5 Ways All Elite Wrestling looks like WCW, and 5 ways they are unique
Some are already foretelling the death of AEW, like WCW before it, while others assert it will replace WWE as the globally dominant brand. Here are five ways AEW is quite similar to WCW, and five ways it's a completely different entity.
January 1st, 2019; While many people around the world were celebrating the new year with shots of alcohol, a small group of people gathered in the freezing cold Japanese night for a different kind of celebration.
The people were the group of wrestlers known as the Elite, which include The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Adam Page, and others. They were making a bold statement about the formation of an all new wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling.
Before the illumination of their screens faded, fans had already taken to social media and other platforms to alternately celebrate, speculate, and sometimes decry the birth of the new promotion. One thing that has come up repeatedly in the weeks since is the idea that AEW is doomed to follow the footsteps of former WWE Rival World Championship Wrestling. Ted Turner's upstart wrestling promotion was considered a big deal at the time because of the man behind it. Turner had built a media empire and virtually invented the idea of a twenty four hour news network with CNN. He had also turned the Atlanta Braves--long the laughingstock of Major League Baseball--into a World Series Champion team.
Of course, one has but to fast forward a decade and the dream of WCW was crashing down. Due to low ratings, their weekly program Monday Nitro was being canceled off of Turner's own network. The brand was bought by Vince McMahon, who ultimately chose to close it down forever.
Is AEW doomed to the same fate, or will things be different this time? Here are five ways that All Elite Wrestling resembles the old WCW, and five ways in which AEW is unique.
1.Similar to WCW: Funded by a billionaire.
One thing that the All Elite Wrestling detractors point to when comparing the new promotion to WCW is the fact that both companies were funded by billionaires who owned a professional sports team.
While both Ted Turner and Tony Khan are (or at least were) quite wealthy, the comparisons end there. One of the criticisms that many had of Ted Turner was that he really didn't understand the wrestling business. He made decisions like creating a Wizard of Oz inspired wrestler (played by Kevin Nash) because Turner happened to own the rights to the original film. Turner also hired former KPLR St Louis station manager Jim Herd to run the wrestling company. Herd's only qualification for the role was that a program called Wrestling at the Chase appeared on his old station.
Herd famously botched things by firing sixteen times heavyweight champion of the world--also WCW's most recognizable name--Nature Boy Ric Flair, who immediately went to WWF and got a contract.
But Khan is a lifelong wrestling fan, who watched firsthand the rise and fall of WCW. He may not make the same mistakes as Ted Turner did, so this comparison might be a bit unscientific.