The REAL Reason All Elite Wrestling Could Change The Wrestling World

Rather than using the platform to discuss why All Elite Wrestling could genuinely be the change the wrestling industry needs, the group instead proffered the same grand gestures as every other start-up.

Unlike just about everything the group have ever been involved with up to this point, it was all show, no go. With the possible exception of surprise attendee PAC, everybody had seen and heard it all before. That's not to say the talent announcements weren't exciting or that the pointed use of pyro didn't pop those in attendance, but failed wrestling companies have done all this before, and nobody wants AEW to be a failed wrestling company.

Ever the exceptional workers, Cody and The Bucks deserve immense credit for providing enough distractions for fans not to compare this new charge to others from times gone by. Vince McMahon was hated in his nation for his bullish national expansion, but he managed this first by getting into bed with promoters before gobbling up their talent under his more recognisable brand. Is this particularly different to how indie darlings Matt and Nick Jackson leveraged their Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling connections over the years to put together a legendarily stacked card for ALL IN only to steal from those companies in the aftermath?

This is not a criticism of the practice - rank capitalism runs under the wrestling industry like New York's pink sewer slime in Ghostbusters 2 - but few are shedding tears for the other organisations AEW have cast aside in order to galvanise their ranks. ROH and NJPW should still survive and occasionally thrive in US markets as they have done over the last few years, but AEW have supplanted them as second to WWE before even running a company-branded show.

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