The Unknown Poster

It wouldn’t surprise me if they announced Laine and Connor at the same time.

Would look good in a Jets jersey. Tough to see Dallas doing a deal with us though

Maurice told 1290 Buff will be fine and its "nothing sinister".

Agreed. Deal looks good now. Will look even better next year. Will look tremendous in a few years time.

Thats a fantastic deal.

Some news & notes (most courtesy Dave Meltzer) The big news: - Anthem (parent of Impact Wrestling and owned by Winnipeg's own Leonard Asper) bought AXS & HD Net Movies channels. Former owner Mark Cuban and new partner Steve Harvey are minority partners but Anthem controls the channels. - Anthem promptly cleaned house, including removing the VP who brokered the deal and was the driving force behind bringing New Japan to AXS (which has been big for them as New Japan has increased its viewership every quarter even as AXS was reduced in terms of availability in the US). That VP, Adam Swift, became producer of the New Japan show and made it more modern for US audiences, including hiring Mauro Renallo (until WWE hired him away) and then Jim Ross (until WWE banned him from doing the show). This was a major reason for New Japan doing well in the US Market and they are now under the control of Anthem (contract expires Jan. 2021. - The deal includes HD's library of wrestling (including some ROH, New Japan) and MMA. ROH was on HD Net for years, a deal that likely saved them from closing before Sinclair Broadcasting bought the company a few years ago. AXS financed a lot of smaller MMA shows. - Given the ratings, its doubtful Anthem would want to cancel New Japan but who knows...they might want a strategic partnership (as Impact did previously, but New Japan did not). Impact really wanted to work with New Japan but New Japan has been loyal to their relationship with ROH and has been hot at Impact ever since Okada was sent there and not treated well. Don Callis works for both, though. Other news: - Impact has basically iced Killer Kross. He wanted to re-negotiate his deal (I think its like $40,000 per year and with the new wrestling landscape he could get a ton more). Impact offered him a raise but not what he wanted and they want him to work his contract. They feel he's violated the non-disparagement deals in his contract as well. Kross is popular and a bunch of talent isnt happy with the situation. Kross was asked to blade recently and declined, though Impact said they had no issue with that and used fake blood. His gf Scarlett asked for her release when he did and her's was granted. - RVD signed a new deal with Impact. Ken Shamrock is in. Johnny Swinger is also in. Joey Ryan is also in which I think is a solid get for them. - AEW's next PPV "Full Gear" (Im not crazy about that name) is Cody vs Jericho for the World Championship, Kenny vs Mox. Probably PAC vs Page. And more not yet announced. - All Out was up in the UK but down in the US compared to DoN. Somewhat significantly down. Generally blamed on losing Mox. - TSN is the station AEW has been talking to about wrestling. WWE had angered TSN back when they had the deal and key people at TSN didnt like wrestling. But its a different down and they have the multiple channels now. I'd have to think its a no-brainer with Jericho and Kenny. I know they are planning a Canadian tour. - California passed a bill that could impact Wrestling & MMA that classifies independent contractors as employees under certain conditions (that would apply to most wrestling/MMA right now). WWE (and others) could just choose not to run Cali but I think this is just the beginning of this issue and other states will follow suit. Someone is going to eventually make the move of classifying their talent as employees. - Flair is suing WWE over the term "The Man." Flair has the trademark for "To be the man" and thinks that covers "the man" as well. Apparently, WWE blew him off. And Charlotte is hot at Ric over it. - Shane McMahon missed time due to jury duty.

Maybe wanting to do both at the same time...?

I agree. I had the argument with a couple of friends who didnt really think that critically about "ER's are closed, what happens when I need to go?" Most people dont need an ER, Urgent Care is fine. Im cool with a discussion about it but I think a lot of people werent looking at it accurately. I've been to a number of ER's & Urgent Care unfortunately and my most recent trip to HSC was not a good one (9 hours). But the numbers show reduced wait times and my experience has been generally better. I have a couple of nurse friends who think an over-hall was needed but they jumped the gun a bit. My thought is, lets let the Cons complete their changes and then judge. What the NDP did for 17 years wasnt working.

Interestingly the couple people I know in health care would disagree, feeling the plan has a lot of merit. Needs better execution. The change from ER to urgent care impacts very few. Rural health care is arguably improved significantly. 17 years of NDP was rough. Going to take more than 3 years to fix.

The NDP were pretty disingenuous about ER's. Firstly, they cant speak on health care after their 17 years in power. I can appreciate a debate over Urgent Care vs ER's but I felt they werent being honest. Trying to make it seem like those buildings were closed down. I've had family go to Victoria Hsp Urgent Care just as they always did when it was an ER. Who was in power when people died in ER's....?

I think a sense of inevitability combined with a lack of a major change issue and less people wanting to hold their nose and vote for Wab. PC's a bit soft which they should be cognizant of. Without debating the early call, probably deserving of more time to initiative their vision.

I think the idea has merit. But Austin should have been saved til later in the show to see if fans would stay tuned in for it. Problem is wwe is very formulaic even with the big stars of the past. And Austin was back pretty recently. Ultimately it wasn’t going to persuade NFL fans to not watch the game. It will be interesting to see if the rapid declines are due to fan apathy in general or wwe apathy specifically. Once SD is on FOX and AEW debuts, give it a few months and we’ll know for sure.

Yup. Down much more than usual against NFL though. RAW has been better since Paul Heymans been booking more of it. Austin opening the show was not a great idea. Everything changes in a month. Maybe.

Friedman says Connor wants long term. Laine wants bridge.

Featuring Steve Austin’s return to MSG

In a move that was expected but is still pretty shocking under the circumstances, Anthem Sports, owned by Leonard Asper, bought majority interest in HD Net HD Net includes AXS. Anthem is the parent of Impact so Impact will be moving to AXS and it’s a Deal Asper always wanted to get the fight network in the US.

Nothing yet. Im under the impression TSN is the leading candidate. Word is they are in negotiations with whomever and intend to have it for the debut. I do know Bell loved the idea of the Kenny doc when they saw ratings that wrestling docs were drawing in the US (Flair, Andre etc). And they loved the Kenny doc so the idea of AEW would certainly be something they'd be positive on.

Latest numbers have All Out trending slightly below Double or Nothing. But DoN did above expectations so its not a big surprise. Losing Mox vs Kenny didn't help. And I'd agree with those who felt the Jericho/Page build up wasn't good enough. Keeping in mind, AEW has been doing all this with no TV at all, its impressive. Buys were up in the UK. What can they draw on TNT? I was originally thinking 500,000...now Im closer to 750,000 and I've seen industry people predicting 800,000+. For what it's worth Impact is drawing 5000-10000 on their US station. Yikes. AEW's next PPV will be interesting. They'll have a month of TV and will feature Cody vs Jericho and Kenny vs Mox.

Thank you kindly!

Just imagine Eric Bischoff’s wwe theme playing for me There are a few now. Us (PCW), CWE. And two new groups. WPW and WrestleMax. I am not a fan of WPW but wrestlemax is definitely trying to do something different. I’m curious to see how it works out. Super Crazy vs Mentallo headlines for them. We’re back in a couple weeks with Chikara founder Mike Quackenbush.

DoN did 111,000 buys. Which is considered a success. All Out is trending to be slightly lower. I think losing Mox definitely hurt some buys. The AEW Countdown to All Out special that aired on TNT the Friday before had 390,000 viewers which is very good under the circumstances. It’s raised expectations in some circles that their debut could draw 800,000 or so. I think that’s a bit high but everything AEW has been breaking expectations so you never know. By the way, I was in Vegas for DoN and it was tremendous. As was the special US screening of the Kenny doc during Starrcast. For what it’s worth I thought All Out was really good with Kenny/PAC and the ladder match being the best. Luchasaures is going to be a star. Jericho winning was the right call and him losing the actual belt in Tallahassee was....something lol

Almost the perfect framework for a Connor deal. Connor’s numbers are slightly better. I’d think the Jets would want an 8 year deal. Mid 7’s seems reasonable. Plus talking an extension with Morrissey. i don’t see Laine being traded but it would sure free up some money. Seems to be some smoke to the Habs rumours with Domi being a player jets wanted previously.