All Elite Wrestling helped spark professional wrestling’s latest boom period. In the late 2010s, fans had grown frustrated at WWE’s monopoly on the industry and began to turn to alternatives to get their wrestling fix. This allowed companies like New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor to bring in record crowds while independent circuits across the globe thrived. This outside-of-WWE wrestling revolution materialized into AEW, a start-up brand immediately cemented itself as the No.2 wrestling company in the world. Just five months after its first event, AEW landed a multi-year television deal with Warner Bros. Discovery.
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That honeymoon period came to a gradual halt over the course of 2022. Renewed interest in WWE following Vince McMahon’s first retirement combined with a plethora of backstage incidents within AEW put a damper on the company’s once red-hot momentum.
Cody Rhodes Pushes For AEW’s “Very Important” Existence
Despite being the champion of the competition, Cody Rhodes is adamant that AEW continues to surge forward.
“It’s very important that they hang in there,” Rhodes told Cheap Heat. “Necause if that were to go away, I don’t think anybody in the locker room has any clue of the financial repercussions that would have on the wrestling business or the trickle-down effect that would have on independent wrestling.”
Rhodes is a former AEW Executive Vice President and is credited as a co-founder of the company. His push for ALL IN (2018), the largest independent wrestling event ever produced, is considered the spiritual start of AEW and is one of a couple of sparks that prompted AEW President Tony Khan to pull the trigger on creating the promotion.
AEW’s success has helped make the wrestling industry the most lucrative it has ever been. Khan’s ability to out-bit WWE for top talent has led to stars like Mercedes Moné, Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, Drew McIntyre, and others signing high seven-figure deals. As Rhodes alluded to, that effect has trickled down to the independent scene as well, as stars like Matt Cardona have been able to accumulate more money on indie shows than he ever made in WWE.
“We’ve created a really comfortable environment in sports-entertainment for men and women to feed their families and to do well. I would hate to see that bubble burst,” Rhodes continued. “That’s a random fear I have when they’re down or if they’re up or whatever it may be. I would never root against them, in any case.”
