Wednesday 9 January 2019

Chris Jericho, PAC and OWE Join AEW & More From The All Elite Wrestling Rally

IMAGE VIA WRESTLINGINC.COM TWITTER

Tuesday 8th January 2019 will be marked as a major day in wrestling as All Elite Wrestling held there Press Conference/ rally in front of 17,000 fans as Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes explained what AEW is all about.

“We have a saying in the Elite: change the. So to do that sometimes you have to change the world that you live in, and since my first breath, I have lived in the world of professional wrestling. It’s all I know. Hell, it’s all I want to know” said Cody.


He does go on to explain what’ll make AEW unique, this includes: “Pro wrestlers are always the least paid,” stated Cody compared to “sports stars of comparable influence” and AEW will “change the wrestling economy” as “happy wrestlers mean happy fans, and fans will come first.”

This was followed up by Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes coming on stage stating “We care about our women. They are top talent, so they will be paid equally. There’s no sliding scale.”


After the rally, executives Tony Khan, Cody and the Young Bucks spoke to the press and they noted some wrestlers will be getting health insurance, which is a major bonus for talent thinking of joining as AEW is basically going to have some form of union. This is in a massive step for the industry.

This was more hinted as Cody compared All Elite Wrestling to the Hollywood union SAG-AFTRA speaking to Forbes, “I’d like to see wrestling just like a television industry. I’ve done a few bits here and there but that treatment and that care you get for your time on-screen, you have comparable influence as a pro wrestler. You’re just as recognisable and you should be just as take care of.”

So there might’ve not been a big TV deal announced, but that’ll be the next big thing. However, these suggestions of a union are even more important moving forward for the industry.

Staying with TV briefly it was tweeted by ProWrestling.com’s Doug Enriquez that HBO was filming for a documentary about the group.


He is right, this is a massive deal HBO only focus on top name athletes for documentaries. So maybe this could be a hint that Warner will be returning to wrestling to rival WWE and bring back the Monday Night Wars.

Now looking at some of the signees with the first happening backstage with Billy Gunn was revealed as AEW’s first producer.


The first of major signings happened during Hangman Page’s speech stating he’s going to become the first AEW champion until PAC (formerly known as Neville).

IMAGE VIA ALL ELITE WRESTLING

The second was at the end of rally Christ Jericho telling the fans and those watching the live steam that he’s “All In with All Elite Wrestling.”


This might not be a surprise but it doesn’t mean Jericho’s signing isn’t a major coup and will be a leader for the brand moving forward.

The promotion is slowly building an interesting midcard with indies guys joining including Maxwell Jacob Feinstein and Joey Janela with Penelope Ford.


They’ll join Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian aka SoCal Uncensored.

As for the women’s division, Britt Baker becomes the first to sign for All Elite Wrestling.


Obviously, more will be joining over the coming months as we go to Double or Nothing that will be happening at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 25 that was also announced at the rally alongside the news the next show will be happening in Jacksonville, the home for AEW President Tony Khan.

Finally, another big announcement was AEW will be working with Shanghai-based promoter Oriental Wrestling Entertainment with the stable Strong Hearts joining AEW.


I never heard of OWE before last night and by the looks of this short YouTube video, this could be a promising relationship between these brands.

More news will be happening so it’s time to get excited about the coming year of wrestling.
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