Paul Heyman on AEW’s place in wrestling: ‘They present an alternative, if not a competitive brand’
Paul Heyman addressed AEW’s influence on the wrestling industry today, and how aspects of the promotion draws inspiration from ECW.
During his interaction with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight Podcast, Heyman discussed AEW’s influence and role played in shaping the modern wrestling landscape. When asked whether wrestling is in a better place now because of AEW’s presence, Heyman addressed Tony Khan’s impact on talent compensation, and similarities with ECW.
“Well, I certainly hope so. I mean it shortchanged the compensation packages for a lot of talent because there was a wolf across the river named Tony Khan that had a billion dollar checkbook that he could afford to pay a lot more money for talent that talent was making back in 2017, 2018-2019. So it certainly changed the compensation for talent. And they’re on a viable network. They have a style that’s different than WWE’s. They present an alternative, if not a competitive brand. I look at AEW and I realized the influence that ECW had on that project on that product.”
He outlined how Jon Moxley’s persona is similar to Sandman in ECW, and compared the overall style and presentation to RVD and Jerry Lynn’s rivalry in the late 1990s.
“Not just like, for example, like Moxley is a total ECW Sandman new jet style performer, but if you look at the AEW style, it’s Rob Van Dam versus Jerry Lynn from 1999. AEW is RVD and if you were a fan of what RVD and Jerry Lynn were doing in 1999, a lot of what AEW presents today is derived and is influenced by what RVD and Jerry Lynn were doing back then.”
“Well, that style went into the PWG, which then became, you know, I think a basis for what AEW is doing now. So am I glad that they’re there? Absolutely love the fact that there is an alternative for an audience. Love the fact that there’s something else out there. Love the fact that there’s something that captures the imagination of the pro wrestling slash sports entertainment. If we still use that phrase today, audience, I’m glad. I wish there were more promotions out there. Right now it’s just going to make us work harder to be better than all of them. And we certainly have the advantage in terms of distribution and in terms of lineage of this industry.”
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.