Rumors emerged this year that a new super indie promotion was being started by Chris Jericho and Jim Ross, along with The Elite (The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, etc.), which would be in part bankrolled by the owner billionaire owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, Shahid Khan (or at least, his son Tony Khan). Multiple parties, including Chris Jericho and Jim Ross, shot down the idea almost immediately. Well, let’s just say a lot has happened since then.
But on November 5, a company filed trademarks for All Elite Wrestling LLC, for Goods & Services, covering all the standard merchandise, music, etc. things as well as “sports entertainment, namely, wrestling events rendered live and through broadcast media including television and radio.” While Tony Khan refused to comment on the rumors when they first broke, the address given for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is awfully familiar.
For those who aren’t NFL savvy, 1 TIAA Bank Field Drive is the address for the home stadium of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Which would seem to confirm the connection to the Khans. But the trademarks don’t just start with All Elite Wrestling – a name itself that incorporates elements of The Elite and their debut PPV, All In. In late October, AEW also opened their Twitter account, but so far it’s remained nonactive.
AEW also trademarked the following event names – AEW Double Or Nothing and AEW All Out. Double Or Nothing was the reported PPV name for the sequel to All In and All Out feels like it could be a third PPV option in the series. Cody and The Young Bucks hold the trademark on All In.
Interestingly, Cody Rhodes sent out a rather harmless looking tweet at the beginning of the NFL season, saying this season he was going “all in” on the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was weeks before the news began to circulate that the indie promotion was even in play, so it was disregarded as simply Cody changing his NFL allegiance this season.
Week 1 upon us
I’m going all in on the @Jaguars this season
Got a good feeling about em’
— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) September 9, 2018
In other possibly related news, Jim Ross’ WWE contract expires in March of 2019 and by all accounts, he will not be re-signing with the company. To add intrigue to the situation, AXS-TV has decided not to re-sign Jim Ross for future NJPW events on AXS after his deal expires this December. Ross himself addressed these issues on his last episode of his podcast. “My shows will run through the end of the year, that’s when my contract will be expiring,” he said. “So then, I have a contract with WWE that will end at the end of March,” Ross explained. And then we’ll see where things go. I have a lot of options, a lot of opportunities. I’m very blessed with everything that’s happened.” While he didn’t mention a new promotion, he did say “I love to call wrestling matches. So, something will come along, and I’ll be just fine… I’m going to miss that part of my life. At least for now. So come April, let’s see where the cards fall. It’s all going to be good. I promise you.”
Speaking of AXS-TV, they were originally reported to be the home network for this new promotion, but, like many of the others, denied they were involved in the project. But another trademark filed by AEW LLC was for a program called Tuesday Night Dynamite. With SmackDown Live moving to Friday nights next year with the FOX Sports deal, Tuesday nights will lose some wrestling programming from it’s routine for a lot of wrestling fans. If this is to be AEW’s flagship show, it would almost seem fitting that AXS-TV would pick up that show with their close ties to The Elite. And it could be why Ross was not picked up for NJPW again – so that he could become the new voice of AEW’s Tuesday Night Dynamite.
