Near the end of his tenure in WWE, they ran him into the ground with the pathetic Stardust gimmick to mirror his brother Dustin's gimmick of Goldust, but then Cody Rhodes said enough and ended his time with the company. And that was the best thing for him and what has become one of the better things for wrestling. After having successful runs in Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor, Cody headed to Japan to join Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks as a Bullet Club member in New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was in all of these places and all of the connections he was making that the "American Nightmare" started to slowly take after his father, the late and great "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, more and more. His father, as well as being a great wrestler, was a tremendous booker and wrestling mind who put together some great ideas in WCW over the years and was one of the most significant behind the scenes men in the original NXT. Now it was Cody's turn, despite not wanting to just be Dusty's son, he is Dusty through and through but people see Cody for Cody now because of the brilliant mind that he has and what he has done along with the Young Bucks as well as his wrestling talent.
It was all of this that led to Cody and the Young Bucks having a big event in Chicago at the United Center (the biggest arena in the city, where the Bulls play) called ALL IN. Selling out the building in less than an hour, it was the first big non-WWE wrestling event that had happened since the end of WCW because despite their trying ROH and Impact don't have near the clout to pull that off. That led to everyone asking something once ALL IN was done; could Cody Rhodes and the Bucks start a promotion ??
The final answer was revealed on January 1st, 2019 with the announcement of All Elite Wrestling. A promotion that was not just backed by those three but had the backing both arena support and financial support of Shahid Khan, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and his son Tony Khan. That's quite the hefty financial backing, from a billionaire in Florida, someone who has money to rival Vince (well okay maybe not but a lot of money to burn, anybody who pays Blake Bortles is burning money). Finally, what looked like what was going to be a solid secondary promotion was born; a desperately needed secondary promotion with the way that booking and management ran Impact into the ground and the way Sinclair Broadcasting was handling ROH.
That's the other thing, I talk about these companies now and I also mentioned connections that Cody Rhodes made, this has allowed Rhodes and the Bucks to have already decent working relations with ROH and New Japan Pro Wrestling but they have officially partnered with Oriental Wrestling Entertainment in China and Lucha Libre AAA in Mexico. This allows a lot of collaboration between all of these promotions and potentially others down the road because unlike WWE, other promotions aren't afraid of collabs to get the best out of the best in world.
It was all of this that led to Cody and the Young Bucks having a big event in Chicago at the United Center (the biggest arena in the city, where the Bulls play) called ALL IN. Selling out the building in less than an hour, it was the first big non-WWE wrestling event that had happened since the end of WCW because despite their trying ROH and Impact don't have near the clout to pull that off. That led to everyone asking something once ALL IN was done; could Cody Rhodes and the Bucks start a promotion ??
The final answer was revealed on January 1st, 2019 with the announcement of All Elite Wrestling. A promotion that was not just backed by those three but had the backing both arena support and financial support of Shahid Khan, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and his son Tony Khan. That's quite the hefty financial backing, from a billionaire in Florida, someone who has money to rival Vince (well okay maybe not but a lot of money to burn, anybody who pays Blake Bortles is burning money). Finally, what looked like what was going to be a solid secondary promotion was born; a desperately needed secondary promotion with the way that booking and management ran Impact into the ground and the way Sinclair Broadcasting was handling ROH.
That's the other thing, I talk about these companies now and I also mentioned connections that Cody Rhodes made, this has allowed Rhodes and the Bucks to have already decent working relations with ROH and New Japan Pro Wrestling but they have officially partnered with Oriental Wrestling Entertainment in China and Lucha Libre AAA in Mexico. This allows a lot of collaboration between all of these promotions and potentially others down the road because unlike WWE, other promotions aren't afraid of collabs to get the best out of the best in world.
Well, now that we know about the promotion, we needed to know about the roster. Other than the Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks who would be a part of AEW ?? As of right now, the roster stands as:
AEW Male Roster (so far)
Cody Rhodes
The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)
Kenny Omega
Chris Jericho
"Hangman" Adam Page
Pac (formally Neville)
Christopher Daniels
Frankie Kazarian
Pentagon Jr
Rey Fenix
Brandon Cutler
Chuckie T.
Cima
Jimmy Havoc
Joey Janela
Kip Sabien
Maxwell Jacob Friedmen
Sammy Guevara
Scorpio Sky
Sonny Kiss
Trent Baretta
AEW Female Roster (so far)
Aja Kong
Bea Priestly
Brandi Rhodes
Britt Baker
Kylie Rae
Nyla Rose
Penelope Ford
Yuka Sakazaki
Now this is already a strong roster on the male side and while the female side is weaker it is still strong, that being said the roster is already full of talented individuals. With their NJPW and ROH connections there will be cross-promotion so you'll see more talent roll through and I doubt their roster is finished as there are tons of wrestlers out there looking for work and many WWE wrestlers currently unhappy with their place in the company and wanting out. The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) have asked for their release, Tye Dillinger was just released, Dean Ambrose asked for his release (and it is to be assumed that his wife Renee Young would follow), Sasha Banks has hinted at it, and I wouldn't be surprised to see other mishandled talent (and there's a lot) ask for their release. Now, after their release from WWE most stars have a 90 day no-compete clause where they can't wrestle for other promotions. But, expect to see them in AEW when they can.
BUT VINCE, WHY SHOULD HE WORRY ??
AEW Male Roster (so far)
Cody Rhodes
The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)
Kenny Omega
Chris Jericho
"Hangman" Adam Page
Pac (formally Neville)
Christopher Daniels
Frankie Kazarian
Pentagon Jr
Rey Fenix
Brandon Cutler
Chuckie T.
Cima
Jimmy Havoc
Joey Janela
Kip Sabien
Maxwell Jacob Friedmen
Sammy Guevara
Scorpio Sky
Sonny Kiss
Trent Baretta
AEW Female Roster (so far)
Aja Kong
Bea Priestly
Brandi Rhodes
Britt Baker
Kylie Rae
Nyla Rose
Penelope Ford
Yuka Sakazaki
Now this is already a strong roster on the male side and while the female side is weaker it is still strong, that being said the roster is already full of talented individuals. With their NJPW and ROH connections there will be cross-promotion so you'll see more talent roll through and I doubt their roster is finished as there are tons of wrestlers out there looking for work and many WWE wrestlers currently unhappy with their place in the company and wanting out. The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) have asked for their release, Tye Dillinger was just released, Dean Ambrose asked for his release (and it is to be assumed that his wife Renee Young would follow), Sasha Banks has hinted at it, and I wouldn't be surprised to see other mishandled talent (and there's a lot) ask for their release. Now, after their release from WWE most stars have a 90 day no-compete clause where they can't wrestle for other promotions. But, expect to see them in AEW when they can.
BUT VINCE, WHY SHOULD HE WORRY ??
I just gave a rundown on Cody Rhodes, the Bucks, and all of AEW but never said why Vince should worry yet. This is why. At this point WWE is a shell of a wrestling company that takes some of the most talented pro wrestlers on the planet and reduces their careers to ash whether sticking them with bad gimmicks or just by generally not booking them right. It has caused us to see the harsh decline of megastars like Finn Balor and Shinuske Nakamura for instance. With stars like these unhappy, it's easy to see that they'd want an easier schedule but also a schedule and booking run by someone who knows what they're doing and is more about stories through promo and an old school flair than "sports entertainment". There are also big wrestling contracts up in the air in the next few years that could see them just not want to re-sign, the greatest announcer of all time Jim Ross is a name that comes to mind. Having a commentary team that consisted of Renee Young, Mauro Renalo, and the GREAT Jim Ross, would be AMAZING. Let's add the abundance of talented people like Balor, Nakamura, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Rusev, Bray Wyatt, Sasha Banks, Bayley, etc that all either have expiring contracts or are having gripes with the promotion that could flood over to AEW. Now top it off with big names like CM Punk potentially returning from retirement (which would be a dream for me). Also I'd love to see backstage booking/agenting by the famous manager Jim Cornette. This is all because Cody Rhodes managed to sell out the United Center, announced a Madison Square Garden show that had hints of a sellout so Vince blocked them out, now that AEW is official you can tell they're scrambling at WWE Headquarters.
Rhodes and the Bucks have got Vince doing one thing that he hasn't done since Bischoff did it in the late 90's.....and that is sweat a little. TNA, ROH, no one ever made him flinch, but now that all these stars want out, that all these other big name promotions like NJPW and ROH are willing to cross-promote, now that golden-child legends like Chris Jericho are officially done and over there. Now that this is occurring, Vince is sweating a little
WHICH IS TREMENDOUS !!!!!!!!!
All Elite Wrestling will never be able to overtake WWE no one can, but they are now in a unique position, no one is in they are able to put the screws to Vince and actually give him competition. With competition comes growth, WWE hasn't truly grown in years, they've stagnated and it's that stagnation that has caused wrestling fans to want something different and new.
You know who provided that newness ??
These guys
Rhodes and the Bucks have got Vince doing one thing that he hasn't done since Bischoff did it in the late 90's.....and that is sweat a little. TNA, ROH, no one ever made him flinch, but now that all these stars want out, that all these other big name promotions like NJPW and ROH are willing to cross-promote, now that golden-child legends like Chris Jericho are officially done and over there. Now that this is occurring, Vince is sweating a little
WHICH IS TREMENDOUS !!!!!!!!!
All Elite Wrestling will never be able to overtake WWE no one can, but they are now in a unique position, no one is in they are able to put the screws to Vince and actually give him competition. With competition comes growth, WWE hasn't truly grown in years, they've stagnated and it's that stagnation that has caused wrestling fans to want something different and new.
You know who provided that newness ??
These guys
We can only look forward to seeing what their first, already sold out, event DOUBLE OR NOTHING has to offer the world of professional wrestling.
Let's see what All Elite can do !!!!!
Let's see what All Elite can do !!!!!