AEW has announced some details on how their first champion will be crowned.
On the latest episode of Road to Double or Nothing, comedian Jack Whitehall announced that the winner of the Casino Battle Royale will face the winner of Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega at a later date … with the winner becoming All Elite Wrestling’s first World champ.
Participants confirmed for the Battle Royale include: Shawn Spears aka Tye Dillinger, Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, Michael Nakazawa, Jimmy Havoc, Billy Gunn, Sonny Kiss, MJF, Joey Janela, Glacier, Brian Pillman Jr. and more.
AEW announced Shawn Spears, formerly known as WWE’s Tye Dillinger, will be involved in the Casino Battle Royale on Double or Nothing’s The Buy In pre-show.
Back in February, Spears was released from WWE after he asked for his release from the company, despite being offered a substantial raise. Spears was on his second run with the company where he spent 2013-2017 in NXT, followed up by a lackluster main roster run on SmackDown.
In the video below, Spears was dealt his card (a ten) for the upcoming match and responded, “When the odds are stacked, always bet on you.”
Double or Nothing will air on B/R Live and traditional PPV for $49.99 at 8 pm ET this Saturday. The Buy In pre-show will stream for free on All Elite Wrestling’s YouTube channel.
Starrcast has announced that the roast of WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair will take place at a later date to be announced.
As noted, The Nature Boy was forced to pull out of “The Roast of Ric Flair” scheduled for Friday night in Las Vegas during Starrcast II weekend, which coincided with AEW’s Double Or Nothing weekend. Flair underwent heart surgery on Monday and his doctors won’t allow him to travel to Vegas for the weekend events. Starrcast issued the following today:
“The good news is that Ric Flair’s surgery was a success. The bad news is that his doctor won’t allow him to travel this weekend. As a result, his Meet & Greets at #Starrcast are being refunded. The Roast of Ric Flair will have to be postponed to a later date yet to be determined.”
The roast of Flair was scheduled to air on pay-per-view and Fite.TV this Friday night. There’s no word yet on if it will still stream when it happens. Flair was also scheduled for a “30 Years and 5 Stars Later” panel with WWE Hall of Famers Ricky Steamboat and Jim Ross this week. Starrcast will be issuing refunds for all of Flair’s planned events.
Flair’s wife Wendy Barlow noted on Monday that the operation was a success and that Flair was in the recovery room. TMZ reported that doctors were optimistic Flair will make a full recovery. Flair was said to be in good spirits over the past few days, chatting with some of his famous friends on the phone, including rapper Offset.
Flair is scheduled to make his first post-surgery public appearance on Friday, May 31 for SCWPro at their “To Be The Man” event in East Moline, Illinois. SCWPro confirmed today that they have been in contact with Flair’s representatives, and that he will still make that appearance.
Over the weekend, news broke of AEW pulling Adam Page vs. PAC from this Saturday’s Double or Nothing card over creative differences.
PAC is the current Open the Dream Gate Champion for Dragon Gate and didn’t want to lose a match while holding the title. For AEW, they are focusing on wins/losses and didn’t want to have tie or DQ in the match. AEW is also reportedly looking at things long terms and while they didn’t necessarily have a problem with him beating Page, PAC’s next opponent was likely Kenny Omega and a win over Omega (or multiple opponents in a row) maybe wasn’t in the plans.
The PPV is slotted for four hours, so time was also a consideration as it would take up a big chunk of the show just for a tie/DQ to happen.
Last Saturday, Page showed up at a Wrestle Gate Pro event in Nottingham, England to confront PAC and answer his open challenge. The two had a match where Page won by DQ. Afterwards, PAC took down Page with a chair and told him he wouldn’t be coming to Double or Nothing or AEW as a way to write off the match.
So fans could still see a bout between the two wrestlers, AEW released the match today on its YouTube channel, which you can watch below. PAC could still return to the promotion at some point down the road. Page will be on Double or Nothing against a yet to be named opponent.
Double or Nothing will air on B/R Live and traditional PPV for $49.99 at 8 pm ET this Saturday. The Buy In pre-show will stream for free on All Elite Wrestling’s YouTube channel. Be sure to join us for complete live coverage of the show.
Yesterday, Adam Pageshowed up at a Wrestle Gate Pro event in Nottingham, England to confront PAC and answer his open challenge. The two had a match where Adam Page won by DQ. Afterwards, PAC took down Page with a chair and told him he wouldn’t be coming to Double or Nothing or AEW.
Initially, this all seemed like a way to hype their upcoming match at AEW Double or Nothing, but in actuality the match had been called off and this was how it was written off. It was reported the cancellation was do to creative differences as PAC (and Dragon Gate) didn’t want to lose a match while he’s the Open the Dream Gate Champion. AEW had other ideas for how they wanted the match to go and things weren’t lining up for the two sides.
Page will still have a match at the show against a yet to be named opponent.
On this morning’s Wrestler Observer Radio it was noted the bout in England will be streamed by AEW, most likely on Tuesday, as a way for fans to still be able to see a match between the two since it won’t be on Saturday’s PPV.
In terms of the match itself, AEW did not want a tie/DQ as they are looking for wins/losses in their matches, especially on PPVs. PAC previously went to 30-minute draws with Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr., which drew boos and would probably get a similar reaction at Double or Nothing. Also, it was reported PPV time was a factor as AEW is working within a four hour limit and that match would take up a big chunk of time, only for a tie to happen.
Dave Meltzer also speculated AEW is looking at things long-term, PAC beating Page wasn’t so much a problem, but he would have to keep winning against bigger names to make the win against Page mean something. He felt Kenny Omega would have been next in line and AEW probably didn’t want to have PAC beat Omega at this point.
When PAC eventually drops his title, doing the DQ finish in England allows an easy reentry point for PAC, if he does return to AEW.
AEW will reportedly not be receiving any rights fees from their new television deal with WarnerMedia. While AEW, which will begin airing on TNT later this year, will not be receiving any rights fees, they will be receiving an ad revenue split, according to TSN’s John McMullen. WarnerMedia will also be paying for production.
“Context of #AEWonTNT AEW TV Deal — Platform is amazing and this is an unprecedented deal for a start-up,” McMullen wrote on Twitter. “Confirmed from a source on the television side there are no rights fees but as we have been saying here for weeks that should not have been expected. It’s being treated like a sports property so production fees are there and a ‘great’ advertising split for AEW.”
The deal is similar to XFL’s new agreements with ESPN and Fox Sports, where the XFL will not receive any rights fees, but the networks will pay for the production costs. However, there is no ad revenue split with the XFL deal, although they will handle sponsorships at the stadiums.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while AEW will not be receiving rights fees, there will be a downside guarantee with the advertising revenue. Meltzer added that with production costs paid for and the ad revenue split, AEW expects to be profitable by 2020.
As I mentioned yesterday, with this new deal, AEW has become the first wrestling company outside of WWE to secure a television deal in the U.S. on a top 25 cable network since WCW folded. TNT is actually available in slightly more homes than the USA Network, although the USA Network was the eighth most watched network of 2018 while TNT was at #14. The Paramount Network, which used to be known as Spike TV and aired TNA programming for nearly ten years, was #44.
McMullen noted how great the new deal is for AEW, adding that the only reason it may come across as disappointing is due to some errant reports stating that the company would receive rights fees.
“Remember, it took Vince McMahon nearly 20 years of producing highly-rated television before he got a somewhat significant rights deal from Viacom at the turn of the century,” McMullen tweeted. “The monster deal took over 35 years. TNA/Impact once had Hulk Hogan, Sting and Randy Savage and couldn’t get this kind of platform. It’s an amazing deal that those in @AEWrestling are ecstatic about.
“If it comes across as flat to some that’s because they were expecting rights fees due to some shoddy reporting. Right now #AEW is set up like old #WWE where PPV numbers and advertising will be significant to growth. #WWE remains idiot-proof because of TV deal”
AEW has yet to announce their official start date, the day of the week that it will air and how long the episodes will be, although AEW’s Jim Ross noted last month that the show would be two hours. It was noted in The Observer that the show will air either on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, but that has not yet been determined. WarnerMedia is apparently doing market research to determine if the show should air on Tuesdays to fill the void of SmackDown when it moves to Fridays in the fall. The downside of Tuesdays is that the show would regularly be preempted during basketball season due to NBA games on TNT. While there are some NBA games on TNT on Wednesdays later in the season, most of the Wednesday games air on ESPN.
At yesterday’s WarnerMedia Upfronts in New York City, WarnerMedia officially announced that AEW will be airing in prime time on TNT later this year. AEW Executive Vice Presidents The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, were amongst the stars from the promotion who attended this morning’s event.
As seen in the video above, The Bucks spoke with WrestlingNews.co at the event and discussed what they feel that the upstart needs to do in order to differentiate themselves from WWE.
“It’s gotta look different, it’s gotta feel different,” Nick said.
“It’s got to be shot different. Whatever do they do, we have to do the opposite,” Matt added. “If that means that they have a PG type of show, we should have a more edgy type of show. Our matches should look different and the things we do in the matches should be different. Our stories should be different, they should be more complex.”
In recent months, there have been many reports of WWE talent being unhappy backstage. Tye Dillinger and Luke Harper even took to Twitter to announce that they were requesting their releases. While Dillinger’s was granted, Harper found his extended. The Bucks were asked if there are WWE talent looking to join AEW.
“I think so, we’ve heard the chatter a lot. We have a lot of friends that work there so we hear it from them too,” Nick said. “I feel like we’ve changed the landscape of wrestling and it’s gonna give them some competition.”
The company has had some major signings over the past several months, including Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega. When asked who else they might be looking to bring on board, Nick noted that there might be a couple that they can’t yet mention.
“Take a look at our roster,” Nick said. “Those are all the guys we’ve wanted. There may be a couple that I can’t talk about yet.
“We might be negotiating right now with some. We want surprises to happen and we have a big show in 10 days, Double Or Nothing in Las Vegas.”
Matt added, “You never know who you’re gonna see in Las Vegas.”
AEW’s first show, the Double Or Nothing pay-per-view, takes place on Saturday, May 25th from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Yesterday was a historic day in the world of professional wrestling as it was officially announced that AEW will be airing in prime time on TNT later this year. With the deal, AEW has become the first wrestling company outside of WWE to secure a television deal in the U.S. on a top 25 cable network since WCW folded.
At yesterday’s WarnerMedia upfronts in New York City, AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes and Chief Branding Officer Brandi Rhodes spoke with WrestlingNews.co about the big announcement.
“This is serendipity how this is coming together,” Cody said. “My family moved to Atlanta 20+ years ago because WCW was going to Turner. Here we are talking about All Elite Wrestling in 2019 going to Turner. It’s just wild how it works and the number 1 thing I discovered is we build the best team. That’s what led to all of this. All In happened, me, Matt and Nick, Kenny joining and then Tony Khan being the guy to say ‘hey, I believe in you guys. I’ll invest in you guys, I believe in wrestling outside of one company.’ That has put us here so I’m really excited.”
AEW plans to offer a real alternative to WWE programming. One of the major criticisms about WWE has been their scripted promos. Cody claimed that “you might not see one scripted promo” on their television.
“When it comes to promos, if we invested you, we already know your voice,” Cody said. “We just want to put the voice out there for more people to hear. There’s great coaches we have, great collaborators. Guys like Jim Ross, guys like Billy Gunn, a bunch of guys I can’t name. We have these great collaborators, plus all of us who want to make this work. Collaboration yes, micromanagement no, scripted no, that’s the best.”
“We’re honest when we say that we want it to be very sports-centric,” Brandi added. “In order to do that, it has to be focused on the bell-to-bell, the actual matches, less of the drama and the behind-the-scenes.”
Brandi also said that the company plans to keep their roster active and not sitting on the sidelines.
“We’ve obviously been cautious in building our [women’s] division because we don’t want people to be sitting weeks and weeks out of the year not being active, not being used, not being having stories, not having reasons for you to like them,” Brandi stated. “So we’ve been very careful to pick and choose competitors that we think we are gonna be able to keep moving in some sort of sense.”
Despite all of the major developments, AEW has yet to run their first show. AEW’s first pay-per-view, Double Or Nothing, will take place next Saturday night in Las Vegas. Cody said that the company plans to make the event a great one.
“Jim Ross has been really good about saying ‘it can’t be good, it’s gotta be great.’ He’s right and everyone in the group shares that sentiment,” Cody said. “We gotta make this great and it’s just the beginning. It’s the perfect jumping in point for a brand new fan. There’s nothing before this, just jump in now and you’ll love it.”
It was announced yesterday that WarnerMedia has signed with All Elite Wrestling for a multi-platform launch of the new promotion. TNT will air a weekly AEW TV series later this year and AEW’s special events will air on WarnerMedia’s Bleacher Report Live platform. AEW’s Double Or Nothing event will air on B/R Live and traditional pay-per-view on Saturday, May 25. You can read the full announcement on the WarnerMedia – AEW deal at this link.
The price for Double Or Nothing on B/R Live is listed at $49.99 for the event.
Double Or Nothing is listed for $60 on AT&T pay-per-view, $50 on DirecTV and $60 on In Demand. To compare, WWE Money In the Bank is currently listed for $44.95 on the Dish Network, which does not have AEW up for ordering as of this writing.
It’s worth noting that Chris Jericho was not at the WarnerMedia Upfronts in New York City today with the rest of the AEW crew. As seen in the various shots below, AEW was represented at the Upfronts by Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes, Brandi Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Adam Page, Dr. Britt Baker and The Young Bucks.
Jericho did cut a heel promo to hype the TV deal and his Double Or Nothing match with Omega, which you can also see below. Jericho took credit for the TV deal.
“Congratulations to All Elite Wrestling for signing a television deal with TNT, Time Warner. That’s huge. But keep this in mind, while Kenny Omega and Cody and all the other suck-ups are swarming around Tony Khan and all the executives, all the Warner executives at the Upfronts in New York City, I’m here in the dungeon, in Tampa, training for Double Or Nothing. I don’t have time to put on a suit and tie, Kenny, and go act like a hot shot with a bunch of TV executives. All I have time to do is continue training, so I can beat your ass at Double Or Nothing and get that ‘thank you’ on behalf of AEW for getting that contract in the first place. Don’t forget – when Chris Jericho signed with AEW, TNT signed with AEW. You’re welcome,” Jericho said.
As we previously reported, All Elite Wrestling and WarnerMedia officially announced today that AEW will air live on TNT later this year. WarnerMedia will be providing exclusive multi-platform access for fans to watch AEW events, airing live weekly matches on TNT in prime time, as well as streaming them through WarnerMedia’s B/R Live and on pay-per-view.
Cody Rhodes spoke to Variety about the big announcement and discussed his own ten-year run with WWE. Rhodes admitted that while he liked his time with WWE, he felt that “it wasn’t wrestling.” AEW has promised to focus on producing fast-paced, high-impact matches and have less less scripted and soapy drama. AEW stated that wrestlers will also be given more freedom to explore their characters and highlight their athletic abilities.
“[As] much as I say [WWE] was a wonderful job, it wasn’t wrestling,” Rhodes admitted. “That’s something I’ve learned a lot about, the grittiness and the sports-centric element of the industry that doesn’t exist really anywhere else currently. We have the opportunity to seize that.”
WWE Co-President George Barrios was asked this week if WWE considered AEW to be competition. Barrios said that they did, just like they consider the NBA and Kung Fu novels to be competition, because they are all “fighting for people’s time.” Rhodes talked about AEW being a competitor to WWE, and said that it is best for both parties.
“Competition raises everybody’s game,” Rhodes said. “It will raise the wrestlers’ game, the creative people’s game, everybody. Everybody feels a sense of urgency when someone is competing with them.”
“Competitive means being profitable,” he continued. “It doesn’t mean, ‘We have to have this to beat the WWE.’ Our job is not to worry about what WWE is doing, not their TV clearances, not whose in the main event, nothing. With a growing company there are a lot of growing pains. It’s a mix of creative and athletics and a lot of different things. Our focus has to be us, period.”
AEW also officially revealed that they will be presenting statistics by tracking each competitor’s wins and losses, analyzing their moves, assessing damage to their opponents, and providing insights into their winning streaks.
“One thing we really strongly want to present is wins and losses mattering again in pro wrestling. That takes more than the W and the L column,” Rhodes said. “We’re talking about percentage of times someone loses to this particular maneuver, percentages against somebody of this height, a whole by-the-numbers approach that really intrigues me. It’s not a cornerstone of AEW necessarily but it’s a great peripheral element we’re working on and that’s going to be exclusive to us.”
No official date has been announced regarding when the show will start airing on TNT. B/R Live will exclusively stream AEW Double Or Nothing on Saturday, May 25th, while the hour-long live pre-show special, The Buy-In, will stream on WarnerMedia and AEW’s social channels.
