From its carnival roots to its streaming present, professional wrestling has always had promotions and promoters that operated independently. It was true in the Monday Night War era, so hopefully there will always be indies. Because right now it feels like everybody’s picking a side with either WWE or AEW.
For example, former TNA president Scott D’Amore just partnered with Tony Khan to put Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling on the new MyAEW service.
Over the weekend, another guy with TNA management experience
went out of his way to praise the men in charge of WWE. Billy Corgan didn’t announce any distribution deals between his NWA and WWE on Sirius XM’s Busted Open (transcription via Fightful) recently. But it’s hard not to read Corgan’s message to WWE president Nick Khan and chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque for letting Nattie Neidhart work July 25’s NWA 78 show as declaration that he’s “Team WWE”:
“Thank you, Nick Khan and Triple H. The support of the NWA has been mind-blowing to me. Of course, WWE is the industry leader. They drive most of the conversation… But, behind the scenes, WWE has treated me like gold. I have nothing but praise for them. They’ve just been amazing with me. Maybe that’s just at the end of the day, Triple H being a fan of old school NWA, it means something to him that the NWA has come back too.”
Will Nick Khan and Triple H’s patronage of NWA lead to more collaborations? Is much of the pro wrestling industry picking sides a good thing? A bad thing? Or “just a thing”?
Please share your thoughts below.
