5 Reasons To Be Worried About The Launch of AEW

2. They have no plans to consolidate

Competition abounds in pro-wrestling

On a recent edition Sean Waltman's X-Pac 12360 podcast, Tony Khan specifically stated that AEW has no plans to purchase other promotions or buy tape libraries and didn't elaborate further as to why. This is troubling as the existing pro wrestling market has become saturated with small to mid-sized federations languishing in relative mediocrity, making AEW another addition to an already crowded field of WWE alternatives. Ring of Honor, Impact or an indie fed would be the perfect pet project for a wealthy individual interested in speculating in the wrestling business to get involved with, as they have existing industry recognition, internal infrastructure and fanbases that would make positioning them for success much easier than starting a company from scratch.

There is also the issue of tape libraries, which are often the heart of a wrestling companies underlying financial value. Since the Elite have only produced one show thus far, it will be a long time before AEW can sell a streaming service or lots of physical media. At least with the old TNA and Ring of Honor libraries under control, they could hawk a $5-10 per month VOD service until they've established a healthy back catalog themselves.