All Elite Wrestling has slowly gained steam in its infancy as it eyes becoming a true competitor to WWE, and we now know some key details involving the next step in the company's rise to fame. On Wednesday, AEW announced that its weekly programming set to air on TNT will debut on Wednesday, Oct. 2, with the inaugural television offering taking place inside the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The AEW on TNT debut show will air from 8 p.m. ET to 10 p.m, and continue to air in the same time slot going forward from there.
AEW, the brainchild of "The Elite" in collaboration with Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan and his son Tony, was announced back on Jan. 1. Since its inception, the promotion has run three shows to give fans a taste of what to expect as an alternative to WWE, beginning with the Double or Nothing pay-per-view event in Las Vegas where it made its first big splash by revealing the multi-year signing of Jon Moxley (formerly Dean Ambrose in WWE). The critically-acclaimed Double or Nothing was followed up with Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen in June and July, respectively. Prior to this upcoming debut, AEW will run one more PPV in Chicago as it presents All Out -- the follow-up to last September's wildly successful All In independent show.
While the AEW events to this point have been mostly well-received, to be a true competitor within the professional wrestling landscape in this day and age, a strong television presence is a necessity. Securing a mid-week primetime slot on a network with the notoriety -- and not to mention history in the business going back to the days of the partnership with WCW -- is a huge coup for the upstart All Elite crew that continues to make waves in professional wrestling despite not even existing for a full year.
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This debut, interestingly enough, coincides with the highly-publicized WWE SmackDown move to Fox, which is set to take place on Friday, Oct. 4. The question now becomes whether WWE will counter AEW with any sort of new programming by utilizing its billion-dollar partnership with Fox. Rumors have already surfaced that the company's unofficial third brand, NXT, could possibly be moving to Fox's FS1 channel. With NXT already running every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on the WWE Network, such a move should create some competition right off the bat for the newcomers on the block.
Time will tell, but Wednesday's announcement from AEW is further proof that there's never been a better time to be an avid fan of pro wrestling as the fall season approaches.
