All Elite Wrestling (AEW) Executive Vice President Kenny Omega was recently interviewed by POST Wrestling to talk about several professional wrestling topics. “The Cleaner” talked about how AEW differs from WCW, and the pending AEW TV deal. Here are the highlights:
How AEW differs from WCW: “I think the difference between ourselves and WCW, for example, is that we’re not looking to compete with WWE,” Omega said. “At least a big handful of us aren’t.
“Other people may have their own motivations or whatever, but, for us, we’re very much focused on just becoming the new [pro] wrestling alternative and I think in today’s new world with digital streaming services and such, a lot of wrestling fans, they’re going to watch everything anyway, and so I want people to enjoy [WWE’s] product if that’s what they’re into.
“Enjoy it. Watch it. I’m never going to do anything to try and undermine what they do. I’m never going to say, ‘hey, this is a different take on what you did except we did it better’ or whatever.”
AEW’s TV deal: “What we want to do is present something that is completely new to the table, completely different and we even want to tap into a different demographic. I mean, I’ve always been interested in the nonfan.” Omega said.
“I mean, I’m trying to attract your average Joe off the street and have them watch a match, or performance, or even this documentary, for example, and they’ll say, ‘do you know what? This is cool and I like it’ or, of course, the next best step after that is, ‘I like it and I’m actually willing to watch the show whether it be on TV or a streaming service, or show up to a live event and pay [for] a ticket.
“That’s really the cool sort of power that we can have in this day and age and that is to have a longer and more diverse reach via social media and all that. So I really hope that we aren’t being bound to being a wrestling show. We want to be a variety show that has wrestling on it and have it be universally entertaining for everyone.”
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
