Shane Helms Thinks AEW Will Be Good For Wrestling, Talks WCW Comparisons

– Shane Helms discussed the advent of All Elite Wrestling during an appearance on Booker T’s Heated Conversations podcast. Highlights are below, per Wrestling Inc:

On the arrival of AEW: “[AEW] is gonna be good for the business. Competition is good, there’s an excitement in the air, those guys are some of my good friends, with Chris Jericho being a very close friend of mine. I’m excited to see what they do. We need that again, when the business was on fire with that Monday Night Wars. There’s a lot of people that thought that would never be duplicated, and it still might not this time, it’s still too early to say. But, if we can generate that excitement again – there’s a lot of crazy vibes in the air right now it seems to me.”

On AEW’s challenges: “A lot of the talent that they have right now, they kinda wrestle a similar style. That’s the only negative I see and that’s not even really a negative if that style’s working for them. For me, the best wrestling companies have always presented a variety of things, a variety of styles. But that’s gonna be small, they’ll figure that out. They’ve got the guys there that will figure that out. It’s too early to say what any negatives might be, but it’s not gonna come from a talent standpoint for sure, because those are guys – they all respect the game and it’s not gonna be a buddy system. You’re gonna have to be able to carry your load with those guys.”

On AEW being the new WCW: “The only thing to compare them right now to is WCW, because they were the last people to challenge Vince, so that’s gonna be a natural comparison. But with WCW, they would just hire anybody back in the day, it didn’t matter if your a– was good or not. They were just giving money handouts as a fist, this company right here, they’re gonna be a little bit more smarter with their money and I think they’ll keep an eye on that. And those young guys, they know that, and two, that’s where Chris is gonna come in to play a little bit more than people realize, too. Because he was in WCW, he saw some of those mistakes so he’s gonna bring not just name value, and not just what he brings in the ring, but he’s gonna bring some business experience that they definitely need.”