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All Elite Wrestling announced; bankrolled by Tony Khan, son of Jacksonville Jaguars and Fullham FC owner Shahid Khan

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Serene

Serene

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This from the same group behind "All In" back in September. Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks. The money backing is coming from Tony Khan, whose father is one of the richest men in the country and owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fullham FC.

Multiple offers have been made for TV deals, but none have been signed yet. The current expectation is that they will start airing weekly TV later this year.

They are throwing around significant money and multi-year deals to secure talent, and already have guys under contract that haven't been revealed yet.

More will be revealed next week at a press conference in Jacksonville:



Along with this announcement was the announcement of a second All In event, expected to happen on Memorial Day weekend in a TBA location.
 
Mr. Sam

Mr. Sam

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Oct 26, 2017
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I feel like NXT, and the acquisition of every independent wrestler under the sun with a little buzz by WWE, was an attempt to head a development like this off.
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

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2019 will be the most interesting year in north american wrestling since 2001. This is gigantic news that will change the industry.
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

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Shahid Khan: As of December 2018, Khan's net worth is $6.4 billion

More than double vince mcmahon
 

Deleted member 17676

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Ted Turner at the time in 90s had a big net worth but more importantly he owned a TV company.

One thing I'd say about Khan was he did have a disastrous start when he took over Fulham. Obviously they got promoted last season and he pumped a lot of cash on new players once again with no real thinking. So he does like throwing cash about.
 

Deleted member 17676

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Oh and to be honest I can't stand Cody Rhodes. Has he actually improved since WWE? All I remember was him being a copy of Randy Orton with boring matchs and lots of holds.
 
Foffy

Foffy

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Interesting times ahead for wrasslin', I guess.

Wonder if they're going to be more like WWE where they act all walled garden, or more in the direction we're seeing every other promotion go where talent is shared, storylines travel between companies, and history of performers actually exists before the talent shows up under their banner.

Hoping more of the latter, to be honest.
 
Jamie OD

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Foffy said:
Interesting times ahead for wrasslin', I guess.

Wonder if they're going to be more like WWE where they act all walled garden, or more in the direction we're seeing every other promotion go where talent is shared, storylines travel between companies, and history of performers actually exists before the talent shows up under their banner.

Hoping more of the latter, to be honest.
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One of the big conversations over this story for the last few months is the arms race between wrestling promotions. Everybody with buzz even if it's just to the hardcores are getting signed somewhere.
 
janoGX

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Foffy said:
Interesting times ahead for wrasslin', I guess.

Wonder if they're going to be more like WWE where they act all walled garden, or more in the direction we're seeing every other promotion go where talent is shared, storylines travel between companies, and history of performers actually exists before the talent shows up under their banner.

Hoping more of the latter, to be honest.
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We're waiting if there's NJPW involment, or at least some shared wrestlers. WK and NYD will give the future of The Elite on NJPW.
 
thefro

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Took about 2 hours, but the merch is up. That AEW shirt is going to sell like hotcakes.

SSJ Sho'Nuff said:
NJPW is extremely loyal to ROH/CMLL. Sadly, I strongly doubt they will want anything to do with AEW. I hope I am wrong though...
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I think there's 2 people on the Wrestle Kingdom card (Beretta/Chuckie T) who are under ROH contract besides Marty.

Doesn't make any logical sense with them to side with ROH past the MSG show if the issue is forced outside of honor/loyalty.
 
DeathyBoy

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Good for The Elite. They bust their ass, and are making their own luck in life. Instead of complaining about the big bad WWE, they're trying to do something about it.
 

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thefro said:


Took about 2 hours, but the merch is up. That AEW shirt is going to sell like hotcakes.



I think there's 2 people on the Wrestle Kingdom card (Beretta/Chuckie T) who are under ROH contract besides Marty.

Doesn't make any logical sense with them to side with ROH past the MSG show if the issue is forced outside of honor/loyalty.
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It's more than wrestle kingdom. They do like 3 joint shows and trade talent throughout thee year. I can't reemember what group it was but NJPW reefused to work with a wrestling group because that group was partnered with AAA. Maybe they will think differently with the new president.
 

Darren

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Competition is good so I hope AEW is a success so that WWE won't be so complacent. Going to a interesting year for wrestling.
 
Jamie OD

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Don't know what format they should use for a TV show if they get a deal. It makes no business sense but my personal preference is they run a Takeover schedule of a few big shows a year that you don't really need to follow week to week to enjoy. I can skip NXT for weeks and still get invested from Takeover to Takeover.
 
Lee Morris

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SSJ Sho'Nuff said:
It's more than wrestle kingdom. They do like 3 joint shows and trade talent throughout thee year. I can't reemember what group it was but NJPW reefused to work with a wrestling group because that group was partnered with AAA. Maybe they will think differently with the new president.
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And they risk losing Kenny Omega if they don't work together. I can't imagine they would start AEW without knowing Kenny will be there.
 
OP
OP
Serene

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Jamie OD said:
Don't know what format they should use for a TV show if they get a deal. It makes no business sense but my personal preference is they run a Takeover schedule of a few big shows a year that you don't really need to follow week to week to enjoy. I can skip NXT for weeks and still get invested from Takeover to Takeover.
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They've filed trademarks that indicate they want to do a weekly show on Tuesday nights, presumably after Smackdown moves to Fridays in October.
 
Crackhead_Bob

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WWE comes off as way too scripted for its own good these days. Is WWE's stranglehold on the industry iron clad, or could enough brand apathy make a determined upstart company a viable option for casual viewers? New Japan and Ring of Honors made some headlines fairly recently concerning MSG? But how significant is it in the grander scheme of things? Obviously they can't match WWE's resources, so through what other trends would make attracting a viable audience possible? WWE is just unwatchable these days and it sucks that there is no discernible competition for force WWE to improve upon its current formula.
 
DieH@rd

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This is a very nice development. We need more independent wrestling promotions.
 
WhateverItTakes

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So do we know yet if they're gonna have writers or will it be the Bucks and Cody doing all of the booking? Curious to see how this turns out.
 

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Tony Khan being a long time saubscriber to Wrestling Observer is a good sign to the future of AEW in my opinion. Not to put over Dave too much but historically, long time Observer subscribers getting into MMA/Pro-Wrestling have done very well in the business. Joe Silva being a major one.
 
Soupman Prime

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Hope it works out, either way I'm happy for Rhodes. Always felt like he was tremendously wasted in the WWE. Succeeding in whatever they had him do but was just never treated properly.
 
Orioto

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I'll be the party pooper here but i'm worried about them doing their own thing. I wonder who's gonna help, writing, booking wise for example.
I know people probably love being the elite, and i also love to see some wrestlers do their own thing and have fun, but ilet's face it, it's also most of the time a super amateurish private joke fest, and certainly didn't prove itself good at hyping or valorizing the actual wrestling for now. If the new fed is built on the ground of funny wrestlers having jokes together, i'm not sure it'll last long.

Now maybe this is going to be really different and involve some serious booking.
 
Puroresu_kid

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Just don't let Jim Cornett anywhere near it.

Be interesting to to see what TV deal they have and who is signed?

The best thing they can do is firstly do whatever TNA didn't and secondly do not try and be a WWE clone.

American Wrestling needs a real alternative to the WWE nonsense.
 
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Orioto

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Also i think the indies should ally rather than divide right now and they would have a shot. More brands means wrestlers out of NJPW, ROH..
If the idea is to have crossover ppv, then why not.

What would be great in my mind, is a common network for all big indies (after all they already work together on some ppvs, there was even impact wrestlers in All IN). A common subscription network for all those feds could have some weight
 
DeathyBoy

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Orioto said:
I'll be the party pooper here but i'm worried about them doing their own thing. I wonder who's gonna help, writing, booking wise for example.
I know people probably love being the elite, and i also love to see some wrestlers do their own thing and have fun, but ilet's face it, it's also most of the time a super amateurish private joke fest, and certainly didn't prove itself good at hyping or valorizing the actual wrestling for now. If the new fed is built on the ground of funny wrestlers having jokes together, i'm not sure it'll last long.

Now maybe this is going to be really different and involve some serious booking.
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The average wrestling fan isn't who they should target, said fans are fickle as all Hell. They should go for the mainstream. As for writing, Kaz and The Bucks ran gorilla at All In, and Daniels was an agent/producer in ROH. They've got that covered.
 
Pop-O-Matic

Pop-O-Matic

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Crackhead_Bob said:
WWE comes off as way too scripted for its own good these days. Is WWE's stranglehold on the industry iron clad, or could enough brand apathy make a determined upstart company a viable option for casual viewers? New Japan and Ring of Honors made some headlines fairly recently concerning MSG? But how significant is it in the grander scheme of things? Obviously they can't match WWE's resources, so through what other trends would make attracting a viable audience possible? WWE is just unwatchable these days and it sucks that there is no discernible competition for force WWE to improve upon its current formula.
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I think the thing people don't realize (or occasionally just refuse to acknowledge) is that the WWE's hold on the industry is actually pretty damn fragile, especially now with the ratings for Raw at an all-time low. There's a large swath of ex-WWE & WCW viewers out there who have left wrestling behind for one reason or another, along with several new viewers who might be more open to a new product that goes in a different direction than the standard WWE product we've gotten for the past 17 years, so there's certainly an audience for an alternative. The problem is that what you need to properly compete with WWE (a prime time slot on a basic cable-level station like USA or MTV, the star-power to draw viewers and the money needed to pay said stars so the don't just leave for the WWE) takes a HUGE investment in both money and time (it takes a while to build star wrestlers, after all), and most people with that kind of cash to kick around don't want to get involved because of those factors along with the stigma surrounding the business and the fact that they might fuck it up and lose a shitton of money. Khan, though, seems to be willing to take that risk, and having The Elite guys involved means that the "star-power" issue isn't going to be that big a deal (especially if they get a relationship going with NJPW), so the only thing that really is going to make-or-break this (besides the quality of the product itself) is what the TV deals they're being offered look like. If they're only getting deals for extended cable stations like AXS or El Rey, then this will probably end up being just another niche alt-wrestling brand like Impact, ROH, MLW, etc. If they can get a prime time slot on MTV, TNT or the like, then they might have something, and if by some miracle they're getting offers for a broadcast station like ABC or CBS then they could very well be bigger than WWE in only a couple of years.
 
Snake Eater

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thefro said:


Took about 2 hours, but the merch is up. That AEW shirt is going to sell like hotcakes.



I think there's 2 people on the Wrestle Kingdom card (Beretta/Chuckie T) who are under ROH contract besides Marty.

Doesn't make any logical sense with them to side with ROH past the MSG show if the issue is forced outside of honor/loyalty.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


What's double or nothing?
 
A real sad boy

A real sad boy

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Cody Rhodes and The Bucks are about to find out that they aren't as popular or as big of draws as they think they are.

Unless they can get onto a major network and lure over current big WWE names, they'll be of of business in under two years.
 
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