wrestling / News

Sean Waltman on How AEW’s Success is Likely to Change the Indy Scene, Other Companies Possibly Allying with AEW

June 6, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
AEW Logo Sandra Gray, AEW Figure Fighters, Kevin Kelly Image Credit: AEW

– During his latest episode of X-Pac 12360, Sean Waltman touched on how AEW’s success is likely to impact the independent wrestling scene. Waltman said on the show that Jon Moxley’s work with NJPW will likely not be able to extend to the company’s US shows due to his deal with AEW, and what AEW may do to the indy scene as a whole. Highlights are below:

On NJPW using Moxley while he’s under AEW contract: “I can’t imagine New Japan being able to use Dean Ambrose in the United States. I don’t see that, and if I was AEW, I would not allow that. Just hey, you have to have distinctions between brands. Especially coming into like how the climate in the industry now.”

On independent wrestling companies diverging from each other now: “I was telling Conrad when he was on the show, I knew the kumbaya days were coming to an end after All In, you know. When somebody [who’s] not WWE sells 10,000 tickets in 30 minutes, eyebrows get raised. And you know, I’ve mentioned this before, like the brand confusion between like Impact and MLW in the past, I think they’re kind of — get[ting] more distinct. You can tell the difference between the brands a lot more now than you could maybe six months ago, where they were a lot of the same talent was on both shows.”

On how AEW may change the indy scene: “I can see the independent promotions that are smaller, like the MLWs or the Impacts or whatever, or even smaller than that but they still do decent business when they put on shows like Northeast Wrestling, Big Time Wrestling, Maryland Championship Wrestling. Out here on the West Coast like All Pro Wrestling … PCW out here. I can see all these independent promotions at some point aligning with one of the other, kind of like EVOLVE does with WWE. Or even other groups like in Europe and in the UK like Insane Championship Wrestling or things like that where there’s a loose alliance with WWE. And I see these guys leading up to all this, showing up at all these different independent shows, you know, Young Bucks and Cody and different people. It just makes me think that those promotions can be like the local promotions for an AEW. Because there’s always been when a big company runs shows in an area, they always have the local promoters.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit XPac 12360 with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.