bob Iger.
In the modern era of pro wrestling, there is no single more important business metric
to a promotion than TV rights deals.
This has changed significantly since the territory days, where live event tickets were the industry’s
financial lifeblood.
In fact, many promotions in the 80s lost money on their TV shows, instead using them as advertising
to get more people to attend their live ones.
WWE changed this in the 80s and 90s with the rise of pay-per-view, in the teens with the
launch of the WWE Network, and then again more recently with Nick Khan’s multiple
billion dollar long term deals with the likes of Fox, the USA Network, Peacock and the Saudi
Arabian government.
Instead of using TV to make money at your live shows, the wrestling industry was now
being paid upfront by TV companies to get people to watch TV.
And it’s a strategy that’s worked, with pro wrestling, WWE in particular, becoming
incredibly popular over 2023, frequently topping viewership charts.
WWE’s most recent set of TV deals were signed in 2019, which put Raw and NXT on the USA
Network, and saw SmackDown debut on Friday nights on Fox, as was AEW’s deal with Warner
Bros Discovery.
Both of those are set to expire at the end of this year, seemingly along with AEW’s
entire roster, and officials at both companies have been reportedly doing this:
We’re in the money!
But what happens if the TV business suddenly collapses in on itself and fundamentally changes
the entire basis of sports broadcast monetization?
We might be about to find out.
This is Bob Iger, who I mentioned earlier.
He’s the guy who took over Disney after a rough decade of Michael Eisner, and immediately
bought LucasFilm, Pixar and Marvel.
That worked out pretty well for him.
I love him, he’s my business bro crush.
He’s so good, in fact, that he retired in 2020, but returned as CEO late last year.
Just like a pro wrestler!
One more match!
He’s arguably the most powerful person in media.
One reason he returned is to fix Disney’s flailing TV division.
He’s reportedly trying to eliminate 7,000 jobs across the company to save $5.5 billion
in costs, and their sports channel ESPN has been particularly hard hit.
And in what Dave Meltzer is calling “a giant news story”, CNBC is reporting Iger is “attempting
to make deals to give the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball minority owner stakes in ESPN.”
Meltzer speculates that Disney wants to at least partly offload ESPN to get out of the
spiraling rights fees they have to pay to the likes of the NBA, NFL and MLB.
If those leagues owned part of ESPN, you’d hope they’d offer mates’ rates.
Because as more people ‘cut the cord’ of cable in favour of streaming, and advertising
revenue declines, traditional networks won’t have the funds to pay them.
Meltzer notes “This spells potential disaster for every sport, as well as WWE, AEW and UFC,
in attempts to continually get more money each negotiation period…
it feels to me this is the most dangerous challenge to this system that has served sports
so well and made WWE and UFC into giant companies.”
It’s something that’ll be deeply concerning to WWE executive chairman Vince McMahon, who
just bet his entire future on that model.
Not that he has time to think about it, though, as the internet wants him to focus his attention
elsewhere: on pushing LA Knight.
Despite being one of the most over acts online and in arenas, LA Knight missed WrestleMania,
he lost at Money in the Bank, and now after losing on Friday’s episode of SmackDown,
seems set to miss SummerSlam too.
BWE have reported this might be to crown a new “babyface Latino champ” in Santos
Escobar, and Knight will get a “new push” after the next PLE, but Triple H has been
saying that since April, and I don’t think I believe him anymore.
Wade Keller at PWTorch have since corroborated BWE’s report of Knight being set for a big
push, but it comes with a worrying undertone of trepidation.
They write that Triple H has always been a fan of Knight, but Vince McMahon took longer
to be won over.
Knight has already mentioned main roster officials learning of his age - he’s 40 - when he
was called up, so they made him a manager.
Then just weeks in to the act being onscreen, Vince McMahon reportedly decided to write
him out of the storyline because Knight “had rubbed some people the wrong way and wasn’t
fitting in.”
He was replaced by his storyline sister Maxine Durpi.
PWTorch writes, however, that over time “Vince McMahon has grown to be a fan of his.”
That, Triple H’s fandom and the positive fan reactions means he’s “a candidate
for a big push after Summerslam… he’s on course to get a push at a high level in
spite of [his below-average work in the ring] because he has a special X-factor and connection
with the crowd that hasn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.”
But then rocking like it’s a charity challenge from the Summer of 2014, PWTorch chucks a
giant bucket of ice water over those plans.
They say Knight “has a long-running reputation for rubbing people the wrong way behind the
scenes and just being “bad at a backstage politics.”
Those who know him well tend to like him and some of them have spoken up on his behalf
when Knight gives a bad first impression.”
And then, in a peculiarly familiar final paragraph: “If his push isn’t sustained, even if
crowds still like him, it’ll likely be because he mishandled himself backstage in a way that
caused him lose the support of key people who can influence his push.”
I.e.
it won’t be WWE’s fault if this fails, it’ll be LA Knight’s.
Sometimes when WWE don’t really want to push someone, stories seem to come out through
various outlets that it’s really because that person is difficult to work with.
Like Bray Wyatt was ‘difficult to work with’.
Like PWTorch again reporting that Keith Lee was ‘difficult to work with’.
I’ve always found it a weird line for WWE ‘sources’ to take, considering Brock Lesnar,
Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair are all in your company - who seem incredibly difficult
to work with, yet they’re given opportunity after opportunity.
The likely truth is, if WWE really see something in someone, they’ll make it work no matter
how difficult they are to work with.
But if they don’t see that potential from the start, they won’t bother - which is
what I’m afraid is happening here.
Particularly after Knight keeps getting sidelined.
Do you think WWE will ever push Knight properly?
Talk to me in the comments.
Anyway, WWE might already have a new future star…
Brian Pillman Jr’s AEW contract expired on the 11th July, after being with the company
since its inaugural Double or Nothing show back in 2019.
He wasted no time, though, and was spotted at the WWE Performance Center just two days
later.
PWInsider reported WWE had immediate interest in him, and that appearance was simply a ‘get
to know you’ type of meeting.
Pillman has now teased a “huge opportunity” himself during a virtual signing:
“There is a lot to come, I can’t speak on it right now, it’s kind of in the works.
I have a huge moment, a huge opportunity coming up in my career to continue making memories,
to continue coming up with new gear ideas and sharing my version of pro wrestling with
you all.
Thank you for supporting me.”
Just in case you couldn’t fill in the blanks yourself, Bodyslam is reporting a deal between
Pillman and WWE is in place, or in the process of being finalised before it can officially
be signed.
Pillman is apparently set to move to Orlando by the end of August, where he’ll start
reporting to the Performance Center full time.
And Pillman isn’t the only loss to AEW’s roster, as Daddy Ass Billy Gunn seems to have
announced his retirement on Saturday’s episode of Collision.
Here’s everything that happened on that show in one minute, one take…
CM Punk said he wasn’t even mad, he’s impressed with Ricky Starks cheating to beat
him and win the Owen Hart Cup.
Punk trashed the local sports team, despite being a face.
Or a heel.
Who knows.
Christian, Luchasaurus and Darby Allin turned up to book a tag team main event.
Bullet Club Gold beat Action Andretti and Dante Martin.
Miro squashed Nick Comoroto.
Hopefully it’s building him for something.
The House of Black retained their trios titles against the Acclaimed and Daddy Ass again.
After Black whispered something to Gunn, he removed his boots and walked past Caster and
Bowens - potentially signaling his retirement.
Or it’s a worky mcworkface.
Taya Valkyrie beat Sky Blue.
Taya is now a full on heel and called out Baker.
And the main event saw Starks and Christian beat Punk and Allin… which weirdly had Cage
and Punk more as heels, despite being on opposite sides.
Starks had his feet on the ropes for the pin on Allin.
Everyone’s a heel!
Now go watch 10 reasons why Jey Uso should or shouldn’t beat
Roman Reigns!