All Elite Wrestling has been making some noise with their recent signings. With the WWE dropping talent left and right AEW has decided to do a little shopping. I have seen them being criticized by fans who think they are falling down the TNA or WCW rabbit hole of signing WWE castoffs. The thing is that every wrestling company since the beginning of time has done this.
The WWE when they were the WWF has done this and still do it to some degree. NFL and NBA pick up guys off that have been waived by other organizations. Also, contracts do end talent does become available. In the case of guys like Mark Henry, Christian and Big Show they were available. There are not a lot of trained professional wrestlers who already have a name for themselves just readily available. Especially those who know how to work on a nationally televised program.
For those of you who were not around or don’t remember the mid to late 1990s, WCW used old WWF talent to beat them in the ratings for 83 straight weeks during the Monday Night War. The guy who saves WWF/E was Stone Cold Steve Austin, who happened to be a man that was fired by WCW. Before Nash and Hall were in the NWO they were WCW guys who they didn’t use much. They then went on to work for the WWF and became stars. This is as old as the wrestling business.
The key for AEW is that they don’t do what TNA did and push guys beyond their capability because they came from Stamford. Guys got title pushes that were not well developed and their homegrown stars got pushed back. So far AEW has not done that. The 2 guys from WWE who became World Champs were Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose who both were World Champs in their respective WWE careers.
Right now, things seem to be working out at AEW. Will be interesting to see how Andrade does. The Big Show and Mark Henry roles both appear to be behind the screens. Sting and Christian are out helping younger talents get over. Let’s not forget that AEW is a little short of 2 years old. They have a lot of growing to do and some more mistakes to make. We as fans can just enjoy the ride.
Written By
Keith B. Holt
Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr
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