Edge And Christian Talk AEW's TV Deal With TNT
Recently on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, pro wrestling legends Edge and Christian weighed in on All Elite Wrestling's TV deal with TNT. During the podcast, Edge and Christian expressed their excitement over AEW's impending television program, though Edge cautioned that the new show must be given a real opportunity to succeed as starting any new television program needs time to hit its stride and find an audience.
As previously announced, AEW will begin airing a weekly television show on TNT later in 2019. In response, Christian claimed that AEW finding its TV home and TNT reentering the pro wrestling business is "huge" news.
"It was announced that All Elite [Wrestling] has signed a deal with TNT and will start airing a weekly show later this year," Christian said. "It's pretty big. That's huge! It's funny. Yeah, you think about where this kind of idea spawned starting from that show they did last year [ALL IN]. They wanted to do the biggest independent show and it just goes to show you if you keep pushing it, if you want to will something into existence, you can do it.
"And it's huge for the industry. It really is. I mean, having that kind of platform to showcase talent and there is so much talent out there nowadays. It's always great for the talent to have a place to apply their trade and earn a living. It's great."
Edge shared his excitement on the subject as well, saying he hopes AEW succeeds.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what they do though," Edge added. "It's exciting. Good for them. And I hope they knock it out of the park. I really do."
With that said, Edge hedged, as he hopes TNT gives AEW a real chance to succeed. Moreover, 'The Rated-R Superstar' wondered what kind of ratings AEW's new show will receive.
"Obviously, there is a marketplace for it as well. What will be interesting to see will be is the numbers that they actually pull in, what the network is expecting, and what realistic expectation is there too. Is it kind of a fledgling company starting out? I hope it does gangbusters. I really do. But I just hope that they're given the time – do you know what I mean – to ascend outside their core audience and just have time because any new show, any show new, [anything new is a process]." Edge continued, "to work out the kinks, if there are any, and maybe there won't be any, just to figure out production values, editing processes? how are you going to shoot your backstage promos? Are you going to give it this feel [or] that feel? A lot of different things go into it and it will be interesting to see what they do."
Christian remained optimistic that AEW will have the necessary funds at its disposal to tweak production elements as the show evolves.
"And the good thing is too, money doesn't seem to be an issue, so there's that as well," Christian noted. "They have that luxury, so to speak, of being able to work through some of those trial and error periods if it does happen."
Listen to the podcast here or via the embedded audio player below. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.