5 Reasons To Be Worried About The Launch of AEW

5. TV deals come and go

Chris Jericho has officially signed a 3-year contract with All Elite Wrestilng

With a limited pay-per-view schedule and no house shows, streaming service or tape library, it appears that a potential TV deal will have to be AEW's main focus, which rumors have hinted at. Selling merchandise in the form of t-shirts and knit knats have been shown to be profitable due to high margins, but only a television deal on major American and international networks could be large enough in scale to recoup the Khan investment (WWE's TV deal by comparison is the biggest line item on their balance sheet and sole reason for their profitability). The problem is that relying on TV as a phantom company with no history or significant secondary revenue streams means that such a deal could potentially make or break the company. Contrast this with NJPW's viable, profitable business model which is primarily based on ticket sales and revenue from their own proprietary VOD service and it's easy to question the sustainability of AEW.

New Japan, along with rival promotion AJPW and women's promotion AJW, all enjoyed mainstream popularity in their home country during the 80s and 90s due to their presence on television in the Land of the Rising Sun but things change and what was a TV hit 25 years ago could be irrelevant now. NJPW is barely on conventional Japanese TV for a half hour in the middle of the night these days, yet their business is still successful on a smaller scale due to strong touring. Does AEW plan to mimic this model?

Likewise, Impact Wrestling whilst "TNA" once enjoyed ratings of well over a million viewers a week, something that would be considered fantastic today for a non-WWE wrestling company. Yet recently they were released from Pop TV after ratings shrunk to under 100,000 despite the recent product being praised by critics. In a word, TV alone is an unreliable way for a wrestling company to sustain itself long term as WWE is the one and only company to maintain a strong television presence throughout its entire history. Everyone else has gone through peaks and valleys. What happens if AEW can't keep a deal in place long term? What if they fail to secure a major primetime slot to begin with? The future of wrestling certainly won't look as bright.