Happy New Years folks! It's awesome you made it here with me to see this highly intriguing and exciting 2019. What a way to begin this new year. In January, we already have a bunch to look forward to: An AMAZING Wrestle Kingdom card, PAC vs. Ospreay, PAC vs. ZSJ, Impact Wrestling's Homecoming event, NXT Takeover: Phoenix, the debut of WOW on AXS-TV, the first NXT UK Takeover, Royal Rumble and now the epic news every diehard wrestling fan has been waiting for: the official announcement of AEW, or All Elite Wrestling. This company is founded by Cody Rhodes and will involve The Young Bucks and Hangman Page, at least based upon the latest episode of Being The Elite (no word on fellow Elite member, the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega yet). Speculation started just after the massive success of their fantastic PPV, All In, back in September. From there, it was shown that indie wrestling was not only alive and well, but could be financially tremendously successful. This is enormous news for more than just one aspect.
Here is what has been reported so far concerning this historic news:
- There will be a press conference about the promotion and its presumable debut PPV, All In 2: Double Or Nothing. The press conference will take place 1/8...the same day there will be a Smackdown Live show in Jacksonville as well.
- The promotion is backed by Jaguars owner, Tony Khan, who is the son of the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and is considered one of the richest men in the world. He'll be the president while Cody and The Bucks will be EVPs.
- Right now, Cody is the only one officially a part of AEW, although it's being reported The Bucks will sign very shortly. SCU has also been announced to show up at the conference so that could be interesting as well.
- TV deals are on the table and execs were impressed with All In and the Being The Elite Youtube series. Among the rumored networks are WGN-TV and AXS-TV.
- Possible NJPW partnership, as well as ROH but nothing confirmed as of yet
Let's get to the meat of this. This is what long-time fans of The Elite/Bullet Club have been waiting for. With the dry redundancy of WWE and their ratings continuing to plummet every week with possibly no end in sight, fans are desperately looking for something fresh. An alternative, not competition because there's nobody in the world that can legit compete with Vince commercially. Obviously New Japan is becoming the most popular promotion, on a critical level, in the business, with its popularity expanding to the western world to where there are one to two United States shows a year (this year there will be two American specials in L.A. and in Charlotte at the end of the month and beginning of next month respectively). Plus, let's not forget about the popularity of promotions such as ROH, PWG, and the slow rise back to popularity of Impact and other indie promotions and we have a ton of reasons to be a wrestling fan. However, television is still the big medium to show off a promotion's product. While ROH is broadcast over all Sinclair affiliates, Impact is shown for now on Pop TV, but moving to a relatively unknown station known as The Frontier Network. NJPW and the newly formed WOW will continue to broadcast on the rapidly popular AXS-TV, but with WWE owning NBC Universal as well as Fox later this year, AEW has an uphill battle.
As far as talent, this is where it can get a little juicy. Talents such as DJZ and Trevor Lee have been stating on their social media that they're free agents. While that's obviously great news and something hopefully AEW considers, what about WWE talent? There are numerous talents there that are either under-utilized, or not utilized at all. Basically there to do house shows or perform on forgotten about shows like Main Event. Examples would include Tye Dillinger, Tyler Breeze, The Ascencion, Apollo Crews, Zach Ryder and more. Yeah, I know. Last night on Raw, we saw Apollo get a temporary push, but truthfully how long will this last? Plus, Ryder stated on his social media that he hadn't had one single match on Raw in 2018. Think about that people. A former tag team champion, U.S. Champion and I-C Champion never had a single Raw match. Up until he was in the battle royal last night that is. What about Dillinger? A unrelenting journeyman who started with a bunch of momentum that turned into barely getting any television time at all. There's no official word as to when their contracts are up, but you can believe now Vince will make the pot sweeter now with AEW in the house and other promotions such as ROH and Impact trying to make exclusive, long term deals with talent.
This now puts power back in the hands of the talent more than the promoters now, primarily Vince. There are other outlets now for people who aren't happy financially or creatively to go. WWE is no longer the end all-be all. Yes, you'll get more exposure and likely become millionaires, but let's look at the likes of Omega, the Bucks, and Cody. The Bucks earned a LOT of money being indie guys, basically earning the majority of their income from merch sales and gates. Cody was already a huge name thanks to WWE, but once he went indie, his name blew even more. Omega became the hottest name from NJPW to hit around the world. They all believed in being their own bosses and investing in themselves. The result was All In, and we saw how huge that was. That event made a profound statement. It was never anti-WWE or anyone else. It was about options and choices. That's it. With the emergence of AEW and All In 2, we could likely see a new changing of the guard.
Wrestling should never be political or about favorites. It should always be about who your draw is/are, listening to your audience, and making sure all are satisfied. Reports are coming out that a few stars are getting "major pushes" in 2019 in WWE. Could that be because these big stars could be made bigger somewhere else, and they're aware of this? Is this why Finn Balor, who is among the best in the world who has been severely under-pushed since he returned from injury a couple years ago? Like Shinsuke Nakamura, who went from NXT Champion and highly regarded star to being also under-pushed and making him to be the mega star he should be? Now with AEW and others, Vince knows now to make the pot sweet, throw a bunch of money into them, push the hell outta them, and make them happy, especially with the SD deal worth $2B over five years.
Let's focus on the women as well. Numerous unsigned/indie talents such as Faye Jackson, Lufisto, and many more (some of which were a part of the MYC tournament over the past couple of years) could really take advantage of this if there's a women's division. Yes, there is a women's evolution. Not just in WWE but everywhere. No official word to a women's division but I would bank on one highly. It would great and essential for business and once again, it'll show the expansion of women taking care of business and wanting to be more than 'Total Divas'. Let me clarify that last statement. Nothing wrong with wanting to be one for exposure because after all, the more people know who you are, the better. However, there are also those that aren't with all of that and they want their wrestling to speak for itself. This will be an incredible ride.
Along with rumors of people like Jim Ross and Chris Jericho joining the promotion, this is that time to start rubbing your hands together and get ready for this press conference to see what kind of exciting, landmark future we may see from AEW. This speaks to the future of wrestling as well. The event of All In showed there's room for everybody in the business. There's no certain look, size, or skill set to be successful. That's what wrestling is about. Here's to AEW and to all wrestling fans worldwide. it's time to be ELITE! Until next time folks!
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