10 Ways AEW Is Nothing Like TNA

6. TNA Wanted Names, AEW Wants Talent

Jon Moxley Tna
Scott Lesh

What's Bork Lazer doing in the Impact Zone?! Yes, internet memes become internet memes for a reason. There was a time when WWE releases would be followed by a flurry of activity in TNA, where the recently-released became the newest stars of the Impact Zone, sometimes with names straight out of a computer game without official rights. It quickly became a joke, a phrase of denigration for the second-biggest wrestling promotion in the USA.

The reason for TNA's obsessive signing of WWE releases is fairly simple. The promotion was still struggling to garner attention and was willing to bank on any potential noise created by the name value of WWE cast-offs. Sometimes it worked, as Jeff Hardy, Christian, Kurt Angle and the Dudleyz created a stir when they moved across to TNA, but for every Angle there was an Orlando Jordan, a Jackie Gayda or a Basham Brothers (choose either one, it doesn't matter).

AEW hasn't shied away from signing talent released by WWE, quite the opposite in fact, but it has made a point of focusing on talent as opposed to name value. Yes, the Matt Hardy name carries some weight, but AEW picked up the Broken One because of what he can bring to the company creatively as opposed to slight jumps in notoriety. The AEW roster is full of former WWE competitors (Jon Moxley, Jake Hager, PAC, Brodie Lee etc), but they are all men with a point to prove as opposed to a bank account to fill.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.