For so many years now the pinnacle of the wrestling entertainment world has been WWE that include weekly shows RAW and Smackdown, monthly PPV events, their streaming service and their developmental brand NXT. But lately their there has been a clear disconnect between upper management, talent and fans which has been evident by their terrible ratings the past few weeks. But if you enjoy watching wrestling there aren’t many alternatives except for Ring of Honor and TNA which can be really hit or miss. But there may be some sunshine in the horizon for wrestling fans as another new promotion is looking shake up the wrestling world.

Of course we are talking about All Elite Wrestling or AEW. Lead by CEO and AEW president Tony Khan, who is the son of billionaire Shahid Khan, who is the owner of many sports teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars. Matt and Nick Jackson also known as The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega are all executive vice presidents of AEW. Brandi Rhodes is the chief brand officer. Omega, the Young Bucks and both Cody and Brandi will also be in ring performers along with other great talent that has been brought in like Chris Jerico, the Lucha Brothers, Adama Page and many other talented independent wrestlers.

We are a week and a half away from their inaugural PPV event called Double or Nothing on May 25th, 2019 which will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. There is a lot of anticipation for this event as it will be our first look to see if this brand of wrestling will truly serve as the alternative that many are looking for from WWE. But it will take a lot more than just single shows to make an impact, the question for many months was would AEW be able to make a television deal?

Today we know that answer is yes. Via Variety we have learned that AEW has signed a deal with WarnerMedia that will see the wrestling promotion air a weekly show on TNT prime time starting later this year. This will be the first time that professional wrestling has aired on TNT since WWE’s last competitor WCW. They ended up being bought out by WWE in 2001, but we have great memories of what was known as the Monday Night Wars as both companies put out shows on the same night.

As we had mentioned above, there is currently a lot of very unhappy fans watching WWE who are looking for an alternative as their current offerings are lacking a lot of creativity. What makes matters worse is that viewers can often see how badly talent is being wasted week too week, which has recently lead to very unhappy talent. Rhodes talked to Variety about looking to capitalize on peoples desire for better quality wrestling.

“The term people are using is ‘alternative,’” Rhodes said. “For many years throughout my youth and plenty of other fans’ youths, pro wrestling has been essentially just one company and that’s not really the case. I want to be the sports-centric alternative in the pro wrestling world and I think we’re on a good path to get there.”

One interesting thing that AEW will using, which most other sports are unfortunately turning to more and more, are analytics as part of their show. “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,” he 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.” I am very curious to see how they are able to put together the story telling of wrestling along analytics. It will be nice to see that a wrestlers performance from week to week matters, unlike the confusing bookings that often happen on WWE, where a wrestler could win one week and then just disappear for now apparent reason other than lazy story telling.

Will you be tuning into AEW this fall? Let us know in the comment section below!

AEW’s inaugural PPV event Double or Nothing will happen May 25th, 2019.

ALSO SEE: NETFLIX’S LOSS OF DISNEY CONTENT COULD HURT STREAMING SERVICE

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook and Twitter using the buttons at the top! Or you can react to the post down below!

Source: Variety