Kenny Omega joins AEW and lots of other announcements

General
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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/07/kenny-omega-joins-aew-and-lots-of-other-announcements/

Prior to the press conference, All Elite Wrestling posted a video featuring Dorian Roldan announcing a partnership with AAA and wishing the best of luck.

The pre-show was hosted by Conrad Thompson, PWG’s Excalibur, and Alex Marvez. MJF came out to insult Thompson. The audience chanted “asshole” at him.

They were set up outside the MGM Grand Hotel at the Splash Pool, although it was 46 degrees outside.

Sonny Kiss a.k.a. Xo Lishus in Lucha Underground came out as the first guest. Sonny said that “Sonny Kiss is for everyone” and will be at Double or Nothing in May.

Cody came out next, he repeated the news that they have formed a relationship with AAA. He referred to AEW as the most “sports-centric” wrestling product on the planet. He announced a ticket pre-sale to get a password at AllEliteWrestling.com and you will be e-mailed a code Monday morning for the pre-sale that day.

The general public on sale will be next Wednesday at Noon Eastern.

Cody introduced Sammy Guevara, who came out with the AAA Cruiserweight title. He plugged his YouTube channel to go and study who he is. He said no matter what surprises they have, he is the real superstar and he will be at Double or Nothing.

Hangman Page came out, he was interrupted by a video message from PAC. He said he has a chip on his shoulder and been deemed unsuitable for mainstream audiences for too long. He called Page a “cocky, elitist prick” and Page isn’t on his level. He told Page to bring his cowboy boots on May 25th because after their match he’ll want to run off into the sunset and never heard from again. Page says “The Bastard vs. The Hangman” is official for May 25th.

The Young Bucks were next, Matt shared a story of the two making a pact to become professional wrestlers as a team and do it together. Matt said tag team wrestling is a lost art and you can’t even see it on wrestling programs but that changes now. They want to provide the best tag division in the world and introduced the Best Friends, Chuckie T. and Beretta.

The two were dressed as Scott Hall when he appeared on Nitro in 1996.

The Bucks said they would see everyone on May 25th when Pentagon Jr. and Fenix walked out and confronted the Bucks. Fenix superkicked Nick and Pentagon hit Matt with a package piledriver. Fenix laid out the challenge for May 25th to determine the best tag team in the universe.

Brandi Rhodes announced that Yuka Sakazaki of Tokyo Joshi Pro and Aja Kong will be at Double or Nothing. She then introduced Kylie Rae as the newest member of the roster followed by Nyla Rose, who confronted Rae and Brandi got between them.

SCU came out next, they announced that the Double or Nothing afterparty will be called “SCU All Night” that they will be hosting. Excalibur discussed the partnership with OWE and then brought out CIMA alongside Vice President Michael Nee and CEO Dragon Fu. Daniels called CIMA a legend and trailblazer. Daniels challenged CIMA to find two partners to face SCU at Double or Nothing.

They cut to a video of Kenny Omega’s countdown clock on his phone hitting zero. Omega comes out and is labeled as an Executive Vice President. He apologized for making everyone wait but only put pen to paper this morning. He is a full-time member of the AEW roster. He said his journey in Japan had to come to an end.

Omega was interrupted by Chris Jericho and then attacked Omega as Cody, Daniels, BJ Whitmer, Billy Gunn, and others tried to separate them and set up the rematch for Double or Nothing.

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Tuned in on Facebook live intrigued to see what they were all about and honestly felt a little underwhelmed. Hoping they can pull this all together into something special and live up to hype, but they seem to be rushing things.

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I enjoyed this. It was fun, but I feel like it was missing something. I would have liked a surprise from a Ryback or someone like that. Everyone that appeared, we either already knew or they were mid card talent.

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I miss Marty! I wish he would join them, unfortunately.

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As much as I’m thrilled the Lucha Bros are now with AEW, I’m more bummed because they were supposed to work a show in Quebec City on the same night than Double or Nothing and now, that’s out the window. Especially since this has been announced like 6 months in advance. Oh well.

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Wow Aja Kong. One of the three most prolific female japanese wrestler of all time. A real legend. I haven’t seen her wrestle recently. She’s 48 now. She wrestles as a freelance. Is she officially going to join AEW ?

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Nothing really surprising here. I’m hoping for their sake that the partnership with AAA will be better for them then it was for other promotion they’ve been partners with over the years as AAA isn’t known for being great partners. Also what does it mean for the partnership with AAA and IMPACT? They been working with them for a few years now, could we see a partnership between IMPACT and AEW in the near future?

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One of the things AEW has to work on is building their female and younger audience. Judging from the video, it appeared their fan base is 99% males above the age of 20. I know it’s Vegas, but All In was lacking in this department as well. While it’s great to have such a passionate fan base, they need to diversify it a bit once they get a TV deal.

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Isn’t that basically all wrestling outside of WWE? AEW is nothing at this point and the only ones who know about it are super hardcore fans which is almost exclusively men over 20. For their first tapings I hope they try to get girls at them and its not just fat dudes in black t shirts. They should do what WCW did and hire models to be in the audience

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Serious question (and I know I’m bias as a big fan of this group…but it extends to WWE as well)

Who the fck cares the demographic of an audience if they are paying customers who are happy with the product and are enthusiastic and excited.

When did it become so important for women to be wrestling fans? Okay, so L’Oreal won’t be an advertiser…I get that you want to appeal to wide ranges if advertisers but if the male 18-40 demo is strong and advertisers are enticed by that enthusiastic loyal following and it pays the bills, does it matter who is in the audience?

This AEW launch has really be fascinating to hear all the wrestling fans takes on what a wrestling promotion should be or who it has to appeal to. And I’m 100% guilty of that as well. But I just keep going back to the fact, if it makes money (as a start-up im talking about revenue not profit) and the crowd is excited, then that’s all that’s needed.

I enjoyed the ticket release party. I enjoyed the crowd chanting, and the attempt at doing something unique and different to hype the event. I was more entertained by this hour of “TV” than I am most 1 hour blocks of Raw. Yes, Kenny was predictable but that didn’t make it less fun to see him appear and the Jericho pull apart was a fine way to end the show. Conrad could be a better-more organic host. But let’s not act like it’s that much worse than being hit over the head with whatever WWE announcers are pushing each week. Ppl want to be critical because this is new and it’s not exactly what they think it should be in their eyes. but I’m going to enjoy it as long as I am entertained which for the second time in as many months I have been.

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They’ve have one show and two press conferences, give it some time lol.

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