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AS I SEE IT March 31: Corporate incompetence, racism, and successful synergy

Posted: Mar 31st 2025 By: Bob Magee

Reminder again tonight (for those reading this blog on Monday), that RAW airs live from London today on Netflix at 3:00 pm ET/12 noon PT (the UK went to British Summer Time yesterday) with replays available afterwards. This RAW will be the final TV of this European series of shows; with the next series happening in late summer (head-to-head with AEW's Forbidden Door and any possible TV AEW might have planned to do while in the UK). RAW will be available on-demand after the show ends.

First...the incompetence in wrestling award for 2025 has an early winner: Anthem Sports and Entertainment for the firing last Tuesday of Gail Kim (among other executives). There are few others as identified with TNA/IMPACT as Gail Kim; and few, if any, others in wrestling period that are so
universally respected and admired as Kim. She's the reason TNA/IMPACT had such a well-respected women's division over the years, and why the promotion survived the firing of Scott D'Amore.

The only explanation besides complete incompetence is that TNA is preparing for sale and Anthem is dumping payroll to make the acquisition look better on the books for a potential buyer. Most recently, such payroll dumping happened when WWE was purchased by TKO with WWE mass firing
experienced firing staff and executives. This was followed by more staff consolidation after the merger itself.

Sean Ross Sapp reported Wednesday TNA President Carlos Silva made the decision to fire Kim and the others; and apparently didn't give any kind of justification, other than "changes". Sapp reported on Fightful Select that there has been "significant push back from the roster, with one talent telling [Fightful] they'll be leaving when their deal is up.".

Sapp suggested in a podcast with John Pollock and Brandon Thurston last Wednesday that Silva was (to put it charitably) less than knowledgeable, with Silva referring to the guard rails around ringside as "bike racks". This mindset comes across as reminiscent of the worst days of Turner management of WCW and references to "international objects".

What also needs to be said is that Gail Kim was the highest placed woman in a major administrative role in a major North American wrestling company. Veda Scott put it simply: "We need MORE women in pro wrestling management/leadership positions, not fewer." The fortunate side is that Gail Kim apparently has interest from both AEW and WWE, per Sean Ross Sapp on The Hump podcast this past Wednesday. No doubt, she'll be contributing her talents to someone soon; someone that treats her in a way more deserving of her talent and experience.

Then....this past week, we saw Chad Gable's "El Grande Americano" introduced. His "signing" was announced with a badly modified AI "lucha history lesson" showing lucha legends, involving El Grande Americano's "role in that history". Toward the end of the segment, WWE took the segment into MAGA territory as they showed a map of the Americas; with the Gulf of Mexico labeled as the Trumpspeak
"Gulf of America". The excuse for doing so was that heat is supposed to be directed at the heel, and "isn't being done by the promotion". First, people aren't three years old. We know what wrestling is. Chad Gable isn't doing this, and isn't getting real life heel or wrestling heat. WWE is getting it, and they should be.

Box Y Lucha and other lucha publications in Mexico, as well as Mexican fans are pissed at WWE for doing the segment. Ernesto Ocampo, Editor-in-Chief of Super Luchas, wrote “[The skit] is an insult on many levels, both to Mexican wrestling and to Mexico itself. They could have left out the ‘Gulf of America’ reference"

People watch wrestling to escape the real world's insanity, not be reminded of it or have it force-fed to them by a company increasingly willing to associate itself with the current Administration, including Paul Levesque sitting in on the confirmation hearing of Linda McMahon; and whose partners in UFC openly associate with Donald Trump at ringside for UFC shows. Even Vince McMahon knew better and knew Democrats and independents bought tickets and merchandise during the first Trump administration, and kept references to Trump off WWE TV.

WWE's track record with black and Latino talent over the years has hardly been the greatest; and the booking of talent of color (particularly male) has been spotty at best most recently. There are claims of a desire for bilingual Latino talent, yet someone as talented as Santos Escobar...perfectly bilingual, experienced in multiple companies and multiple styles...is stuck in the lower to mid-card. The LWO plays jobbers to the stars.

So...in some ways...none of this should be a surprise.?

In positive wrestling news....AEW fans will be able to catch Collision live during Wrestlemania week. According to the TNT website, AEW Collision Spring Breakthru will air LIVE on Thursday, April 17 at 8:00 pm ET on TNT and MAX from the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, MA. Warner Brothers
Discovery sees Collision as enough of a priority to not dump Collision in a suicide slot.

Following up on last week's blog, Andrew Zarian reported on his Beyond the Bell podcast that Warner Brothers Discovery is looking to schedule a three-to-four-hour AEW special block in June during the Stanley Cup Finals, which airs on TNT.

“Spoke to someone a couple weeks ago, and they were telling me that these are experiments that Warner is willing to try,” Zarian said. “College basketball takes precedence; the NBA All Star weekend takes precedence. Rather than canceling the show, let’s put it on a different time slot and see if we could do something with it, maybe you’re going to attract different types of fans.... [They] have another opportunity for this during the Stanley Cup, during the NHL Playoffs. So listen, anything could change
here... I heard from two sides, from Warner, that during the Stanley Cup, there’s going to be an opportunity to do something very big. And the way that it was presented to me is that it is a possibility of a four-hour special happening. The idea is still soft. it could be just Dynamite on and then followed by a Collision, so a four-hour block.”

It's a happy coincidence that the Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin soon; and it happens to be TNT's turn this year to air the Stanley Cup Finals, which will start late May/early June.

Dave Meltzer follows up on this news in this week's Observer Newsletter, indicating that on June 18, the NASCAR Quaker State 400 from Atlanta will be airing on a rare Saturday night in prime time on TNT (a one-time event). He's not aware of how Collision will be aired that specific night, but indicated he's been told that AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery already have plans for all sports and other programming preemptions on Wednesdays or Saturdays for the rest of 2025.

If you need statistical proof that these special TV slots are succeeding for AEW came out last Tuesday when Programming Insider published the weekend ratings. Saturday's one-hour AEW Slam Dunk Collision, airing after NCAA March Madness Gonzaga vs. Houston round 2 game; had 554,000 viewers (up 146,000 viewers) from last week's episode with an 0.20 rating (identical to last week) in 18-49 cable. Sunday's one-hour AEW Slam Dunk Collision, airing after the NCAA March Madness New Mexico vs. Michigan State round 2 game had 588,000 viewers (up 176,000 viewers) from last week's episode with an 0.22 rating (up .12 from last week) in 18-49 cable. This was the highest viewership for Collision since July 29, 2023 and highest rating since December 21, 2024.

Keep in mind that neither figure includes those viewing on MAX.

Another interesting comment from Zarian seemed directed at the professional doomposters and podcasters that have created a whole cottage industry of being AEW 24/7. Zarian said he’s been hearing positive feedback from WBD in regards to AEW. "...“I’ve been hearing very positive stuff from WBD, and I’ve brought up the ratings and the internet chatter to them...It doesn’t even resonate. The messaging on
the internet’s not even resonating with these people and they’re in key positions there.”

That includes attempts by E-trolls to contact the MAX customer service address to complain about the Jon Moxley-Adam Copeland match, and the nailed bat in Moxley's bat. The "customer" was told to watch other programming or to re-set his parental controls..

Further proof of a positive relationship between WBD and AEW was shown by Warner's willingness to use Dynamite to promote The Minecraft Movie on last Wednesday, including an in-show promo by Jack Black.

Additionally, AEW content has started appearing on Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand with the integration of ESPN into the service. ESPN on Disney+ launched in Australia and New Zealand on March 26. As part of regular ESPN Australia programming, AEW Dynamite and Collision will also be
streamed live on the platform. ESPN Australia joined Disney+ as the first English-speaking market outside of North America to launch on the streaming network, following the US debut in December 2024.

If you'd like to contact me, you can do so at my bobmagee1@hotmail.com account or to through Facebook Messenger at https://www.facebook.com/bob.magee.180, direct message me at https://twitter.com/BobMage70323520, or contact me at BlueSky at
https://bsky.app/profile/bobmagee940.bsky.social

Until next time...