By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Variety.com ran a story featuring quotes from Cody and Jim Ross to coincide with the official announcement of TNT as the network home for All Elite Wrestling. “The term people are using is ‘alternative,'” Cody said. “For many years throughout my youth and plenty of other fans’ youths, pro wrestling has been essentially just one company and that’s not really the case. I want to be the sports-centric alternative in the pro wrestling world and I think we’re on a good path to get there.”
Ross played up competition while emphasizing that AEW doesn’t have to beat WWE. “Competitive means being profitable,” Ross said. “It doesn’t mean, ‘We have to have this to beat the WWE.’ Our job is not to worry about what WWE is doing, not their TV clearances, not whose in the main event, nothing. With a growing company there are a lot of growing pains. It’s a mix of creative and athletics and a lot of different things. Our focus has to be us, period.”
Cody also spoke about the company using analytics and emphasizing wins and losses. “One thing we really strongly want to present is wins and losses mattering again in pro wrestling,” said Cody. “That takes more than the W and the L column. We’re talking about percentage of times someone loses to this particular maneuver, percentages against somebody of this height, a whole by-the-numbers approach that really intrigues me. It’s not a cornerstone of AEW necessarily but it’s a great peripheral element we’re working on and that’s going to be exclusive to us.” Read the full story at Variety.com.
Powell’s POV: The use of analytics in the way that Cody describes interests me greatly because it’s sports-like in nature. AEW President Tony Khan has spoken repeatedly in interviews about making wins and losses matter and I’m looking forward to seeing how that is implemented. Ross also spoke about AEW having young leadership and how he believes it will help the company relate to the 18-34 and 18-49 demographics.
Check below for the latest Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast with Jason Powell and guest Justin Credible discussing his sobriety, what triggered his PTSD, filming the Credible documentary, returning to the ring, his thoughts on WWE, AEW, the NWA Crockett Cup, and more.
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