Wrestlezone was recently on a media call with Women Of Wrestling‘s Jeanie Buss and David McLane and AXS TV CEO Andrew Simon. I had the chance to ask the panel about this week’s big All Elite Wrestling announcements, and how it reflects on the professional wrestling business as a whole.
I asked Jeanie Buss, who is owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers, what attracted her to professional wrestling coming from a sports background:
“I can’t speak for [the Khan family], but being around sports my entire life, I’d like to see the best in the world, and I have seen the best in the world. Luckily in the position that I’ve been in with all different sports, this just fits the marrying of sports and entertainment, and bringing in the best and showcasing the talent and letting them put on a show.”
Andrew Simon went on to say AEW’s launch serves as a reminder that this is a very exciting time for women’s wrestling, and professional wrestling as a whole:
“With AEW and AXS TV’s involvement with New Japan, and Shad and Tony’s move with All Elite Wrestling, it’s never been a more exciting time with what’s going on in the pro wrestling world. You have the Jeannie Busses and the Mark Cubans, and the Khan family with the NFL; there’s clearly opportunities and you look at the deals that WWE has made this year with FOX. There’s never been a greater time to be in the wrestling business. This is the most exciting time; the niche and the area where we’re going to really dominate is on the women’s wrestling side.
I know All Elite announced what they were doing and I think they announced Brandi [Rhodes] and one other wrestler with Britt [Baker], and we really are trying to capitalize on that women’s wrestling area. Make it a place where women can feel comfortable and be the main event. They won’t be the third or fourth down the card.”
I also spoke about professional wrestling history on television and WOW’s past seasonal format, and asked if AXS would take a new approach to presenting content in a changing and digital-friendly media world; McLane noted WOW’s past history with digital distribution, and said:
“We’re going to continue to build out our social media platforms and continue to deliver content digitally. AXS can recognize the importance of that and put it in our agreement that we can take sections of the content that’s aired on AXS and market it digitally.
They had an understanding of the necessity to build out ourselves digitally, and the reason it says we’ve had seasons is because we presented them that way online digitally to slowly and methodically bring the brand back. AXS knows the extent that Jeannie and I have wanted a major platform to showcase WOW. For now, that’s the key component—making sure that the product is the best for AXS TV, then we can step back and grow the digital and the social media platform.”
Women Of Wrestling premieres on AXS TV next Friday as part of the network’s Friday Night Fights lineup.
