Not bad for a T-Shirt company, eh? A little over 1 year ago today, All Elite Wrestling was announced on Being The Elite, and over the course of 5 months, the hype built up for what was to be the “answer” to the question of “can there truly be another great wrestling alternative to WWE?” Double or Nothing exploded and showed the world that The Elite and their fellow wrestlers were ready to bring it. Then they got a TV deal with TNT and made AEW Dynamite and for the next three months they made consistently good ratings and an impact on the wrestling world. And today…they got their reward.
WarnerMedia released a press release today stating that not only was All Elite Wrestling getting an extension of their television contact into 2023, but that AEW will be getting a second night on television. Making it a two-show program, and when you add in AEW Dark on Youtube, that makes it technically a 3-show program. All of this proving that the fans are behind them, about 1.2 million of the if you believe the ratings they put in said press release.
“When Tony Khan first shared with me his idea of starting a new wrestling league, I was impressed by his audacity to go up against a contender that has been the only game in town for 20 years, and ultimately believed that together we could bring his vision for a new, authentic, gritty product to bear,” said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max, president, TNT, TBS, and truTV. “The fans have spoken and after only three months, we have seen AEW shake up the wrestling world and this will only continue as we build upon this momentum.”
This news will shake-up the wrestling world no doubt as much as the announcement of AEW itself, and likely will continue to keep the ratings up, especially with the next episode airing tonight, and their next PPV, Revolution, coming next month.
We’ll be talking about this shocking development and more on the next episode of The 450 Wrestling Podcast!
