AEW has continued the legacy of WCW by finding a home on TNT and paying homage to WCW in a variety of ways.
When Tony Khan pitched the idea of AEW to Kevin Reilly, he mentioned WCW and how the company thrived on TNT with Nitro before it all came crashing down.
Appearing on Pardon My Take, Khan gave his reasons as to what went wrong with WCW.
"Some of the things that went wrong for WCW were giving creative control to a lot of the wrestlers and some of the storylines were asinine. Some of the ideas were great, but it was a very disorganized show and then when they brought somebody else in from the WWF to be a writer, Vince Russo, he made it ten times worse. He took a problem...they had a massive hangnail and he just chopped off the arm. That was part of the problem. Then, you had another major issue, which was the management. Most successful wrestling companies have had one supreme commander at the top. He's owned it, booked everything, run the place, run management. Whether it's Vince McMahon organizing everything, Cowboy Bill Watts, Eddie Graham, Fritz Von Erich, countless others. That made sense as a business model. Strong management, WCW didn't have, and I could provide. (I'm a) more organized booker than anyone (WCW) had," he said.
Kevin Reilly exited TurnerMedia in August 2020, but the partnership between AEW and Turner continues to thrive with AEW adding Rampage in August before Dynamite and Rampage move to TBS in 2022.
Though AEW will move off TNT in 2022, TNT will host quarterly specials akin to Clash of Champions in the new year.
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