AEW Adds Buy-In To Friday’s Rampage, Tony Khan Backtracks On Competition Comments

AEW seems serious about getting more viewers than SmackDown this week, but Tony Khan has walked back what he said about competition.

AEW has added a Buy-In show to this Friday’s Rampage in response to WWE tacking an extra 30 minutes onto the end of SmackDown.

Wrestling wars on television have usually been reserved for shows happening on the same night and in the same timeslot. Raw and Nitro battling on Monday, Dynamite going head to head with NXT. However, now that NXT has moved to Tuesdays and AEW‘s audience continues to grow, Dynamite’s numbers are being compared to Raw’s especially when it comes to key demographics.

Raw can take a break this week. Not just because Dynamite has been moved to Saturday, but also because all eyes will be on SmackDown and Rampage. Last week, WWE announced SmackDown will be Supersized this Friday and run for two and a half hours. That means the final 30 minutes of the show will run at the same time as the first half of Rampage.

Tony Khan responded to the news by tweeting that he can’t wait to beat WWE’s “main show”. In what is presumably an attempt to drum up as much interest in Rampage as possible, AEW has now announced it will be holding an hour-long Buy-In for Friday night’s show on its YouTube channel. The pre-show will include a match between Bryan Danielson and Minoru Suzuki, the first time the pair has clashed since 2004.

Not only is the Buy-In an attempt to get as many people to tune in to Rampage at 10 pm, but it also technically means an AEW show will now be going up against SmackDown for a full 90 minutes. However, Khan has backed down a little since the comments he made abiut beating WWE over the weekend.

“It’s not about competing with them. It’s about doing our best show,” Khan admitted during an appearance on Moose & Maggie. Whether this Friday is considered competition by either side or not, the numbers after the fact are going to be dissected no matter what. It’s hard to imagine Rampage will draw more viewers than SmackDown, but it will be fun to compare the two to see how they differ from previous weeks when both are on at the same time.

Source: TheSportster

AEW Rampage Preview 10/8/21

Tonight’s AEW Rampage airs on TNT from The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

* CM Punk vs. Daniel Garcia (w/2point0)

* AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Lucha Brothers (c) (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. The Acclaimed

* Philly Street Fight: FTW Champion Ricky Starks vs. Brian Cage

* Jade Cargill (w/Smart Mark Sterling) vs. Skye Blue

AEW Unveils TBS Title, Announces Tournament To Crown The First Champion

AEW has unveiled its TBS Title and announced there will be a tournament to crown the first champion.

AEW is adding a new title to its ranks: the TBS Championship. A women’s title celebrating Dynamite’s move to TBS in 2022.

AEW‘s television journey has been an interesting one despite only turning two this week. Dynamite has aired on TNT weekly since its inception. On Wednesdays most of the time, but the day of the week has changed occasionally to accommodate for live sport. It then added Rampage to the mix earlier this year, a shorter show which also airs on TNT every Friday.

That all changes in the new year. Dynamite will remain on Wednesday nights but will be on TBS rather than TNT. To celebrate that move, which takes effect on January 5, 2022, AEW has created a brand new championship. The TBS Championship which fans got their very first look at when it was unveiled on Dynamite’s anniversary show this week.

While Tony Khan was the one teasing a big announcement before the show, it was Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards who were afforded the opportunity to reveal it to the world. Edwards held up the title as Schiavone announced that a tournament will take place to crown its first champion. According to The Wrestling Observer, the tournament will begin on the January 5 edition of Dynamite, the show’s TBS debut.

The first handful of participants in the tournament were revealed later on in the show via the video package above. Ruby Soho, Jade Cargill, Thunder Rosa, and Skye Blue or stated their intent to become the first-ever TBS Champion, implying they will all be involved in the tournament when it begins at the turn of the year. The title itself looks very similar to AEW’s TNT Championship.

Of all the things AEW has been criticized for during its first three years, the lack of a push for its female stars might be at the top of that list for many fans. Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa’s brutal no DQ match felt like a turning point in that regard. While the women’s division probably still doesn’t get the time it deserves, a new title, and hopefully more female signings, will almost definitely change that.

Source: TheSportster

Tony Khan Addresses Report Of AEW EVPs Losing Power

Last week a report came out on the AEW EVPs (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes) having their creative powers “essentially completely taken away” and everything was now running through AEW President Tony Khan.

Yesterday, Dave Meltzer reported the roles of the EVPs hadn’t changed since December of 2019. Even with Khan taking on more control of booking, there wasn’t a recent loss of power for the EVPs.

Khan spoke with PWInsider this week and was asked for clarification on where things are when it comes to creative in AEW. Khan reiterated things haven’t changed recently, but he did take on more control to make sure shows were more organized.

“Yeah, I saw those reports this week and I thought that was pretty disingenuous stuff from some of the internet wrestling writers because nothing has changed in recent months and really, the structure changed for me at the end of 2019 and it was because of me,” Khan said. “I felt like I needed to take over and be more accountable as the CEO and as the Booker. I was the final say, but there were probably too many different people with input on segments and this show wasn’t as organized at the end of 2019 as I thought it could be.

“So for the past two years, we’ve been a lot more organized and I’ve written every show by hand, which allows me to know which segments are where and I think the shows have gotten significantly better. The fans have enjoyed them more. They’ve performed better in terms of the ratings and it’s been a good change for us, but I saw somebody reporting that recently in the news and it’s not because — we talked about this, like over a year and a half ago we talked about this, and I went on the record. I talked to you about it and Dave Meltzer, this week in The Observer, even wrote a pretty good account of it that nothing has really changed.”

Khan continued that it was actually his 2020 New Year’s resolution to take on putting the shows together and avoiding content he wasn’t in favor of airing.

“This is all stuff that came into effect at the beginning of 2020,” Khan recalled. “I had said my New Year’s resolution, myself, [was that] I was going to get very organized or I told myself if there’s something I didn’t feel good about, I wasn’t going to do it and that I was going to create much more of the work product myself, that I was going to lay out the matches, the stories and format everything into a nice package, myself, and I’ve been doing it for over a year and a half with the collaboration and help of a lot of great people, including the people I started with.

“I think the biggest difference has been instead of five people getting in a room and putting a format together, I get in a room and put a format together. I also get very amused when people refer to QT [Marshall], like the guy on the creative team. He’s effectively my assistant and he’s great. He works his ass off. He’ll show up in my room whenever I need him, and I sometimes will call him up at one in the morning to come up and I want to reorganize the show or make card changes, or I’m putting stuff together for Elevation or Dark or whatever I need. He’s usually there for me, but I’m very hands on with this stuff and it’s been that way for a long time. So I thought it was really disingenuous.”

With the signing of stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole, Khan believed their additions have obviously made a difference in the AEW product. Khan also said he has just gotten better at the job over the past couple years, allowing him to put together better quality shows.

“Somebody talked about it this week, like it was news and then people acted like there’d been some change, but there’s been no change,” Khan stated. “I’ve been in that position for a long time. And I think we’ve had our shows, in my opinion, have gotten stronger, recently. And there are a number of things you can attribute that to.

“One of the things I think you can attribute it to is the great star power that come in, and we’re getting a lot of great wrestlers who bring tons of great attributes, including their experience, their great ideas, and trying to integrate those things.  Then me — myself personally — I think I gotten better and more organized over the last couple years at doing this job and have learned a lot in the past two years.”

AEW Dynamite celebrates its two-year anniversary tonight at The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Dynamite Preview 10/6/21

Tonight’s AEW Dynamite: Second Anniversary episode airs on TNT at The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

* The Elite (AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, Adam Cole and The Young Bucks) vs. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage, and Jurassic Express

* Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb

* Sammy Guevara (c) vs. Bobby Fish (AEW TNT Championship)

* Jon Moxley vs. PAC vs. Andrade El Idolo vs. Lance Archer vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Matt Hardy vs. “The Joker” (Casino Ladder Match – Winner receives future AEW World Championship shot)

News On Report Of AEW EVPs Reportedly Losing Creative Power

Last week, it was reported that the AEW EVPs have lost creative power, and Tony Khan has been completely taken over that role. The report stated that Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes were “EVPs in name only in 2021.”

On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that the roles of higher ups in AEW have remained unchanged since December of 2019. AEW President Tony Khan took more control of booking since then, but no one in AEW has lost any creative power. Khan recently said in an interview that AEW has grown stronger the more he takes on.

Khan is in charge of booking the matches and segments and tells talent what they’re involved in and where their direction is going, including the AEW EVPs and other top stars like Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. However, those top stars are still allowed input into their angles and matches, and their allowed their own creative input in their promos as well.

While Khan, as head booker, decides who wins and loses matches, talent have the creative input to fill out the details of Khan’s vision. Meltzer used the example from the last episode of Rampage where Khan can tell Danielson and Matt Jackson to go out there for a 15-16 minute match, and it’s up to Danielson and Jackson to do what they want.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Former NXT Star Bobby Fish Set To Make AEW Debut On Next Week’s Dynamite

Shortly after winning the TNT Championship on AEW Dynamite, Sammy Guevara revealed that former NXT star Bobby Fish would be his first challenger.

Bobby Fish’s first match since parting ways with WWE back in August will take place on the October 6 edition of AEW Dynamite.

In case you missed it, Sammy Guevara defeated Miro for the TNT Championship in the main event of this week’s AEW Dynamite. The show went off the air as Guevara was celebrating with his friends in the ring as confetti rained down from the sky, but Guevara made an announcement later in the night while being interviewed by Tony Schiavone backstage in a segment that aired dung the commercial break of the premiere episode of Cody and Brandi Rhodes’ reality show Rhodes To The Top.

Guevara revealed that former WWE NXT Superstar Bobby Fish had already challenged Guevara for his newly won title and that he had accepted Fish’s challenge, confirming that Fish would be making his AEW debut next week in the process.

After Guevara had broken the news of Fish’s imminent AEW debut, Dan Lambert and Men Of The Year (Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky) confronted Guevara and demanded title shots of their own. The altercation almost got physical but the parties were pulled apart as the segment ended.

As you might recall, Bobby Fish was released by WWE along with several of his now-former NXT colleagues on August 7. Fish signed with WWE in 2017 and became a founding member of The Undisputed Era alongside Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. Fish would go on to hold the NXT Tag Team Championship on two separate occasions. The 44-year-old began wrestling in 2002 and was trained by legendary WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race.

Source: The Sportster

Lio Rush Returns To AEW, Debuts New Gimmick

Former WWE Superstar Lio Rush appeared on an AEW show for the first time since June and brought a new money man gimmick with him.

Lio Rush returned to AEW following a four-month absence via a pretaped vignette that aired on this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite.

In the video, Rush informed viewers that he was a businessman who makes a lot of money for himself and the companies to whom he lends guidance. Footage of yachts, fancy cars, and expensive jewelry was spliced into the video.

AEW later confirmed that Rush had signed a contract with the company and was officially All Elite.

As you might recall, Lio Rush made his AEW debut during the Casino Battle Royale at Double Or Nothing on May 30th. Rush was under contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling, but AEW president Tony Khan claimed there was a “handshake deal” in place between all parties prior to the event. In a stroke of terrible luck, Rush sustained a shoulder injury in the Casino Battle Royale and subsequently announced that he would be stepping away from the world of professional wrestling. Rush’s intended hiatus never actually came to fruition, and the 26-year-old returned to New Japan just a few weeks after Double Or Nothing.

Rush began wrestling in 2014 and made a name for himself as an exciting high flyer. After a stint on the independent scene, Rush signed for WWE in August of 2017. He initially reported for duty at NXT but was soon moved to the Cruiserweight division where he competed on 205 Live. Rush was then moved to the main roster and was used predominantly as the mouthpiece of Bobby Lashley. He moved back to NXT and had a run as Cruiserweight champion, but in April of 2020, Rush was released from his WWE contract as part of budget cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Rush also appeared briefly in MLW.

On its surface, Rush’s new gimmick doesn’t appear particularly original, but we’ve seen how good he can be on the mic, so there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to make it work.

Source: The Sportster

AEW Dynamite Preview 9/29/21

Tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode airs on TNT at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York.

* Miro (c) vs. Sammy Guevara (AEW TNT Championship)

* Cody Rhodes and Lee Johnson vs. Matt Sydal and Dante Martin

* Jungle Boy vs. Adam Cole

* Anna Jay and Tay Conti vs. The Bunny and Penelope Ford

AEW Rampage Grand Slam Preview

Tonight’s AEW Rampage Grand Slam airs on TNT from Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. The show will be a special two-hour event.

* CM Punk vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

* Christian Cage & Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) vs. Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)

* Men Of The Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) vs. Chris Jericho & Jake Hager

* Santana & Ortiz & Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) vs. Hardy Family Office (Isiah Kassidy, Marq Quen, The Butcher & The Blade)

* Penelope Ford vs. Anna Jay

Lights Out Tag Team Match: Eddie Kingston & Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki