Tony Khan, the head of AEW, has shared his thoughts on WWE’s new initiative, the “WWE ID” program.
This program promises to reshape the world of independent wrestling by supplying more structured pathways for rising wrestlers to establish their reputations and potentially secure contracts with WWE.
Following the AEW Full Gear 2024 media event, the president of the organization gave his insights into the novel initiative. He stated,
“It’s interesting. I don’t really know how it’s going to work. I understand there is some kind of first right or refusal aspect of it. We haven’t come up where it’s been a conflict yet. I do think it’s going to affect the independent scene in some ways. We’ve had a really great experience here over the years bringing in young wrestlers. Through the pandemic, the best place for independent wrestlers to get work was at AEW and on AEW Dark and Elevation.”
In further comments, he noted, “The women and men in AEW, we’ve seen so many excellent wrestlers climb their way up from the independents, we’ve contracted significant free agents, and we have plenty of homegrown day-one people. It’s a great mix. I expect we’ll continue acquiring great talent from the independents. I do think it’s a different mechanism. It’s something to monitor closely. It hasn’t caused significant disputes or issues as of yet, but I imagine it will definitely have an impact on the independent wrestling industry. It’s something we need to monitor.”
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