What is WWE and other wrestling organizations
It’s 1997. The largest competitor of WWE airs weekly programming on TBS and TNT. Tony Schiavone provides analysis. Sting and Chris Jericho present.
It’s now been 25 years. TBS and TNT once again broadcast weekly programs featuring WWE’s biggest rival. Schiavone, Sting, and Jericho continue to exist. If you hadn’t been paying attention to the enterprise for the previous couple of decades, you might suppose that AEW is the continuation of WCW — merely a chain of wrestlers making each other bleed, stretching back to Magnum T.A. and the Road Warriors. However, this is obviously no longer the case.
In 2001, World Championship Wrestling ceased operations, 1Win and WWE sold their recording library, intellectual property, and a number of wrestlers’ contracts. For nearly a decade, WWE did not face significant competition on the national stage. Yes, there was TNA (now known as Impact Wrestling), but questionable management decisions and WWE’s post-WCW aura of invulnerability prevented TNA from ever becoming a significant threat.
Then, in 2019, billionaire Tony Khan collaborated with a select group of wrestlers to establish All Elite Wrestling. In May, they held their first pay-per-view, and by October, they had a weekly television show. The return of wrestling to Turner tv meant that WWE was no longer the only major sport in town.
But just because AEW performs a similar function in relation to WWE and airs on certain channels does not mean they are WCW reincarnated. There are several significant distinctions, so let’s examine them.
AEW is not built on the framework of another business.
The wrestling faction known as the Elite, who were then affiliated with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor, put on an event to rival WWE’s in order to prove they could. This event was titled All In and took place in 2018. Tony Khan partnered with the Elite to launch AEW, but the company evolved into something entirely new. Of course, the majority of their talents had previously worked for other major corporations, but the entire AEW was built from the ground up.
WCW did not begin in this fashion. Ted Turner, the media mogul behind TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, etc., was too occupied reinventing television to build a wrestling business from scratch, so he sold one that was already substantially established. Throughout the 1980s, Jim Crockett Promotions, a North Carolina-based wrestling promotion, had been expanding, and TBS had been airing their programming. In 1988, the Crockett family sold Turner a majority stake in the company, and the World Championship Wrestling was founded.
With TV parents in charge, the product could get a lot slicker, but a lot of what made WCW work was already in JCP: Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, the annual Starrcade PPV (which predated WrestleMania by using more than one years), and an entire infrastructure devoted to making a weekly wrestling show.
During the mid-1990s, when “WCW Monday Nitro” began to compete with “Monday Night Raw,” TV ratings were virtually the only measure of media success. Some fans could capture a show and view it at a later time, but what truly mattered was what people were watching live. The internet, which became just starting to become a thing for most of the general public, wasn’t nearly quick sufficient for watching videos. YouTube was approximately a decade away, and streaming services would not appear until afterward. There was weekly television, analog pay-per-view, and print periodicals, but that was about it.
Obviously, media in the twenty-first century is an entirely extraordinary global phenomenon. TV ratings are still significant, but not to the same extent as they once were. For one thing, they have been widespread for a number of years, as human viewing habits have evolved. Some humans only view online content and by no means turn on a television. AEW does not yet have a domestic streaming service (they will likely find one as their media library expands), but they make extensive use of YouTube. In addition to hosting matches and footage from the televised shows, AEW’s YouTube channel also hosts AEW Dark and AEW Dark Elevation, a third and fourth weekly wrestling show that showcases their lower card and developmental talents. In addition, there is a dependable AEW podcast hosted by legendary commentator Tony Schiavone and fan-favorite referee Aubrey Edwards, something that WCW could not have even conceived of again in the day.
Owner Tony Khan manages AEW himself, as opposed to allowing men such as Eric Bischoff to do so.
Ted Turner was the chief executive officer of WCW, but he was not the day-to-day leader. He was not talented at normal television tapings, and he almost never ee-e booked the cards. He employed individuals, most notably Eric Bischoff, who assumed control of WCW in 1993, to test these items. Tony Khan, on the other hand, adopts a palms-up stance. He is no longer merely the proprietor; he is the person who is present every day, communicating to the employees what is expected of them and ensuring that things proceed as he desires. In this regard, he more closely resembles the greatest micromanager in wrestling, Vince McMahon, than does Turner.
Khan, in contrast to McMahon, adores not just the concept of wrestling, but everything about what wrestling is in the present day. As opposed to Turner, he is all about getting his hands dirty to put on the best possible professional wrestling performance. And unlike Bischoff, Khan has nothing to demonstrate to others and no interest in elevating himself. Tony Khan will never join the Blackpool Combat Club in the same way that Bischoff joined the New World Order. Khan only appears on television when there is a significant real-world international announcement.
