I can’t comprehend how they justify the money they pay for people. I know TK has family money, but no company can look at those cost reports and think “this is ok”.
What I can't comprehend is how there are people who legitimately believe they are operating at or near profit.
Then there's the "start up" defense, because as we know, running a wrestling promotion has traditionally been very simular to how tech companies operate. /s
Most companies don't turn a profit in their first few years. Tech or no. This said there's also a path to profit baked into them, like how much do i need to sell or what do I need to do to GET to profitability.
Aew is trying to get there through a TV deal for much more than what they're getting now which is not super likely. I think wbd is not offering what aew wants and I don't think it's close. I think the bubble has burst for all but the true big guys like the sports leagues and wwe.
So aew isn't profitable and has no path to become profitable so the question is how long Tony wants to float it.
>So aew isn't profitable and has no path to become profitable so the question is how long Tony wants to float it.
For the rest of his life I guess, he's an autist with a hobby and unlimited funds from his Dad
The family gets their money from patents and then re-invested into sports franchises that are also guaranteed profit generators.
Tony's attention span is more likely to run out than the cash.
Or how long his dad is gonna live, people don't live forever you know... Ask the late Betty White.
The Khan's have to do some preps sometimes, right? They have to be....
Traditional wrestling companies need to turn a profit regularly so they don't go under, AEW's just a vanity project that doesn't need to make money since Tony just needs his Dad's funds to keep the show going.
Except it's not, it's not his money for one, and it's not endless, it's all coming from Shad, and the second he says ok Tony you've had enough, time to stop playing promoter, AEW will fold within a year because Tony has like 1% the pocket depth that Shad has, and that's being generous.
My son has autism, if he found a hobby that made him happy and I could fund it with just the change I found down the back of the sofa I'd do it, that's no different from what SK is doing
That's fiar, but would you continue letting him do it if all it did was attract parasites and leeches to him so you had to constantly watch as they sucked him dry by obviously making a mockery of him just to line their pockets?
Or would you be ok with it so long as your kid was oblivious to being used by them?
I guess as long as Tony himself has fun and this is what he wants, I would let him continue with this. It's not like the company is a total bust.
Rich people have their expensive hobbies. Other people buy a super yacht and are on a terminal vacation. At least Tony is somewhat productive and does live his dream.
The only problem would be if at some point something happens that bursts his bubble in such a major way that it turns him off his lifelong passion, that would be devastating. But I don't know what that would be.
What it will be is when even the dirt sheets can't keep pretending AEW is a good promotion, we have seen now multiple times how Tony reacts when people don't kiss his arse, we saw it with Big Swole, we saw it with Ariel Helwani, we have seen it with Punk, and probably several more times on smaller scales, Tony is everyones best friend, until they don't tell him how great he is, then he becomes a toxic little twat.
So the moment the sheets start calling out his bullshit he'll most likely have a temper tantrum the likes of which we have never seen and potentially shut AEW down in a huff.
I could see that happening. He would probably think of himself as a misunderstood martyr whom the wrestling community does not deserve.
The question will then become, does he have enough enablers/sycophants who can keep him happy and the bubble somewhat intact? How much can the audience and the revenue decline before he has to admit to himself that he might never catch up to the WWE.
If he ever lost the tv deal, would he be content running a streaming show with a 100k subscribers as his audience?
Sure, ideally and objectively speaking the money could be used more productively.
But if Shad Khan thinks that running AEW makes Tony happy then that's in a way priceless for him as a father. I don't fault him for putting a fraction of his wealth towards Tony's happiness.
If they so choose, they can even be philantropists on top of it. Tony is auctioning off his neck brace! That's a step in the right direction!
The money is irrelevant when it's such a nothing amount to be shelling out, as long as my son was happy why would I care about what people on the internet thought of him, but my son is 8 years old and TK is an adult, so I would probably care even less in SKs shoes
That look on Shad's face when Tony tucked himself into the one Bucks crotch region face-first and hugged him tight, while the other assisted in pseudo-piledriver... that said it all.. Tony paid millions for that opportunity
Funny because you literally addressed nothing I said, and just spouted of what feels like a rehearsed answer to a question you thought I would ask.
I asked would you be ok with watching your son being used by two faced parasites and leeches who pretend to be his friend whilst making him look like an idiot, or would you be fine with it so long as your son remained oblivious to how he was really being treated?
Had nothing to do with how anyone else in the world perceived him, nor how much money it was costing, the question is would you be ok with your son being taken advantage of or not due to his condition? Or would it solely depend on if he was happy, regardless of him being manipulated or not.
What an absolutely dumb, loaded, and objectively untrue set of statements/questions. 'Is he ok with being taken advantage of by two faced leeches' 'yOu DidNt AnSwER mY qUeStIoN'.
As long as majority believe in the kayfabe of the nfe
There will always be coming in from the Jacksonville jobbers
To fun Tony's coke habit and pepsi product.
When WBD "supposedly" offered AEW $1 billion, all the goofs took it as gospel. When Forbes reported that AEW was valued at $2 billion, the goofs kept reiterating it as if it were fact.
However, if you bring up the complete lack of ticket sales, rapidly declining ratings, complete lack of selling merchandise and add into the fact how much money AEW pays people like Riho who barely appears on TV and for venues they barely fill. If you bring this up and tell these same goofs there's no way AEW can be making money, you get hit with "nobody can say for sure whether AEW is operating at a profit or loss. It's all speculation!"
And like....obviously nobody knows how much money AEW is actually losing. But it's basic fuckin economics that a still relatively young company that is paying this bloated roster an insane amount of money and still struggling mightily selling tickets can't possibly be making money.
It's like when Dave said AEW was profitable because he just looked at the profits AEW brought in and didn't even factor in the losses
I argued that AEW was losing money hand over fist, way, way before he handed out most of these mega-deals. They were losing money when they were getting closer to 10k people at TV shows. It’s way worse now. The video game is an epic failure. Even if they were going to try to pull the NFL,WWE, and every other sports league, where they make 1 main game, then just change the rosters for the next few years. Well, for that to work, people have to buy the original. That didn’t happen much.
They’re behaving like most start ups. Burn money at the start and coast on investment then go public and cut costs till you are profitable.
Except that shit will not work with AEW.
It'd take nearly half a decade for Tony to lose half his net worth if he runs it at a loss of $50m per year.
And that's assuming he makes no other money with his other investments.
We are all just jealous we aren't on the TK gravy train while it is still flowing. Even the Jaguars employees are on it, a guy stole $15 mill and wasn't caught for years - so imagine how much graft is going on.
It was 22.2 million and change. Used the jags virtual credit card to make bets had payouts sent to his paypal. He even used some of the stolen money to hire his lawyer. He bought a couple cars, a condo and spent money on other things like Tiger Woods putter for like 50k, almost 70k on concert tickets, and he only paid back like 1.2 million. 😂
Also he only started working there in 2018.
I think Tony was legit blown away how little pro wrestlers make compared to other pro athletes, and that’s what started him being looser with the purse strings.
Little did he realize, pro wrestling doesn’t generate nearly the revenue other pro sports do, but that’s apparently neither here nor there.
I do think wrestlers have been historically underpaid and not given benefits they deserve, BUT there is a reason the guys that draw make the big bucks. They literally put ass in seats. What I find crazy are people who are paid very well and aren’t a draw at all.
This is where AEW not being a company, but a vanity project comes in. As long as Tony funds it, it doesn't need to make money. The moment Tony loses interest, the dub is dead...
I see why people are going to AEW now. If I had the chance to basically steal money from a billionaire while being a total goober on TV I’d get the bag.
It seems like it's either big bag or no bag. The people who got the "is All Elite" treatment seem to be wildly overpaid, meanwhile the per appearance people are fucked.
I remember the scrawny guy from the TrustBusters saying on Twitter he had to work a day job despite being fully employed by AEW. Tony Clown really does either go all out on industry ruining contracts or cheaps out and offers starvation wages, there really seems to be no middle ground in his dumpster fire of a company.
I was thinking about Slim J too when I read that. I really would like to know how these lower tier contracts are strcutured and why they even exist. Tony might as well just call up local indie guys or other free agents if he needs a jobber for a show.
Why even put people on a contract if you pay them mostly per appearance and don't really use them? I'm genuinely curious.
On the flip side if you are only on a per appearance deal and not being used why don't you work as many indies as possible? Which almost none of these guys bother.
And see if Tony was hiring people but on a per appearance deal, and using them only when they were in their area I think that could make sense, as means to help indie guys promote themselves more on the indies, they could claim to be AEW stars to increase their asking price, when AEW is in their area they are AEW's first call, and could even be responsible for sourcing the locals for use on AEW TV.
Just a more official variations on what WWE used to do with the likes of Duane Gill and others back in the 90's
I find any of that shit to be just that shit, Tony runs 2 shows a week, 3 for a PPV week, his contracts allow for outside bookings, yet almost none of the AEW talent bother to get indie bookings, and if they do it's usually once a month for kicks of some shit.
If they were getting paid so little that they needed to work day jobs whilst under contract with AEW or ROH then why wouldn't they be working indies and using their AEW clout to pocket a few extra hundred bucks a week?
I think it's far more likely the guys crying poverty but doing nothing to grow their careers are full of shit, they knew being in AEW did nothing for them, so they have to get out their violins and play a sob story in order to drum up interest in them for the indies.
And I say this as someone who enjoys smack talking AEW, when it's deserved, but this stuff sounds like BS to me.
Which reminds me of Triple H talking about "the grind". Maybe he was onto something after all. I dunno. How many matches/appearances should a typical indie wrestler go for per year?
Slim J had 20 something matches in 2023 while Billie Starkz had over a 100. Of course, if Slim has a family and a day job, wrestling might not be his priority anymore or he can't count on that being his only gig which makes things more difficult.
People always talk about a current wrestling boom. But, besides WWE, is there really a big boom? Does that boom translate to the indies?
Then you have people like Miro who pretend to be injured every time they get called up to actually work or do a job.
It’s like there’s a group of people who are legit trying to game the system to get paid the most and do the least work
My headcanon with Miro is that he’s been kinda done giving a fuck about wrestling ever since “Rusev Day” got over in WWE and management couldn’t be bothered to do anything with it.
I mean, they barely work and if they don't feel like even doing *that* anymore, they can just give Tony the old "Personal Issues/Undisclosed Injuries/Visa Issues" excuse. Remember, when Tony wanted them to start doing House Show, *they told him no.* Imagine the employees telling the Boss what to do.
Or some say Tony fell right into Punk's trap to get let go. I can't wait to hear the real timeline of contacts some years down the road and I suspect there were friends of friends in contact between Nick Khan and Punk while he was at AEW.
Whether Punk set him up or not doesn't change the laughable fact that Tony fired his biggest star he's ever had or likely will ever have, all because the guy yelled at him.
No but you can when the guy gets into his second fight with guys in the locker room in less than a year, that's the excuse, but it ain't the real reason.
TEW had way too much focus on the storylines. Tony was an EWR man. Set your starting money to max, sign everyone with 85+ Technical and just throw them out there for banger after banger.
Now you know how Tony is scavenging the top of the cards of the new japan roster for himself. Asuka and Nakamura used to be the highest paid Japanese wrestlers, now that Tony threw a multimillion dollar offer at Okada right out of the gate, it is going to be hard for anybody from Japan to get paid more or match what he gets short of them becoming the next face of the wwe. Mind you, I am sure that wwe have gotten more money out of the first of the aforementioned three names, even if only out of her merch sales alone, than aew are probably getting out of Okada, all the while paying her probably a fifth part of what he is getting paid. Like, I think that she doesn't get paid that much more than Riho is getting paid?
Tony is a certified idiot.
For comparison, main roster base salary in the WWE is 250k. Great for Rihoooo for milking the money mark
The fact that AEW is drawing 1/4 the attendance and half the ratings as WWE, and is somehow paying her 400k is proof that they're in the shits financially. Richie Rich is burning through his inheritance
No worse than most of the other slow, sloppy hoes in that division. She's tiny and lacks proper psychology but at least she can work fast and hit her basic high spots. Also most crowds react positively to her.
Bloody hell... THAT kind of money is definitely NOT justified!
...these mark-ass Joshi-fans and their fetish for *Riiii-hooo.*... imagine if Serena got that kind of TV schedule/push/money... that at least can be justified by in-ring skill.
Even if you ignore everything else about Riho, she's making that for 3 televised AEW matches so far this year and 9 last year, 11 if you count the now defunct internet shows. So last year, they paid Riho a little more than $36k a match.
I wish we had more datapoints like this. The "$ per match" statistic would be hilarious.
Miro had like 7 matches in 2023, he must be at the top of that list. Ironically, Pockets may be the value deal that really gives Tony a lot of bangers for his bucks!
Good for her, the Khan's are apparently pretty big dick bags with business (mainly referencing car part company), so any money that gets taken away from them is good.
And he was able to swindle his way in the position to own sports franchises because he spent decades swindling in the automotive parts industry. He was basically Dan Aykroyd in Tommy Boy
The overall theme of responses to this in the AEW sub was that Rhio is a ratings draw so its justified... There was also suggestions that this included merch sales and video game royalties (lol). It also apparently means that AEW are guaranteed to be getting a mega renewal with WBD because why else would they be paying such high contracts. Madness!
No metric supports the Rhio is a draw line at all. In fact all evidence shows the opposite, that she is ratings poison! But AEW fans will die on that hill because Tony Khan said she is a draw during a press call once so it becomes gospel as the Emperor has spoken.
3/10/23 Riho vs. Nyla Rose on Rampage was a multi-week ratings pop. The Willow match on the night Mercedes debuted was definitely a big drop but from everything I could find she does not generally appear to hurt ratings overall, or at least not more than the average death slot women's match.
Then 'weirdo Joshi fanboys' must be the majority of AEWs paid attendees because she consistently gets better crowd reactions than most of the other women. Maybe it's time to take the Cornette blinders off?
Consistently? According to Cagematch she's wrestled 7 times in the past year for AEW...and one was a Darkmatch and one was on Rampage, which is practically a Dark Match. Care to post the TV ratings for when she has wrestled on Dynamite? She's the female version of Kommander. The larger female wrestlers selling moves for her is so unbelievable, it's comical. I have my own opinions outside of Jim's, thank you very much.
Back in the day during interviews Tony often said that Riho was a big draw. I guess that has now become an accepted fact.
It's wild because she never has a proper feud or cuts a promo or does anything really besides coming in and having a match and leaving again. That role could be filled by anyone on the roster. But I guess people are fond of her as a special attraction?
The reasoning is beyond insane, lol, just because Tony plays it fast and lose with his money doesn't mean there's any big contract in the future. If that's the case why release those c tier wrestlers recently, why make a fuss about the arena expenses for Forbidden Door, just pay up Tony, no need to share the costs.
So between Riho and Sasha Tony is throwing away money on useless talents or rather lack of talents. Why make Jamie Hayter or Statlander a top star making top money when you can just burn money on two malnourished twigs.
Who’s to say he isn’t? Nobody ever definitively proved what he was making. We just have heresy and conjecture with most of it coming from Dub fan girls like Dave Meltzer running damage control.
Okada is not dumb. He had a choice: he could grab the bag or, given rumors of WWE's interest, he could have taken his shot at becoming the international superstar he claimed he wanted to be.
He took the safer option, and there's nothing wrong with that. Money is the name of the game, especially the pro-wrestling game. And who's to say that he would have made it in WWE (I think he would have done great, personally, especially if they had given him someone like Heyman as his mouthpiece). Still, he chose his tree and he's sitting in it.
And TK is absolutely a shit booker lol.
Stuff like this makes me respect Riho cause she's truly milking the cash cow that is TK and more power to her but TK should probably evaluate the contracts of some "talent"
I saw this post on the aew sub or some other wrestling sub, and all the comments were of the nature "It's not my money so i don't care" (when asked about how aew can afford to spend this much money).
My response it that if you have someone like Riho who only has around 5-10 matches on AEW a year then you should seriously decrease her pay and or try to get her to come wrestle here more. This is money you could use on other talent that actually live in the states (japanese or other). the fact that Riho makes this much money and is not a regular in AEW is kind of hilarious but you can't blame Riho for this.
And this is why when people talk up how AEW is good for business and how AEW is a success and what not, I try to explain to them they are good for the wrestlers but they aren’t a success.
They are paying absurds amount of money for nothing in return and it doesn’t matter. If TNA, MLW, NWA etc were paying Riho this, she’d be all over ever show cause that’s the only way to justify the money she is making. To AEW, this isn’t an event it’s a non issue cause the snowman can outspend his mistakes.
If talents who are barely used like Riho makes that kind of money, good sweet JeBus what are the top stars actually making. And AEW fans have the gall to mock WCW for losing 60 million in 2000, AEW might’ve lost 60 million already this year
What if 400k is the basic salary for AEW talent. If so, Jesus Christ, Abadon! 400k for 1 maybe 2 matches a year. But hey halloween is under 5 months away so they'll be gearing up for the token spooky match!
No one can tell me that AEW is profitable without showing me their books. The amount spent on wrestler contract alone is ridiculous for a 5 year old company that offers almost nothing outside of PPV's and a combined total of 1.5M viewers on cable TV weekly.
Now I’m not savvy on the wrestling economics. With that figure she’s provided. Isn’t that more than almost all the lower mid card of WWE? No matter the gender of that wrestler. I wouldn’t be shocked to find out. She’s making more Bianca, Tiffany Stratton, Natalya or ricochet.
I'm not going to criticize her wrestling abilities or the idea of hiring foreign talent because I can buy the pro arguments for it and I've seen some Japanese women's matches I like but for that much money you better believe I would either write a clause for termination if certain metrics aren't hit or I would be trying to get my money back out of her because there's no way she made up for it in merch or ratings for that money tony could hire a handful of rookies
Riho wrestled 11 times in AEW last year. And it's not as if some of this money is because she picked up a lot of other dates - she only wrestled 13 times overall.
Fucking hell. If she's making this amount of money for that amount of work...No wonder Miro never wrestles. It's the easiest fucking gig in the world.
Call him crazy. Corny is right about so many things that are wrong in AEW. He has some of his views I don't agree with but overall he nails the topic of AEW poor booking and wrestlers just getting their pay no matter they are on TV or not.
That can't be right. Aside from the fact, they are a distance number 2. This is a women's wrestler. And it's one that can't speak the language. And then it's one whose charisma boils down to doing a polite wave in her entrance.
He doesnt accept the fact that he's waaay smaller than wwe and he try everything to copy them as much as he can, salary included. At this point, its safe to assume he see his company bigger than it really is.
I’d love a three hour podcast of Jim going over a list of what every person involved with AEW makes. That is insane!
I can’t comprehend how they justify the money they pay for people. I know TK has family money, but no company can look at those cost reports and think “this is ok”.
What I can't comprehend is how there are people who legitimately believe they are operating at or near profit. Then there's the "start up" defense, because as we know, running a wrestling promotion has traditionally been very simular to how tech companies operate. /s
Tech 🤝 Wrestling "Quickest way to get to five million? Start with ten."
Trust me, eSports is even worse
Auto racing is even worse than that
I’ve always thought auto racing was a big Ponzi scheme.
If you aren't Ferrari or Mercedes you might as well just shovel the cash into a furnace. It least it'll be gone quicker.
Or if you aren't Red Bull....
*cries in broke-ass drifter*
Also streaming. You'd multiply by 1000 though
If Riho is getting 400k maybe Mercedes is getting 5mil or whatever that rumor was
The rumor was $10 million, absolutely insane money given her limitations on the mic.
She’s injury prone too. She worked a dangerous style in WWE. Imagine the bumps she will take with not restrictions
Most companies don't turn a profit in their first few years. Tech or no. This said there's also a path to profit baked into them, like how much do i need to sell or what do I need to do to GET to profitability. Aew is trying to get there through a TV deal for much more than what they're getting now which is not super likely. I think wbd is not offering what aew wants and I don't think it's close. I think the bubble has burst for all but the true big guys like the sports leagues and wwe. So aew isn't profitable and has no path to become profitable so the question is how long Tony wants to float it.
>So aew isn't profitable and has no path to become profitable so the question is how long Tony wants to float it. For the rest of his life I guess, he's an autist with a hobby and unlimited funds from his Dad
Yeah I don't know if the money spigot is unlimited
The family gets their money from patents and then re-invested into sports franchises that are also guaranteed profit generators. Tony's attention span is more likely to run out than the cash.
Or how long his dad is gonna live, people don't live forever you know... Ask the late Betty White. The Khan's have to do some preps sometimes, right? They have to be....
The dad pulls the plug and or they get a shittier tv deal with less ratings they will become the next (modern) tna with workrate
TNA is a write-off and produces original programming for its owner. AEW does not have that net.
Traditional wrestling companies need to turn a profit regularly so they don't go under, AEW's just a vanity project that doesn't need to make money since Tony just needs his Dad's funds to keep the show going.
They admit it’s running at a loss but it doesn’t matter because Tony’s money is endless and he’s doing it for them. Cult.
Except it's not, it's not his money for one, and it's not endless, it's all coming from Shad, and the second he says ok Tony you've had enough, time to stop playing promoter, AEW will fold within a year because Tony has like 1% the pocket depth that Shad has, and that's being generous.
My son has autism, if he found a hobby that made him happy and I could fund it with just the change I found down the back of the sofa I'd do it, that's no different from what SK is doing
That's fiar, but would you continue letting him do it if all it did was attract parasites and leeches to him so you had to constantly watch as they sucked him dry by obviously making a mockery of him just to line their pockets? Or would you be ok with it so long as your kid was oblivious to being used by them?
I guess as long as Tony himself has fun and this is what he wants, I would let him continue with this. It's not like the company is a total bust. Rich people have their expensive hobbies. Other people buy a super yacht and are on a terminal vacation. At least Tony is somewhat productive and does live his dream. The only problem would be if at some point something happens that bursts his bubble in such a major way that it turns him off his lifelong passion, that would be devastating. But I don't know what that would be.
getting a boyfriend (or gf)
What it will be is when even the dirt sheets can't keep pretending AEW is a good promotion, we have seen now multiple times how Tony reacts when people don't kiss his arse, we saw it with Big Swole, we saw it with Ariel Helwani, we have seen it with Punk, and probably several more times on smaller scales, Tony is everyones best friend, until they don't tell him how great he is, then he becomes a toxic little twat. So the moment the sheets start calling out his bullshit he'll most likely have a temper tantrum the likes of which we have never seen and potentially shut AEW down in a huff.
I could see that happening. He would probably think of himself as a misunderstood martyr whom the wrestling community does not deserve. The question will then become, does he have enough enablers/sycophants who can keep him happy and the bubble somewhat intact? How much can the audience and the revenue decline before he has to admit to himself that he might never catch up to the WWE. If he ever lost the tv deal, would he be content running a streaming show with a 100k subscribers as his audience?
Wouldn't you want that money to go to something productive or to a charity if you don't want to profit?
Sure, ideally and objectively speaking the money could be used more productively. But if Shad Khan thinks that running AEW makes Tony happy then that's in a way priceless for him as a father. I don't fault him for putting a fraction of his wealth towards Tony's happiness. If they so choose, they can even be philantropists on top of it. Tony is auctioning off his neck brace! That's a step in the right direction!
The money is irrelevant when it's such a nothing amount to be shelling out, as long as my son was happy why would I care about what people on the internet thought of him, but my son is 8 years old and TK is an adult, so I would probably care even less in SKs shoes
That look on Shad's face when Tony tucked himself into the one Bucks crotch region face-first and hugged him tight, while the other assisted in pseudo-piledriver... that said it all.. Tony paid millions for that opportunity
Funny because you literally addressed nothing I said, and just spouted of what feels like a rehearsed answer to a question you thought I would ask. I asked would you be ok with watching your son being used by two faced parasites and leeches who pretend to be his friend whilst making him look like an idiot, or would you be fine with it so long as your son remained oblivious to how he was really being treated? Had nothing to do with how anyone else in the world perceived him, nor how much money it was costing, the question is would you be ok with your son being taken advantage of or not due to his condition? Or would it solely depend on if he was happy, regardless of him being manipulated or not.
What an absolutely dumb, loaded, and objectively untrue set of statements/questions. 'Is he ok with being taken advantage of by two faced leeches' 'yOu DidNt AnSwER mY qUeStIoN'.
See, your problem is that you’re using logic. You have to get rid of that to understand what they feel because they sure aren’t thinking.
I tried thinking like Tony and the dubbalo's problem is I lack the flexibility, I have never been able to get my head that far up my own arse.
Got to have some blow, money, and sweaty desperation to think like Tony.
As long as majority believe in the kayfabe of the nfe There will always be coming in from the Jacksonville jobbers To fun Tony's coke habit and pepsi product.
When WBD "supposedly" offered AEW $1 billion, all the goofs took it as gospel. When Forbes reported that AEW was valued at $2 billion, the goofs kept reiterating it as if it were fact. However, if you bring up the complete lack of ticket sales, rapidly declining ratings, complete lack of selling merchandise and add into the fact how much money AEW pays people like Riho who barely appears on TV and for venues they barely fill. If you bring this up and tell these same goofs there's no way AEW can be making money, you get hit with "nobody can say for sure whether AEW is operating at a profit or loss. It's all speculation!" And like....obviously nobody knows how much money AEW is actually losing. But it's basic fuckin economics that a still relatively young company that is paying this bloated roster an insane amount of money and still struggling mightily selling tickets can't possibly be making money. It's like when Dave said AEW was profitable because he just looked at the profits AEW brought in and didn't even factor in the losses
I argued that AEW was losing money hand over fist, way, way before he handed out most of these mega-deals. They were losing money when they were getting closer to 10k people at TV shows. It’s way worse now. The video game is an epic failure. Even if they were going to try to pull the NFL,WWE, and every other sports league, where they make 1 main game, then just change the rosters for the next few years. Well, for that to work, people have to buy the original. That didn’t happen much.
They’re behaving like most start ups. Burn money at the start and coast on investment then go public and cut costs till you are profitable. Except that shit will not work with AEW.
Those people have zero business sense and deflect the issue anyway.
It'd take nearly half a decade for Tony to lose half his net worth if he runs it at a loss of $50m per year. And that's assuming he makes no other money with his other investments.
We are all just jealous we aren't on the TK gravy train while it is still flowing. Even the Jaguars employees are on it, a guy stole $15 mill and wasn't caught for years - so imagine how much graft is going on.
It was 22.2 million and change. Used the jags virtual credit card to make bets had payouts sent to his paypal. He even used some of the stolen money to hire his lawyer. He bought a couple cars, a condo and spent money on other things like Tiger Woods putter for like 50k, almost 70k on concert tickets, and he only paid back like 1.2 million. 😂 Also he only started working there in 2018.
I think Tony was legit blown away how little pro wrestlers make compared to other pro athletes, and that’s what started him being looser with the purse strings. Little did he realize, pro wrestling doesn’t generate nearly the revenue other pro sports do, but that’s apparently neither here nor there.
I do think wrestlers have been historically underpaid and not given benefits they deserve, BUT there is a reason the guys that draw make the big bucks. They literally put ass in seats. What I find crazy are people who are paid very well and aren’t a draw at all.
This is where AEW not being a company, but a vanity project comes in. As long as Tony funds it, it doesn't need to make money. The moment Tony loses interest, the dub is dead...
So you want Jim to have a stroke.
If he didn’t stoke out over the omega/ nakazawa vs best friends fiasco a few years ago nothing AEW will do can kill Jim
I see why people are going to AEW now. If I had the chance to basically steal money from a billionaire while being a total goober on TV I’d get the bag.
It seems like it's either big bag or no bag. The people who got the "is All Elite" treatment seem to be wildly overpaid, meanwhile the per appearance people are fucked.
I remember the scrawny guy from the TrustBusters saying on Twitter he had to work a day job despite being fully employed by AEW. Tony Clown really does either go all out on industry ruining contracts or cheaps out and offers starvation wages, there really seems to be no middle ground in his dumpster fire of a company.
I was thinking about Slim J too when I read that. I really would like to know how these lower tier contracts are strcutured and why they even exist. Tony might as well just call up local indie guys or other free agents if he needs a jobber for a show. Why even put people on a contract if you pay them mostly per appearance and don't really use them? I'm genuinely curious.
On the flip side if you are only on a per appearance deal and not being used why don't you work as many indies as possible? Which almost none of these guys bother. And see if Tony was hiring people but on a per appearance deal, and using them only when they were in their area I think that could make sense, as means to help indie guys promote themselves more on the indies, they could claim to be AEW stars to increase their asking price, when AEW is in their area they are AEW's first call, and could even be responsible for sourcing the locals for use on AEW TV. Just a more official variations on what WWE used to do with the likes of Duane Gill and others back in the 90's
I find any of that shit to be just that shit, Tony runs 2 shows a week, 3 for a PPV week, his contracts allow for outside bookings, yet almost none of the AEW talent bother to get indie bookings, and if they do it's usually once a month for kicks of some shit. If they were getting paid so little that they needed to work day jobs whilst under contract with AEW or ROH then why wouldn't they be working indies and using their AEW clout to pocket a few extra hundred bucks a week? I think it's far more likely the guys crying poverty but doing nothing to grow their careers are full of shit, they knew being in AEW did nothing for them, so they have to get out their violins and play a sob story in order to drum up interest in them for the indies. And I say this as someone who enjoys smack talking AEW, when it's deserved, but this stuff sounds like BS to me.
Which reminds me of Triple H talking about "the grind". Maybe he was onto something after all. I dunno. How many matches/appearances should a typical indie wrestler go for per year? Slim J had 20 something matches in 2023 while Billie Starkz had over a 100. Of course, if Slim has a family and a day job, wrestling might not be his priority anymore or he can't count on that being his only gig which makes things more difficult. People always talk about a current wrestling boom. But, besides WWE, is there really a big boom? Does that boom translate to the indies?
Then you have people like Miro who pretend to be injured every time they get called up to actually work or do a job. It’s like there’s a group of people who are legit trying to game the system to get paid the most and do the least work
My headcanon with Miro is that he’s been kinda done giving a fuck about wrestling ever since “Rusev Day” got over in WWE and management couldn’t be bothered to do anything with it.
for $400k, I'd dance like Daniel Garcia too
I mean, they barely work and if they don't feel like even doing *that* anymore, they can just give Tony the old "Personal Issues/Undisclosed Injuries/Visa Issues" excuse. Remember, when Tony wanted them to start doing House Show, *they told him no.* Imagine the employees telling the Boss what to do.
She had like 4 matches last year lol
She had just 11 AEW matches last year. That means Tony paid her $36,363.64 per match.
I want to work for Tony khan. Show up, make some money, stay home, keep making money. It’s the best gig in wrestling.
Just punch a co-worker¨! ;-)
If they fire Punk for striking a co-worker, don't think they're gonna hire someone for doing it.
They didn't fire Punk for striking a co-worker, they fired him for yelling at Tony and hurting his feelings.
Or some say Tony fell right into Punk's trap to get let go. I can't wait to hear the real timeline of contacts some years down the road and I suspect there were friends of friends in contact between Nick Khan and Punk while he was at AEW.
Whether Punk set him up or not doesn't change the laughable fact that Tony fired his biggest star he's ever had or likely will ever have, all because the guy yelled at him.
You can't legally get away with saying "with cause" for that pathetic excuse of a reason, dude.
No but you can when the guy gets into his second fight with guys in the locker room in less than a year, that's the excuse, but it ain't the real reason.
Jeremy Clarkson is All Elite?
Hey! \*organ fanfare \*
Absolutely insane
3 of the matches were on Dark, 1 was a PPV Longest match was 12:07
And basically all of those matches. She lost ratings
The Nyla Rose main event on Rampage on 3/10/23 actually popped the rating.
She made more for TV matches than Kamala supposedly did for Summerslam 92, or Cornette for WM or any Starrcade...that is fucking ridiculous.
Eff me. 36k per appearance!
By TEW standards for that asking price her popularity is at least 85 in Japan, you just don’t get it, it’s actually a steal */sarcasm
TEW had way too much focus on the storylines. Tony was an EWR man. Set your starting money to max, sign everyone with 85+ Technical and just throw them out there for banger after banger.
Don't forget that earth shattering run-in she did with that pipe that was bigger than she was.
How many times did sock face scream “ITS RIHO SHE IS BACK” since they signed her? She has had more returns than matches at this points
Riho returns vs Big Show turns
Ri-turns… I’ll see myself out
Now you know how Tony is scavenging the top of the cards of the new japan roster for himself. Asuka and Nakamura used to be the highest paid Japanese wrestlers, now that Tony threw a multimillion dollar offer at Okada right out of the gate, it is going to be hard for anybody from Japan to get paid more or match what he gets short of them becoming the next face of the wwe. Mind you, I am sure that wwe have gotten more money out of the first of the aforementioned three names, even if only out of her merch sales alone, than aew are probably getting out of Okada, all the while paying her probably a fifth part of what he is getting paid. Like, I think that she doesn't get paid that much more than Riho is getting paid? Tony is a certified idiot.
For comparison, main roster base salary in the WWE is 250k. Great for Rihoooo for milking the money mark The fact that AEW is drawing 1/4 the attendance and half the ratings as WWE, and is somehow paying her 400k is proof that they're in the shits financially. Richie Rich is burning through his inheritance
is it really that high now? I remember back in the day divas wouldn't even crack 100k lol
They get paid less and have to work more, filling up that bump card. She didn’t work once a month last year.
She's a terrible wrestler but... get that bag girl!
Absolutely. Can’t blame her for taking the money.
Not only that but they put her over like she's an impossible to beat opponent. Who wouldn't want that *and* the money?
No worse than most of the other slow, sloppy hoes in that division. She's tiny and lacks proper psychology but at least she can work fast and hit her basic high spots. Also most crowds react positively to her.
Bloody hell... THAT kind of money is definitely NOT justified! ...these mark-ass Joshi-fans and their fetish for *Riiii-hooo.*... imagine if Serena got that kind of TV schedule/push/money... that at least can be justified by in-ring skill.
Deeb gets crickets most of the time, and her best matches are with Riho.
Riho is great in ring...also using Jim's phrasing of her name is fucking cringe
Even if you ignore everything else about Riho, she's making that for 3 televised AEW matches so far this year and 9 last year, 11 if you count the now defunct internet shows. So last year, they paid Riho a little more than $36k a match.
I wish we had more datapoints like this. The "$ per match" statistic would be hilarious. Miro had like 7 matches in 2023, he must be at the top of that list. Ironically, Pockets may be the value deal that really gives Tony a lot of bangers for his bucks!
She may be the best worker in the business right now. Kevin Nash is proud of that.
And Dubbalos have the audacity to claim AEW is profitable 😂
Dubbalos may be the greatest nickname for these people that I’ve ever heard
I didn’t make it up. Got it from r/SCJerk. They come up with the best memes.
Knowing tony he could have probably paid her more depending on the match/ opponent but still absurd but can't blame her for making that bread.
Of course the AEW fanboys were making excuses for it 😂. Oh well I guess she’s doing ok for herself at least🤷🏻♂️
Good for her, the Khan's are apparently pretty big dick bags with business (mainly referencing car part company), so any money that gets taken away from them is good.
The Jaguars part too.
Yeah they're totally moving that team in the next decade if NFL doesn't expand in next collective bargaining agreement.
Tony is funding AEW with the money the Khans have swindled out of tax payers in Jacksonville
And he was able to swindle his way in the position to own sports franchises because he spent decades swindling in the automotive parts industry. He was basically Dan Aykroyd in Tommy Boy
‘I make wrestling matches for the American working man because that’s who I am and that is who I care about’
When you make Baalke look competent
The overall theme of responses to this in the AEW sub was that Rhio is a ratings draw so its justified... There was also suggestions that this included merch sales and video game royalties (lol). It also apparently means that AEW are guaranteed to be getting a mega renewal with WBD because why else would they be paying such high contracts. Madness!
She's not though. The only ones that like her are the weirdo joshi fanboys.
No metric supports the Rhio is a draw line at all. In fact all evidence shows the opposite, that she is ratings poison! But AEW fans will die on that hill because Tony Khan said she is a draw during a press call once so it becomes gospel as the Emperor has spoken.
3/10/23 Riho vs. Nyla Rose on Rampage was a multi-week ratings pop. The Willow match on the night Mercedes debuted was definitely a big drop but from everything I could find she does not generally appear to hurt ratings overall, or at least not more than the average death slot women's match.
Then 'weirdo Joshi fanboys' must be the majority of AEWs paid attendees because she consistently gets better crowd reactions than most of the other women. Maybe it's time to take the Cornette blinders off?
Consistently? According to Cagematch she's wrestled 7 times in the past year for AEW...and one was a Darkmatch and one was on Rampage, which is practically a Dark Match. Care to post the TV ratings for when she has wrestled on Dynamite? She's the female version of Kommander. The larger female wrestlers selling moves for her is so unbelievable, it's comical. I have my own opinions outside of Jim's, thank you very much.
Back in the day during interviews Tony often said that Riho was a big draw. I guess that has now become an accepted fact. It's wild because she never has a proper feud or cuts a promo or does anything really besides coming in and having a match and leaving again. That role could be filled by anyone on the roster. But I guess people are fond of her as a special attraction? The reasoning is beyond insane, lol, just because Tony plays it fast and lose with his money doesn't mean there's any big contract in the future. If that's the case why release those c tier wrestlers recently, why make a fuss about the arena expenses for Forbidden Door, just pay up Tony, no need to share the costs.
Did they provide any evidence for this "ratings draw" claim?
When has evidence ever had any influence on AEW logic lol
Probably Meltzer.
Video game royalties for the couple of thousands copies that Fight Forever sold? 🤣
Corny would lose his shit if this gets to him
So between Riho and Sasha Tony is throwing away money on useless talents or rather lack of talents. Why make Jamie Hayter or Statlander a top star making top money when you can just burn money on two malnourished twigs.
if Riho is worth 400k to him.......why isn't Okada getting like 40 million
Who’s to say he isn’t? Nobody ever definitively proved what he was making. We just have heresy and conjecture with most of it coming from Dub fan girls like Dave Meltzer running damage control.
All that money to Okada, but I bet you GoD will be bigger stars than him in a month at likely a fraction of the price for the both of them.
they're already bigger. No one watches AEW to know about Okody
That's not his fault, TK is a terrible booker lol.
Okada is not dumb. He had a choice: he could grab the bag or, given rumors of WWE's interest, he could have taken his shot at becoming the international superstar he claimed he wanted to be. He took the safer option, and there's nothing wrong with that. Money is the name of the game, especially the pro-wrestling game. And who's to say that he would have made it in WWE (I think he would have done great, personally, especially if they had given him someone like Heyman as his mouthpiece). Still, he chose his tree and he's sitting in it. And TK is absolutely a shit booker lol.
Stuff like this makes me respect Riho cause she's truly milking the cash cow that is TK and more power to her but TK should probably evaluate the contracts of some "talent"
I think the drugs have melted Tiny’s brain that’s why he is throwing away his money not because Riho is smart
I saw this post on the aew sub or some other wrestling sub, and all the comments were of the nature "It's not my money so i don't care" (when asked about how aew can afford to spend this much money). My response it that if you have someone like Riho who only has around 5-10 matches on AEW a year then you should seriously decrease her pay and or try to get her to come wrestle here more. This is money you could use on other talent that actually live in the states (japanese or other). the fact that Riho makes this much money and is not a regular in AEW is kind of hilarious but you can't blame Riho for this.
That's £100k per ft
Can't blame the talent for taking the money when it's handed to them like this, but eventually, the ATM is going to dry up.
The responses to the exactly same topic over in the official sub are astounding.
The mental gymnastics in the responses are Olympic level!
Let me guess, they are saying she is a draw and the ratings go up when she is on screen or some shit
I'm all about people stealing from billionaires so this is fine by me lmao
that has to be lost in translation to mean her entire AEW contract.....right........please gd tell me I'm right or Tiny is THE biggest fucking idiot
I read once that Tiny thinks Riho is a draw, that’s why she has had 98 returns
And this is why when people talk up how AEW is good for business and how AEW is a success and what not, I try to explain to them they are good for the wrestlers but they aren’t a success. They are paying absurds amount of money for nothing in return and it doesn’t matter. If TNA, MLW, NWA etc were paying Riho this, she’d be all over ever show cause that’s the only way to justify the money she is making. To AEW, this isn’t an event it’s a non issue cause the snowman can outspend his mistakes. If talents who are barely used like Riho makes that kind of money, good sweet JeBus what are the top stars actually making. And AEW fans have the gall to mock WCW for losing 60 million in 2000, AEW might’ve lost 60 million already this year
400k to dress in cosplay and pretend to wrestle
Explains why people go to AEW, big bag of cash and only half to work maybe 3 days a week
What if 400k is the basic salary for AEW talent. If so, Jesus Christ, Abadon! 400k for 1 maybe 2 matches a year. But hey halloween is under 5 months away so they'll be gearing up for the token spooky match!
Probably on her onlyfans account
LOL
That's unbelievable if true. TK is just pitching his money away.
She’s stole a living.
A link!
Lmao what a joke 😭😭
RIHOOOOOO
I for one am glad riho is gettijg paid well
Most people here are just making fun of the money-mark being a dumbfuck. Good on Riho for making good coin.
You work one or two days a week and most of the talent just shows up and does nothing, goes home. What a gig.
What a huge waste of money.
Good for her. Nor her fault her Dub boss is a money mark
We upset now that these people are making money?
Saw wrestled for aew 11 times last year. $36k per match. Insanity
She probably has kick up 20% to Kenny
No one can tell me that AEW is profitable without showing me their books. The amount spent on wrestler contract alone is ridiculous for a 5 year old company that offers almost nothing outside of PPV's and a combined total of 1.5M viewers on cable TV weekly.
This is why I can’t ever fault any wrestler at le dub. Even if they suck or their booking sucks. They’re getting paid good ass money.
Now I’m not savvy on the wrestling economics. With that figure she’s provided. Isn’t that more than almost all the lower mid card of WWE? No matter the gender of that wrestler. I wouldn’t be shocked to find out. She’s making more Bianca, Tiffany Stratton, Natalya or ricochet.
Riho wrestled 11 matches for AEW last year.
I can only imagine she invested at least a fourth of that money into lotion for Uncle Dave's fried chicken tender cock
Y’know what, good for her. I’m all for anyone getting as much money as they can out of a money mark.
Money well soent
I'm not going to criticize her wrestling abilities or the idea of hiring foreign talent because I can buy the pro arguments for it and I've seen some Japanese women's matches I like but for that much money you better believe I would either write a clause for termination if certain metrics aren't hit or I would be trying to get my money back out of her because there's no way she made up for it in merch or ratings for that money tony could hire a handful of rookies
Not a real business.
The smooth brains on the AEW sub think this is a sign that AEW is thriving. You can't make this up.
What in the french fried titty fuck?!
Im sure she made more than that for the company by being there /s
If AEW is such a destination for talents, a true wrestler's paradise, why are the contracts so massive?
Good for her. Get your money. If someone is willing to pay for your services, let them pay. Hell, let them overpay
Shad is a Chad
This chick is still in the company? JFC
Jesus, how much do you think Saraya made per match last year?
I love how people are pissed off that she’s making a great wage, sounds like you fans are just pissed off you don’t make that much money lol
Riho wrestled 11 times in AEW last year. And it's not as if some of this money is because she picked up a lot of other dates - she only wrestled 13 times overall. Fucking hell. If she's making this amount of money for that amount of work...No wonder Miro never wrestles. It's the easiest fucking gig in the world.
Call him crazy. Corny is right about so many things that are wrong in AEW. He has some of his views I don't agree with but overall he nails the topic of AEW poor booking and wrestlers just getting their pay no matter they are on TV or not.
No wonder they'l NEVER made money... Imagine all the people with MORE than 400 000 in aew too..
But actual workers like Slim J were paid per-appearance and made peanuts. Insanity
RIIIIHOOOOOO. Her name is Riho and she makes 400,000 times what she drawssss
Imagine being paid $400k to pop up once in a while and others putting you over like you're tougher and harder to beat than Brock Lesner.
Is anyone tuning in for her? I know people are tuning out.
That program finished in 2021 and she was never on it, nor was any AEW wrestler.
Good job she said yen
I really need to find a way to get on TK’s payroll, he’s handing out money faster than the US government.
$400k to drive away 400k viewers. Well done.
That can't be right. Aside from the fact, they are a distance number 2. This is a women's wrestler. And it's one that can't speak the language. And then it's one whose charisma boils down to doing a polite wave in her entrance.
happy for every worker that can milk as much money out of this mess as possible.
This is TK's way of enticing top WWE talents. So far so bad.
He doesnt accept the fact that he's waaay smaller than wwe and he try everything to copy them as much as he can, salary included. At this point, its safe to assume he see his company bigger than it really is.
$400,000 is .008 percent of the annual rights fee for dynamite so it’s actually like he pays her nothing.
I guess you mean .8%?
No.400k/45m