It wouldn't hurt to do a show somewhere and invite all those indies to do shows around the area, I mean you're going to have a lot of wrestling fans who love traveling to where Mania is that aren't going to travel to Saudi. Like whatever arena is in New Orleans, try to get a show there or something.

 

I don't think they should counter-program them on the day of WrestleMania 43. Plus more importantly, the time zones will be all out of whack. I think they are 7-8 hours ahead of us, meaning that Mania is likely gonna start at like noon? Fans can cry all they want but at the end of the day they'll all still be seated in front of their TV's to watch Saudi-Mania, especially with Rock vs Roman likely happening.

But there is certainly going to be a lot of complaints coming out of the show, half the matches will be filled with old retired legends, the women will be covered up or will have less prominence, and people in general will be in a state of low morale. Most of this show will have no build. Its a good opportunity to showcase the alternative.

So if anything, AEW should run a new stadium show on the weekend prior to WM43 or the weekend after. Preferably after. Or move ALL IN that year. Have WWE put on one of the worst and biggest spectacles ever, then book an affordable stadium show that fans can go to the weekend after, a superior show in quality that shows the clear difference between the priorities of both companies as far as giving wrestling fans a wrestling show, and not a blatant cash grab filled to the brim with 50-60 year olds.

 

I was thinking maybe move All In, that would be smart too do it the weekend after honestly, let WWE shit the bed and follow up with a great show.

 

I don't hate the idea of doing Forbidden Door in April.

Probably be a better card too, since many talents would already be in town.

 

The first thing to note is that it wouldn't literally be a counterprogram (unless he deliberately went in the afternoon, which would be fucking stupid) because any such show would be in the evening by which time Wrestlemania would be over.

Beyond that... Why? I get for most of these indies that is there big week of the year, but there is zero reason you actually have to do it the same week as Wrestlemania if you want to help the little guy out. Do it the week before. Do it the week after.

 

The first thing to note is that it wouldn't literally be a counterprogram (unless he deliberately went in the afternoon, which would be fucking stupid) because any such show would be in the evening by which time Wrestlemania would be over.

Beyond that... Why? I get for most of these indies that is there big week of the year, but there is zero reason you actually have to do it the same week as Wrestlemania if you want to help the little guy out. Do it the week before. Do it the week after.

True that, I seen Bully Ray make the suggestion on a stream and thought this is one of the few ideas of Ray I don’t completely hate. I think a lot will have to do with how this year and next year finishes out, but with the right marketing I think it’s a smart idea to do one around the time of WM

 

I think AEW has been trying to establish a consistent calendar and may not want to just randomly hold All In in April one year.

I think TK has been reluctant to do a WrestleMania weekend AEW show because it comes off as second-rate.

However, if you were to permanently move Forbidden Door to WrestleMania weekend, including the one in Saudi, it could overall improve the quality of the crossovers with the amount of international talent available.

 

Not WrestleMania. People will still tune in for the name value.

I do think however there should be a marketing shift in AEW to being family friendly, affordable, the national promotion etc though.

 

"Family friendly" with Jon Moxley being hanged at the biggest AEW event and deathmatches common place... come on now. Hell there is a tables and tumbtacks match happening at All Out, no shot AEW is family friendly at all. People need to understand that just cause AEW is cheap doesn't make it family friendly.

However on topic, yeah it's a stupid idea for AEW to attempt any counter programming against the WWE let alone against Wrestlemania, people have fake outrage about it now but they will watch Wrestlemania much like they are going to watch Royal Rumble next year and have watched Saudi shows for the past seven years.

 

Never sat through a Saudi show. Only seen youtube shorts or read results just in case something happens that affects tv or something dumb happened like goldberg breaking his brain

 

Its over a year away, they should try to build some momentum and see how the fans are reacting to the Saudi show and address the situation about 6 months out

 

What they should do is dig up as much dirt and sling as much mud at WWE as possible. Just starr sending all their sponsors all the terrible allegations they can find. And make this public, so everyone can see on paper all the terrible things they've been accused of over the years

 

Don't the Saudi shows start at 11-noon or something? Why would AEW do a show that early unless they were forced to?

 

This is slightly off topic but its still about events. I would have preferred if aew tried to have its most important event be late fall. Kinda like starrcade

 

AEW having a big PPV the night of WrestleMania is the way to go.

 

They could but I wouldn’t be watching it over Wrestlemania.

UK fans have got a decent starting time for Wrestlemania now. What a time to be alive

 

Not at the same time, but on the night, absolutely. Just book a 20k venue 🤷‍♂️

 

YES!

 

Weekend before or weekend after would be fine. A lot of the people who would want to attend would also want to watch mania at home so its limiting your ticket buyers to people who aren't bothered about watching mania

 

Doesn't really make any difference to me. I won't be watching WWE premium live events from now on, since I have no intention of getting ESPN's streaming platform. I'm not interested in getting Netflix, nor in NXT or other feds, so at this point I just have Smackdown and AEW to watch. Eh, no great loss.

 

I think if AEW hosted an event on same day as SaudiMania, WWE will counter by putting on a juiced up NXT Stand & Deliver on US soil using Raw, Smackdown, TNA & AAA talents not on the Mania card.

 

Yup

 

I think if AEW hosted an event on same day as SaudiMania, WWE will counter by putting on a juiced up NXT Stand & Deliver on US soil using Raw, Smackdown, TNA & AAA talents not on the Mania card.

Yup

Yeah. Its pretty clear at this point, WWE would gladly fuck AEW by having a PLE that same time if AEW even humor it.

 

The real world just isn't fair, am I right?

 

Yeah, I am sure that WWE will have the timeslots around when Saudi-Mania airs covered anyway between all of the programs that they have or have a partnership with. I don't think that it's worth AEW trying to do anything different than what they have been doing. There is already going to be a lot of wrestling happening around Saudi Mania.

Dynasty last year was in late April...and then when WWE moved WrestleMania to late April Dynasty then happened in early April this year when WrestleMania used to take place. I think that's the best strategy for AEW rather than them trying to hover around WrestleMania and risk fans getting a burn out. WrestleMania itself is 2 days, plus NXTs PLE...Plus the HOF...Plus who knows whatever else they will do. TNA doesn't even try to have their Rebellion PPV during the same weekend of WrestleMania and maybe for that reason. WrestleMania is WrestleMania regardless of where it will be and when it starts.

 

it was brought up. and WWE knows. they simply dont care.
wrestlemania week is a big wrestling event. 2027 probably wont have a wrestlemania week though.

to the topic, should they run a show over wrestlemania ? HELL NO !
compete with wrestlemania ? are you insane, even bischoff wouldnt do it in the MNW. its better to just wwe let them shower with bad reputation and bad will.
i even want them to headline it with lots of old broken guys who will blow up in 2 minutes in the ring. quadruple the ticket price. add more ads to it. make it so bad, no one will want to watch it ever again. hell, no one will event want to watch night 2.

 

Tiny Kahn enjoys losing money, so why not?

They should make it a big stadium show.

They can call it Tarpamania

 

Tiny Kahn enjoys losing money, so why not?

They should make it a big stadium show.

They can call it Tarpamania

 

Hell yeah: Put on a two-night stadium show at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah on the same dates in the 62K-seat soccer stadium. Bring in Abdullah the Butcher as special guest. Charge $10 a seat to lure away customers.

This could be huge!

 

There's an opportunity for a shift in perception if AEW plays its cards right but one of those cards isn't counter programming Wrestlemania directly, that's insane even if people are seeing TKO/WWE's greed. Do it afterwards by a week or two

 

Counter programming seems stupid if you are just going to get completely utterly destroyed. Wrestlemania is the biggest wrestling event of the year regardless of quality and that’s not changing anytime soon.

 

I wonder if I'll watch it live or wait till the evening and watch the replay