So what do we know so far?

It's a co-production with the Jacksonville Jaguars owner Tony Khan and the only talent officially signed is Cody. There is an upcoming show called Double Or Nothing and we'll presumably hear more about it on January 8th.

This seems like the fed every fan-fic writer has wanted to make. Let's see how it pans out.

I would think it's obvious The Bucks and Page are in. And they'll draw on the same independent talent that featured on All In.

You would have to think it's only a formality. It'll be interesting to see which talents they'll actually get their hands on from All In. I'd imagine ROH is going to make life difficult for them and they've already signed Bandito. If the tapings are anything to go by, Scurll won't be making the move given ROH had enough confidence they gave him his own stable.

As much as fans are thinking WWE vs AEW, I see it more as AEW vs The Indies and I'm keen to see how ROH responds. For years they've been coasting with the Bullet Club doing record business, with them on the outer, they're really going to lift their game.

Jan 1, 2019 11:43:54 GMT NATH45 said:

I would think it's obvious The Bucks and Page are in. And they'll draw on the same independent talent that featured on All In.

SCU (Daniels, Kaz, & Scorpio Sky) are apart of it to. 

What kind of tv deal they can get is going to be a big factor in how competitive they are going to be.

I see it less AEW v the Indies and more a concoction of all things independent.

Signing a bunch of talent exclusively, when they don’t even know what AEW is yet, let alone how successful it will be, could be financial ruin.

Similarly to All In, a bit of this and a bit of that from all walks, a revolving door of short term dates for talent could ensure some control on costs and avoid the repetitiveness, as seen in WWE.

Then again, a billion dollars and TV could be thrown at AEW. We don’t know.

What tips me off is the way ROH has responded. For years they've been happy to coast knowing the Bullet Club will draw crowds no matter how boring the shows are. If it was an amicable split, then ROH wouldn't feel the need to desperately fill those spots, knowing that they could call on the Elite whenever they were free.

If AEW can affiliate itself with NJPW, it's already check.

So Double or Nothing is going to be at the MGM Grand which holds 17,000 and PAC and Jericho turned up at the press conference. This is pretty exciting - they're defining going for it.

I put a lot of stock into Tony Khan's involvement in this, having heard him interviewed on an NFL podcast once where he came off as an incredibly intelligent, progressive, and driven yet down to earth guy. This is very exciting for wrestling!

Jan 8, 2019 22:57:57 GMT @admin said:

I put a lot of stock into Tony Khan's involvement in this, having heard him interviewed on an NFL podcast once where he came off as an incredibly intelligent, progressive, and driven yet down to earth guy. This is very exciting for wrestling!

Britt Baker and Brandi are the only women announced so far. Who would you go for to build a solid division?

Jan 8, 2019 22:58:52 GMT PB said:

Jan 8, 2019 22:57:57 GMT @admin said:

I put a lot of stock into Tony Khan's involvement in this, having heard him interviewed on an NFL podcast once where he came off as an incredibly intelligent, progressive, and driven yet down to earth guy. This is very exciting for wrestling!

Britt Baker and Brandi are the only women announced so far. Who would you go for to build a solid division?

Tough question really, I don't think there is anyone immediately obvious. Tessa is the only real elite girl out there right now but Impact have been featuring her so strongly over the past 6 months or so already.

surrender likes Penelope Ford a lot and thinks she's got star potential but I wasn't overly impressed with her wrestling at this stage. She's someone who could definitely be built up over time though and obviously has a "TV look".

One thing I really hope they don't do is just replicate the ROH division. They really need to keep themselves away from the stink of Mandy Leon and Kelly Klein. Britt Baker is fine but generic, so she should really be it.

With the whole "women will be paid the same as the men" idea though it will be interesting to see if they can steal anyone away from WWE. Again though, it's not as if there the obvious underutilised talents that you could have pointed to easily in the past. Maybe, maybe someone like Sasha at a stretch?

Hopefully this takes off, as good as NJPW is the niche aspects of the product hold it back a lot for casual viewers. That being said if Omega isn’t a part of it it seems like a huge blow.

SCU, Janala, JERICHO! PAC!! BILLY ‘FUCKIN’ GUNN!!!

So Billy Gunn is just a production worker right? I won't have to worry about him competing in the ring? Having said that, both Pac and Jericho are two big names right out of the gate.

In hindsight, maybe the Stardust gimmick wasn't a good idea Vince.

Jan 8, 2019 23:32:06 GMT @admin said:

Jan 8, 2019 22:58:52 GMT PB said:

Britt Baker and Brandi are the only women announced so far. Who would you go for to build a solid division?

Tough question really, I don't think there is anyone immediately obvious. Tessa is the only real elite girl out there right now but Impact have been featuring her so strongly over the past 6 months or so already.

surrender likes Penelope Ford a lot and thinks she's got star potential but I wasn't overly impressed with her wrestling at this stage. She's someone who could definitely be built up over time though and obviously has a "TV look".

One thing I really hope they don't do is just replicate the ROH division. They really need to keep themselves away from the stink of Mandy Leon and Kelly Klein. Britt Baker is fine but generic, so she should really be it.

With the whole "women will be paid the same as the men" idea though it will be interesting to see if they can steal anyone away from WWE. Again though, it's not as if there the obvious underutilised talents that you could have pointed to easily in the past. Maybe, maybe someone like Sasha at a stretch?

Sasha isn't that big of a stretch which is probably why WWE randomly started paying attention to her Monday out of nowhere.

I really hope the talk about the amount AEW can pay wrestlers is true because there’s gotta be at least a handful of WWE talent that are fed up or jaded or eager for something different or want a lighter schedule or or or...

I could see someone like Cesaro joining AEW. Done everything he could hope to do in WWE, maybe wants a lighter load now that he’s up in years. Or maybe Gallows & Anderson, sick of being misused, main reason they came to WWE was to see their families more. Can see their families a lot more with less dates.

...Balor?

I really like the roster they are assembling. Jericho & PAC are big gets and so is their partnership with OWE. OWE could really help them standout like WCW did with the cruiserweights.

Jan 8, 2019 23:32:06 GMT @admin said:

Jan 8, 2019 22:58:52 GMT PB said:

Britt Baker and Brandi are the only women announced so far. Who would you go for to build a solid division?

One thing I really hope they don't do is just replicate the ROH division. They really need to keep themselves away from the stink of Mandy Leon and Kelly Klein. Britt Baker is fine but generic, so she should really be it.

I just read that BJ Whitmer has left ROH and will be producing with AEW so unfortunately that probably means that Kelly will be involved in some capacity as well.

Someone I saw mentioned on another forum is Ivelisse. She's somewhat fallen off my radar recently but was (and I imagine still is) performing at a really high level. It would be great if she could start appearing for a promotion that was more easily accessible. 

Don't think it is outlandish that they can get 3/4's of the League of Nations. Stu Bennett is good friends with "Cody" and I think is still just doing a authority role over in one of the UK promotions. Rusev is wasted in WWE and I think he can get out of there any opportunity he can and Del Rio despite burning and destroying and mutilating all bridges he can will always get a look because he appeals to the Hispanic audience.

Ryback maybe too but he might be out of their pricetag. He still thinks he's the fucking shit but you know Ryback vs Goldberg is a feud waiting to happen that AEW will go after.

They should sign Enzo & Cass

I don't think anyone should get carried away just yet. The Jacksons spoke about how difficult it was writing 30 minutes of fresh content for Youtube each week, and another 4 odd hours for All-In, they could sign all the talent in the world and still produce an average weekly product.

So a thread over on reddit summarized some stuff big Dave talked about last night on his pod.

-AEW negotiating with two major networks for a 2-hour weekly show.
-Jacksonville show in July, 2nd Chicago show in Sept.
-trying to get Aja Kong.

And this huge one: The Young Bucks, Adam Page and Cody were all offered huge deals. Page was going to get main roster money to be in NXT, Cody was given a “strong offer” and The Young Bucks not only were given a huge offer, but had a clause in their contract that gave them a six month window where they could walk away without any repercussions if they were unhappy.

The deal was apparently so good that the higher ups expected them to debut at the Royal Rumble and were shocked when they turned it down. The negotiations were with Triple H himself.

That’s fucking crazy. If that’s what the Bucks got, imagine what they offered Omega.

Please keep Dave as far away from AEW as possible.

Jan 12, 2019 0:03:37 GMT NATH45 said:

Please keep Dave as far away from AEW as possible.

The Bucks and him are friends. He’ll be quite involved.

The main take-aways I drew from the Bubba Ray interview with Jericho was:

1. Jericho is confident in the production team behind AEW.
2. Jericho was tired of the WWE beaurocarcy and wanted to go somewhere he could have more creative input.
3. Jericho said he parted the WWE in amicable terms.

Jan 12, 2019 1:16:41 GMT RT said:

Jan 12, 2019 0:03:37 GMT NATH45 said:

Please keep Dave as far away from AEW as possible.

The Bucks and him are friends. He’ll be quite involved.

I have friends, and I have family.. would I work with them? No, not all of them. If Dave had any real talent, he would have been snapped up by at least one of the companies that came into fruition in his life-time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember the business ever taking his opinion seriously, to the point of employment.

Jan 12, 2019 3:17:09 GMT NATH45 said:

Jan 12, 2019 1:16:41 GMT RT said:

The Bucks and him are friends. He’ll be quite involved.

I have friends, and I have family.. would I work with them? No, not all of them. If Dave had any real talent, he would have been snapped up by at least one of the companies that came into fruition in his life-time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember the business ever taking his opinion seriously, to the point of employment.

I don’t think they’ll employ him. I just know he’ll be involved in some capacity, in the same way sports insiders have good relationships with some contacts over others.

Jan 12, 2019 3:17:09 GMT NATH45 said:

Jan 12, 2019 1:16:41 GMT RT said:

The Bucks and him are friends. He’ll be quite involved.

I have friends, and I have family.. would I work with them? No, not all of them. If Dave had any real talent, he would have been snapped up by at least one of the companies that came into fruition in his life-time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember the business ever taking his opinion seriously, to the point of employment.

He was on the WWE pay-roll in the early 90s before the steroid scandal.