A brand new wrestling federation called All Elite Wrestling just might have what it takes
to finally offer WWE some healthy competition.
If WWE Chairman Vince McMahon isn't scared of the AEW, well, he isn't paying attention.
Here's why Vince McMahon should be worried about AEW.
Vince McMahon bought what is now the WWE from his father in 1982, and thereafter established
the notion that a wrestling company should be run by a hands-on individual with deep
pockets.
All Elite Wrestling is using a similar model, but its financial backers have a background
in unscripted sports.
Tony Khan serves as president and CEO of All Elite Wrestling.
"I believe if we create a competitive environment, and put the best wrestling product out there,
and work really hard, I think we can rekindle a love of wrestling internationally.”
His father, Shad Khan, is its chief investor.
Both are part of the group that owns the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and the English pro soccer
team Fulham F.C.
The Khans bring a lot of experience in owning sports operations as well as running them.
They've also got a huge pile of cash to work with, reportedly throwing $100 million in
family money into the company.
They're spending big on talent, signing longtime WWE superstar Chris Jericho to a three-year
contract with a, quote, "NFL-level offer."
AEW hiring wrestlers for more money than they would get at the WWE really forces McMahon's
hand.
According to Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer, WWE higher-ups have already reached
out to already-signed wrestlers, willing to match, beat, or even double offers from rival
companies.
The NBA, NFL, and WWE are so entrenched in the culture that upstart challengers have
a hard time staying afloat and being taken seriously.
Vince McMahon's own supposed NFL-killing XFL lasted one disastrous season.
The first time around, anyway.
Perhaps the biggest problem for new sports organizations is that by their very nature
they can only attract second-tier talent.
If a football player were world-class, for example, he could and would already play in
the NFL.
But AEW has seemingly sidestepped that issue.
As of late May 2019, AEW has signed a whopping 60 wrestlers.
Vince McMahon and the WWE will definitely notice that this new company has some recognizable
names, including Jon Moxley, formerly Dean Ambrose in WWE, Jericho, and "Hangman" Adam
Page, as well as Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, all of whom serve as
executives in the company.
Plus, In April 2019, AEW announced WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross, who hasn't enjoyed
his reduced role in the WWE in recent years, signed a three-year contract with the company.
That means fans who tune into matches will hear a familiar voice, which some might call
the voice of WWE.
I don't know what else I could do, right now in my life, that would make me, that makes
me happier than what I'm about to start."
Modern-day professional wrestling is often marketed as "sports entertainment."
That's a nod to the sport's theatricality, with its oversized personalities and scripted
shenanigans.
That term also describes wrestling's purpose: It's supposed to be fun, reliable, televised
entertainment.
Plenty of independent wrestling companies operate on a shoestring budget, but WWE has
the highest production values and revenues because it's on TV.
In fall 2019, McMahon and company will bring WWE SmackDown to the Fox network for five
years at a cost of $1 billion.
It's going to have some competition, though.
TNT will air weekly AEW programming in prime time, also beginning in the fall of 2019.
It's the first time TNT will air wrestling since the end of WCW Monday Nitro in 2001.
AEW is a privately held company, and so it wasn't required to publicize the terms of
that deal, which, following WWE's lead, will also include the potential financial bonanza
of pay-per-view broadcasts, the first of which was May 2019's Double or Nothing.
Fox is clearly expecting huge ratings from SmackDown, or at least numbers good enough
to justify its enormous investment.
Yet May 2019 episodes of Raw and SmackDown logged 25-30% fewer viewers than they did
the year previous.
Raw's overall viewership over the last five years is down by 32 percent.
"What else is on?"
People aren't necessarily tuning out wrestling, but they are tuning out WWE.
If there's a shiny new and exciting wrestling thing to watch on TV, they're going to do
that.
The more people that watch AEW shows over WWE shows means advertisers are more likely
to book commercial slots on the upstart.
It's like taking money out of Fox's pocket, and it won't reflect well on Vince McMahon.
WWE is the biggest pro wrestling operation in the world, so news of bad corporate behavior
or wrestler mistreatment stays largely hidden because wrestlers don't want to hurt their
chances with the biggest game in town.
But with AEW around, embarrassing or damaging info about Vince McMahon and his associates
just might leak since wrestlers can now fear reprisal a little less.
Jon Moxley, formerly known as WWE superstar Dean Ambrose, has already spoken out on the
Talk is Jericho podcast:
"If I have something to prove, it's that I wanna prove that your creative process, the
WWE's creative process, sucks."
One of the most notable outside-the-ring feuds in recent years has involved the prickly relationship
between McMahon and wrestler CM Punk, who walked out after the 2014 Royal Rumble and
was subsequently released from his contract.
Both parties, quote, "mutually agreed to not disparage one another," but CM Punk isn't
a WWE guy anymore, and his time in UFC seems to be over.
If he signed up for AEW, he would probably bring some fans with him.
Partly because of the rise of fantasy sports, and competitors' need to have as much data
as possible, advanced statistics have become an even more vital part of the sports experience.
One athletic endeavor that's resisted the rise of numerical deep dives is pro wrestling.
AEW may change the game on that.
According to a press release, it plans to give the fans what they want by introducing
statistics to wrestling.
The company hopes that this will
"Raise the stakes for its matches and deepen fan engagement by tracking each competitor's
wins and losses as the wrestlers pursue championships, analyzing their moves, assessing damage to
their opponents, and providing insights into their winning streaks."
By going fully transparent and on the record about exactly what happens in the ring, AEW
is saying that its matches are real, or at least more real than the ones in the WWE.
That's a subtle but shocking call-out of Vince McMahon's way of doing business.
WWE wrestlers are independent contractors.
Independent contractors are by their very nature not salaried employees, and they don't
get benefits like health insurance.
Wrestlers pay for that themselves, despite so much of their work involving putting their
bodies at risk.
After an AEW rally in January 2019, co-founder Tony Khan said the company wanted to make
its wrestlers full-time employees and offer them health care.
For wrestlers, health insurance is obviously a big deal.
They literally get thrown at the ground and through tables for a living.
Having somebody else foot the bill could absolutely lead a wrestler to pick AEW over WWE.
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