Through 2025, now under TKO’s rule, the WWE earned $1.7 billion in revenues. If we apply that same 15% rule, the pro wrestlers should earn around $255 million.

Anyone care to bet me that they are NOT earning that?

As we saw in the news, multiple wrestlers were asked to take 50% paycuts. This prompted the New Day to ask for their releases and were granted them, as those longtime WWE employees and actual merchandise sellers were insulted at the notion of taking 50% off of contracts that TKO signed. Reportedly, one longtime wrestler did take the 50%, with some guessing Miz or another wrestler thinking that leaving the WWE would jeopardize his opportunities (LA Knight?) without his trademarked WWE name.

Meanwhile, TKO Executive Chair and CEO Ariel Emanuel received total compensation of $67.4 million while the CFO earned $23.1 million and the COO earned $42.6 million. What, they couldn’t take 50% paycuts themselves? Nick Khan, who is president/CEO of the WWE and also on the TKO board, made over $24 million during 2025.

And before you suggest that these “Chief” positions are doing such a great job, then why does TKO carry almost $5 billion in DEBT despite UFC and WWE having revenues pouring into their coffers? Also, why did the Endeavor corporation have so much debt that it needed Silver Lake to finance them and buy them?

In other words, WWE wrestlers are getting SCREWED on their network while TKO and WWE executives are pulling in the money.

Hell, Triple H is earning $2.8 million according to Sports Illustrated. He’s the Chief Content Officer who actually puts the shows together and then produces them live at the events as well. He’s putting in way more work than those sitting in cushy offices all day, and HHH has to be micro-managed by these TKO fools as well.

As we head into Labor Day, it’s time for WWE wrestlers to STAND UP and stop swallowing the turd sandwiches that WWE, with this TKO corporate daddies, keep serving them.

WWE wrestlers are the ones taking the bumps in the ring, getting thrown through tables, having to travel all over the country or world, work through injuries, be away from their families, and have to do countless charity and personal appearances for TKO and WWE. Furthermore, they are silenced from expressing themselves personally and WWE/TKO owns all of the copyrights that the wrestlers help build up as a solid brand.

What wrestlers don’t realize is that they have all of the power. If each walked out and refused to do a televised wrestling event, which puts the Netflix, USA Network, and ESPN+ deals in jeopardy, the WWE could be in trouble with each of those companies with those television deals. Further, wrestlers need to understand how MAD fans are at TKO right now for price gouging them on live events and merchandise while feeding them to the price gouging streaming wolves with Netflix and ESPN/Disney. If wrestlers were to walk out today, fans would back them because they’ve been pissed at TKO’s corporate antics for the past 2 years.

Yet, the wrestlers are afraid to stand up to these corporate cowards.

And I’m full aware of what the WWE did to keep labor unions away during the Vince McMahon era. Vince liked to push one wrestler really hard, such as Hogan and then Austin/Rock, then Cena, and the eventually Roman Reigns along with supporting others like the Undertaker. By coddling up to the top person on the card, Vince knew that he could keep drawing if the top guy was loyal and therefore made the rest of the roster expendable. Without Vince, Roman Reigns remains the highest paid guy followed by Cody Rhodes, who happens to be represented by WME which serves as an agency where several TKO executives still work as agents (Ari Emanuel, for example, represents Pat McAfee personally).

For a union to actually form in the WWE, they would need the top main eventers to be willing to support the union. Hulk Hogan wouldn’t, as he stooged out Jesse Ventura to Vince McMahon during 1986 (right before Wrestlemania 2) when Jesse tried to suggest that wrestlers unionize and hold up Wrestlemania 2 to accomplish this feat. Once that ended, Vince further demolished the territory competition to make his promotion the #1 in the land and made it difficult to argue. Then, Austin, Rock, Triple H, and Undertaker with John Cena later playing the game came along and accepted being loyal main eventers for Vince.

Personally, I’ve always argued that wrestlers should desire to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) which is now called SAG-AFTRA. WWE wrestlers are clearly following scripts both in their promos and how matches are laid out with backstage producers. They are also taking prepared stunts. They are televised each week on Netflix and USA Network, along with PLEs now on ESPN+. WWE has been long established as a form of “entertainment” with an court precedent in place when state athletic commissions tried to regulate pro wrestling during the late 1980s.

Admittedly, there are economic consequences of unions, historically speaking…

– Unions work in strength in numbers, even with a portion of those numbers are weaker performers.

– Pay for union workers is often due to seniority and not just merit or performance.

– If current workforce shrinks, then ability to fund benefits, such as retirements and pensions on a pay-as-you-go system becomes a major financial problem.

– Labor stoppages, such as strikes or lockouts could occur when a contract is up or nearly up or if there’s a new disagreement between the parties.

Right now, both the NBA and NFL split revenues almost halfway between the ownership and players. 50%, compared to wrestlers earning 15% on contracts that can be cancelled at any point. NBA contracts are fully guaranteed, while NFL contracts are mostly guaranteed and are often subject to renegotiation if a player outperforms their current deal.

One could argue “well, if the wrestlers get paid more and take in more revenues, then TKO will raise its prices”.

Great argument… BUT TKO IS ALREADY RAISING THEIR PRICES!!!!!!

They’ve been gouging fans HARD over the past 3 years… Know what is causing them to price gouge? Total greed, as top executives are pulling in 8 figures a year and laughing as the wrestlers take the bumps on their behalf.

It’s now or never, WWE wrestlers. If you want to be pawns for the WWE brand that TKO wants you to be, then keep working under the current terms and they’ll pick you off individually one-by-one. Otherwise, take ownership of yourselves as a locker room and hold greedy TKO executives accountable.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: With Labor Day Here Again, WWE Wrestlers Should Consider Unionizing Against the Greedy TKO Machine appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Can’t we just agree that each match was great for their era?

Geesh.

For one, let’s disqualify a few opinions first… Ric Flair was in the actual match with Ricky Steamboat, so obviously, he’s biased. Dave Meltzer is totally IN THE BAG for All Elite Wrestling and anyone who works for New Japan, so obviously, he’s very biased. One is protecting his legacy and the other is protecting his hidden ties to AEW.

But the rest of you fighting in the trenches… Who cares? Who cares which match is better? What are you trying to prove with online fights?!?

Steamboat vs. Flair happened in 1989, while Ospreay vs. Omega happened in 2026… That’s a 37 year difference, and that’s older than one of the wrestlers discussed (Will Ospreay is 33, born in 1993).

It’s like the same idiotic argument of which athlete from this era of MLB, NBA, or NFL is better, despite being decades apart or never having played each other. Like the Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James debate. Who cares? Just admire that both human beings were very talented and won multiple titles each. Sure, they did it different ways, but the leagues conditions for each era provides context.

Or even worse, the old Joe Montana vs. Tom Brady debate. Brady had to get 4 titles to even be included in the debate, but even that was enough. Tom getting 7 Super Bowl titles still isn’t enough in this lame debate. Who cares? Both were great in their era and both will be Hall of Famers when Tom gets in soon.

Then you have “any player today” versus Babe Ruth debate, as if Babe Ruth wouldn’t dominate with late 20th century or early 21st century medicine, performance enhancers, and nutrition if he played today.

Notice how I didn’t mention NHL… Nobody disputes Wayne Gretzky as the G.O.A.T there… I painfully admit that as a diehard Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux fan.

But this debate that everyone is having is STUPID, especially since Ospreay vs. Omega from AEW All In 2026 JUST HAPPENED. Why can’t we let the damn paint dry before we see it’s long-term impact? Ospreay/Omega happened 5 days ago, while Flair and Steamboat happened 37 years ago.

What wrestling fans need to realize that Flair vs. Steamboat was through 1989 was an actual exception to what pro wrestling was back then. You didn’t see hyper-athletic matches like that back then because most of the fanbase believed that pro wrestling was real and wrestlers could do more with psychology or gesturing with fans during the match. With the fans emotionally invested already, they didn’t have to perform high risk moves or show extreme athleticism. Thus, why wrestlers could actually perform over 300 times per year back then because they just had to work the crowds who already believed what they were seeing was real. This is why Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3 was so unique for its time and then why Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair stood out in 1989. Those matches were complete outliers for their athleticism in comparison to other matches back then.

Fast forward to 2026. 37 years later, wrestlers are influenced by what Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and a metric ton of cruiserweight wrestlers and international wrestlers have put on for decades. Because kayfabe was shattered, wrestlers since the late 1980s had to TRY HARDER with their matches to keep the crowds interested. Hence why you saw workrate increasing by the year through what we see now with 2026. Sadly, along the way, too, we had ECW to influence everybody flying through tables or jumping off ladders.

Flair vs. Steamboat (specifically the WrestleWar 89 match) was the best match that we’ve ever seen until 1997 when Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin happened at Wrestlemania 13. THINK ABOUT THAT, folks… It took 8 freakin’ years for another epic 5-star match the equivalent of Flair vs. Steamboat to happen.

But then, through the late 1990s, guys like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Brian Pillman, and many other international wrestlers arrived to really speed up the tempo of the matches. Main eventers like the Rock, Austin, Undertaker, John Cena, Batista, and Brock Lesnar actually adjusted their own styles to match the faster paced style. With time, wrestling schedules were reduced from 300+ nights pear year to around 150, if that. Wrestlers are working less, so thus they put more effort into the bigger televised matches than ever.

Again, wrestlers of today HAVE TO because putting their bodies on the line is the only way to keep the fans interested because fans know everything is scripted.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair stood out because there were no other matches like it, and nothing close to it until the late 1990s.

With Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega, we’ve seen many high impact, high energy, and high risk matches like it. Hell, there are other Omega vs. Ospeay matches that are equally as good as what you just saw at All In 2026. Both Omega and Ospreay have had many great matches with other opponents, notably Okada in the past or with other various opponents in New Japan. AEW often has 10-15 matches on their Pay Per Views and they are full of high energy and high impact matches that are receiving higher star ratings from fans and critics alike. Let’s not discount WWE… Their workrate is way up, as even Dave Meltzer had to give Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk at Wrestlemania 42 a 5-star rating.

The problem with Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega is that it’s in a much more crowded field, and thus can be forgotten in a short while. If you were a wrestling fan since the 1980s, you remembered 1989 with those 3 televised Steamboat vs. Flair matches and you never forgot about them. Then, it took about 8 years for any match to even be the equivalent of quality to that match.

Then I’m seeing stuff like “Ospreay vs. Omega drew over 40,000, which was higher than anything drawing in 1989 for WCW”. Yeah, well, WCW had more eyeballs watching their shows back then and that Clash of the Champions event in New Orleans drew poorly because it was given away for free on television. There’s a bigger population now, and plus for All In, they had a hometown kid winning the AEW Title. WWE drew strongly in Wembley with SummerSlam 1992 because British Bulldog was going for the Intercontinental Title.

Y’all are just in a worthless pissing match… This is apples and oranges. Flair vs. Steamboat was quality in an era of quantity of matches that didn’t require major athletic effort because fans were emotionally involved. Now, however, there’s too much quantity of quality matches and wrestlers have to work harder to earn fans’ attention.

Just be happy with the abundance of great matches today, but thank building blocks like Flair vs. Steamboat that helped influence what you’re seeing now.

STOP WASTING YOUR TIME arguing this crap online. It’s not good for your health and speaking through your fingers is worthless versus actually talking to and conversing with real human beings in-person.

Both Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat and Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega were great for their eras and years… Very simple premise to agree on.

That said, I’ve watched both matches and I’ll hand it to Flair vs. Steamboat. Why? Because Flair and Steamboat didn’t have to nearly injure themselves with higher risk moves than what Kenny and Will had to do. I don’t know how Kenny Omega’s neck isn’t badly injured after that match, while I believe that Steamboat and Flair were chilling comfortably after their matches in 1989.

Plus, again, Flair vs. Steamboat were the diamond in the rough back then… Now, we’re creating too many artificial diamonds that are drowning out the quality.

Gotta try harder to impress fans when you flush kayfabe down the toilet…

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Assessing the STUPIDITY of the Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay and Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat Match Comparison Debate appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

If you enjoyed AEW All In 2026, be proud of it. I’m NOT here to belittle you for enjoying the show or parting your hard-earned money to either attend the show or watch it on Pay Per View. This is not a column here to criticize AEW on its workrate or style.

However, this column will describe why AEW is stunted in its growth and has a similar problem that plagues the WWE to limit its growth, too.

Ready for it? Let’s review AEW’s current champions following the All In 2026 event:

– AEW World Champion: Will Ospreay (free agent signed during late 2023)

– AEW International Champion: Okada (free agent signed during early 2024)

– AEW Continental Champion: Jox Moxley (free agent signed during mid 2019)

– AEW National Champion: Andrade (free agent signed during 2025, also previously signed during 2021)

– AEW TNT Champion: Darby Allin (AEW Original)

– AEW Tag Team Champions: Adam Copeland (2023 signing) and Christian (2021 signing)

– AEW Trios Champions: Swerve Strickland (2022 signing) & The New Level (aka New Day, 2026 signings)

– AEW Women’s Champion: Mercedes Moné (signed early 2024 as a free agent)

– AEW TBS Champion: Persephone (2025 signing from CMLL)

– AEW Women’s Tag Team Champions: The Brawling Birds (both working indy or international circuits prior to joining AEW, but more or less originals nationally with AEW)

So besides Darby Allin, AEW is a company that signs free agents and pushes them to the top? Do I have that correct?

In other words, no home grown talent gets pushed and then put over on AEW’s biggest show of the year.

To that extent, I’d argue the SAME problem exists with the WWE with the exception of maybe pushing a few of their homegrown talents close to their expiration dates (Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, John Cena, CM Punk technically, and Brock Lesnar).

Right now in the WWE, it’s not so much that they are pushing free agents to the top, but they aren’t moving on from their main eventers and completely disallowing any recent younger signings or developmental wrestlers to rise up. For example, Oba Femi… We thought Wrestlemania 42 was his big moment when he demolished Brock Lesnar, but then Lesnar attacked him and then defeated Oba in their next match. Sure, SummerSlam 2026 gave us good vibrations, but the fact is that WWE literally wasted 4 months on not pushing Oba to the top from Wrestlemania 42.

Bron Breakker has repeatedly been misused and denied entry into the top main event scene. Ditto for Jacob Fatu, whom Roman Reigns took care of several times. Solo Sikoa hasn’t been important to WWE’s plans since Roman took care of him to start 2025. Aside from the Women’s Division, what the NXT developmental system is bringing up isn’t as strong as what OVW or FCW once provided, but even then, once they do make the main roster, Creative seems to want to immediately cut them at the knees and remain veteran dependent.

WWE has grown since the pandemic because they pushed home grown talent to the top and luckily for them, they had multiple wrestlers ready to hit their prime years when they did it. Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, and I’d argue to an extent, Kevin Owens, waited patiently after the terrible 2010s when Vince McMahon micro-managed the WWE roster and then once Jey, Roman, and Sami were repackaged with the Bloodline and Kevin Owens was inserted into the mix, we had an explosion of growth through 2023 and Wrestlemania 39 that created tides that lifted all WWE boats that year.

And then WWE had the potential to put Roman Reigns over even further with him defeating The Rock in a match. Could have happened at Wrestlemania 40, but the better time to happen was at Wrestlemania 41. Rock got busy with movies and that opportunity to make Roman even bigger just disappeared. Now, he’s clinging on to the same playbook and WWE thinks that their fans will eat the same recycled storylines as before. Dominant Roman surrounded by the Bloodline, but this time, as a babyface group.

Meanwhile, younger talents can’t get over in the WWE.

WWE peaked in growth through 2024 and has been on the slow decline since 2025 because they are too veteran heavy. Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Seth Rollins, and Cody Rhodes have formed a veteran wall that cannot be breached by developmental talent. Meanwhile, WWE’s top brass is trying to milk those veterans for everything they have and hence, why tired fans just won’t pay the insane prices that the TKO corporation wants to charge for WWE events.

AEW just doesn’t have a developmental system… For some of the wrestlers they have tried, they either fizzed out or they somehow got jobs to become WWE’s problem (hello Jade Cargill). Their promotion began by signing free agents from the independents, New Japan, or WWE. That’s fine for a base and introduction, as I’d argue that Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho contributed significantly to AEW during 2019-2021, but then AEW became entirely dependent on free agency. It was nice to have CM Punk back, but AEW didn’t create him and only benefitted from him walking away from the WWE 7 years ago. And then that blew up in their face not just at All Out 2022 or All In 2023, but due to their marketing boasting a “younger roster” while CM Punk in his 40s was not the same worker.

Following AEW All In 2023 and its fallout, that’s when Tony signed many free agents to big deals such as Okada, Ospreay, Mercedes, and Adam Copeland who, by the way, are each holding a title belt in some form for AEW right now.

The result of the late 2023 and early 2024 AEW shopping spree? TV viewership kept declining and attendance for AEW’s live shows, other than Pay Per Views, is deemed a success if it can break 4,000 people with lower ticket prices.

To AEW’s credit, they can put on fun and exciting Pay Per Views… Nobody, including me, denies that.

But I can attend many independent shows who put on tremendous shows, too, but they aren’t getting national attention. For pro wrestling, it’s easier to find great athletes than it is to find great showmen. With time, I’ve agreed that pro wrestling has some of the best athletes in the business today compared to previous years. They can pull off moves and keep the energy going much more than prior generations… However, prior generations of wrestlers did “more with less” and used charisma and psychology to carry the match without having to risk their bodies with high-impact moves. Their moves-per-minute were way down and that allowed them to literally work over 300 shows per year. If wrestlers today worked 300+ matches per year today, AEW’s healthcare bills would bankrupt the company based on the high tempo and high risk style AEW presents.

Here in 2026, it’s not hard to put on a great wrestling match at least in terms of athleticism. Without much innovation happening these days with new moves, wrestlers have blueprints on what will peak the interest of those who give out match ratings using the star system. Just string along “x” amount of moves, have many false finishes, and just keep the energy up and you’ll at least get 3 stars in a match. Increase the high risk moves, and 4 stars or more are coming your way.

The dirty secret for AEW, however, is that they are keeping the free agent signings on top while the rest of the wrestlers are just burning themselves out with this high-risk style. Then, AEW just finds more athletic bodies to keep cycling in and out of the roster to fill that high risk need. However, anyone working hard in AEW from underneath are NOT rewarded and hit a ceiling because Tony keeps preferring to push ex-WWE or ex-New Japan guys on top.

As I’ve said before, AEW has wasted money on Jim Ross. Not that signing him as an announcer wasn’t worth it, but that they never let Ross advise on building a developmental system. What Jim Ross did during the late 1990s through 2005 was remarkable and restocked the WWE roster for decades to come and that momentum kept going through FCW and NXT. While wrestlers at the WWE Performance Center are NOT trained as well as they were at OVW or FCW, the point remains is that WWE has the potential to debut the next homegrown star in the future. Lucky for AEW, WWE is currently pissing away any recent developmental call-ups.

AEW lacks a strong developmental system to present never-before-seen wrestlers on a national level to its fans. Fans like to invest in the process, cheering on someone who debuts and then climbs the ladder all of the way to the top. It’s a time investment to see a wrestler at their humble beginnings to become World Champion and those memories keep you around as a wrestling fan. Watching that process is intoxicating and keeps that wrestling addiction going.

Take John Cena, for example… We all saw his big “ruthless aggression” debut against Kurt Angle, but then we saw him struggle on the WWE roster for the rest of 2002. Then, on a random Halloween episode, he cuts a promo where he raps and suddenly, a new gimmick is born. From late 2002 through early 2005, we got to witness John Cena grow as a character and go from becoming United States Champion to World Champion by Wrestlemania 21. Then, Cena was a great World Champion which kept the rewards going. John Cena always delivered, even when good opponents during the early 2010s. However, Cena made you believe that Miz, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, and CM Punk were big superstars simply by working against John Cena who sold like a champion for them. Then, the 2025 retirement tour was a pure payoff and I think many Cena “haters” also jumped aboard, as they now fully realized how great Cena was back in the day.

WWE is botching their own process of debuting wrestlers and letting them naturally climb the ladder… AEW just doesn’t have such a process.

Instead, they shower those 2023-2024 free agent signings with love and put them over on their top show of the year. Looks like Tony Khan has to continually justify the high contracts that he’s paying each of those wrestlers.

AEW will NOT grow by signing free agents and then pushing them hard against any talent who have been there for a while.

Didn’t we just learn this lesson from Dark Side of Wrestling about Jeff Jarrett’s TNA tenure? TNA began going downhill during the late 2000s and early 2010s because of all of the veteran ex-WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestlers they signed and pushed over wrestlers deemed TNA originals or at least first-timers to the national spotlight. Those 2010s shows literally tried to push the same New World Order wrestlers (Hogan, Hall, and Nash) that WCW made famous together during 1996 as if 14-15 years doesn’t age or diminish any wrestlers.

Let’s go further… How did World Championship Wrestling (WCW) die again? You had Eric Bischoff mismanage the company and give out massive contracts to veteran wrestlers who were kept on top to justify those big contracts. Plus, Eric became a mark after he joined the NWO during November 1996 and went out-of-his-way to make that group strong throughout 1997, 1998, and 1999 even when the NWO gimmick was beyond its prime. Wrestlers like Paul Wight (Big Show) and Chris Jericho knew what was up and sought the WWE for greener pastures. By March 2001, WCW was dead and AOL/Time Warner had massive wrestler contracts to pay off.

You need a developmental system and then require proper planning to debut, build, and push new talent.

If you don’t have a developmental system and push fresh talent, there won’t be any “big” veterans to sign in a few years…

Let me make one last point…

Know what system has a developmental system and has been thriving for the past 10 years? WWE’s developmental system for FEMALES. Their talents are all homegrown or were journey wrestlers until joining WWE. Liv Morgan, now WWE Women’s Champion, was a Hooters waitress and they developed her into a massive star that nobody had before. WWE presented Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks (now Mercedes in AEW), Bayley, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belaire, and many, many others to the public and got that division over because each star were NOT seen anywhere else before.

Rumor has it that AEW wants Bayley and Bayley wants to possibly join the promotion to join her real life friend, Mercedes… That’s fine, but Bayley is a late 30s wrestler who has accomplished so much already in the WWE. What could you gain that hasn’t been presented or accomplished before with that particular wrestler?

AEW just doesn’t make anything their own… They just borrow other people’s already created stuff.

They have NOTHING original to show for it.

Go ahead and call me an “AEW hater”. At no point, did I bash any performances from AEW All In 2026 or any of its roster.

My point is that AEW is too dependent on free agency and Tony is pushing the wrestlers that he chose to sign with million dollar contracts versus homegrown talents that the fans helped make into stars for Tony.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: The Problem with AEW All In 2026 and its Current Champions or Pushed Free Agent Wrestlers appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Through Wrestlemania 6, nobody could deny that Ultimate Warrior was clearly #2 and trending upward. Also, Hulk Hogan didn’t exactly have a great post-Wrestlemania 5 time after having the ridiculous follow-up feud with Zeus who became a character-turned-wrestler from the awful WWE produced film No Holds Barred. Rather than milking Hogan vs. Savage a little longer, WWE shifted the focus on making an actor somehow figure out pro wrestling quickly on the fly.

During 1989, the WWE did really well financially because they had two separate houseshow circuits that were killing it throughout the country. On one hand, you had the A-Show that featured Hulk Hogan as the headliner and defending the WWE Title. Meanwhile, the B-Show was still killing it with the Ultimate Warrior headlining that show. WWE packed houses across the country with both Hogan and Ultimate Warrior on top, while the merchandise involving either Hogan or Warrior sold extremely well.

In terms of drawing power and merchandise sales, nobody came close to Hogan or Warrior through the beginning of 1990. Thus, it seemed reasonable that the Ultimate Warrior could take the top spot from Hogan and run with it. Especially now with Hogan getting older and maybe peaking through Wrestlemania 5.

And I’m right about Hulk Hogan. He did, in fact, peak through 1989… While Hogan did make a comeback to the main event through 1991 and became WWE Champion again at Wrestlemania 7, business continued to decline throughout 1991 with Hogan as champion. Then, came Royal Rumble 1992 where Hogan was booed after he helped eliminate Sid Justice insomuch that the WWE actually edited those boos and the commentary on the home video version of the show.

Hulk Hogan did well as the returning hero in 1991 because of the old Jim Cornette philosophy of “how do we know how much you’re loved if you don’t go away”. Having Hogan lose during 1990 and then return as the “knight in shining armor” during 1991 helped boost interest in Hogan for his return to the main event. However, it was short lived and by Rumble 1992, wrestling fans were beginning to boo him heavily.

Proves to me, too, that WWE could have turned Hogan HEEL during 1992 and could have made money years before WCW got to benefit from turning Hogan heel during 1996.

Let’s get back to the Ultimate Warrior. He was VERY OVER through Wrestlemania 6 and fans were split in that PACKED Toronto Skydome. However, what nobody could fully predict is that Warrior would go a bit off the deep end after this event. His marriage began to fall apart as he began to pick up bad habits on the road. As he was now asked to do more fan events as WWE Champion, he wasn’t always cheerful to fans during those. Warrior also wasn’t “one of the boys” like Hogan was, as Hogan built relationships with wrestlers and developed long-term friendships with everyone. Jim Hellwig, however, was a complete loner and very introverted. These things were overlooked on Warrior’s rise to the top, but then placed under the microscope once he was on top.

However, WWE did him no favors AFTER Wrestlemania 6. Warrior’s opponents? Curt Hennig, Ted Dibiase, and Rick Rude. Warrior already disposed of Rude over the Intercontinental Title during 1989, yet that’s who Warrior had to feud with for the big spot on SummerSlam 1990. Ted Dibiase was deep in the midcard during 1989 and 1990 after almost becoming WWE Champion during 1988. Curt Hennig was also a midcarder, as he’d become Intercontinental Champion several times during 1990. Warrior was also repeatedly tagging up with the Legion of Doom (Hawk & Animal) to take on all 3 members of Demolition repeatedly.

The “Warrior failed as champion” narrative falls apart when you see who he was wrestling during 1990. All midcarders. Why are you doing that with your World Champion?

What WWE should have done after Wrestlemania 6 was to immediately feud with Macho Man Randy Savage. Instead, the WWE let Warrior wrestle midcarders and waste 8 months as WWE Champion before he lost to Sgt. Slaughter at Royal Rumble 1991 when Macho Man, whom I just mentioned, interfered to begin the Warrior vs. Macho Man feud at Wrestlemania 7. By the way, the Savage vs. Warrior match at WM 7 was amazing and shows the missed opportunity of having Savage immediately challenge Warrior for the WWE Title during 1990. Savage, of course, was getting jobbed repeatedly to Dusty Rhodes during the first half of 1990.

I also thought that ”Rowdy” Roddy Piper could have been an opponent for Ultimate Warrior after Wrestlemania 6, too. Piper wrestled “Bad News” Brown at Wrestlemania 6 and that as a bit controversial with Piper painting half of his body black.

Either Savage or Piper would have been adequate feuds for Warrior and if needed, either man could have become WWE Champion to potentially set-up a big drawing Wrestlemania 7 with Hogan and Savage doing it again or Piper vs. Hogan, finally, with a one-on-one at Wrestlemania.

But instead, Warrior wrestled Hennig/Dibiase/Rude, who are each fine wrestlers but were midcarders then, and then lost the title to the COMPLETE JOKE Sgt. Slaughter character who became an Iraqi Sympathizer.

You can call Warrior a “failure” as WWE Champion all you want, but he was given no favors by WWE creative during 1990 after Wrestlemania 6. Then, he was given Randy Savage during 1991 and those guys blew the doors off of everything at Wrestlemania 7 with their Retirement Match which received 5-star ratings by many publications while the rest of the show, including Hogan vs. Slaughter, did not. However, after Wrestlemania 7, Hogan was the #1 pushed guy again.

Let me stress a few points…

If Ultimate Warrior was “such a failure”, then why did Vince McMahon bring him back at Wrestlemania 8?

If Ultimate Warrior was “such a failure”, then why did Vince McMahon bring him back at Wrestlemania 12?

If Ultimate Warrior was “such a failure”, then why did Vince McMahon want to bring him back during late 1997 as documented contract negotiations show?

The FACT is that the Ultimate Warrior was fed midcard opponents throughout the rest of 1990, while Vince McMahon had crazy ideas of presenting the Desert Storm events of the real world during 1990-1991 into the WWE. Vince convinced Sgt. Slaughter to turn heel and Hulk Hogan was just the more ideal “American Hero” to pit against Slaughter versus Hogan. Thus, pushing Hogan back to the top was more ideal than the Warrior.

WWE wasting Roddy Piper (who may have had movie or television commitments) or Randy Savage during 1990 just irks me. Missed opportunities there.

BUT, the fact remains that Ultimate Warrior drew houses and sold merchandise, with his numbers being the closest to Hogan versus any other wrestler. The problem is that Warrior may have peaked with the chase for the title, but he was given no help from creative back then to ever truly know.

The Ultimate Warrior last wrestled for the WWE during 1996, which was when the WWE was hitting the valley of their decline since that 1989 peak. Yet, 30 years later, Warrior’s merchandise still sells well to this day and anyone who grew up as a kid when Warrior was peaking still speaks highly of him. Further, yes, Warrior was a troubled guy, but he redeemed himself by being a happily married man and father. His WWE return during 2014 was emotional with his Hall of Fame speech, returning to Wrestlemania, and then returning to RAW to make his final promo ever.

Many have tried to duplicate Warrior, including WCW to openly lied to fans and presented them with Rick “the Renegade” Wilson instead of bringing in the Ultimate Warrior. Many, many independent promotion knock-offs. Yet, nobody can capture that lightning-in-a-bottle that Jim Hellwig brought with this amazing character. Best in-ring wrestler ever? Nope, but among the top larger than life characters ever.

Warrior 100% deserved to win the WWE Title and was worth the roll of the dice to defeat a potentially declining Hulk Hogan after 1989’s peak. The issues with the WWE were more internal, as WWE had some sharks in the water to deal with back then and possibly creative issues happening after Wrestlemania 5 (Zeus push and Iraqi War storyline, while wasting Randy Savage and Roddy Piper for over a year).

So for all of these YouTube accounts constantly bashing the crowning of the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 6. Most of you weren’t there or were in diapers during the peak Warrior years. He was OVER bigtime back then and moved so much merchandise. So it didn’t work out after Wrestlemania 6? Not much worked between 1990 and 1997. Did you watch Wrestlemania 9?

In my opinion, WWE wasted the talents of Roddy Piper and Randy Savage during the early 1990s, and they entirely botched the acquisition of Sid Justice as well. Sid could have been “the man”, but WWE’s usual desire to keep Hogan strong as a babyface got in the way. Brother. I also thought that the WWE blew the effectiveness of the Undertaker during those early years as some of those feuds became quite goofy with the “monster of the month” feuds. Why the WWE let Yokozuna get severely overweight is beyond me. Razor Ramon should have been pushed as a main eventer.

Point being, WWE’s creative was terrible during the early 1990s if your name wasn’t “Hulk Hogan”.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Was it the Right Decision to Make the Ultimate Warrior Become WWE Champion at Wrestlemania 6? appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Now, let me get into a question that has been sent to me multiple times by loyal readers and that is about Conrad Thompson and his opinion about Roman Reigns being “overrated” and is like an “industry plant” would be in music (someone groomed for the position) but for WWE.

I’ve already answered this with multiple columns covering WWE’s current events. In my opinion, Roman was indeed “shoved down our throats” during the 2010s. Then, they finally turned him heel but not only that, gave him Paul Heyman and some creative freedom on promos. Add to that, the cool Bloodline storyline with the Usos, Solo, and Sami Zayn all playing important parts that literally fueled WWE’s happenings from 2021 through 2024 including adding the freakin’ Rock to the storyline and group during early 2024. After Wrestlemania 40, Roman Reigns hasn’t been the same effective draw without the group than he has been with the group. In addition to the price gouging, Roman and the Bloodline’s drawing ability hasn’t been there like it was through early 2024.

BUT – Roman Reigns learned from that 2021-2024 experience and has grown as a performer, and thus I believe he’s still the top WWE draw right now. We’re not getting to 50,000 Wrestlemania tickets or 30,000 SummerSlam tickets without him at the very top of the card against legitimate opponents in CM Punk and Seth Rollins. But again, shows during 2024 and 2025 with him on it and in prominent spots drew higher. Price hikes are there, but Roman isn’t as cool now as he was when he was the “head of the table” with the badass heel Bloodline group.

A more legitimate criticism would be “peaked” or “slightly past his prime”, but I’d argue that he has creatively suffered, too, because there was NEVER an adequate conclusion over what happened with the Bloodline during 2024. Oh, I know that Solo tried to take it over, but Roman was absent when the “new” Bloodline attacked Paul Heyman during late June 2024 and Roman didn’t appear until August. We never had that Rock vs. Roman “battle of the Bloodline” feud either, which could have made Roman into an absolute megastar had that headlined Wrestlemania 41 during 2025.

WWE’s two best matches for 2026 are, in fact, Roman vs. CM Punk from WM 42 and Roman vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam 2026. Who is the common denominator, again?

What I find more impressive about Conrad’s opinion is how much attention it caused. Congrats on a successful podcast network, Conrad, as your words appear to matter. Hopefully, everyone is buying stuff from your ads or getting their mortgages through you.

Truth is that I don’t listen to any of these “Ad Free” shows because the podcasts featuring Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff, Jim Ross, or others feature more of Conrad’s opinions over what the wrestler or personality thinks. That, or it’s just reviewing what Dave Meltzer said in a past issue of the Wrestling Observer. I don’t need to hear the producer of the show hogging the spotlight, nor do I give a damn about the producer’s opinions when I’d rather hear the wrestler or wrestling personality’s opinion based on their past experiences or recollection. I didn’t tune in for Conrad’s two cents, and I believe Kevin Nash and Jim Cornette’s podcasts suffer, too, when their producers interject excessively about their opinions (though I think Brian Last complements Jim better than Conrad complements any of his podcast teammates). The only time that I don’t mind Conrad’s opinions is when he fact checks someone who is clearly lying or withholding information, such as Eric Bischoff. Eric deserves that!

Conrad has made his podcasts mostly about himself, hence why his opinion on Roman Reigns has become viral this week. While I applaud Conrad for giving such wrestlers or personalities a platform, he doesn’t have to spoon-feed them topics, walk them through something, or ask how they felt about what Dave Meltzer wrote 30 years ago. And then, insert his opinion. Jim Ross’s podcast was WAY BETTER when it was Jim on his own because his thoughts and his creativity driving where the podcast went. That, and he didn’t have someone interjecting their personal opinion on every topic.

That’s the issue… Not that “Roman Reigns is overrated”, but maybe we, as society, overrate the opinions of commentators or any shock value they may have. And that includes anything I say as a columnist, too, let’s be fair… Look at ESPN right now, as they are shedding actual journalists in favor of paying opinionated folks like Stephen A Smith or Pat McAfee more. What happens when people sour or get tired of their opinions, too? ESPN’s viewership is going to continue to swirl down the tubes.

It’s as Aaron Rift said on a recent episode of NoDQ Review… Conrad’s opinion about Roman Reigns might have been true during 2019, but is wrong now. Roman was a big part of that Bloodline group and yes, since 2024, he’s not as great as he was that year… BUT, I could say that literally about every wrestler on the WWE roster right now in comparison to 2024. WWE’s roster is tired, as there aren’t many key match-ups left to run and the wrestlers are looking worn out from this endless cycle of 2-3 hours of RAW, 2-3 hours of Smackdown, houseshows, and PLEs on the weekend plus traveling to each one. Nobody is drawing like they once did, and WWE lacks any younger wrestlers (or ones that could stay healthy) to replace the aging veterans.

Congrats again to Conrad for building a successful platform… But, just remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Your words are being played publicly and therefore, everyone is allowed to freely disagree with your opinions too and ridicule you if those opinions are ridiculous. For many who enjoy Roman Reigns and appreciate his work for the past 6 years, they have been very free to disagree with you.

Oh, and Conrad… You’re not a comedian. Your ad spots where you attempt to be funny are total cringe, especially those older ones with Manscape’s products. If you’re not legitimately funny, don’t try to be.

Onto your other questions.

ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answer

Do you believe that Brock Lesnar has retired?

Nope… Between music and wrestling, we’ve witnessed many false retirements only for your old favorites to always come back. Hell, wrestling columnists do that too…

Until Brock Lesnar vs. Gunther happens, I’ll NEVER believe that Brock Lesnar has retired. Why? Because TKO can cut Lesnar a big check to wrestle 1 more match at any time. With WWE having up to 12 PLEs per year, there’s always a card that may need an impact player or a bigtime match-up, especially with the injury bug repeatedly biting or the need for guys like Roman to take so much time off.

I still project Gunther vs. Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 43 and maybe that will be it? I don’t know, but I think that improvised moment at Wrestlemania 42 has really lessened the effectiveness of if and when Lesnar retires.

*****

Do you believe that Oba Femi benefitted from working with Brock Lesnar?

I need more time to see what happens for the rest of the year and what feeds into 2027. Many are projecting Roman Reigns vs. Oba Femi at Wrestlemania 43, but I’m not there yet (still holding out hope that Rock vs. Roman happens).

To me, it seemed like Wrestlemania 42’s match was mostly well done to put over Oba and the push should have continued then. However, Lesnar jumped him and then defeated him to instantly kill that momentum. 4 months later, are things really better for Oba with a win over Lesnar at SummerSlam? I just don’t know and worry that damage has been done.

HOWEVER, I watched Oba Femi backstage on Season 3 of WWE Unreal. Maybe he was nervous around cameras backstage, but he seemed to lack confidence when talking with Triple H and others backstage. If you’re going to be a main eventer in WWE, you need to thump your chest and clearly be the men amongst men to take that top spot. I just don’t see that swagger with Oba yet in just his 5th year as a performer.

Remember from our above Roman Reigns discussion… Roman didn’t get good until 2020 with putting it all together, and that’s 8 years after his main roster debut and even further from his FCW/NXT work as a developmental talent.

We need to stop assuming that wrestlers like Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar are common. No, they are absolute freaks of nature who shouldn’t figure out MAIN EVENT pro wrestling that quickly. I don’t see Oba as that quick learner or someone who wanted it as bad as Angle did. He has the gigantic “larger than life” look, however, that you cannot teach… It’s up to having GOOD creative to make him look good moving forward, instead of backward like maybe the Lesnar feud did.

But again, I said that about Cody Rhodes during 2024 and Cody came out stronger after his “best of 3” Lesnar feud. But Cody was far more experienced and pulled out great matches consistently to make up for it.

*****

Thoughts on Chelsea Green becoming interim Women’s Champion?

I’m soooooo happy for her! She totally deserves it for being a unique and entertaining talent in the WWE. I’ve HATED the way she was just treated as a midcarder, despite her real toughness and height having to put over much smaller and not-as-tough opponents.

Could WWE have built her up stronger before winning the Women’s Title? Absolutely…

BUT, you cannot complain about Michael P.S. Hayes’s comments from WWE Unreal Season 2 on one hand and then complain when WWE actually gives you what you want with Chelsea winning a world title. The schizophrenic wrestling fans strike again, as they flip and flop on their opinions and are never clear on what they truly want.

I’m 100% for this and hope she has a satisfying run. She needs to start winning cleanly and consistently as champion and see where it goes. Women’s wrestling in the WWE needs a newer face at the top, as their roster is tired too with the same people on top for freakin’ years.

Chelsea deserves it.

*****

Do you think that WWE will get in trouble with Rockstar Games over attempting to trademark “Vice City”?

No. WWE is using it in a different context and I suspect that if there is an issue, WWE will resolve it with Take-Two Interactive who owns both 2K Sports (WWE’s video game publisher) and Rockstar Games.

In fact, I’m willing to bet that WWE already reached out to said corporate partners and cleared it.

This isn’t a big deal. WWE is using it in the context of a pro wrestling character with the last name of “Vice”, while Vice City is the Miami-like area in the Grand Theft Auto series. Used differently, won’t interfere much at all.

On a side note, GTA Vice City was such a fun game… Just silly, stupid fun back in its day.

*****

What do you think will happen with many AEW wrestlers with contracts up for renewal in 2027?

Samoa Joe, Okada, FTR, Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, Young Bucks, Mercedes Mone, and Kenny Omega each have their deals up during sometime within 2027. I expect each to re-sign with AEW if they are offered close or slightly higher money than what they are currently have.

Easier schedule for equal or better money… What’s not to love?

The one that is interesting would be Jon Moxley because he’s the third member of the Shield. There’s value in WWE trying to get him back and being reasonable with how his character is presented.

With the way WWE hasn’t cared about Tag Team wrestling on the main roster, I would have maybe suggested FTR jumps, but not anymore.

Kenny and Okada going to WWE would be interesting, but I just don’t see their AEW work being that appealing to WWE officials to want to import into their promotion.

I’d love to see Sasha Banks back in the WWE, as Triple H is now in charge and Vince McMahon was the problem before.

I predict most, if not all, will re-sign with AEW with WWE showing some interest in those mentioned above before AEW offers each money to stay.

And that’s your AEW coverage in today’s column.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post ASK TITO: Roman Reigns Overrated?, Brock Lesnar Retirement, Oba Femi, Chelsea Green, WWE Using Vice City, and AEW Contracts Up for 2027 appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Meanwhile, AEW All-In, which is AEW’s top event, has sold 33,000 tickets at Wembley Stadium.

But let’s compare WWE’s 2nd or 3rd event in SummerSlam versus All-In on reasonable terms.

All-In tickets are priced, after conversion, as low as $31 and at maximum, just under $2,000 for the floor.

WWE SummerSlam had it’s cheapest price around $70 (though discounted at the event drew near), but the close floor seats were over $3,000 but the “Elite” level seat ticket packages were selling at $25,000 for both nights ($12,500 per night).

Oh, and WWE SummerSlam sold for 2 nights in Minnesota… AEW All In is at Wembley Stadium, in a British market that is hungry for a big wrestling event and have been begging WWE for Wrestlemania to appear there. Wrestlemania would get Live Aid crowds is it there in England, but until then, English wrestling fans are settling for attending AEW All In.

But we’ve seen a downward spiral of AEW’s #1 event, haven’t we?

– AEW All In 2023 (1st year in Wembley): 72,265 per turnstile, but AEW claims 81,035 tickets were actually sold

– AEW All In 2024 (2nd straight year in Wembley): 46,476 turnstile, but AEW claims 53,385 tickets were actually sold

– AEW All In 2025 (Global Life Field where the Texas Rangers play): 21,973 turnstile, but AEW claims 27,245 tickets were distributed… WAY DOWN here in the United States as the top AEW event!

And now All In 2026, back at Wembley, just over 33,000, still declining each year AEW tries to host events in that massive stadium.

Ehhhhh, and you have the nerve to ridicule WWE SummerSlam’s attendance, despite its HIGHER prices being the main culprit to cause lower WWE attendance?

FACT is that AEW has lower ticket prices, yet being a cheaper option to attend a live wrestling show is NOT drawing fans. When you go beyond AEW All In, there’s a steep drop-off for its next Pay Per Views. For example, AEW Redemption on July 24th only drew 7,107 fans. At best, AEW Pay Per Views could draw up to 15,000 for usual staple events like Double or Nothing but again, this is at lower ticket prices.

AEW fans mocked Wrestlemania 42 for its 50,000 and 55,000 nights, but that’s with absurdly HIGH ticket prices charged by TKO and the stupid high prices to attend anything in Las Vegas. Yet, if you look at WWE’s numbers, they consistently draw 15,000 or more for EVERY PLE while obtaining around 10,000 or more for every RAW show.

WWE outdraws AEW on ticket sales by a WIDE MARGIN despite the absurdly high prices AND the supposed “better quality” of matches that AEW has, according to the heavily biased Wrestling Observer’s joke of a star system.

Seriously, this is a valid question to ask… If AEW has such great matches, why aren’t they drawing larger audiences to events?

Because they don’t have better matches than WWE. No-selling 450 splashes DOES NOT make a great match! Yeah, I saw that utter garbage from the Young Bucks, as one completely no-sold getting hit with a 450 splash from the top rope in order to immediately hit a superkick on someone else. THAT is what Dave Meltzer rates 5-6 stars in his toilet paper of a newsletter!

Let’s go through the numbers to prove a point that AEW is in DISTANT second place right now with the WWE. This isn’t even a competition at this point based on how LOW AEW is drawing on attendance and viewership.

AEW Attendance Numbers – Data courtesy of Wrestlenomics.com’s WrestleTix

AEW Dynamite Average Attendance per quarter:

2021 Q3 6.9K
2021 Q4 5.6K
2022 Q1 5.0K
2022 Q2 6.3K
2022 Q3 5.7K
2022 Q4 4.3K
2023 Q1 5.6K
2023 Q2 5.1K
2023 Q3 4.9K
2023 Q4 4.5K
2024 Q1 4.1K
2024 Q2 3.6K
2024 Q3 3.9K
2024 Q4 3.1K
2025 Q1 2.7K
2025 Q2 3.9K
2025 Q3 2.5K
2025 Q4 3.3K
2026 Q1 3.1K
2026 Q2 3.2K

AEW Collision Average Attendance per quarter:

2023 Q2 6.5K
2023 Q3 4.3K
2023 Q4 3.4K
2024 Q1 3.0K
2024 Q2 3.1K
2024 Q3 2.0K
2024 Q4 2.1K
2025 Q1 3.5K
2025 Q2 2.2K
2025 Q3 1.5K
2025 Q4 2.0K
2026 Q1 2.8K
2026 Q2 2.0K

During 2021 through 2023, could someone tell me what individual was with AEW back then? You know, a massive free agent signing that they convinced to come out of retirement? Oh yeah, CM Punk! The second they kicked him full out of AEW, attendance CRATERED.

AEW Dynamite went from consistently drawing 5,000 or more fans per show (often above 6,000) to now drawing below 3,300 fans per show. Holy cow!

AEW Collision is a complete joke on attendance. Drew when CM Punk was around initially at above 6,000 during 2023 to a terrible 2,000 through the 2nd quarter 2026.

Meanwhile, WWE RAW is drawing strongly since their Netflix deal at about 11,000 or more in attendance while Smackdown fluctuates between 8,000 and 11,000 in recent times. That’s a BIG GAP between what WWE attends on their television shows versus what AEW does on theirs.

Just as there is a BIG GAP on what WWE draws on their PLEs versus and AEW’s Pay Per Views. Go ahead and compare All-In to SummerSlam. Be my guest to compare AEW’s #1 show in a foreign land with pent-up demand versus WWE’s arguable #2 or #3 show in Minnesota (no offense to Minnesota, as it’s a nice place but not a wrestling hot bed). Again, All-In has 33,000 tickets sold versus Wrestlemania pulling in 50,000 one night and 55,000 for the next.

And AGAIN, the difference in ticket prices. WWE sells MORE tickets at HIGHER prices than AEW does with their LOWER prices.

If fewer are attending AEW events, then fewer are buying AEW merchandise, too. AEW doesn’t have a strong online merchant presence, either. WWE blows them out of the water with merchandise sales.

Next, let’s discuss AEW Dynamite VIEWERSHIP, with data courtesy of Gerweck.net who has been compiling reported viewership and ratings data for years from official sources.

4Q-2019 898,333
1Q-2020 883,000
2Q-2020 708,462
3Q-2020 832,929
4Q-2020 817,077
1Q-2021 775,154
2Q-2021 792,769
3Q-2021 1,103,538
4Q-2021 895,769
1Q-2022 1,000,154
2Q-2022 916,231
3Q-2022 998,615
4Q-2022 907,846
1Q-2023 906,538
2Q-2023 855,231
3Q-2023 884,615
4Q-2023 810,692
1Q-2024 810,462
2Q-2024 711,923
3Q-2024 694,615
4Q-2024 588,538
1Q-2025 618,077
2Q-2025 626,923
3Q-2025 610,769
4Q-2025 482,846
1Q-2026 628,250
2Q-2026 635,385

Another reality check, AEW fans. Since 2023, you’ve ben consistently under 800,000 viewers… Heck, since the midway point of 2024, you’ve been UNDER 700,000 average viewers.

And I know what you’ll tell me, “Cable/Satellite subscriptions are down”, blah blah blah blah blah.

True, they are down… But AEW’s attendance is significantly down, too.

They go hand in hand, folks… AEW’s inflection point is that very AEW All In 2023 first event at Wembley. THAT is their peak and consequently, the final show of CM Punk before Tony Khan terminated him.

Viewership, merchandise, and attendance are all DOWN since 2023. Statistical FACT!

And that’s despite signing free agents like Adam Copeland (Edge), Will Ospreay, Mercedes Moné, Kazuchika Okada, Bobby Lashley, & Ricochet since late 2023, while also giving the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega extensions as Executive Vice Presidents (EVPs).

Despite those signings and re-signings, all AEW numbers have declined and remain low.

Despite all of the high star-ratings that AEW mark newsletters give literally every AEW match, it’s not drawing in more viewers nor is it packing buildings. Only the Pay Per View shows draw decent live audiences, at best.

And I love the argument of “AEW is still on Pay Per View”. Really? AEW’s biggest show, AEW All In, draws around 180,000 buys while the rest of the shows draw between 100,000 and 140,000 buys. Like, does everyone realize that 180,000 buys used to be considered a BAD NIGHT for the WWE anytime it happened? We’re talking about those late 2000s ECW brand shows, too… Most of WWE’s shows sold over 200,000, even when they over-saturated the market or when quality began to drop during the 2010s.

At 180,000 buys or less, the Cable or Satellite companies are eating more than half of that.

AEW is currently receiving around $185 million per year for all of their shows airing on Warner Bros. Discovery and the deal runs through the end of 2027, with an option to add on another year to extend it through 2028. However, AEW obtained that deal from a declining Warner Bros. Discovery that has been getting killed by streaming services and was in dire need of live sporting content (well, besides the NBA). Now, AEW faces a real dilemma of the Ellisons buying Warner Bros. to shove into their Skydance/Paramount Global corporation and I wouldn’t be shocked that they shred Tony’s deal and call it a “merger & acquisition” expense to write off for tax relief.

Plus, I theorize that they want RAW on Paramount+ (or what remains when I’m guessing HBO Max merges with it) once Netflix opts out of the RAW deal by the 5th year through 2029 as Netflix wants that afternoon NFL deal that CBS currently has. With the Ellisons paying off these recent mergers, they might have to let the NFL go but could afford signing WWE instead and letting Netflix overpay for the NFL to harm that streaming service.

LOW AEW Dynamite viewership, plus how poorly AEW Collision draws, could ultimately cause AEW to receive the boot off of TBS/TNT and HBO Max especially once this merger completes (and it will, the justice department will enable it).

So yeah, LAUGH IT UP about WWE SummerSlam 2026… There’s a bigger iceberg heading your way, AEW fans. That, and your ship is led by a trust fund baby (though he’s a nice guy) named Tony Khan and completely incompetent fools with the Young Bucks as Executive Vice Presidents no-selling 450 splashes to hit more choreographed superkicks.

As greedy as TKO is and as much meddling as TKO performs, their guys at least have experience in business or wrestling. TKO executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have years of experience running businesses or serving as agents to drum up business. Nick Khan managed so many deals for his client and is an experienced executive that has made WWE grow ten-fold since the late 2010s. Yes, Triple H married into the McMahon family, but he’s been with the WWE since 1995 but has been an executive of WWE since the early 2010s.

AEW is STILL the weaker promotion, by a wide margin, and with zero capability to ever chase the WWE… Unless the WWE comes crashing down to their lower level.

Thus, WWE made more on each night of WWE SummerSlam 2026 than AEW will with their flagship All In event in Wembley despite similar attendance.

FACT is that if WWE slashed their ticket prices at ALL venues, those arenas would be packed because the WWE’s product is desired right now. Put AEW’s prices on WWE events they’d sellout everywhere because demand is still STRONG for the WWE product but things like incomes, strained by high inflation everywhere, are causing fans to second guess attending WWE events at their higher prices.

So, there you go… Your ignorant taunting of tarps at WWE SummerSlam 2026 caused me to write an actual AEW column. Go ahead and attempt to refute my facts.

AEW is in second place and its fans have ZERO credibility to taunt the MUCH LARGER WWE for any reason whatsoever. AEW wishes that it could host a 2-night event that could draw over 30,000, as they struggle to do that with their very top show right now with lower ticket prices.

WWE > AEW by a mile.

And Triple H > Tony Khan on Creative, any day of the week.

WWE Roster > AEW Roster

WWE’s Matches > AEW’s Matches

But WWE can’t draw fans in Minnesota with absurdly high ticket prices. Yeah, you got the WWE right there.

In fact, I DARE AEW to take WWE’s pricing model and see how many fans would actually attend. Let’s see how dedicated AEW’s fans are with stupid high prices to attend events. Let’s see how you really measure-up to the WWE, AEW!

AEW is forever the juvenile promotion that had CM Punk drawing higher attendance and over 1 million viewers to AEW Dynamite, but decided to internally and externally attack him instead of hoisting Punk on their shoulders. WWE has Punk and is thriving with him.

AEW is the inferior wrestling promotion, period, compared to the WWE.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: For the AEW Fans Laughing at WWE SummerSlam 2026’s Attendance… Why Do You Ignore AEW’s Poor Numbers Since 2023? appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Did you get all of that?

OK… Since Vince McMahon resigned from the TKO Board of Directors and then sold most of his TKO shares during early 2024, he’s been in a few legal wrangles. For one, he quietly used WWE money to pay for the NDA settlements instead of his own and because he didn’t disclose these legal matters, it was a Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) violation of not informing investors of such legal risks. With a new administration in place, they settled out of court and Vince paid a fine and reimbursed WWE for some of the NDA settlements. Next up, the Justice Department investigated Vince for sexual abuse crimes, but a change in administrations caused this to be dropped as well. Finally, the civil case between Vince and Janel Grant, as Janel alleges Vince stopped paying the NDA settlement and Vince alleged she breached the NDA contract by speaking to her friend. They are now settling privately with an arbitrator and with that, Janel dropped the civil case.

So, with Vince McMahon now free of legal issues, there are actual wrestling marks who are literally BEGGING executives at TKO to bring Vince McMahon back!

That’s right, the SAME Vince McMahon whom they were attacking during the 2010s as “obsolete”, “senile”, and “out of touch” while accusing him of “micro-managing” everything (which I covered THIS COLUMN for the MANY bad creative decisions he oversaw)… They want him to return now.

Really? So you’re telling me that you want an 80 year-old (soon to be 81) guy to rejoin an office setting or a backstage area full of women? Again, you already denounced his 2010s creative work, so why would you want that back?

Many idiots are like “well, he’d be better than Triple H”? Really? Because the last 5 years under Triple H’s tenure has made MORE MONEY than the last 5 years under Vince’s full tenure. Sure, Vince had to deal with 2020, but WWE was sinking badly during 2017-2019 with RAW viewership dropping, merchandise sales declining, and attendance dropping. Remember, they began SHRINKING houseshow events during 2019 because of poor attendance.

Triple H is doing a great job on creative, especially when he has free reign with the pen as he had during 2022 and mostly during 2023 (Vince meddled a tad during that year). The PROBLEM is the corporate overlords within Endeavor who keep putting their hands into the pike at TKO and within WWE. For one, they’re deciding to price gouge WWE fans on ticket prices, merchandising, and handing them over to ESPN and Netflix to be price gouged there. Secondly, they are encouraging ANY wrestler who is represented by Endeavor’s folks via the WME agency to be pushed. Hence why Becky Lynch, Logan Paul, Nikki Bella, John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes are always pushed and why they tried to shoehorn Pat McAfee into the Cody vs. Orton match at Wrestlemania 42. Ari Emanuel, who serves as TKO’s CEO and Pat McAfee’s agent, called Pat the “next Sylvester Stallone” and he was dead serious about it.

Further, COO Mark Shapiro of TKO said that TKO had “complete creative control” over the WWE. Exact quote.

Triple H is just a manager of the creative team, but he’s really a vessel to pass along communications from TKO executives or their analytics team on what to do next.

Thus, if Vince actually returns, he’ll be that vessel for TKO’s communications and analytics, too. And Vince already played that game by constantly kowtowing to USA Network, FOX, Mattel, and other corporate sponsors while bending the knee also to the Saudi government for their money.

But to desire to bring Vince McMahon back would be to accept, 100%, of the monster that he really is. By supporting his immoral and potentially illegal behavior, you’re an enabler and possibly a terrible person yourself.

Let’s just look at the Vince McMahon issues that we’ve heard about since April 2022. Just those, alone…

– Janel Grant for $3 million as a NDA settlement for conduct from 2019 through 2022 before Linda McMahon discovered the relationship threatened to divorce Vince. The relationship began as consensual with Janel, but quickly morphed into threesomes, defecations, and trying to offer her to other WWE employees (like Brock Lesnar and Michael P.S. Hayes) with John Laurinaitis taking the bait.

– Former female wrestler who left the company during the mid-2000s for $7.5 million, settled during 2018. Reportedly gave Vince oral sex for a push, but instead of pushing her character on television, he wanted more sexual favors. She refused and then her contact wasn’t renewed in 2005.

– Former female wrestler was sent naked photos of Vince during 2008 and Vince made sexual advances to her. Vince settled with a $1 million NDA settlement

– Female manager (not sure if that’s a performer or a corporate employee with the title of “manager”) was paid $1 million via NDA settlement to remain quiet about a sexual relationship with Vince McMahon.

– John Laurinaitis lost his job as Talent Relations EVP during 2012 due to “sexual misconduct” and resulted in a $1.5 million NDA. Bear in mind that John Laurinaitis was also involved in the Janel Grant case and is a big source of the “trafficking” allegation by Janel with Vince passing her on to Johnny Ace.

– In 1992, Rita Chatterton accused Vince McMahon of sexual assault dating back to 1986. If you watch the Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix, Vince admits they had a “consensual relationship” to acknowledge that they were together. During December 2022 before Vince McMahon could return to the WWE during early 2003, Vince chose to settle out-of-court for this ongoing legal threat to the tune of “multi-millions” with an undisclosed sum (Rita was asking for over $11 million in damages)

^ THAT is what you want returning to an office or backstage area with female employees around.

Really? Could you look your wives, sisters, mothers, or any other females in your lives and say it with a straight face “I support Vince McMahon”?

If you haven’t, please try…

We’ve established that Vince McMahon did a TERRIBLE job during the 2010s overseeing and micro-managing WWE Creative. Now, we’ve established him as a danger to other employees and a financial risk as well.

But wait, there’s more… I’ve only covered the issues that have come up since April 2022. What about the other problems in the past with Vince McMahon?

– Accused of steroid distribution during the early 1990s, indicted and went to trial during 1994. Yes, Vince McMahon was exonerated, BUT he totally let Dr. Zahorian freely roam WWE locker rooms and toured often in Pennsylvania just to ensure the good doctor could attend those events. Vince won the case because a poor performance by the prosecution and bad witnesses used, but there is ZERO dispute that Dr. Zahorian (a) sold steroids to wrestlers and (b) sold steroids personally to Vince. Vince and many wrestlers are on record saying they purchased steroids or other prescription drugs from Zahorian.

– Only had drug testing briefly after the 1994 trial. Wrestlers back on the gas during the late 1990s and first half of 2000s until Eddie Guerrero passed away in 2005. Then a “Wellness Policy” was created but it didn’t punish nor did it publicly announce any wrestlers caught with any substances or performance enhancements. It wasn’t until Chris Benoit’s murders/suicide and then the online pharmacy scandal afterward that caused the Wellness Policy to have more teeth beyond 2007.

– Utter refusal to acknowledge concussions were an issue for his wrestlers. Again, the wake-up call was Chris Benoit and then Chris Nowiski convincing Vince that brain injuries were serious. Years upon years of forcing wrestlers to work through concussions took untold damage on wrestlers, including Benoit. Wrestlers took pills to compensate or steroids to heal faster from injuries.

– The “Ring Boys” scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s, where younger boys who were employed to help set up WWE rings were sexually harassed and/or “exploited” by several WWE employees accused and were later fired.

– Jimmy Snuka’s controversy from 1983 when his girlfriend Nancy Argentino died of traumatic brain injuries in their shared hotel room. Vince is on record of talking with authorities for a prior domestic abuse claim regarding Snuka and Argentino. With the way it was believed that Nancy died due to “falling”, it’s suspected that some intervention occurred with Vince or WWE regarding this case. It was re-opened during 2015 and Snuka was finally indicted with a grand jury reviewing evidence. Later dismissed due to Jimmy Snuka being in poor health to stand trial.

– Accused of sexually harassing and groping a female employee at a tanning salon during 2006. While no charges were filed after the police were called, it’s unknown if Vince made any payouts. But, this is within the pattern of behavior.

– Admitted in Playboy magazine to “cheating” repeatedly on Linda McMahon. While this isn’t illegal, it’s just evidence of an aggressive sexual appetite that Vince has and would later financially pay for.

OK, Vince-loving marks… Do you really what this 80 soon-to-be 81 year old back who has a pattern of BAD behavior plus is actually TERRIBLE at his job as proven by the utter creative trash we saw during the 2010s that caused many wrestlers to leave the WWE out of utter creative frustration?

Go rewatch the WWE of the 2010s and tell me that you want Vince McMahon back. Did you enjoy those Jack Swagger, Miz, Alberto Del Rio, and Jinder Mahal pushes? Overpushing an inexperienced Roman Reigns as a babyface? You must enjoy the taste of a crap sandwich and enjoy it, as Vince is quoted as saying many times.

Hell, go rewatch the WWE of the 2000s… Lots of utter crap there. WCW/ECW Invasion, anyone? Katie Vick? Botched New World Order in 2002. Shoving oversized goofs like A-Train and Nathan Jones down our throats?

As someone on X/Twitter once put out (apologies, as I forget your name or where I’ve quoted you previously)… Guys like the Rock took utter CRAP that Vince McMahon gave them and made it look great. Because of guys like Rock and John Cena polishing the TURDS that Vince McMahon’s creative gave them, it created a false sense of belief that the creative was good but the wrestlers performing it were bad. Many wrestlers suffered because of the BAD creative given to them that they personally couldn’t overcome compared to top tier talents like Rock or John Cena who could turn any lemon into lemonade.

Look at the difference between Roman Reigns of the 2010s, written primarily by Vince McMahon, versus Roman Reigns of the 2020s who was written by Paul Heyman with some creative freedom given to Roman. BIG DIFFERENCE when your career isn’t micro-managed by a senile old man named Vince McMahon.

Yet, fools still want Vince McMahon to return to the WWE and run creative again.

Even with all of the evidence, including your own quotes about how you hated the 2010s WWE, ya still want him back.

The FACT is that all of these Vince McMahon LOVERS are in their late 30s or above, and they still think that the late 1990s Attitude Era felt like yesterday. YET, they always seem to overlook the Vince McMahon-led WWE of 2001 through early 2022. And I understand this idea, because at my age in the 40s, it feels like the 1990s were just yesterday, too.

HOWEVER – I DO NOT want to return to the Vince McMahon creative style of the 2010s. NO THANK YOU. And to me, the Attitude Era is long gone and can’t be replicated, ESPECIALLY with a Vince McMahon who is 26 years older than the peak years of the Attitude Era and with a lot more bad documented behavior since.

The current issue with the WWE is that TKO executives micro-manage everything, as their tenacles are all over UFC and ruined that brand since the mid 2010s. Now, they want to play in the WWE and control things there too.

Further, the issue about Triple H is NOT about Creative… It’s about talent. Triple H’s biggest weakness is talent development, as his system just doesn’t scout wrestlers well, nor do they train MALE wrestlers that well either. If TKO wants to be a hero, they’d segregate that duty from Triple H and put someone else in charge. WWE is too veteran heavy right now with the younger crop that came up through HHH’s system not paying off. By the way, talents like Bron Breakker or Tiffany Stratton were John Laurinaitis signings.

WWE’s roster is tired and exhausted from doing 2-3 hours of RAW per week, 2-3 hours of Smackdown per week, more houseshows again, and monthly 3 hour Premium Live Events (PLE). Their wrestlers in their late 30s or in their 40s are getting exhausted or injured from demanding schedule.

THAT is nothing Vince McMahon could solve and his creative would run into the same exact thing, except he’d push just 1-2 veterans at the top instead of 5-10 wrestlers.

So go ahead, keep praising Vince McMahon and being nostalgia for any photos you took with him… But you have recent years of sample creative data, like the 2010s, to review how Vince managed the WWE company and then you have all of these legal issues + terrible treatment of women.

Open your eyes and see how bad TKO is micro-managing the WWE right now, just like Vince McMahon micro-managed the WWE during the 2010s.

But hey, we live in a society today where many people look the other way at bad behavior as long as it serves some weird desire (like “owning” another group of people).

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Calling Out Wrestling Fans Who Want Vince McMahon to Return to the WWE and TKO appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Folks, this is the consistent pattern that has RUINED professional wrestling… Anytime it becomes more corporate, it starts to suck.

Everyone rejoiced during June 2022 when Vince McMahon stepped down and Triple H resurrected his executive career by returning to oversee talent and creative. Vince, especially since returning to the USA Network during the late 2000s, had become a total yes-man to corporations and they helped dictate his content with the PG era and trying to push squeaky clean babyfaces at the top. He even let a toy company help him terminate Mandy Rose.

Triple H had a great 2022-2023 run… Just as he was about to have another great year with 2024, the TKO Corporation, which was formed to serve as a holding company by Endeavor to oversee both UFC and WWE, placed The Rock on the TKO board of directors. Suddenly, creative was forcibly changed for Wrestlemania 40 (lucking out for the better on that event), but since Wrestlemania 40, WWE has been a bit wobbly. Creative has been micro-managed by TKO’s executives, especially since Endeavor actually represents several WWE wrestlers as talents, and TKO has shown their greedy side by jacking up the prices on everything.

Now, the WWE is offering major discounts on SummerSlam seats, as nosebleeds were $76 that reduces it down to $25. That’s a MASSIVE 67% discount and a major admission of defeat for (a) absurd price gouging of WWE fans and (b) creative micro-managing that has caused your top stars to DECLINE in value. 2 years ago, WWE has more equity in Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Gunther, and others on that WWE roster. Now, each are worn out and tired after working in front of worn out and tired WWE fans who have lost chunks of their disposable income supporting this overpriced promotion.

F around and find out, TKO… In just two freakin’ years, you have already ruined the AWESOME ATM machine that was WWE with the Bloodline receiving better creative with Triple H in charge during 2022-2023.

And as we’re finding out, Vince McMahon sold out to Endeavor to help protect him financially against any legal issues coming Vince’s way from HIS own bad behavior.

Getting back to TNA, I always wonder if Dixie Carter was influenced by the McMahon family who put themselves on television as the authority figure. Dixie did that, as well as taking more power backstage. As you saw from the TNA documentary, which can be easily proven as fact, Jeff Jarrett was sent home during July 2009 after Dixie Carter felt betrayed that Jeff would start dating Karen Angle without telling Dixie about it. However, it appears that Dixie may have been planning this for a while OR a bunch of people were inducing her to cause such a powerplay. Let’s see, here, who benefitted from Jeff being sent home along with eventually Dutch Mantell and Jim Cornette.

Well, obviously Vince Russo. The thing that this documentary confirmed more than anything was how political Vince Russo was behind closed doors or possibly privately on the telephone. He’s one of those employees who are constantly badmouthing other employees to management, and then seduces management with whatever “better way” scheme that he could sell them to use instead. Then, Vince acts all innocent to the people he cuts behind the scenes which is why several co-workers distrust Russo to this day. In WWE, he used their ratings situation to point towards other members of the creative team at causing the issue. No, WWE had a TALENT problem and that would quickly improve with Jim Ross taking over Talent Relations duties. For WCW, he seduced Time Warner executives that he was the magic solution to repair WCW’s ratings woes. However in WCW, he didn’t have amazing talents like Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, and Mick Foley along with a deep midcard with younger talents to book unlike what had in WWE. For TNA, he was repeatedly going behind Jeff Jarrett’s back to speak with Dixie Carter directly about company ideas and how his assistants, Dutch Mantell and Jim Cornette, were not good for TNA. Jeff, Jim, and Dutch were each dropped by TNA during 2009 while Russo remained.

Then later, Hulk Hogan seduced Dixie Carter. Yeah, Hogan was the “Babe Ruth of wrestling”, but by 2009, he was Babe Ruth but 10 years beyond his prime (minus the hot dogs, as Hogan always has the 24-inch pythons ready, dude!). However, in a creative role, Hogan could only get himself over and wasn’t good at getting other talent over if and when he managed their creative. TNA became a total disaster under himself and Eric Bischoff, as Eric is another person who seduces people into thinking he’s great. It’s AMAZING to me how effective Hulk Hogan was in getting both Dixie and Eric wrapped around his finger, as both forgot how to manage companies when Hogan was around. The lust of re-creating Hulkamania was just too much for them, I suppose?

The veterans reportedly swarmed Dixie, often after events during meals or at the hotel bar. Like most with money, she loves the flattery and will later cater towards anyone being overly nice to her or kissing her arse. She was just repeatedly manipulated by the wrong people and hence by 2010, TNA started losing money after profits were reportedly earned between 2007-2009. Creative went to hell without Jarrett, Dutch, and Cornette filtering out bad ideas and roster costs went up from Dixie’s signings and re-signings. From 2010 and beyond, TNA became WCW and were ironically led by Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and Vince Russo, the same Three Stooges we witnessed at WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 that embarrassed the entire company (but thank you for the Booker T victory, Vince).

Now, Anthem owns them and they’ve been shuffling up the backstage staff and talent deck for years. Anytime the TKO-owned WWE wants something, they now ask “when?”. And I’m sure AMC would never let anything close to the TNA of the 2000s appear within the TNA of the 2020s.

Even All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has their own corporate interests. Remember, Warner Bros. Discovery owned up to 10% of AEW. You don’t think that has any trade-offs? AEW Collision and CM Punk returning during 2023 don’t happen without WBD demanding it. Right now, the Khans are probably sweating bullets as this Skydance Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. is ongoing and might be for a while as its size and scope will see multiple legal fights in court. The Ellisons, who owned Skydance and purchased Paramount, have completely upended CBS’s news division and not for the better as they used to be a reasonably fair news organization. Now, they are under chaotic management and have been caught, repeatedly, withholding breaking stories out of fear of political retribution or upsetting the Ellisons.

Once the Ellisons complete their acquisition of Warner Bros., they could very well take the almost 10% stake in AEW and sell it back to AEW. They could also trash the television deal if completed before the year-end 2027 expiration date (though an option to extend 1 more year through 2028 exists). Both the almost 10% stake and the AEW television contract could be destroyed and then placed as “merger and acquisition costs” expense line items of an income statement. In other words, the stake in AEW and the television contract might end up as tax write-offs for the Ellisons and they’ll gladly do it.

Oh, and there’s this problem with HBO Max and Paramount+ co-existing… One has to go… While HBO Max has more subscribers, the content it hosts (especially producing original content) is far more expensive than Paramount Plus. Their streaming days on HBO Max could be over, especially as I predict that WWE is hopping to Paramount Plus after opting out early of their Netflix deal by 2029.

The corporate destruction blueprint for all of this was there with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and repeatedly throughout the years.

National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) – Mid Atlantic was owned by the Crockett family and thanks to attempting to expand too quickly (purchasing Bill Watts’s declining promotion, expanding to Dallas, buying private jets, and possibly overpaying their talents to fulfill extravagant lifestyles), the Crocketts sold their promotion to Ted Turner and were absorbed into his corporation. While it saved the company and rebranded it to “World Championship Wrestling (WCW)”, Ted put the biggest corporate stooges in charge of it. Jim Herd had ZERO wrestling experience, let alone any live sporting event experience, yet he was placed in charge of WCW. YEARS of poor operations followed and made WCW a financial failure.

Then, to his credit, Ted Turner gave Eric Bischoff a chance after he presented himself well in interviews and within 3 years, Bischoff had WCW making a profit for the first time. Bischoff reduced the operating costs but then made key signings of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Scott Hall, Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, and many unseen by United States audiences wrestlers from Mexico, Japan, and ECW. Bischoff stopped the goofy storylines seen throughout 1995 and early 1996 to the begin reality-based storylines through mid-1996. It worked… New World Order storyline began, Cruiserweight division was taken very seriously, and literally every WCW title belt mattered with wrestlers caring to fight for them. Total domination by WCW followed, as WCW Nitro defeated WWE Monday Night RAW for 83 straight weeks from mid-1996 through mid-1998.

However for WCW, some more corporate pain was coming. During the mid-1990s, Ted Turner and Time Warner were in talks to merge their corporations. The deal was finalized through October 1996, but it probably took a year of sorting things out and shuffling the organizational chart. By early 1998, WCW had new standards and practices policies for their company, meaning that they had to reduce the adult themes in tone such as violence, language, or anything alluding to sex or overly exploiting the many beautiful ladies on their roster. WCW suddenly became squeaky clean at a time when WWE had pure creative freedom to basically do anything during 1998.

With expensive merger costs, Time Warner executives began to look at WCW’s expenses more closely and they started to observe how intense labor costs were for the wrestling promotion. Then, as 1998 wore on, the revenues began to dry up and began to create problems for WCW during 1999. WCW operated on a loss during 1999 and was projected to have an even larger loss during 2000. On top of all of that, AOL was about to acquire this newly merged Time Warner/Turner company and would do so as the “dot com bubble” was about to burst (online firms expanded too quickly back then, causing false hope that it could keep expanding forever). By early 2001, it was apparent that this new AOL/Time Warner combined corporation needed resources especially as an economic recession happened that year and then prolonged consumer confidence pain after the tragic events of 9/11/2001. Thus, the new AOL/Time Warner executives decided to cancel WCW off their networks and then sold to the WWE for less than $4 million.

Ironically, WWE became a publicly-traded corporation through 1999 to expand their capital opportunities to fully defeat WCW as a promotion. To be honest, the WWE has declined in quality ever since. NOTHING will be as amazing as 1998-1999 for WWE, as they went from 6-8 million North American viewers to under 2 million in just 15 years. WWE is chalk full of corporate stooges from non-wrestling backgrounds holding Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, and Vice President titles.

Even Extreme Championship Wrestling wasn’t immune to corporate pain. Taking WWE money meant special favors, such as taking on several of WWE’s wrestlers who struggled in WWE. Yes, Al Snow worked out well but he was a talented performer who just needed a better gimmick. But I can give you Brakus, whom the WWE hired based on his physique only. The company that signed them up for Pay Per Views kept delaying their revenues and were never held accountable for such delays. Then, ECW made a deal with Viacom during 1999. After getting hassled all year by Viacom for what should or shouldn’t air, Viacom ended up dumping ECW in favor of WWE RAW during 2000. All of those attempts by Paul Heyman to cater towards the WWE, the Pay Per View company, and Viacom meant nothing in the end. One of his deals with WWE during 2000 actually gave WWE deal matching rights on any potential buyers, hence why WWE owns ECW to this very day.

Of course, any company who doesn’t go corporate gets destroyed by the companies who do. Yeah, all of that money from the stock market, media conglomerates, and sponsors sort of matters financially these days.

TKO has ruined the WWE and have since early 2024 when they began micro-managing Triple H’s creative team and started raising prices on everything. Then when everything is so expensive, WWE has to rush bigger matches on each of the Premium Live Events just to sell those higher priced tickets. Here we are in 2026 and WWE lacks refreshing match-ups or wrestlers today are worn out from wrestling big matches and big schedules prior to this point. We’ve seen Roman, Seth, Cody, and CM Punk literally do everything possible in the WWE for the past 4 years. Meanwhile, TKO’s micro-managing has also made WWE thirsty for veterans. Oba Femi losing to Brock Lesnar after their Wrestlemania 42 match, Jacob Fatu being dispatched by Roman Reigns, and Bron Breakker getting swallowed in Seth Rollins’s wake has boosted the need to depend on veterans. Gunther has some bad losses that he’s still recovering from.

For WWE, there’s no going back. The Endeavor folks are corporate folks to the extreme, and love to buddy-buddy up with other corporates to make as much money as humanly possible… BUT NOT FOR THE PERFORMERS, but for themselves as executives and shareholders. To them, TKO is an ATM network with WWE and UFC as their ATM devices. They’re all getting rich while their hard-working fans who just want to be entertained are performing redistribution of their own income to this pathetic TKO corporation.

I don’t see a strong future for WWE. Once this crop of veteran talent get exhausted and begin to retire, WWE is totally screwed. The generation of talent behind them just aren’t as exceptional, yet, with star power to draw strongly at the top of any WWE card. I’m just not seeing any breakout stars in the women’s division, either, that could possibly one day make that division bigger. Many female wrestlers work and act exactly the same compared to the crop of female talent that came out of the 2010s.

If you want to see what corporate wrestling does to someone, look no further than Bayley. Go watch her stuff from 2015. Completely incredible stuff, as Bayley was literally “female John Cena” as a babyface. Her merchandise exceeded all of the female talents back then, and that included the Bella Twins who had a ton of merchandise offerings. She continued her great NXT work through the first half of 2016 but then debuted on the WWE roster during July (PLE) and August (RAW) that year. While it is true that getting over in NXT and WWE are different things, Bayley was a tremendous wrestler who was full of charisma and personality to get over anywhere. The Vince McMahon micro-managing creative team just did her no favors, making her look like a wimpy babyface despite the positivity that her character used to bring. By 2019, they turned her into a heel and that shell version of a character is what you see to this day. WWE ripped the enthusiasm out of her and now, she may very well leave and join her buddy Mercedes for AEW.

Corporations are too image conscious, too public relations savvy, and just lack balls to try anything risky. On top of that, they want everything to be all-inclusive because their end game is that if they can micro-manage the entire audience, they can then start setting higher prices.

I remember writing a controversial column during 2015 about how we might not see pro wrestling around in its current money-making form in 10 years based on the lack of strong competition back then PLUS the inability to develop the next big star. To WWE’s credit, they found their next big stars with Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, and the Bloodline… BUT THEY MESSED THAT UP before and then after Wrestlemania 40. Thus, I’ll give WWE a few extra years between 2021 through early 2024…

TKO is gonna kill the longevity of the WWE. While UFC will always have people willing to physically fight someone, WWE is more about performance and their feeder systems aren’t going to effectively replace many aging veteran stars. Now, if WWE and UFC would share the revenues with their performers, then maybe we’d see booming motivations by the performers of both and things could greatly improve. However, executives at Endeavor only care about padding their bank accounts as much as possible until the ride officially ends. Trust me, they are scoffing at the idea of lowering ticket prices for WWE SummerSlam 2026 in Minneapolis because it reduces they money they could potentially earn themselves with higher ticket prices.

The TKO corporation has around $5 billion in debt, while Endeavor had over $6 billion in debt before Silver Lake acquired them. Despite both WWE and UFC bringing in bags of cash, Endeavor/TKO sure seems to have a lot of debt to pay off… Hmmm, that won’t be good if revenues have peaked for WWE.

How is that prediction to start off your weekend? Corporations weaken wrestling promotions!

Go ahead, WWE marks, and pray that Vince McMahon somehow returns. Bury your head in the same for how he turned WWE into an IPO, catered to Comcast repeatedly (hello PG Era) and corporate sponsors, began hosting events in Saudi Arabia, and or sold out to Endeavor. Remember, Vince McMahon was Vice Chairman for all of 2023 as many of these corporate plans to go deeper into Saudi Arabia, sell out to ESPN for PLEs, the Netflix deal, and price gouging were put into place. Keep wanting Vince “NDA” McMahon to return, ya clowns! Years after complaining about how terrible his creative was for most of the 2000s and 2010s, you somehow want him back in 2026. You make me sick, and it’s easy to see how corporations exploit YOU as wrestling fans.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Corporations Weaken Wrestling Promotions (WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, and AEW) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Like the WWE for the past 3 years, music tours have also been jacking up ticket prices in amounts that significantly EXCEED the annual rate of inflation. Since 2023, annual inflation has been less than 4% while prices for events and hotels surrounding such events have seen price gouging amounts of 20% hikes or much more. In fact, the costs of anything involving events from hotels to parking to food to tickets have all gone up drastically and priced out many folks who USED to attend concerts or WWE regularly.

WWE was purchased by Endeavor through 2023 and after the sale was complete, the newly formed TKO corporation began to hike up prices of events. The prices were really noticed during Royal Rumble 2025, which took some of yours truly’s money, and kept going throughout 2025 including a much more expensive Wrestlemania 41 and heavy price gouging for things surrounding John Cena’s retirement tour. Then, we have Wrestlemania 42 and WWE’s price gouging took on ridiculous standards on top of a Las Vegas city that has been gouging tourists HARD since COVID-19 ended.

On my May 20th column, I remarked at how poorly WWE SummerSlam tickets were selling through 2/3 of May. I actually did some calculations and observed that less than 20,000 were sold through that point and reportedly, WWE has only sold around 22,000 tickets thus far with SummerSlam being a few weeks away from this 2-night show in Minneapolis, MN. Back on May 20th, several said that “it’s May” or “too early” to make this call. No, it’s freakin’ SummerSlam, arguably WWE’s #2 show and should sell a ton of tickets in advance. People travel all over the country to attend WWE’s top shows, but they aren’t this year for SummerSlam.

Obvious reason #1 = ticket prices.

Right now, WWE only has 1/3 of the Minnesota Vikings’s stadium available for sale, which is a massive indicator of a massive sales failure incoming (or at least compared to events of the past). While the nosebleeds have come down in price since I last wrote my 5/20 column (down to $76.10), that is still pricey for a sporting event in the way upper decks. The most expensive floor seat is at $3,315.90.

While these prices are down from Wrestlemania 42’s obvious price gouging and other recent PLEs, they are still high relatively speaking versus events before TKO fully took over.

In case you haven’t purchased gasoline lately, we’re averaging around $3.83 through 7/14/26 and possibly trending upward with recent escalations in the Middle East, again. In just a few days, the national average gained about 10 cents and we’re way above the $2.73 price seen earlier in the year before the war began.

And when gas prices are up, ANYTHING that is shipped by a truck goes up in price. This affects literally every company who receives a trucked shipment of something. In addition to truck fuel prices going up, so does jet fuel. Oil is used for many things other than transportation, such as plastics. Annual inflation was “cheered” today of being just 3.5%, but that was due gas prices dropping from being above $4 per the ceasefire and memorandum of understanding “deal” between the United States and Iran. Recent events seemed to have ended both, and now gas prices are going up again.

But consumers NEVER recovered from the previous gas price hikes since late February. And I’d further argue that consumers still haven’t got over the shocks from COVID-19 and then the insanely rising inflation from 2021-2023.

Right now, many economists suggest we have a “K-Shaped” economy. On the upper portion of the “K” are upper class individuals. If you look at statistics, they are doing just fine, as the past year generated the most millionaires created while 2026 appears to be creating the most billionaires on record if the current pace is maintained. 2026 also created the first ever trillionaire with Elon Musk. Statistically speaking, the upper 10% of wage earners account for roughly HALF of the consumption in the United States.

Meanwhile, the lower portion of the “K”… For many years within the past 6 years, consumers incomes or wages (many working part-time) were growing much less than the rate of inflation. The Minimum Wage on the national level hasn’t increased since 2009 at $7.25, so if you compare that to above $4 per gallon of gasoline, that sucks. You’re basically working almost 2 hours per gallon. Going deeper into the data, the personal savings rate is currently at 3.0% and historically speaking, anything under 5% usually precedes an economic recession because the consumer is tapped out. This coincides with elevated credit card delinquency rates, as consumers are not saving as much or are ringing up much more debt that ever to survive. Housing and apartment prices have skyrocketed for the past few years and make things unaffordable, in addition to the price gouging happening with piped gas and especially electricity.

Given the choice of attending a WWE event or a concert, versus feeding, clothing, and housing your family… Well, attending a high priced event goes by the wayside.

That said, not everything is specifically about price. Sorry, but I’d struggle to see many struggling concert acts above EVEN IF tickets were given to me for free. Time listening to J’Lo lip sync songs that she allegedly didn’t record is not worth my time, just as attending a WWE branded wrestling event might not be someone else’s cup of tea for free.

Which goes into the darker point #2 about SummerSlam 2026…

Yeah, we could get into this event struggling because it’s a 2-night event and NOT Wrestlemania. “Less is more” as I’ve always said and I just don’t see the demand to have Summerslam as 2 nights. The past few years of this experiment have proved that.

HOWEVER, it’s not just getting more WWE wrestling, but who is on the cards.

Go back to 2024… Roman Reigns was at the peak of his popularity. Seth Rollins would provide his peak performance through Wrestlemania 40 by performing in the tag match on night #1 and then still participating in night #2 despite a bad leg. CM Punk just arrived and was still on his post-AEW honeymoon with lots of anticipation. Cody Rhodes was still chasing the WWE title and trying to finish his family’s story. We got The Rock back and he was electrifying for the first time in years as the “final boss”.

How about 2026, 2 years later?

The Rock has disappointed by not doing any significant return appearances other than 1 PLE during late 2024, Netflix RAW, Smackdown in New Orleans, and then the Elimination Chamber 2025 PLE. However, the “final boss” was lost and we never completed the Bloodline storyline with him and Roman colliding. I think they’ll try it at Wrestlemania 43, but if you’ve seen Rocky lately, he’s seriously dropped like 75 pounds of muscle.

CM Punk has had a few good years on the main event scene, but Roman dispatched him at Wrestlemania 42. Despite the great match, Punk was moved to the Smackdown brand and that is clearly the lesser brand right now. He’ll need a big heel turn to freshed up his character, but Father Time remains undefeated.

Cody Rhodes just isn’t as exciting after he won the WWE world title during 2024. The chase is over. While he’s still a solid hand, there’s a lack of purpose and that’s been spelled out clearly by him headlining the lesser Smackdown brand.

I personally like Seth Rollins, but we’ve seen him do it all and with many variations of being a heel or babyface character. Tried many times as a World Champion, too, as he’s a 6-time World Champion. After Roman Reigns probably dispatches him at the poorly attended SummerSlam 2026, that could be it for him as he’s wrestled everybody on the roster multiple times.

And then we have Roman Reigns. He’s just not the same since he disappeared after Wrestlemania 40 and returned as a babyface. “Original Trible Chief” just isn’t as fun as a heel beating down everybody and demanding them to “acknowledge me”. Hence why the WWE reformed the Bloodline again.

On the 7/13/26 edition of Monday Night RAW, Paul Heyman seemed to walk away from the Vision group. Might this help pave the way for the “wiseman” to rejoin the Bloodline group? I think so…

If I were booking SummerSlam 2026, I’d have Heyman rejoin the Bloodline and the group just obliterate Seth Rollins and any babyface trying to save the day. Total heel beatdown of epic proportions and I’d have the Bloodline conduct many violent beatdowns of babyface wrestlers in the weeks that follows. Fully cement the Bloodline back into a heel group and let Paul Heyman’s creativity flow through the group to make them exciting again.

That is exactly what this reunited babyface Bloodline is lacking… Paul Heyman.

What we have through 2026 isn’t just TKO price gouging, but a WWE that has become veteran dependent and desiring to push Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes HARD as babyfaces because they are both WME represented wrestlers. WME is controlled by Endeavor’s top brass, so hence why TKO is whispering to Triple H to push Roman and Cody strongly even if performed poorly or in a way that over-exposes both wrestlers. Meanwhile, any other wrestler is second fiddle and that includes any younger wrestlers. The lack of good trainers at the Performance Center (I’m looking at you, A-Train) and the TOTAL LACK OF PATIENCE with TKO’s executives and analytics has screwed the WWE’s future.

WWE through 2026 is too veteran dependent, but I’d argue veterans who have diminished as assets. Each of the above wrestlers have LOST something since 2024, while newer wrestlers like Bron Breakker, Jacob Fatu, and many others just aren’t gaining any momentum to sustain a top spot. I like Oba Femi, but him losing a return match to Brock Lesnar just didn’t sit well with me and killed momentum for him.

If WWE’s top guys are declining and WWE’s business is declining, especially in light of higher prices or a possible economic recession…

Many suggest that All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has a chance to catch WWE as a business, but with their lower ticket prices, they are struggling to regularly draw 4,000 for AEW Dynamite shows while nobody buys their merchandise and PPV numbers are sagging. All-In in London is doing weaker numbers than their previous 2 shows, and that’s AEW’s top show. Reality check is coming soon for AEW because their TV deal expires soon and Warner Bros. will be owned by the Ellisons/Paramount whom I believe wants to host WWE during 2029 after Netflix (I predict) opts out of WWE’s 10-year deal 5 years early. AEW could be without a cable/satellite and streaming home, which would serve as a massive potential nail in their coffin (if that were to happen).

One would think that wrestling fans would attend more AEW shows with lower ticket prices than WWE with higher ticket prices. That substitution effect has yet to happen, brother, because AEW literally has the same issue of being veteran dependent without any newer homegrown stars rising up to eventually take their spots.

What would I do if I were advising WWE or TKO?

Announce, effectively immediately, ticket prices are being slashed significantly. I don’t care if TKO just breaks even on live events when considering venue costs. They are getting so much money from TV deals, Saudi Arabia, sponsorships, and states/cities bribing them to appear there.

Secondly, TKO has to stop meddling. Give Triple H full control and breathing room.

Third, fix the developmental system. Replace the trainers on the male side of the ledger, specifically with guys who can work different styles, knows how to talk, and knows how to use psychology. Prince Albert worked as a big man who couldn’t talk. How can he train wrestlers to work other styles or talk? Makes ZERO SENSE why Triple H is loyal to that guy who is botching his developmental system.

Shrink all TV shows to be 2 hours maximum, never going above.

Nothing other than Wrestlemania goes for 2 nights.

Only North America or England should EVER host Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, or SummerSlam. Those are protected and entitled for the fans who helped build WWE. I don’t care how much Saudi wants to pay you for both the Rumble ($100 million) and Wrestlemania ($250). WWE is pissing on loyal fans who loved traveling to the WWE’s top events.

Reduce creative team power of Bruce Prichard and Michael P.S. Hayes. I’ve seen enough of their older ways that it’s impacting some legitimately good wrestlers, like Chelsea Green. Retain them as agents for matches, though, where they still have value for coming up with creative finishes or structuring a matches. Bruce is a Vince McMahon mark, though, so I’d consider his removal anyway.

Instead of forcing loyal veterans to take a paycut, start training them to be road agents, creative team members, or other help backstage in addition to their part-time wrestling. Sheamus could have been useful backstage for younger wrestlers coming up or even at the Performance Center. Instead, you just let him walk.

Just like that, WWE could be improved and we wouldn’t be laughing at SummerSlam 2026’s poor attendance.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: WWE SummerSlam 2026’s Weak Ticket Sales and Who or What Gets the Blame For It (Economy, WWE, or TKO?) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

And here we go again… TKO-owned WWE makes a cut or opts not to renew a contract, and the online fans go ballistic. Yet, after that brief outrage, said online fans KEEP WATCHING the WWE.

Reportedly, Sheamus’s deal was coming up to expire and TKO-owned WWE offered him an extension. Now, this wasn’t an extension to continue to current financial terms or to possibly increase his salary… Nope, it was a lesser deal, possibly the 50% less deal that others, such as the New Day, received. He said “no thanks” and now his contract will expire and WWE.com has already moved him to the alumni section.

Sheamus is 48 years old with over 2,000 matches on his body since debuting in 2002. While he’s 48 years old, he has 24 years of bumping inside the ring with 19 of them within WWE rings. On top of that, he’s dealing with spinal stenosis in his neck or the narrowing of the canal within your spine. I see some reports online suggesting that he’s making up to $1 million per year, so at 50%, $500,000 would be his new salary if consistent with other TKO offers.

If you look at his match stats, according to Cage Match, he’s wrestling under 30 matches per year but his wrestling output has really declined since 2018. He went from 145 matches per year to less than 50 for the past 3 years (less than 30 for the past 2), while not performing at all thus far for 2026.

The old adage of “creative had nothing for him” is being used, but what else can you do for a 48 year-old with spinal stenosis in his neck? Seriously, you tell me how he could be used. And don’t tell me he could do another one of those Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus matches where they physically beat each other because I guarantee that took a chunk out of the older Sheamus. Additionally, Sheamus is a 4-time champion… He’s already achieved glory.

Remember when he returned after injury last year and he was SLIGHTLY out-of-shape? The same online wrestling community who MOCKED the older Sheamus for being out-of-shape is attacking the TKO-owned WWE today for not giving him a bigger contract. OH THE HYPOCRISY!

It’s funny because only WWE receives this kind of attention from its fanbase regarding an older wrestler receiving LESS after his peak productive years. You don’t see that in the NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB… Veteran players, past their prime BUT having something in their arsenal to still give, often take lower contracts to chase one more ring. Hell, it’s a skill and an art form for many professional sports clubs to TRADE a player while he’s in his peak just to avoid those past-his-prime years.

Right now, LeBron James who can be argued as either a top 15, top 10, or top 5 NBA player of all time (depends on how much you mark for him) is talking about joining a team for the league minimum. This guy was paid max contract money, yet nobody is going nuclear in the NBA because he’ll suddenly take less. Aaron Rodgers was the highest paid QB at Green Bay and made a fuss anytime he wasn’t (often receiving new contracts to make him paid even higher). Yet in New York and then in Pittsburgh, he took less… Nobody cried “poor Aaron”.

It’s just part of NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB… When you’re skills diminish, and there are statistics and all-pro teams that help measure it, you receive less as a talent. The players are 100% OK with it because they’ve already had their peak earning years and the fans are OK because they still get to see a top talent trying to contribute somehow.

BUT NOT IN PRO WRESTLING! Wrestler salaries must keep going up and up and up and up no matter how old someone gets or how LESS AVAILABLE they become.

And that’s probably due to fans probably knowing there is NO retirement pension for the wrestlers in the TKO-owned WWE versus NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA. PLUS, those football, baseball, hockey, or basketball stars get to KEEP THEIR NAME and make money off their own name. The TKO-owned WWE owns the name “Sheamus” and will likely keep it in case Sheamus dares to work for a competitor like AEW. That’s a bummer, as there should be a rule that if you work at least 15 years for a wrestling company, you get to own the name that you helped make.

I’m still wondering where the Sheamus fans have been for the past few years? You should be upset at WWE limiting his opportunities from over 100 matches through 2018 to under 50 through 2025.

Where are your receipts for buying Sheamus merchandise?

Where are your Social Media posts?

Where are your likes for any YouTube or Social Media post regarding Sheamus?

And remember, the TKO-owned WWE was offering him a new contract. They weren’t just releasing him, but they were offering him a new deal adequate for what he’s become. 48 year-old wrestler capable of providing about 30 matches per year. This is different than R-Truth because you actually saw R-Truth on television before he was released. Sheamus has been absent since November 2025 from any WWE television appearances thanks to shoulder surgery.

Look, it’s unfortunate… Sheamus put in 19 hard years into the WWE and HE SHOULD receive a pension + health insurance for his hard work. BUT, unfortunately, the top wrestlers in the company do NOT want unions nor do they ever want to challenge wrestlers joining the Actor’s Guild as Jesse Ventura suggested WWE talent do before Wrestlemania 2 in 1986.

WWE and wrestling in-general really lacks any transitional plans for wrestlers retiring from the ring and then becoming part of management, whether that’s a road agent, match producer, or joining the creative team. Many top stars such as Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Edge, etc. have retired without any company offering them to join creative teams. The Undertaker overseeing AAA is actually an exception rather than the rule. WWE has more non-wrestlers in its management structure than wrestlers.

I cannot control what wrestling is, and that’s a non-unionized workshop where wrestlers are treated like independent contractors for no benefits or pension. Further, they have to pay their own taxes, which involves needing accountants and sending payments themselves. Buying private health insurance is very expensive, so any wrestlers with families better have a spouse with a great plan at work or else a wrestler is paying dearly for a family insurance plan not stretched among the entire workplace.

I personally feel bad for Sheamus, but I also see that the TKO-owned WWE actually took care of him for the past few years. He worked less and got paid a lot of money for it. Sure, argue that it’s “back pay” for working more often during previous years and for less, but they still employed him for 19 years and gave him repeat raises. And they offered him a new contract instead of offering him nothing, as they have for many other wrestlers.

But I do want to emphasize where were all of these online fans before his contract was set to expire? What investments in time and money did you make to ensure that Sheamus was NOT released by the WWE?

Your outrage is just another way to scream at the TKO-owned WWE, as you cannot put the pipe down no matter how much they disappoint or price gouge you. How about this? Watch LESS of the TKO-owned WWE if it bothers you that match. OR, if there’s a wrestler that you actually like, buy their merchandise and help them remain in the TKO-owned WWE. Spend talking about the wrestler on Social Media and like/share everything you can. Hit the TKO-owned WWE in the analytics, baby.

Otherwise, your fake outrage sucks because it’s so sudden after not praising Sheamus’s under-50 match output for the past 3 years.

THIS stuff is why wrestling fans are so easily mocked and ridiculed, while also being taken advantage of by TKO. TKO knows that wrestling fans are NOT proactive but reactive. However, TKO also knows that each and every one of you are loyal to a fault. Despite how much you complain about every damn thing, they know that you’ll still spend 2-3 hours watching RAW on Monday (even though it sucks) and you’ll pay up for any WWE related content (even though TKO loves to price gouge).

If Sheamus getting lowballed by the TKO-owned WWE pisses you off so much, then cut back on your TKO-owned WWE consumption. SIMPLE…

To me, WWE hasn’t been as good as it was through early 2024… Post Wrestlemania 40 has been BLAH to me, so I’ve consumed LESS of its product. And that’s on top of me converting from watching RAW and Smackdown during the mid 2010s to catching YouTube clips or watching condensed versions on Hulu (though I gave up Hulu). I attend fewer shows, haven’t bought much merchandise.

VOTE with your wallet and your time.

So, if Sheamus getting a lowball offer pissed you off, then cut back. Teach that TKO-owned WWE a lesson. And if many of you cutback on your consumption, it will rock WWE’s numbers and they’ll begin listening.

But then, the TKO-owned WWE will somehow let you down on something else in the future. Rinse & repeat. And you’ll still be watching and financially supporting the TKO-owned WWE.

Last year, you body shamed Sheamus for being slightly out-of-shape following an injury. Now, you’re mad that WWE is letting him go.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

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