PWInsider has a whole article by Mike Johnson talking about why WWE has no choice but to cut them off, and it’s damning. LINK

1. They should have known Raja had a concussion because he talked about it and it was known.
2. They shouldn’t have allowed their worker to be drinking before the show, because WWE doesn’t allow it, and never should have let him touch the guest who didn’t understand professional wrestling. Which led to everything else.
3. Mana and Raja talking about the receipt and Raja knowing what it is, the promotion giving him the cue to get in the ring, all show a level of unprofessionalism that harms the WWE brand, as WWEID is supposed to be a step above regular indy.
4. Jackson connected with 22 punches, Mike Counted, and nobody was equipped to stop him, the ref was useless, the first guy that tries gets brushed off, finally Doug Drago hits the ring and manhandles him off, delivering a hard way headbutt and Raja tries to fight him too.
5. Questions what would have happened had Drago not been booked, believes it likely would have been a murder in a WWEID ring. Professionalism by this point is already out the window.
6. Instead of calling for medics, after Raja is pulled off him, somebody makes the cover and the ref counts the three with the guy laying there bleeding and convulsing. This isn’t the old days where the show must go on, WWE now stops matches for injury, this should be an automatic disqualification from WWEID.
7. Holds not just Raja accountable, but the promotion as well because of their sloppy shop, I call it that, he’s more tactful.
8. A direct quote “Seriously, what if Doug Drago wasn’t booked on this show or wasn’t in a place where he could save Smith? We’d be writing about a death in the ring - and not because of some horrible accident - but because Knokx Pro allowed a concussed man to be struck in their locker room (even playfully) and then invited him to seek a receipt in the ring in front of their paying fans on Jackson’s live stream.”
9. “With the blessing of being spotlighted comes with the responsibility of living up to not just the reputation that comes with the WWE ID relationship but in making sure that the talents they are prepping for WWE are brought up in an environment that is as close as possible to what WWE wants for their trainees. This obviously did not happen this past weekend.”

He then reiterates that WWEID promotions need to reflect WWE and how this was a complete failure and WWE needs to make sure all ID promotions have standards. And that everyone involved needs to be accountable.

Yes, finally, now challenge Mercedes, she can’t turn down a title match, and demolish her!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP_pt7vBVeM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69wvOlaK1qE

My lord, Raja live streamed this whole thing, including talking to people online about what he’s going to do. If the LAPD lets him go uncharged, holy fuck that’d be a travesty. Looks like somebody is running a sloppy shop.

So, I started with the YouTube videos and then went to Reddit for context, because sadly it is still the most used platform for a lot of shit and I’m not getting an X account, all around this is a fucking awful situation and Raja needs help and a conviction. Having seen pretty much all the videos now, I can’t begin to comprehend how Stu was able to go home today, I was certain there was brain damage and a coma in his future. I’ve included the videos I watched through, the attack footage is in the last part, I originally said it wasn’t, that was a mistake, it’s the last 5 to 10 minutes. But, damn, this was criminal and it’s documented.

Here’s my summary of the videos:

So Stu thought he was a wrestler, was probably drunk already, I got that impression before Raja states it later, walked up to him and hits him with the beer can, a worked hit, and asks what you not gonna sell for me, clearly thinking Raja is a wrestler. It’s not uncommon at indy shows to see, but it appears a lot of them were out in the parking lot drinking and shooting the shit. Raja gets heated real quick, Stu offers a hand, Raja refuses, others are still between them, they offer Raja the chance to run in during the match, screw him in the match or something.

Backstage AJ Mana, according to the internet, tells him to tag him, give him a receipt and Raja says yeah get his lick back and he’s straight. Reddit lead me to believe Mana wants badly to be in Raja’s inner circle or some shit and that’s how Raja ends up at the show to begin with.

Raja is streaming everything, who watches other people just go about their lives like this? I digress, anyway it shows him talking to his live stream about being pissed off that this dude thought he was a pro wrestler and he’s gonna get him back. Points out he thought he was drunk. Tells the stream it’s been his dream to go in there and fuck up a pro wrestler for real so I get it today. Gonna punch his ass for real, not gonna fuck him up too bad, don’t believe in bullying but doesn’t believe in me getting disrespected.

Again tells the live stream… he thought I was a wrestler because of camera and I was back there, he was drunk and shit, thought I (Raja) was a wrestler, said why aren’t you selling and shit, cause he thought I was a wrestler. Yeah they said I could get my hit back. Tells the stream for 50 subs he’ll knock him out. Discusses with his live stream what he’s going to do, slam him let him up and hit him. I ain’t gonna hurt him too bad, he was drunk I think, it’s not gonna be scripted when I get in there.

Says he was told to hit him, somebody would pull him off, but watch I’m gonna hit him as many times as I can, watch, I’m not gonna fake it, they don’t want me in there, watch, and as soon as I’m done doing what I’m doing I’m leaving… which shows premeditation to this JelloBrain.

In a second video on YouTube, Raja is in the parking lot still hot and huffing. Gets a call, Reddit and YT comments say it’s from the AJ Mana guy.

Tells guy on phone he just pissed me off though Andre. (The interwebs again says this is likely AJ Mana)

Guy on phone says they can’t wake him up the dude flatlined in the ring.

Responds with my bad and then quickly with the I’ll call you back later, gets in a car with somebody else and leaves, still breathing hard, I’d say at this point he knows he’s fucked.

They’re likely getting them FOX One streaming service dollars while they can, you can’t fault the grifter when the mark is so willing.

Khan appeared a little off-guard when asked about the future of AEW video games after Fight Forever, saying he didn’t consider himself an expert but tried to take insight & advice from those who know and they learned a lot. He hopes to make the next game much better and learn from those experiences. He is unsure about what the future is for games, but that it’s important to his fans and he’s trying to learn from that. He does expect future forays into gaming.

I hope it’s a better group of experts next time. Fight Forever wasn’t bad, but it was lackluster in a lot of ways, it reminded me of WCW vs. nWo: World Tour on the N64, good bones to build on.

I seriously don’t understand the pricing, it was like 28 bucks “on sale” during Playstations recent sale, and that’s not a deal at all.

Edit: I accidently cut off part of my post.

Khan was asked about comments made about PPV being dead and if he was interested in bringing his events to a singular platform. He instead put over AEW’s PPV success and his various partners. * * He said he is looking forward to HBO Max “joining the PPV party” but didn’t give an update on that date

The only thing I believe would get me to join HBO Max is AEW dropping PPV for streaming. But, he’s right, even if we ignore Boxing, PPV’s for AEW and UFC have shown that people will pay for a product they enjoy.

I think it’s mostly WWE fans that balk at PPV, because WWE was overly generous with the Network era, it’s just 9.99 Maggle.

I can see a few differing scenarios here.

WWE sends them money, a lot of money either for a one off or just to have it completely.

WWE uses the name anyway knowing they have more money and high-paid lawyers. F1RST would have to send off legal letters and maybe a lawsuit in this event because US trademarks must be defended or you risk losing them.

And the most unlikely thing, WWE changes the name of their event.

If you only have Netflix for live wrestling, you can stick to the 8 bucks, I read that “live events” are never ad-free.

There’s a fun catch with CW, antenna is spotty for anyone close to another building or trees, let alone those in forests or in mountain country that also blocks the waves. Then on top of that ATSC 3.0, aka “NexGen TV,” is coming, complete with always online DRM… antenna is likely not going to be worthwhile for the majority of people if the ATSC 1.0 to 3.0 gets the FCC’s approval to fully transition in 2027.

Peacock will be an interesting business to watch, the agreement they announced moves the SNME exclusively to them and off network tv with 4 a year, but Network content ends at the end of 2025, and NXT is only going until March 2026, which seems like we’ll be seeing NXT move again in about 7 months.

You’ve now activated my nightmares, he’s going to pair with Sammy Guevara again.

He should be used as a nostalgia act, put him in the Sting role, show up and do a match here and there, make some saves, disappear for a bit, then do it again…

I don’t know what WWE offers here, they’re penny penchers, he’s old, and WWE doesn’t give creative freedom. I only see him returning to WWE to make sure he eventually gets that HoF induction.

Good for people with cable logins that will get it for free, bad for everybody else. WWE’s spread itself out in such a way it’s something like $100 or more a month in various subscriptions just to keep up with it all, forget that, god speed to those that do that.

I have a streaming service for Braves baseball, if it works for unlimited I’ll keep watching PLE’s only, otherwise I’ll be keeping to the other sources for any clips that might be worth seeing.

I don’t discount WWF/E’s bullshit going back to Black Saturday in '84, but I personally find TKO to be on another level, TKO comes across as more ruthless and has admitted they want you to think only of their properties when you think of the sports they promote.

This is Puppet H erasure right here! lol

Puppet H and Mark who’s very smart

It’s the UFC strategy, they’ve always been a bit worse than WWE, if they can’t buy you they will counter program you, that’s what they use to do to Strikeforce until eventually they were able to buy it. MMA in the US has basically boiled down to UFC or PFL, as PFL bought out Bellator MMA.

I truly wonder if people are grasping just how insane TKO is in their pursuit to be the end all be all of whatever industry they want to suck dry. This company is like if in the '90s Bischoff and Heyman were combined like Crystal Gems, sleazy with no moral values, and then given fuck you money.

I’m tapping out, it’s 4:30 in the morning and I need a couple of hours before I have to be up, this isn’t the greatest show in the world, it’s just a tribute and if you’re up give it a shot, they are hilarious and maybe a little delirious at this point. By far my most favorite crowd in wrestling.

Funny enough, the TNA channels are all owned by the other companies these days, Spike and Pop TV are Paramount channels, Destination America is owned by WB Discovery (Turner), Pursuit Channel is partially owned by Anthem, TNA’s parent company.

Vice is a joint venture between Disney and Hearst Media Corp.

There’s really very little left out there.

This is TKO related…

UFC and WWE just traded places price wise for the most part… WWE went behind the ESPN pay wall, and UFC went behind the much cheaper (and PPV free) Paramount+ paywall (with some CBS network shows) which a lot of Americans get as part of their Walmart+ sub. Anyway, this deal for UFC of 7.7 Billion over 7 years is good for TKO’s greed, but just drives home my belief that TKO is out to block other companies from getting on TV, by spreading out this way and with rumored exclusivity clauses, it just knocks out most remaining TV channels for other people.

PLE’s on ESPN - (ABC, FX, FXX, Vice, Disney, History, NatGeo, and many of others in part or fully.)

SmackDown on USA - (USA, Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen, E!, Telemundo, Golf Channel, CNBC, Universo, has a stake in VOX)

RAW on Netflix - Netflix the #1 Streamer worldwide

NXT - The CW and it’s affiliates

EVOLVE - (FOX, Tubi, FS1, Fox Sports Networks, Faux News)

UFC - CBS/Paramount (Viacom) Networks (CMT, Comedy Central, Flix, Logo TV, MTV, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Paramount Network, Pop TV, Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, TeenNick, The Movie Channel, TV Land, VH1, CBS Sports, etc)

Looking through the DTV Streaming package, there is very little not owned by these networks. I’m not saying it’s a monopoly, but holy shit it’s clear, in my opinion, that’s what they are after.

Huh, figures.

ESPN (Disney) was always one of the big reasons cable was expensive to begin with, demanding networks carry all of their channels or get none. They truly are a match made in heaven for TKO-WWE. Then. Now. Forever. Empty Your Wallet.

My core argument “brought to you by Mike’s Harder Lemonade, because when life gets hard you get harder!” still stands, they are no longer Premium “like the feel you get when using Dude Wipes,” they are just another show “brought to you by Wheatley’s American Vodka.” The entire company is so covered in ads like that it bothers me to no end and completely destroys any premium feel they may have had, now where’s my slim jim.

Swagger, I’ll miss the hat, not you, but the hat.

As to trucks, we (the US) have a lack of full time qualified truckers (Semi, big rig, 18-wheeler, ‘Big Daddy Cool’ Diesel types) so if whoever he is paying is qualified, we probably need them more than him wrestling… although should this recession arrive and hit hard, he’s likely going to be in trouble and the carnival will lure him back.

I’d say they aren’t PLE’s anymore, just another WWE show. Apparently anybody that still pays for cable (or “a streaming service” which is cable by a different name) and gets ESPN will be able to access ESPN DTC app for free.

Kind of definitely off topic but I was looking through some stuff about ESPN’s sports offerings, because I didn’t think they had a lot of actual non-talk sports events… and this caught my eye… surely TKO’s next acquisition to go with UFC’s Power Slap.

PFC on ESPN Ocho

Video of PFC

I’d almost guarantee they have some legal stuff in that agreement now, for the crew and wrestlers and also about any complaints need to be filed in the court of their choosing.

It was talked about a bit in the dirt sheets when it started, and then coverage stopped, I only happened to see somebody post about this weeks updates online in passing, so it’s not highly covered from what I can tell.

As to the video, I would typically agree it looks odd, which is why I think its in court and AEW won’t settle.

I don’t know what advantage they believe they would have moving it to Federal court, but I think the excuse they used about differing peoples and jurisdictions was flimsy at best as people sue across state lines all the time.