After ALL IN on September 1. The pro wrestling world realized there was enough talent on the indies to sell out a 10,000 seat arena and do a fair number in pay-per-view buys. The industry was shook. After the successful night. There is a rumored wrestling promotion start-up happening and it involves some pretty amazing characters. WWE has been the top promotion since the demise of WCW. Others have tried to reinvigorate the wars that were fought in the nineties. This including TNA's attempt to restart the Monday Night Wars. Which they had potential but ultimately flopped. Now a new wrestling promotion is on the horizon. Currently they have gone through a bunch of trademarks:
Now you may ask who is funding this venture? Shahid Khan. Specifically his son Tony Khan. Also to let you know Shahid Khan has a net worth of $6.8 billion, he's the owner of Jacksonville Jaguars. Vince McMahon has a net worth of $2.8 billion, he's the sole owner of the rebooted XFL. Yes, money isn't everything in the wrestling business. At one time Ted Turner was the rich billionaire taking on Vince McMahon then he lost $8 billion in a merger... I think the Khan's would be different. It just depends how they organize this promotion. At least they have deep pockets. They just have to make the right moves. That's they key to this entire promotion. Make the right moves! They can't end up like Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling. It had potential to do something great and it failed. Here is the reason AEW may jump into that number two promotion in the world. First and foremost WWE is so dominant everything looks small in comparison. Ring of Honor still can't get good production value and they can't retain talent despite being able to sell out MSG. You'll always be small, if you play small. So that rules them out as the number two promotion in the world. Impact has been steered in the right direction by Don Callis. Yet I think so much damage has been done to the brand it's a matter of time before Don Callis or the talent get poached away. Lucha Underground is a revolutionary concept of mixing wrestling with an over-dramatic, artsy style TV show, and having it go by seasons. Still it will never reach that number two due to its network, and the format. Lucha Underground provides a great alternative. NJPW is awesome but it's kinda not really in competition with WWE. Which once again isn't a bad thing. NJPW owns a section of the market. Tuesday Night Dynamite is one of the trademarks that should immediately jump out. The name sounds like an old-school WCW show. Maybe that's what they were going for? The biggest debate for AEW right now is if they will get on a traditional cable network. There is many cable networks that desperately need content. During ALL IN, WGN America hosted ALL IN: Zero Hour which acted as the pre-show. I'd assume WGN America would be interested in Tuesday Night Dynamite. They only show Cops reruns on Tuesdays nights. WGN America also had WWE Superstars in the past, and well we all know how that ended. The other option that everyone is timid to mention is streaming. Why not Netflix? Why not Apple? Why not Amazon? Netflix it would help diversify their portfolio, and it could be another test for them in the LIVE sports entertainment arena. They are always looking to try something new because they know Disney and WarnerMedia are coming after them hard in 2019. Yes, Lucha Underground didn't work out on Netflix. There could be a million reasons why but AEW could be something better. Apple is another competitor. They haven't even revealed their streaming model yet but they could easily help kickstart a promotion. The third streaming option is Amazon. Which technically they could do some smooth operating. Amazon is interested in the Fox Sports regional networks. If their bid is successful that could be a secondary home for AEW. Also I could see AEW doing well on Prime. The rumor started that The Elite, Chris Jericho, and Jim Ross were forming a new wrestling company with financial backing from the Khan family. Also the other rumor floating is that two WWE stars are going to leave in April to join the promotion. Which WWE is stacking and misusing talent all over the place.
That's a reason why WWE is signing people like ACH. Who has been in Ring of Honor forever. Same with Trevor Lee, who had a stint in Impact. All these wrestlers are all of sudden going to WWE. There were also reports that WWE offered Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and The Young Buck main event money to come to WWE. It's starting to look like they didn't take that offer. Not to mention Cody Rhodes tweeting out to his followers asking what independent wrestlers are being overlooked. That is AEW scouting at its finest. AEW could be a legitimate promotion. If you start with this core of:
I rather watch a roster of ELITE guys (pun fully intended) than forcing us to get to know some independent wrestler, who will probably go back to working smaller shows in some small town. That's what GFW did wrong. When you look at GFW Amped, the promotions main show that never aired until Impact bought GFW. They had Bobby Roode, Bollywood Boyz, Nick Aldis, Mickie James, KUSHIDA, TJ Perkins, Gallows & Anderson, Eric Young, and Shelton Benjamin. Now more than half of this list is now in WWE. Yet GFW filled the rest of the roster with TNA burnouts and AAA wannabes. AEW will be daunting task but if they make the right moves it will only benefit the world of professional wrestling. AEW will only make NXT and WWE more competitive. Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks want something more. They don't want to simply just settle for Ring of Honor or NJPW. They don't want to have to due their own ALL IN pay-per-views. They want their own promotion. Something that could be successful. So what will come of AEW? That remains to be seen but I believe that they are on the right track. One thing is for sure Vince McMahon hates competition. There is no denying that. He's probably going to snatch up more talent on the indies. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts to drain Impact and Luca Underground. I have a feeling that with Jim Ross and Chris Jericho involved this will be legit. As long as they are actually involved. If they aren't involved then we will have to wait and see how legitimate the promotion becomes. I couldn't imagine Jericho and Ross burning a bridge with WWE for something minor league-ish. No one thought they could pull of ALL IN. Now we have people saying AEW can't be a number two promotion. The Elite like proving people wrong. If your a fan of pro wrestling your biggest hope is that Tony Khan and other investors will be All In. Follow @ZWrestleTalk on Twitter.
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Triple ZCreator of ZWrestleTalk. This page I give you my thoughts on the current state of the WWE product. I look back at the history of WWE. Sometimes even predict the future. If your lucky you get comedic articles too. Archives
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