AEW announcer Alex Marvez sat down with Busted Open Radio to talk about the deal with TNT and what that means to the company. For him, it all started with the work Vince has put in since the end of the Monday Night Wars.
So much credit to Vince McMahon in this regard, he has helped change the perception of pro wrestling in so many ways. Remember, wrestling struggled to get high-class advertisers for such a long time. That’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t want to call it pro wrestling, it’s sports entertainment. For him, it’s all about the money. If Vince could make millions of dollars calling it pro wrestling, he wouldn’t have a problem with that.
When you think about why WCW got canceled in the first place. There were lots of headaches behind the scenes, the company was losing money, and it was difficult to sell pro wrestling to mainstream advertisers. Wrestling was a niche product. I believe now that wrestling is mainstream, even though the ratings are down for RAW and SmackDown. We have a generation of people growing up who know all of the WWE guys and watch WrestleMania every year.
Shifting to AEW, Alex seems very excited about the possibilities. Not just with AEW’s weekly show on TNT, but with the online capabilities brought on thanks to partner organization Bleacher Report.
I’m so glad Turner took the plunge, and this isn’t your daddy’s Turner. You’re talking about an agreement with Bleacher Report, the streaming online, there are so many things we can do. It’s still in the infancy stages, but you’re talking about another component to continue to enhance the brand and product. It’s great to be on cable, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the icing on the cake to get to work with the preeminent sports streaming service online.
You can hear the full clip embedded below.
"I believe now pro wrestling is mainstream."@alexmarvez spoke to @davidlagreca1 & @bullyray5150 about @AEWrestling's TV deal with @tntdrama & what that means to the wrestling business. pic.twitter.com/lM5mXi1RwZ
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) May 15, 2019
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