10 Ways AEW Has Listened To Its Audience

4. Working With Other Promotions

Kenny Omega Don Callis Impact
Impact Wrestling

With WWE having had a near-two decade monopolisation on the wrestling industry, fans hoped that All Elite Wrestling would bring us a wrestling promotion that was open to working with other companies - most notably due to how certain top stars had such a strong association with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Upon first being launched, AEW instantly announced a working relationship with Oriental Wrestling Entertainment, and that news was soon followed up by the confirmation that AEW would also be working with the AAA promotion out of Mexico.

Going further, the use of Thunder Rosa and the NWA Women's Championship all came down to Tony Khan reaching out to Billy Corgan to explore the opportunity of featuring the NWA on AEW programming. While there's no official working agreement in place between AEW and NWA, the connection has been made and both parties seem like only a phone call away from one another.

More recently, of course, AEW surprised us all by striking up some sort of deal with IMPACT Wrestling. Not only did IMPACT EVP Don Callis help Kenny Omega to win the AEW World Championship, Omega and his new prize then appeared on IMPACT to revel in how he bested Jon Moxley. Where this AEW/IMPACT agreement goes, who knows, but it's certainly exciting to see.

As for New Japan? Here's hoping...

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.