AEW - All Elite Wrestling (*Spoilers for Latest Show*)

I'm not entirely sure what Edge's plan was for Judgement Day, outside of him saying that Balor was going to turn much later than he did. Tbh Judgement Day wasn't working until he was kicked out and Dom joined.

I don't know if I'm a fan of spooky Edge in general but intrigued to see where it goes all the same.

In other news on the AEW front. The rumours are that TNT have lose the rights to the NBA coverage. As for what that could mean for AEW, it's unclear. Few potential talking points I've seen.

• While it does free up some cash, WBD are very much in cost-cutting mode. The NBA were asking for serious money (some suggestions it was double the previous deal) and excluded more major games than the previous deal. David Zazlav is still cutting as much as he can to try get WBD out of debt. If WBD amd AEW come to terms, there's no guarantee it's a significant increase or an increase at all over the original deal.
• On the other hand, live TV is a valuable commodity. AEW offers that which is valuable for advertisers. If WBD want to keep TNT as a 'sport' channel. NBA was the biggest cornerstone of that but they still have lots of major sports coverage on the network. It could help having AEW in that regard as a 'sports alternative' or something that fits in somewhat under that umbrella.
• It could however have the opposite effect. Them losing their biggest draw could worry them about losing cable subscribers and therefore they may spend less on renewing AEW's deal due to an assumed loss of subscribers who were subscribed for the NBA.
• Or they could need AEW more than ever for those reasons but the question of whether they will be willing to splash out for it is uncertain.
• PWInsider reporting that there is no new deal between AEW and WBD ahead of the upfronts tomorrow.

So a lot of armchair analysis, most of this is people's speculation online so grain of salt.

He’s too large to be wearing a floral pattern.

That was absolutely superb!

Collision and Rampage are basically disposable if we're honest, as far as ratings go. Them moving for sports is no shock.

The bigger concern ratings wise should be Dynamite right now, especially with contract negotiations looming. That's not me being a hater, that's just the reality. Losing numbers after changes in schedule is fine but losing numbers with no clear outside reason could hurt some bargaining power AEW have. As much as WBD have put out press releases saying they're happy, those are easily done and not necessarily an indication of true feelings, in fact I think the last press release came out when there was talk that there was apparently discussions between WBD and WWE.

The positive side is that AEW still is regularly ranked as the top original cable show of the night when it airs even when ratings are down. Which works in their favour of course. I put some comments about where AEW could find themselves with the renegotiations now that TNT have seemingly lost the NBA rights. It's still very much hard to call. Could even be a case that AEW get a new deal but not for as much as they have hoped.

Not seen all of it but from what I’ve watched already you really do have to hand it to Tony and AEW, they really knock their PPVs out of the park.

The MJF return was excellent. Although he probably needs to lay off the fake tan!

Sting had his baseball bat, now Darby has his flame thrower. What an incredible spot with Perry that was.

Not surprised, terrible landing he basically just fell straight down onto his feet. At his age especially that was a a silly spot but the landing did him no favours. Sounds like he's saying his body hesitated when his brain was saying to go for it. Serious injury to come back from at his age. Shame he couldn't have put Malakai over in that case, mind you Tony must be licking his chops at the thought of another tournament.

The Owen Hart Cup will probably start soon so maybe they won't do another tournament. Some misc. news about AEW today.

• On the new TV deal front it sounds like according to Matt Belloni of Puck News that Tony isn't happy with the deal WBD offered them. Come July WBD loses their exclusive window to negotiate a new deal. Sounds like they're still on good terms and Tony is probably negotiating to get a better deal. Should they not get a good deal and get to negotiating it will be interesting to see where they could feasibly go that wouldn't be a step down. I reckon they won't go anywhere and a deal will be worked out.
• The AEW video game Fight Forever is confirmed to be coming to PS Plus in June so if you have PS Plus already you can get it for free. Might be a good deal if you've been holding out on buying it like myself.