Jerry Lawler On Advice For AEW Owners, How Expensive A New Wrestling Promotion Can Be, Competition

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler recently spoke about the new All Elite Wrestling promotion on his Dinner With The King podcast. It should be noted that Lawler made these comments before the big AEW official launch rally this past Tuesday.

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Lawler said one thing is for sure and that's AEW being a force to be reckoned with just off the large amount of money that the Khan family has to put into it. Lawler noted that he knows of Tony Khan and how he's a huge wrestling fan, and indicated he's heard of the family putting a lot of money into AEW.

"They're billionaires," Lawler said of the family. "I think the family fortune is well over $7 billion, which is a lot of money. And I understand they're going to put a lot of money into starting up this new wrestling promotion."

Lawler also mentioned how he and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross were recently discussing AEW, which is interesting because many have speculated on JR going to work for AEW later this year.

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"JR and I were kind of talking about them the other day and I said, 'You know, if I had $7 billion I don't know if I'd be thinking about starting up a new wrestling promotion,'" Lawler said. "Starting a wrestling promotion can make a millionaire out of a billionaire, or maybe even a thousandaire out of a billionaire. I don't know... it's just, I just think it's an expensive proposition and I don't know how. I hope it does well because believe it or not, competition is the best thing for anything. The best time that the WWE ever had was during the Monday Night Wars. You had two wrestling shows on at the same time on Monday nights. Two different companies, and they were getting 7 and 8 million people watching each one of them. And now you struggle to get 2 million to watch the only show in town."

Lawler continued, "I wish them luck. It definitely will be a force to be reckoned with. When you have that much money you can do pretty much anything. I think they'll definitely get the thing off the ground, and they'll definitely be able to hire some big name talent and that sort of thing. Is the climate right now that people want an alternative?"

Co-host- Glenn Moore pointed to how he believes AEW can become more than just another Impact Wrestling or Lucha Underground promotion if they push more adult content and if they have a network TV deal. Lawler agreed.

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"I agree with you about the adult content, that's all I hear about from fans is how much they miss the Attitude Era and that sort of thing, and with the little more adult content," Lawler said. "But that doesn't fly anymore with major advertisers. I don't know, it's just hard to say. If they get a good slot on TV on a good cable station,w ill they need to worry about advertisers? If that's the case, if they don't, then they can probably go for a little more adult-oriented show. The funny thing is, it's amazing, if you watch 80% of the primetime TV shows, like a show like Mom or different shows that are on now, they're definitely PG-13, if anything. They have so much sexual and adult content on the shows that are on nowadays, anyway. I mean tons more than you have on a wrestling show. But they're on network TV. Who knows, we'll see what happens."

Lawler reiterated that competition is great for everybody, warning the Khan family to avoid some of what led to WCW's demise.

"One thing I'd remind the guy, is don't have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians," Lawler said. "You know, I think that was one of the things that happened and caused the demise of WCW back in the day. You had a lot of the wrestlers all of a sudden be involved in making business decisions, which I don't know if that's always the best thing."

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You can listen to the full episode below:

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