>>13115249The assessment is more based on the fact that we can all see with our own two eyes that Tony struggles to resist signing new toys to WWE-level contracts despite AEW making nowhere a WWE-level profit margin. Nobody expects AEW to be making several hundred millions in profit each year, but they also shouldn't be -15 to -30% in the hole each year.
You cannot close the gap between profitability and deep losses when you continue both continue to hoard talents while also signing acts like Ospreay, White, Shibata, Ibushi, Mercedes, Okada, Edge, etc -- and that's just in 2023 alone. That doesn't include those already making millions per annum like Moxley, Danielson, Christian, Hangman, Bucks, Omega, Claudio, Miro, nor all the guys with massive raises coming up (MJF, Darby Allin, Acclaimed, Samoa Joe, Toni Storm, etc)
For the record: I'm absolutely not against giving raises to those who have earned it and proven their worth to AEW--Moxley, Danielson, Darby, Samoa Joe, MJF, etc, are worth every penny--yes, even if their value is worth more to AEW than it is to WWE. You reward those guys who have stuck by you and built the company. But there is no bigger thing Tony could do in Q1 of 2024 -- for locker room morale, to make the shows more consistent, to increase leverage for TV/Streaming deals, etc -- than to let the overpaid, pampered, egotistical shitters walk away, as many as you can for $0, and whoever you can talk into for buyouts
AEW becoming profitable is infinitely better for wrestling than AEW going full Neener-Neener and putting the top wrestlers in the world in front of 2000 fans.
