I was already excited about a rival company giving WWE a reason to be better, and I was already interested in seeing Kenny Omega, Neville, and others land there, but Chris Jericho signing with AEW is a really big deal. He brings some serious star power with crossover potential. It's starting to look like AEW is going to be legit! I hope their production value is high and they get a good TV deal because this has the potential to be really cool. Your thoughts?
I really hope it works. More employment for others is good. If they can turn a profit - and with Khan backing them it is possible - and pay their talent like they say they will, it works.
Worst case scenario, maybe they can get a Michael Scott Paper Company-style buyout by Vince for the library and a few spots on the roster?
so, how does a guy see this AEW wrestling? I just googled the same and saw the stories about Y2J - but nothing about where to see this
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
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Originally posted by AWArulzso, how does a guy see this AEW wrestling? I just googled the same and saw the stories about Y2J - but nothing about where to see this
So far they've only announced a Memorial Day weekend PPV in Las Vegas, with a second one in 2019 TBA. Everyone assumes they're working on a TV deal, etc as well.
Meltzer gave the impression they're picking between two TV deals right now. The best guess is we probably won't see them on TV until after that May show - the real challenge people aren't talking about is how these guys stay relevant & hot if they're going away for five months.
In the meantime, their website Being the Elite will likely keep putting up new episodes every Monday. It's really not wrestling in the conventional sense, with no matches or anything like that. It's sort of some experimental, semi-improvised serialized comedy, which hits and misses. The thing is even that was kinda taking place in between the scenes of the ROH and NJPW events (both working their own storylines off those matches and literally being taped before/after/during those shows) and who knows how that'll work with AEW not working with either promotion at the moment.
That also may affect whatever TV product they end up putting on - it probably isn't going to be something that looks like Raw because that's been done, and it might be something that looks a lot more like the comedy they're doing.
Here's a pretty candid interview with Y2J talking about why he chose AEW ($$$ and exciting talent). But also that he doesn't think he gets blacklisted from WWE for it.
The thing I'm most excited about is if the wrestlers get more freedom to shape their own characters and storylines. Cody is a great example of how this can really spur their growth and be compelling. I think you see this to some degree in NXT. WWE used to do this a lot more (thinking of the Y2J/Shawn Michaels feud) and I thought it made for better storytelling and matches.