Many have been dreaming of having the AEW library finally on-demand via streaming. Well, it finally looks like that is going to happen, as per Tony Khan. He is apparently looking into partnering up with WarnerMedia for streaming purposes….and yes that library will finally have a home and fans can watch the classic matches over and over…well, I’m sure you get the picture.
“…I’m talking to great people about WarnerMedia and AEW partnering…I think there’s a great opportunity as I work with one of the great media companies in the world, and they have a lot of great ideas. So hopefully we can make a solution for the fans, because believe me, I get asked that question every day. It’s a great opportunity for us. I’ve been trying to build the library up…”
via Rasslin’ with Brandon F. Walker /Wrestling Inc (Transcription)
The war between AEW and WWE certainly caught fire and ignited significantly over the last few weeks, and now with Tony Khan’s announcement of the Rampage buy-out to precede the episode this Friday, and the massive match announced between Bryan Danielson and Minoru Suzuki (it’ll coincidentally be a rematch of a match they had in 2004 – Danielson had many matches with NJPW legends before his WWE career got under way); I’d say that business has undoubtedly picked up for sure.
via ROH /YouTube
Danielson has spent large blocks of time throughout his career wrestling for ROH, NJPW, NWA Mid-South, Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, as well as many other promotions during his storied career. This is of course outside of his time in WWE.
The Friday Night Wars have undoubtedly begun and begun with significant action, or shots fired, by both sides, Vince McMahon firing first with his decision to extend Friday Night SmackDown on Fox by a half hour.
Tony Khan was merely firing back, and as we saw on his Twitter account, he was more than happy to respond in kind, resulting in the buy-in scheduled to air on AEW’s YouTube channel.
“…I think we’ve reached some even sooner than I would’ve thought…I always wanted Dynamite to be the number one show on cable, and now we’ve done it many times. And I think this weekend, with Rampage, we’ve seen it reach number one, we’ve seen it finish in the top ten, top fifteen many times. And I think to be a consistent, top show would be a great goal for Rampage, so we could have two shows that are really strong. I would love to keep doing these strong PPV numbers. We’ve had great support, and you know, as a fan, when we do a PPV, we’re going to give you a great card, a great set of matches…”
via Rasslin’ with Brandon F. Walker /Wrestling Inc (Transcription)
They’ve grown since their debut—undoubtedly—and many would do good to remember that they started with some pretty serious momentum, the company launching with quite a few professional wrestlers already on board back in 2019. But in recent months they’ve moved forward making leaps and bounds, and some would say surpassing the product being put forth by WWE. If AEW is planning on keeping epic debuts like the ones we’ve already seen since the mid to late summer, he had interesting things to say on that front as well:
“…Stay tuned…There’s so much yet to come. I think the return of Hangman this past week was such a huge step in that direction. Just seeing Hangman come back and to hear from him for the first time (in awhile) and now I think there’s a lot to see and hear from Hangman. And I can’t wait for Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page for the AEW World Title finally…I’m also excited for the Eliminator World Title Tournament for that number one contender spot. And we’ll do it again. Last year Kenny vs. Hangman was the final. Who will it be this year? That’ll be a great tournament and there’s a lot more to come…”
via Rasslin’ with Brandon F. Walker /Wrestling Inc (Transcription)
via Barstool Rasslin’ /YouTube
Over the last few months, and since his WWE release, it was announced that Bray Wyatt would be premiering at AEW, but recently reported by many in the pro wrestling journalism industry, Khan has stated of that acquisition as something he hasn’t spoken to Wyatt about, although he did express interest in having him at AEW.
So perhaps Wyatt isn’t a planned surprise, but who knows who will be moving forward. Until then, Rampage and the buy-in certainly look like must-see-TV if you ask me.
