How AEW Killed "Being The Elite"
Just ahead of SummerSlam, a bizarre story hit the wrestling internet courtesy of Dave Meltzer noting that WWE were in talks to purchase Fite TV. Panic ensued - it was as though an end-of-days hole had opened up in the ground swallowing all hopes and dreams and things everybody loved, all until rumours were snuffed out as just that, and the story quietly went away.
The nature of the worry was tied mostly to the health of the wider wrestling world that had since come to rely on the service. Countless independent promotions as well as Impact Wrestling and - troublingly - All Elite Wrestling used it to carry pay-per-view and television events in the United States and internationally. Its sudden disappearance would damage every company it carried, not least with the mostly-functional WWE Network diversifying to include EVOLVE and ICW of late. More of the same is expected from the company in the coming months - their widening reach may look magnanimous but history has routinely informed us that the arm around the shoulder will always end with a knife in the back.
The AEW links to Fite TV were the most intriguing to consider, and it triggered conversation not just for their need to exist entirely on their own terms but also offer a service comparable with WWE, NJPW and even Ring Of Honor. Those organisations benefited from rich histories that could be pre-loaded alongside the brand spanking new content, but AEW’s own equivalent in this hypothetical arrangement would only really be able to exist as place to carry their newest - read: only - material.
Unless, of course, they lionise and weaponise the once-wonderful Being The Elite.
CONT'D...