In 2001, the business looked bleak at best. WCW had just been purchased by WWE and there was no formal competition for WWE. It didn’t take long. for there to be a spike in Northeast indies to pop up and take the place of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ROH, CZW, 3PW etc.) While that was happening in the Northeast there was something else going on in the South. The late Jerry Jarrett and son Jeff Jarrett upstarted NWA TNA to help fill the void left behind by Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling.
While both ROH and TNA had their high and low points both companies are still in existence and striving today. While TNA has been rebranded as Impact Wrestling led creatively by Scott D’Amore and ROH was purchased by Tony Khan on the 3/2/22 edition of AEW Dynamite.
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From the “biggest week of the company” in the above video, we are quickly approaching the biggest summer of the company. So why is the next media rights deal so important to the industry? That’s a great question. What was the mission statement of All Elite Wrestling when the company was formally announced?
So here we are 4 long years later and we are approaching not only the biggest attendance gate in the United Kingdom but also the biggest announcement ever made by company when their new media rights deal is announced later this month (rumored.) You have to tip your hat to Tony Khan, in the words of the Notorious B.I.G. “It was all a dream.” He went from playing wrestling simulation-based games like Promotion Wars, EWR and TEW 2020 to realize his dream of owning and running his own professional wrestling company not to mention all of his other accomplishments in life. On top of all that he did it when the wrestling industry was at its lowest it had been in quite some time. If all goes well this will go down as the greatest summer of all time for All Elite Wrestling. Congratulations Tony!
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