AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Every year in June, social media is filled with bigots
complaining about Pride Month. All Elite Wrestling had their
Facebook post simply saying "Happy Pride Month" flooded with
1,300 comments with high a percentage of hate-filled
comments. Lots were bots and professional homophobes.
For those who would respond with "stop pushing 'politics'
and just talk wrestling," ask yourself these simple
questions....yes or no answers ONLY:
* Would you be willing to live as a LGBTQ+ person in any one
of an increasing number of states that are denying basic
human and civil rights?
If not, why?
* If your child said that they were LGBTQ+, would you still
love and accept them?
If not, why?
So again....it's important to state why it's important for
everyone to acknowledge Pride Month and to support friends,
family, neighbors and co-workers...and everyone else who's
LGBT.
First, a year ago last week, Jonathan Joss, the voice actor
for John Redcorn on "King of the Hill", and live as Chief
Ken Hotate in Parks and Recreation, was murdered in a hate
crime outside his former home in San Antonio, TX. His
husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales described what happened:
"...My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a
shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former
home. That home was burned down after over two years of
threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they
would set it on fire. We reported these threats to law
enforcement multiple times and nothing was done. Throughout
that time, we were harassed regularly by individuals who
made it clear they did not accept our relationship. Much of
the harassment was openly homophobic.
When we returned to the site to check our mail, we
discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness
placed in clear view. This caused both of us severe
emotional distress. We began yelling and crying in response
to the pain of what we saw. While we were doing this a man
approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs
at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired.
Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening
anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side.
When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He
saved my life.
Jonathan is my husband. He gave me more love in our time
together than most people ever get. We were newlyweds. We
picked Valentines Day. We were in the process of looking for
a trailer and planning our future. He was murdered by
someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each
other.
I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was
loved. To everyone who supported him, his fans, his friends,
know that he valued you deeply. He saw you as family. My
focus now is on protecting Jonathan’s legacy and honoring
the life we built together. If your concern is how someone
coped with trauma or how loudly they speak when recounting
injustice and being ignored by authorities, then you never
truly cared about my husband. Jonathan saved my life. I will
carry that forward. I will protect what he built."
Why do we need Pride? The transgender nursing assistant who
took care of my dad during his last illness at Virtua
Hospital cried to my Mom that she was the only person who
called her by her chosen name.
My Mom came home from the hospital that evening, and told me
in tears "THAT'S why you wouldn't let up explaining to me
all these years. Now I understand."
Those are why Pride Month is needed. The reality is that
Pride Month is needed and is important because there are
still people who think they're better off dead than being
themselves because of the hate they suffer, and the loss of
their rights as Americans.
So again, happy Pride Month to LGBTQ+ folks and their
allies. Be happy, and be safe. Know that you are important,
and that you are loved. As Excalibur said last Wednesday
closing out Dynamite (...and especially those whose hearts
need a check) at the close of the show "Fix your hearts or
die".
All Elite Wrestling announced last Tuesday that AEW Grand
Slam: Mexico will return to Arena Mexico on Wednesday,
August 5. The event will air live in the United States on
TBS and stream live on HBO Max and in Mexico on Fox Sports
Mexico. The announcement was first made by Fox Sports MX,
which is airing the event in Mexico. The show will air in
the United States on TBS and HBO Max.
Speaking of AEW TV, Summer Blockbuster Dynamite will air on
its usual Wednesday at 8:00 pm ET time, but Summer
Blockbuster Collision will air on THURSDAY (not Saturday) at
8:00 pm ET.
The New York/North Jersey based PRODUCE Wrestling has
officially signed a global PPV distribution deal with All
Elite Wrestling's MyAEW. Officially announced last Friday,
this partnership marks a major milestone for independent
wrestling. It allows the "newly formed, curator-driven
promotion" to broadcast its events live to a global
audience.
Meanwhile...there's an old saying: "The definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting a different result."
Well...here we go again. Welcome to the wonderful world of
what Fightful's In The Weeds daily podcast (with Joel Pearl,
SP3, and Jeremy Lambert) called "over-counterprogramming".
WWE announced the Great American Bash show, the first Clash
of Champions-style PLE on the CW Network, to air at the same
night as AEW’s Forbidden Door PPV on June 28 (only one hour
difference).
This is after the WWE-allied TNA scheduled Slammiversary
originally head-to-head with Forbidden Door, then
reconsidered and moved it to that afternoon.
Not to mention the PREVIOUS day will see the WWE Night of
Champions PLE from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Anyone remember what happened the last time WWE-allied
promotions ran three shows on a weekend against an AEW
PPV?
Last year. WWE counter-programmed ALL IN Texas with a
Saturday Night's Main Event on the same day as ALL IN Texas
(July 12), then ran an all-women's PLE, EVOLUTION on July
13. Then on that Memorial Day weekend 2025, WWE announced
NXT Great American Bash would take place July 12 at Center
Stage Theater in Atlanta with a listed 3:00 pm bell time,
taking place before Saturday Night’s Main Event that
evening, counter-programming ALL IN Texas with three
separate PLEs that weekend, including the Great American
Bash directly head-to-head.
So how'd it work out?
Saturday Night Main Event, loaded with a main event of
Gunther vs. Goldberg bombed....so badly that WWE lost its
slot on NBC and found future SNME specials exiled to
Peacock. Then they cut off Goldberg's retirement speech...
the main event segment because they ran too long. WWE
Evolution drew 8,351 fans (many of whom bought discounted
tickets late) and did by far the lowest number of any PLE
WWE has done. The Great American Bash did its weakest
number ever for a PLE at around 100,000 views worldwide, not
including Peacock, on Netflix per the Wrestling Observer)
So WWE is attempting to hurt AEW, which hasn't worked for
PPV...ever; and is unlikely to do so June 28. But what WWE
WILL likely do is hurt their own partner TNA by scheduling
multiple events the same weekend against Slammiversary,
whose Great American Bash PLE on CW will likely be the
fourth choice for the average fan that weekend.
This is intertwined with the beginnings of a CMLL vs.
WWE/AAA war in Mexico City.
Dave Metlzer explained it best in this week's Observer:
"....WWE has gotten very aggressive as far as competitive
events with doing three shows at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City
the week before CMLL’s biggest show of the year, its
93rd anniversary event, as well as announcing the NXT Great
American Bash head-to-head with AEW’s Forbidden Door. WWE
will be running Smackdown on 9/11 in Mexico City and then
follow that night with AAA TripleMania on YouTube from Las
Vegas. They will run AAA TripleMania as well on 9/13 at
Arena Ciudad, and follow with Raw the next night.
The CMLL Anniversary show is 9/18 at Arena Mexico. Also
during the week AEW announced coming to Arena Mexico for
Grand Slam Mexico on 8/5. With the game being heightened;
Raw, Smackdown, TripleMania and the Anniversary show tickets
will be going on sale on 6/5. Grand Slam Mexico [went] on
sale on 6/6. Mexico City for the last year plus has been the
No. 1 city for pro wrestling around the world. CMLL sold 1.1
million tickets in Arena Mexico in 2025, and are doing it at
a pace well above that this year. AAA has been selling out
its shows as well, with regular TV tapings at Juan de la
Barrera Gym, which holds 5,000, usually running Saturday
nights head-to-head with CMLL at Arena Coliseo. Generally,
when running head-to-head, both companies have been selling
out.
But 9/11 will take this to a different level. WWE not only
moved TripleMania from August to September to put it five
days before CMLL’s biggest event, but also is doing
television from Mexico City for the first time in 15 years
the same week. On paper, since AAA draws based on having
some WWE stars, authentic WWE, particularly Raw or
Smackdown, would seem to be bigger than TripleMania. But
doing three shows in the same city with high ticket prices
would seem like a challenge on its own. But on Friday, they
will go head-to-head with Arena Mexico’s big show of the
week meaning something in the realm of 33,000 to 35,000 fans
would need to attend shows on a single night to fill both
arenas.
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