Over the last five-plus decades, one company and family has dominated the world of professional wrestling, that being the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) owned by the McMahon Family.
There have been challengers that have competed tooth and nail with the WWE; however, no one has been able to maintain the rate and attractability of the WWE, until now.
In comes AEW (All Elite Wrestling) the new promotion on the block. AEW is an upstart wrestling promotion founded by Shahid and Tony Khan. Shahid is a billionaire entrepreneur who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars football team and the Fulham Football Club in England.
His son, Tony, is an executive who works alongside Shahid on a day to day operations of all things business. However, these are not the only names that are going to lift this upstart promotion.
Alongside the Khans, are Cody Rhodes, wife Brandi, Kenny Omega and Matt & Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks). Each of these represented are active competitors and now are executives within this upstart promotion.
Now, these names are just names to any newcomer to professional wrestling, but to wrestling fans, these names mean business and WWE should watch out.
Cody Rhodes is the son of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. The Rhodes family are trailblazers of professional wrestling, always focused on the future of the industry.
Now the future is in the hands of Cody and his wife Brandi. The Rhodes name will now continue to live on to the future and beyond in professional wrestling.
Kenny Omega for the last four years had been the hottest commodity and the most talked about wrestler in the world.
After legendary matches in Japan with the likes of Chris Jericho, Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenny continued to put on matches the world spent days talking about; however, unlike many wrestlers before him, Kenny stayed in Japan to finish out his contract to become a free agent.
Many reporters speculated Kenny to make the jump to WWE. However, Kenny shocked the world and signed with AEW as an active competitor and as an Executive Vice President.
Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks) are more wrestlers that are consistently making buzz throughout the wrestling world.
The Young Bucks have been traveling around the world competing for nearly 15 years. They have faced the whos who, all in attempt to revolutionize tag team wrestling. However, the Young Bucks never made the move to WWE. The Young Bucks have spent their career on the indy circuit.
Now, they are apart of AEW as competitors and Executive Vice Presidents where they plan to continue their revolution of tag team wrestling.
Now that we know the background of AEW, there needs to be talent within the company that is able to support the company and lift it to the company into the future.
AEW has competitors like Kenny, Cody and the Young Bucks, but they need the one star that will send AEW into the mainstream. And AEW has him, his name is Chris Jericho.
Chris Jericho is one of the most renowned wrestlers in the world. From being a young upstart in WCW (World Championship Wrestling) to becoming a superstar in WWE, Chris Jericho is one of the greatest wrestlers to ever compete in a wrestling ring.
Chris Jericho being a spark in this possible revolution helps give AEW a strong shot to compete with the WWE. With the presence of Jericho, it gives the other wrestlers on the AEW roster showcase their talents and shows why they are the future of wrestling.
Which brings us to defying the unthinkable. Before 2018, no promotion in the United States had been able to sell out a 10,000 seat arena for a wrestling show besides the WWE. Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks did the unthinkable in Chicago with their first show called All-In, selling out the 11,263 seat Sears Centre in less than 30 minutes.
Now, AEW is putting on their first show under the promotion with Double or Nothing in Las Vegas, Nev. May 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Tickets for Double or Nothing sold out in four minutes.
All Elite Wrestling has the wheels turning to make a significant change in the wrestling world.
If AEW can reach a deal with a major network, WWE better be prepared because the wrestling world has been waiting on a spark since the Monday Night Wars of the late 90s between WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and WWE. The world of professional wrestling will never, ever be the same again.
David Jacobus
Staff Writer