Like & Share

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

More competition for WWE?

I'm sorry that I didn't make it to the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois for the independent pro-wrestling PPV ALL IN. One of the main masterminds of this effort was former WWE superstar and 2nd generation wrestler Cody Rhodes (and I have to do more research on the organization of this event).

Some details are emerging where Cody Rhodes (son of the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and brother of Dustin Rhodes aka "Goldust") starting a new promotion called All Elite Wrestling or AEW for short. So basically another wrestling promotion to compete with WWE, Ring of Honor, or Impact Wrestling.

On this blog I basically follow the WWE universe. I've been a fan since my youth however I've followed other promotions. I was a fan of World Championship Wrestling until their creative seemed to mimic that of their competitors in the World Wrestling Federation. I was a fan of Extreme Championship Wrestling until that company went bankrupt in 2001. While I liked what those companies offered it was always the WWE that has consistently held my attention.

In my opinion or actually this is certainly conventional wisdom, WWE is synonymous with professional wrestling even if owner Vince McMahon prefers the term "sports entertainment". It would be hard for any upstart company including Impact Wrestling to really catch up to the reach WWE has currently.

Though as I read this Forbes' article about AEW I see that there is some excitement about them. It certainly includes utilizing some former WWE talent and rumors that current WWE talent want to jump on board. One of those former WWE talent such as Chris Jericho is said to be on board with AEW. So this might be a new thing in pro-wrestling that I hope would be good.

With this said I often forget how big of a world pro-wrestling is. There's more to wrestling than just WWE and too bad that Impact hasn't been able to find a consistent TV home on as much as basic cable after leaving Spike (now Paramount Network) in 2014. It's also too bad that Ring of Honor hasn't find a home on basic cable either. Hopefully a good deal will be scored for AEW to get their content out.

Although they could use YouTube, I know Impact has their own streaming service similar to the WWE Network. Also Impact seemed to have a relationship with Fite TV and All In was also broadcast through their streaming network as well. Who's to say you don't exactly need a cable deal to be able to broadcast your product.

Here's hoping that AEW will prove to be a critical success that can ultimately compete with WWE even if it's not exactly at the same level.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are now moderated because one random commenter chose to get comment happy. What doesn't get published is up to my discretion. Of course moderating policy is subject to change. Thanks!