5 Reasons To Be Worried About The Launch of AEW
Days ago when Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks and business magnate Tony Khan officially launched All Elite Wrestling with a reported $100,000,000 in initial financial backing, fan excitement across social media reached a fever pitch. Even WWE has apparently taken notice as reports about Triple H offering the Young Bucks and Adam "Hangman" Page sweetheart contracts and fans having trouble getting into WWE shows with AEW merch have surfaced.
For the first time in nearly twenty years, it appears that there may be true competition for WWE and that, as previously suggested by this writer, the wrestling business itself may be in expansion mode. Most fans that aren't strictly limited to the McMahon monopoly want alternatives to succeed as well, since the health of any industry ultimately depends on its ability to foster competition. However, the gleeful enthusiasm over AEW must be tamed with the sobering reminder that the start-up federation has some serious issues that will hopefully be addressed in the coming months as preparation for their "Double or Nothing" show this Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas begins. As with any nascent business, growing pains are a natural part of the growth process. However, AEW's future business strategy itself appears to have some serious problems that must be reconciled before the company can go on and achieve great things.
There have been misconceptions about the company's salary and benefits put to print in the pro-wrestling media, and the exact details of the promotions' wrestling philosophy and plans for success are scarce. Nevertheless, based on available information, it is important to point out to the wrestling community that may view AEW as some kind of utopian panacea that will single-handedly make wrestling popular on a mainstream level again, that the company faces some unique challenges that have to be mitigated before they can go on to ascend to the upper reaches of pro-wrestling paradise.
1. Their roster is in growth phase, and may not be exclusive
As of this writing, AEW has signed about a dozen wrestlers to contracts including Cody, the Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, Adam "Hangman" Page, Joey Janela, Penelope Ford, Britt Baker, So-Cal Uncensored and PAC (formerly known as Neville) yet despite the promise behind these names, they aren't even enough to fill out a full pay-per-view card let alone comprise a respectable roster that can be drawn on in cases of in injuries, poor fan reception or contract releases. Of course as the weeks and months go on there will most likely be new contracts signed and more names added to deepen the talent pool, but it remains to be seen how everyone will be utilized relative to their abilities.
It also remains unclear where the company plans to draw most of its talent from - the indie scene, other mid-sized promotions like ROH, WWE or their own internal training efforts. Rumors of WWE talent defecting to the Khan's HQ in Jacksonville have been reported across the pro-wrestling media landscape, but none are confirmed. Without a visible source to consistently draw talent from it remains a complete mystery how AEW plans to fill in their ranks. There is also the issue of exclusivity. Minus a fulltime show schedule (Double or Nothing is the only event planned between now and the start of Summer), talent could conceivably become part time freelancers, meaning they could be seen performing for any number of different wrestling companies at once, diminishing AEW's market value.