AEW: All Elite Wrestling

[Patriot]

This is one of those temper expectations things, but at the same time it's really hard not to be excited about the possibilities.

Since WCW went under, the closet thing WWE ever had to real competition was TNA on Spike. The money was there, the network was strong enough, and there was a really good roster to work with. But the person in charge was a huge mark with no working knowledge of the wrestling industry or how to put on a good show, made even worse by the fact that she had to make herself an on-screen character.

ROH could be, given the company that owns them, but Sinclair will never put real money into ROH or use it as anything other than material for their syndicated stations.

NJPW could be, but it's a drastically different product than what the majority of the American audience is accustomed to and is still just a taped matches on a relatively obscure network.

That brings us to AEW, the new start-up from Cody, The Young Bucks and Adam Page. They've got the backing of the Khan family, with the son serving as the president and supposedly putting up $100 million into the promotion.

Jericho seems likely for the promotion. Kenny Omega seems likely, but could still go WWE (I doubt it).

Those would be big gets. Inside WWE currently, Finn Balor, The Good Brothers, Dolph Ziggler, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins would all likely jump given the chance (Balor and the Good Brothers, still unhappy creatively supposedly). AJ Styles' contract ends in April and he wants a reduced contract. He could jump.

There's rumors of Goldberg negotiating with them, which I'm not a fan of but understand, and more importantly they're supposedly in negotiations with Time Warner of all people to air a show on TBS or TNT.

So they at least have a good selection of talent that they could acquire, a lot of money behind them, and the #1 thing they need to possibly seriously compete with WWE would be an actual big network like a TBS or a TNT.

[Patriot]

They've signed Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky, Chris Jericho and PAC (Neville). Billy Gunn as backstage agent/producer.

[Patriot]

Tony Kahn has stated that he wants wins and losses to matter. I like it.

Also, Jericho said "I wouldn't have gone to All Elite if there wasn't a strong TV deal on the table being worked on, and there's a couple that I know of that are on the table..."

[Q]

This is kind of getting fascinating. Needless to say I'm at the point that I'm ready to wish some kids in a ring with some cardboard boxes all the best and support it. We simply need viable alternatives to nothing but WWE.

Deja vu but I'm going to say some of the same things I said about TNA:  I need to see a few key defections to put the thing over the top. Someone like a Paul Heyman cut loose and going back to putting his money where his mouth is... people like that.  Imagine a Paul Heyman cut loose and free on the creative side of this.

I need to see Lance Storm. I need to see some of these others along these lines.  Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, and others being there gets my attention.  Even Edge and Christian are having some talks with them. (obviously not wrestling but still)

[Patriot]

Some Meltzer notes on AEW and the lengths WWE went to try and basically stop it:

AEW opened picking up sizable talent and there are very serious negotiations with two major cable stations for a weekly two-hour live prime time television show.

Paul Levesque worked hard at getting all four into WWE. Page was offered main roster money to work NXT, where he’d have been pushed as one of its top stars. The Bucks & Cody were offered strong deals. The Bucks deal was for money roughly the same as WWE champion A.J. Styles, which would have also included BTE being made a regular weekly show on the WWE Network, as well as something I’ve never heard WWE concede on, which was a six-month window where they could have left their three-year contract if they wanted and weren’t happy with their push.

Of course, WWE was fully aware of the Khan deal as this was going down, which was one of the reasons they went so hard in locking up talent of late. The great offer with the six-month window was with knowledge that Khan was not doing the promotion without The Bucks & Cody and signing them would keep them from being opposition. Without them, Khan wouldn’t have the star power and stars of All In, meaning he’d likely not have the openings to everything from television to top talent that was necessary.

Those who work in WWE with knowledge of the deal were certain they wouldn’t turn it down, and outright told me that they would be debuting at the Rumble, and had a Rumble-to-Mania significant storyline. When they made the decision to go to AEW, they remarked that it was mind-boggling that they would ever get an offer at that level, and even more that they were turning it down. But they did roughly 12 hours of talks with Levesque, who they heavily praised in how he handled everything, in particular seeing the comedy aspect in the skit they did where they superkicked Kazarian dressed up as him over-and-over in what was the public turning down of the offer on BTE.

[Q]

Wow.

[Patriot]

Here's two more tidbits Meltzer is reporting:

Kenny Omega has turned down WWE. He'll be joining.

Jericho, who was one of the first people aware the Khans were interested in starting a promotion, was still in negotiations with WWE as late as the end of December. His deal signed was for three years exclusive, meaning no big show WWE appearances during that time frame. The only exemptions he negotiated into his deal where that he can continue to work and make his own deal for New Japan, where he is interested in continuing and where they are interested in his continuing, and he can do anything he wants related to future Jericho Cruises. One would expect AEW to provide the talent for the cruises going forward. While Jericho publicly said that he’s got money, and now he’s here to have fun, the reality is that he was offered a significantly better contract by AEW than what he had ever earned with WWE and still left him free for very lucrative big show New Japan paydays.


Impressive. But at the same time, is Jericho worth that? I mean he's 48, and while he can still go, is he really worth throwing BIG money at? I mean look at the amount of money TNA dumped on Hogan, Angle, Sting, Foley, Flair, Booker T, Christian, RVD, etc and it didn't make a bit of difference.

[Q]

I hope AEW doesn't make TNA mistakes although Jericho is someone that can contribute past just wrestling in the ring. I could see him doing anything from some creative input to managing/mouthpiece. He's an asset in any event.

I probably missed this but where/how is AEW getting the kind of money to throw around like this?

[Patriot]

Well it's owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony Khan. Tony is apparently a huge wrestling fan, and he's serving as the president of the company.

Shahid also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC. Dude has a networth over $6 billion, and Tony himself apparently fronted $100 million into the company. They have a pretty large warchest, so much so that with the right television deal and the right talent, they could actually be some serious competition. Obviously WWE knows this, which seems to be why they offered Cody, the Bucks, Page and Omega pretty unbelievable deals just to try and stop it before it gets started.

[Q]

Simply put: Whatever wallpapering rhetoric and silent treatments we may see and hear to the contrary...everything WWE has done here has told me one thing:

They see a potential threat.

That's wonderful news.

[Patriot]

[Sandman]

I don't know if they even own a ring yet and they're already doing a better job of selling matches than WWE.

[Q]

Jim Ross, who works for AEW now, let slip that there will be a weekly show come October.

[Patriot]

October shall be very interesting then. That's also when Smackdown moves to FOX and WWE debuts their Tuesday night studio show on FS1.

Hope it's on a real channel like TBS or TNT.

[Patriot]

Looking like they'll have a two hour, live show every Tuesday night on TNT.

Likely won't be officially announced until next month.

[Sandman]

Honestly I'd have been fine if they did 1 hour to start with.

Really hope JR isn't on commentary. One of the greatest ever, but those days are past.

[Patriot]

Unfortunately, it does appear that JR will be commentary.

We can only hope that it being a fulltime gig with a big role behind the scenes means that he'll be invested and actually know the product.

[Patriot]

[Jules]

Dustin is kind of an anti climax, but as a story it works.

AEW needs to do all they can to get Ambrose when his non compete is up, throw an offer at Punk, etc... to be seen as in WWE's stratosphere they will need to get some pre-loaded name value.

[Patriot]

Very good interview with Tony Khan.