The big news today, as announced earlier this morning, is the official announcement on All Elite Wrestling, the company being funded by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Tony Khan.
AEW announced on Twitter that there would be a free rally on Tuesday, January 8 at 5 pm eastern at TIAA Field. That is the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the timing of the announcement is interesting because WWE will be at the Jacksonville Memorial Arena on that night for SmackDown Live.
Tony Khan is a long-time wrestling fan and long-time subscriber to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter so you can expect him to be hands-on with the company. If all goes according to plan, this will be the first major competition for WWE since WCW died in 2001.
Dave Meltzer provided more details on AEW during the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.
Multiple wrestlers are signed to multi-year deals. Cody Rhodes is signed and The Young Bucks are expected to sign sometime within the next 24-48 hours. There is no word on Chris Jericho’s status with AEW but he recently posted a photo of himself with his wife at the Minnesota Vikings game and he thanked Tony Khan for arranging for them to get on the field. There are also conversations going on with other wrestlers about signing with the company.
Another major detail of this story is that there are multiple offers from TV networks. The “All In” show back in September impressed television executives and without that show, AEW may not exist. It should be noted that they have registered for the “Tuesday Night Dynamite” trademark. It remains to be seen if they end up with a weekly show on Tuesday night but it would make sense since that is considered a wrestling night and WWE will be moving from Tuesdays to Friday nights when they move to FOX in the fall.
At this time, the relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling is up in the air. Rhodes and The Young Bucks would like to continue working with them and wrestling for them but the question is whether NJPW would want to drop their relationship with ROH so they could work with AEW or if somehow, NJPW could work with both companies. Those are questions that have yet to be answered.
https://twitter.com/ALL_IN_2018/status/1080016187424006144
