AEW: Scorpio Sky on TNT Title, NBC Executive on AEW Ratings & HBO Max, AEW Fight Forever Update

AEW

May 6, 2022

Scorpio Sky Comments on His Recent TNT Championship Victory

A recent episode of the Throwing Down w/ Renee & Miesha podcast featured Scorpio Sky as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Sky’s thoughts on him recently regaining the TNT Championship from Sammy Guevara.

“Yeah, two times [as TNT Champion]. It’s really an honor. Just to win it one time is incredible, you know? I know people look at professional wrestling and a lot of things — sometimes people think wins and losses and things like that don’t matter but in AEW from the very beginning, they wanted to make a statement that wins and losses do matter and there haven’t been a lot of people that have held championships and so to be able to have the honor of being a champion, not only one time but two times and actually three times because I was a tag team champion, it is exactly what I said it was, it was an honor.”

Sky also gave his thoughts about him being hopeful of being able to do more as TNT Champion with his current reign than his first reign.

“I didn’t get to do too much in my first run [as TNT Champion]. I lost the title in like 31 days. I only had one title defense unfortunately but, I did regain the championship in the shortest period of time in AEW history, 12 days so now, we’ve got a new start so the first thing I wanna do is hold onto it for at least 32 days and pop myself. But no, really, I wanna have some classics. I grew up a diehard, passionate wrestling fan that dreamt of winning championships and having classic matches so if I can run with this title for six months, a year or longer and really get in the ring with everyone and have some really memorable championship matches that I used to like watching when I grew up, that one’s a goal and telling stories. Most of all above anything else, I wanna tell stories and because that’s what people will remember and that’s how you leave your mark.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

NBC Executive Comments on AEW’s Ratings and Potential Future Streaming Deal with HBO Max

A recent episode of the Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff podcast had NBC Universal Studios Group Business Affairs Manager Mik Pandit as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Pandit’s thoughts on AEW’s television ratings on TNT and TBS.

“I think that is a huge advantage for them. This is not revealing anything internal but NBCU Executives have been very clear with how pleased they are with the WWE’s drive of subscribers to the Peacock platform. Part of the advantage for WWE is there are new events each month, yes but then two, arguably three or four times a year, they have these big events. Your WrestleManias, the upcoming supershow in the UK, Saudi events that drive consumers who might not have been subscribed to say I have to watch this.
They’re loyal, they want to see new content. Is a baseline of a million viewers something Tony can sell as an advantage for him? Yes, the question is what is the price he’s going to get for that? Now as we see more consolidation in the industry and their partnership primarily with WarnerMedia that’s being run by Discovery Executives, not Warner Executives, from all intensive purposes from what we have seen and I don’t know anyone in that organization, but they’re going to run a much leaner and meaner business than Warner had planned on running. Now does that mean AEW is going to get the kind of live rights media fees that they would’ve gotten a couple of years ago? I don’t know the answer to that but I think the advantage for AEW is that even at an increase to what they’re currently getting paid which is around 40-45 million a year, it’s still probably cheaper than scripted programming.”

Pandit also gave his thoughts about the potential of AEW signing a streaming deal with HBO Max in the future.

“I don’t know Nick Khan but he was making this point repeatedly. That we were seeing what they call peak subscription or subscription fatigue when it comes to streaming service. Five years ago when there was Netflix and the WWE Network, it was great, you pay $10 and you get all the wrestling in the world. Now HBO Max is $15 a month, Disney Plus is $10 a month, Netflix is probably $17 a month, and Paramount is $10, there are many other products even outside of entertainment consumption that are subscription-based.
You’re getting to a point to where justifying paying $10 a month just for wrestling content is going to be very difficult for all but the most hardcore of consumers. Somebody who probably watches wrestling one out of every three pay-per-views probably wouldn’t. AEWs advantage is they have on average 1 million linear cable viewers week to week. Most of those people probably have access to an HBO Max so I would imagine it’s more valuable for HBO Max to have that content on HBO Max so they can grow their subscription base and retain it. Of those 1 million AEW fans, if let’s say half of them subscribe to HBO Max, that’s a solid 400,000 fans and subscribers who are going to drop off at a lower rate than your average subscriber.”

Transcript h/t: 411Mania.com

AEW: Fight Forever Video Game Update

AEW’s Evil Uno hosted an official stream on AEW Games’ Twitch channel revealing several new details regarding AEW’s upcoming AEW: Fight Forever video game.

A new in-game video was showcased featuring the official reveals of Kris Statlander and Nyla Rose for the game’s roster. In regards to Statlander, her model was based on her previous “Galaxy’s Greatest Alien” persona and not her current darker persona.

It was also revealed that AEW’s upcoming video game will also be released on PC alongside consoles.

In regards to the game’s roster size, Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the game is currently planned to feature around 50 AEW wrestlers for its launch roster. It was also reported that other AEW talent confirmed to be in the game’s roster who have yet to be officially revealed are CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Sting, Adam Cole, and Ruby Soho.

Bodyslam.net’s Cassidy Haynes reported that his sources stated that Owen Hart is also confirmed to be among the playable characters for the game’s roster.