Wednesdaymania 28

What the heck are the Young Bucks doing?!

No, seriously, what is up on Being the Elite? I'm curious as heck and a little nervous.

For those of you not yet in the know, the Elite are a group of wrestlers out of Ring of Honor and New Japan. They consist of:

Cody & Brandi Rhodes

The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

Hangman Adam Page

Technically, this list should also include two more, but!

These guys didn't re-sign with ROH.

Which means that their last matches for Ring of Honor were this past week, and their last Pay Per View on the Ring of Honor payroll was Final Battle.

What. Are. They. Doing?!

Because these guys have not signed with either ROH or New Japan, which is the other company I've been seeing them in.

It also means that Lewiston was probably my only chance to ever see them all in one place...


But also, what does this mean for the rest of the Elite?

Kenny Omega is signed to New Japan through next month.
After that, though, who knows?!

Marty Scurll signed a contract extension with ROH that takes him through April of next year.

And what's stranger is that there are other people to consider.

SCU have timers on their phones in the latest episode of Being the Elite...
The timers expire in two weeks, I think.
Huh.

Kota Ibushi is still a free agent who is not signed to any long-term contracts.

So.

What the heck is going on?

Add to all this weirdness the fact that Cody & The Bucks specifically have been talking to Shahid Khan, who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and they've filed trademarks for All-Elite Wrestling and you've got some interesting theories bubbling up inside me.

THEORY 1:
Khan, Cody, & The Bucks are forming their own wrestling company which will work with other companies to allow cross-promotional talent exchange & championships.

THEORY 2:
All-Elite Wrestling will be a wrestling school, which SCU (specifically Christopher Daniels) would be teachers at.

THEORY 3:
All-Elite Wrestling is going to be the nerdiest, weirdest, most dangerous wrestling company outside of Joey Janela's madhouse. It could be run a bit like MLW Fusion has been - primarily on YouTube with TV support.

THEORY 4:
All-Elite Wrestling is going to be a real-live wrestling promotion with its own tour circuits and championships, as fully realized as any other promotion, but run entirely by wrestlers and funded by Khan. This is the one I'm most interested in, as I doubt that the Being the Elite videos would stop, but they would suddenly be much more behind-the-scenes, and as someone trying to write about wrestling from the inside out while looking from the outside in, this appeals. It also appeals to me because...

I think they can do it.

I really think that these guys can run a successful promotion.

I have no illusions that they could become real competition for WWE, since WWE is a juggernaut with decades upon decades of inter-business goodwill built up with television deals, pay-per-view experience, and a seemingly bottomless budget.

But they could make things weird for smaller companies like ROH, PWG, etc, if that was their goal.

I don't think that's their goal. I don't think they want to be competition to other small promotions. I think they want to make the indies more attractive to the average wrestling fan. I think they want to expand the audience and improve things for everyone.

I also think that they want to make some money. Which I don't think will be a real problem once they get everything settled and set up. Seriously - all they'd have to do is set up a Patreon or something and they'd start raking in extra dough. They've got an incredible amount of good will amongst wrestling fans.

I have no idea if Kota & Kenny would be joining with the All-Elite company after their contracts are up. I don't know if Marty would be joining them. I don't know if the SCU timers are a real sign that they're going too.

ROH is losing some really, really big names. I hope that the All-Elite whatever-it-is can play nice with ROH & other mid-level promotions, because I'd love to see all of these guys in easily-accessible places.

The mind boggles.

Also, Flip isn't booked. :P

Go Enjoy Something, guys!
FC