On the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer provided more details on the contractual agreement between PAC and All Elite Wrestling.
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest stories of the weekend was the cancellation of PAC’s match with Hangman Page at AEW Double Or Nothing, following an altercation and subsequent impromptu match at a WrestleGate event in the United Kingdom.
It’s interesting to note that Dave continues to report the creative differences were cited as the reason for this match being called off .. do not apply to the match at Double Or Nothing. Rather, it’s said that PAC was penciled to win his match this Saturday, but subsequently lose to Kenny Omega somewhere down the road.
Due to PAC’s loyalty to the Dragon Gate brand in Japan, he has a part-time deal with AEW. In order to protect his standing in the Dragon Gate promotion, PAC has been undefeated throughout all other bookings. The match with Adam Page will be shown tomorrow on the official YouTube channel of AEW.
Below is what Dave Meltzer had to say. (h/t: Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone):
“It was a part-time contract. His contract allowed him to continue to do Dragon Gate. He wasn’t going to give up Dragon Gate so it was a different deal than a lot of the other people. There’s many different types of contracts that they do there.
“The deal is and I think people get this misinterpreted, the reality is that he was going to beat Adam Page. He was going to beat Adam cause it would set up a program with Kenny Omega and he wasn’t going to beat Kenny Omega.”
“I think that the mentality was and this is months down the line when this was going to happen. You people were like, ‘how could they let it go into the last week?’ Well, they were booking months down the line. They didn’t want to beat Adam Page unless it meant something. If not, then what’s the point? There’s no point to the win. Yeah you could get through the show and I will say, again, every other promotion would have done it differently. They would have just done a DQ.
“They weren’t going to do that and they want to get off on a certain foot and you can criticize them and then there it’s incumbent on them that you can present something better, because they took out a match, you know even though we’re going to get to see the match on Tuesday, if you want to see it, they took out a match that on paper would be one of the best matches on the show. So they got to improve on it, but that’s the story behind it was they want their wins and losses to mean something and this would not allow that to happen so they have a new story that gets where they want to go or that they’ve redone and I don’t know what it is. We’ll have to see it on Saturday and then we’ll have to see later. You know, to see where it plays out. I know where the other thing played out and the other thing the way it was scheduled to play out, him not losing to Omega, the whole thing falls apart at that point. So there ya go. But yeah, he’s under contract and another thing too is that he got paid by AEW for that match in England as did Adam Page. So they were paid like this is an AEW match. It was part of both men’s contracts. The match that was in England.
“Will they use him going forward? You know, not now. Will it happen later? There’s no guarantee that they ever will. There’s no guarantee. If he loses the championship, will they talk and bring him in? If he wants it and they want, absolutely. There’s no – I don’t want to say there’s no negativity towards it – but it’s not like close to insurmountable or anything even that like close to that. If they are able to book him you where he wins some and loses some, you know as it pertains, as it will be with everyone, they’ll do that. If they are handicapped and he can never lose, they’re not going to do enough draws and DQ finishes to be able to book someone who will never lose. Unless it’s a guy who they’re doing a never lose-streak with and that guy eventually has to lose too.
It was not a full-time deal because he didn’t want to sign a full-time deal because he didn’t want to give up Dragon Gate and that’s his prerogative. He likes Dragon Gate and good for him, you know?”
Do you think AEW should use PAC going forward? let us know in the comments below.
