Man… WWE’s current mismanagement is something that will make for a great chapter in a book some day.
This is insane.
How they could even get to a place where KO is within a few months of possibly leaving, is crazy. He’s one of the few truly over - full time - roster members they have left.
Apparently Zayn is up before him. Why would either guy want to stay? They work their asses off and will never get any higher on the card.
Or go work with their friends, have more creative freedom and the chance to work other places and do other projects.
It’s a no brainer. WWE is just so lost right now. They’re losing a generation of talent and will soon lose a generation of fans
Interesting, if true I’m not sure why they would restructure all these deals. I have to imagine AEW would be interested in Owens, but at the same time AEW can’t be Ted Turner and just open up the cheque book to any wrestler who wants to come in.
I hate comparing AEW to WCW because everyone has such a bad taste in their mouths from 99-01 WCW and AEW just seems to have the Midas touch right now, but one issue with WCW was they kept bringing in former WWE talent and pushing them, resulting in their homegrown talent (Jericho, Guererro, Benoit etc.) getting the shaft. I don’t see AEW doing that, but there are only so many spots and so much TV time, even with cycling guys in and out.
When you already have Omega, Bryan, Punk, Page, Cole, Jericho, Mox, Miro, Christian, Brian Cage, Darby, MJF, Sammy, Eddie Kingston, Jungle Boy, Black, Pac, Warlow etc. (and thats not even touching tag teams or woman) This roster is absolutely loaded, you can’t help but ask yourself how many more talents they are thinking of bringing in. You have to imagine a guy like Owens is going to cost 6 figures. With that said, as a fan I would love to see him there.
They always could do a brand split now that they have Rampage, but I have a feeling the fan base would frown on that.
AEW is making good money from record setting PPVs and gates. They are moving tons of merch and action figures. They renegotiated their last TV deal with the TBS move, that likely brought a ton of extra cash. Plus, they’ve got a video game coming out that is undoubtedly going to make big money.
They’ve got a hot brand - and if not now - when do you spend?
Everybody seems to be accustomed to WWE’s booking style of all your main players on every show every week. Personally, I’m growing to love AEW’s cycling of talent. Give me my favourites once a month in matches that matter and will be remembered, and have stakes.
No need for “brand splits”.
The only reason I could see Kevin staying with WWE is that it’s always been his dream to be there - and he loves the company. That said, he’s go so many friends within AEW - all of whom are doing really well right now - I see no way that it’s not super appealing.
Exactly. Plus with all their partnerships and allowing talent to do other things, no one has to be on every show. Guys can go to Japan, Impact, NWA, Indies, etc.
Talent doesn’t need to be on every show. That was a Monday Night Wars thing and WWE still hasn’t got out of that mindset.
If a Owens or Zayn is available and wants to come in, you have to make that deal.
I’m with you, I love the cycling of talent as well. I hate that WWE overexposes so many wrestlers, and I dont personally want to see an AEW brand split. But you have to admit they are loaded with talent, at some point they do risk alienating young wrestlers.
The other concern I have, if you look at the top of the men’s division you will find that 95% of the men are white guys, at some point you have to think they are going to start pushing some more POC in the singles division (and this is not a shot of AEW, I’m looking at it from the eyes of Khan) the reason why I’m even mentioning this is to reinforce my point that there are only so many spots even with cycling in and out talent.
Feel like people have been repeating this point since Brodie Lee showed up. But AEW keeps signing guys and nobody is complaining. Tony and his father come from a world where guys make $35,000,000 to play football 17 times a year. Not sure what he’s paying these wrestlers but I’m guessing it all comes off as a rounding error compared to other athletes on his bankroll. End of the day I trust Tony’s vision and his business mind to not bankrupt himself by overspending.
You really can’t compare, the NFL makes both WWE and AEW look like lemonade stands in comparison. Just to put it in perspective, for the Thursday night football game which is just 1 single game a week, the NFL earns 1 billion per year. The NFL makes the same in 15 regular season (1 Pre) games per year as the wwe makes doing 104 Smackdowns. It’s not even close.
Also, the NFL has a salary cap which is directly tied to revenue, specifically 47%. Even the nfl controls payroll because payroll matters
The khans are not idiots, they are successful businessmen. They are not going to say “Well, we make money in the NFL, so we can do whatever” thats just not how people like this operate. Now I don’t see their financials, so anything is possible, but anyone who works in business knows that you can’t just pay out payroll like it’s nothing. Now, I’m not saying that signing Kevin Owens will bankrupt them or even necessarily hurt them, but they can’t just sign everyone. Even if they sign Owens, there will always be a next available guy, they can’t sign them all. I doubt even Tony khan himself believes they will sign every single wrestler who becomes a free agent, there is a line. Now maybe it’s not Owens, but they have to be aware, and Im sure they are.
I think the issue is when fans hear this, they take it as some type of shot at AEW. It’s not (at least from me) I’m just looking at it from the business side of things.
As for comparing to WCW, how can fans not. You have a multi Billionaire owner of a sports franchise getting into the wrestling business, then on the other end a narcissist who thinks he rules the business and can do whatever he wants. As a result, the sports owner is able to poach talent after talent which causes analysists, fans, and wrestlers to take note. Now WCW ended up going to shit because they gave the wrestlers too much control, because creative, and an incredibly high payroll. I dont see AEW going down that path, but at some point they will have to say no too a talent, or maybe not no, but not be able to offer them what WWE can.
I think they have shown plenty of restraint over the last year. There have been plenty of released talents that they have stayed away from.
Signing main event players or overlooked talents makes sense. They haven’t jumped all over the Braun’s and Fandango’s of the world, nor do I expect them to. They’re building an “elite” brand, focused on a very specific type of talent.
I actually think Johnny Curtis is a very good talent, people dont give him the credit he deserves. I would argue he is just as “elite” as many others on the roster if we are talking pure wrestling ability.
You may be right, and gun to my head I do think Owens is a guy I would sign if I were Khan, but you have to admit there needs to be a line. Looking back, this is why I didn’t want them signing guys like Christian, Show etc. So when guys like Owens come around, you have the roster room. Many fans have spent the past 2 years complaining that WWE was hoarding talent (which they were) and that was with 4 brands, AEW has one show. I know I’m repeating myself, but even with cycling talent in and out, there are only so many spots with 3 hours of TV a week.
Since when is having too much talent a problem. I’d be more worried about WWE, who are unable to sign talent or dumping talent during a pandemic.
They’ve also destroyed NXT, that brand is dead and it looks like they will replace talented wrestlers with football players and models.
I have a question for you, obviously right now because of Bryan, Cole, and Punk, everyone is pretty much talking about WWE and AEW. One thing that John and Wai talked about on the podcast a few weeks ago that I 100% agree with, is it would be nice if when a talent was a free agent there were other promotions in the running.
Not to repeat myself, but I do think that AEW is stacked, and at the end of the day I just dont see an Owens making or breaking them, so with that in mind, would you have an issue with someone like Owens going to NJPW, or ROH?
If someone is a hardcore WWE fan, I see why they want everyone in WWE, if someone is a hardcore only AEW fan, same. If someone only cares about sticking it to WWE, I guess I get why they want everyone in AEW. But for the industry, I think it would be a good thing to see some of these talents go elsewhere to help elevate some of these smaller companies. I think it would be cool to see Owens (or I should say Steen) in NJPW or ROH IMO. I think fans need to get out of the mindset of WWE OR AEW.
While it would be cool - I don’t think either would interest him, and that’s why AEW seems like the natural choice.
He’s not somebody who ever seemed to enjoy doing anything in Japan as he didn’t like the distance from his family. As for ROH - while I’m sure he enjoyed that, a lot of shitty times for him can be connected to that - especially the Cornette era.
I understand what you’re saying though and that’s asking if there could be an “ECW” in this whole equation.
Personally to me, that extra option is the indies. Kevin doing a series of dream matches on the indies for big money, would be great. I’m sure PWG would be included there. But also, look - he could do that while also working for AEW.
The thing that makes the alternate option hard to swallow is that AEW has allowed such flexibility that once a talent goes there, it basically opens up everything to them aside from WWE.
From what I also hear, it’s ROH that’s not open to working with AEW, not the other way around.
The mindset isn’t seeing Kevin in WWE vs AEW. At this point in time it’s basically WWE vs AEW TV AND anywhere else in the world he wants to work. That’s why AEW is so appealing. It lets people be stars on TV - but also lets them travel the world and do what they do best, if they want to.
I think people underestimate how hard it is to just pick up and Goto Japan.
A lot of these guys have families and kids. While I’m sure they are fine with a couple of weeks or matches a year it’s hard to pick up and move there full time.
In terms of options locally the big leagues are clearly WWE and AEW for a top level superstar. ROH or IMPACT just can’t pay enough and isn’t high profile enough.
As for AEW signing too many guys, it’s a concern. You don’t want every WWE release to clog up space. Think of Shawn Spears. What use was that signing? If he’s released today you don’t sign a guy like that. However, for the right people it makes sense to bring them in. I can see Bray Wyatt, Murphy and Owens having a spot.
It’s not like Owens makes or breaks them. But he’s a known guy who was pushed in WWE at a reasonable level and can deliver in lots of matches. He can be used well.
Obviously if you are AEW you are going to be most interested in signing a women’s star. They still don’t have the same level of star power. If you can get a high level women’s star you have to jump on that. I can’t see Becky or Bayley jumping, but Charlotte or Sasha or Rhea or Io or Toni Storm all could make impact
Sensing people don’t seem to get it….a loaded stacked roster allows guys to rest, not wrestle every single show, which keeps a weekly TV product fresh, it allows feuds to not be repeats unless the story calls for it (ie Jericho MJF) and it also is an opportunity for people who made more money than they ever imagined to now go work somewhere with their friends, in an environment that seems like wrestlers paradise.
We are all so conditioned by WWE.
Also ROH isn’t small. It’s owned by one of the larger cable operators in Sinclair. Sinclair could have some what TK has done and never wanted to invest that much in Wrestling beyond what it had.
As for how deep are Kahn’s pockets, there is a drastic different between a public company and a private person and how they access money. Owning two sports franchises the scale they do, TK isn’t close to not having money for this and it has nothing to do with what their income is from those other ventures but I digress. Put it this way, the Kahn family has unlimited funds that they are investing in a private business that can we taken as losses if AEW isn’t profitable which would only reduce their personal tax bill. AEW can lose money and TK saves money. As long as one day they get the payday but for now it’s still early innings and yeah personal finance of the mega rich would sicken a lot of people so I digress
Yup, the only reason ROH isn’t in the position AEW is in right now, is because of bad management.
They could have rode the wave from All In. They didn’t. They sold out MSG with NJPW, and basically shit the bed.
They have money. They could be spending it. They have countless TV networks at their disposal.
Rather than trying to build it, Sinclair prefers to look at it as cheap TV content.
And to your other point - exactly correct about the cycling out and letting talent do their best work every few weeks. While no, FTR isn’t on tv every week, what they have done over the last six to eight months has been far more memorable than most of their main roster WWE run.
Same could be said for others people are concerned about being lost in the theoretical shuffle.
Hangman is a top Babyface - and will be the moment he returns. Sammy is super over, and will continue to be whenever he appears in front tof a crowd.
I could go on.
MJF vs Jericho went almost a year. However, they wisely could put it on the back burner several times, and heat it up.
Oh, and another big factor for talents going to AEW is that they get a much bigger cut of merch sales. And can keep their twitch, etc. Where they may pay less for a downside, the extra means of potential income is huge.
Can we add “Keeps talent healthy” as a pro to the list for cycling them out…or do people forget when they wanted off seasons and time for talent to rest and heal and not be worked til the injury list
The amazing part is this seems to just be a corporate office Fck up of epic proportions to not have these talents under secure deals.
To think it’s because they had them restructure deals in the pandemic or to address 3rd party deal rights is actually incredible poetic justice but who knows what actually is being mucked up in the offices. All speculation on my end about those deals being absolutely botched
This is exactly why Cole and Bryan coming over was more game changing than Punk IMO.
Guys who dreamed of being there or loved being there deciding to leave on their own and wanting to join AEW is the perfect bookend to Punks reasons
I don’t know why people care so much about how many people a company signs. They aren’t spending your money. WWE uses very few people proper, so they can’t be used any worse going to AEW. If it’s someone going from AEW to WWE, well…again they use very few people proper.
I just want to be entertained. I don’t want a million rematches. I want these guys to get the pay they deserve and be happy doing what they love.
And before anybody says '“well why is itwhen WWE signed hundreds of people it was a problem”. Simply because they signed people, stuck then Ina warehouse in Florida and didn’t do anything. OR signed people, and did nothing with them.