Select Answers: Tay Melo, Mania Date, Counter Programming (Patreon)

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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When do we get an official Mania date? Any chance they are thinking about not going to Saudi?

By quarter 4 is what I expect. No, they are going to Saudi. The deal is inked, they are under contract. It would take some insane thing to prevent them from going to Saudi. Honestly, even insane things aren't enough.

Do you think Tay Melo ever returns 2 Wrestling

Yeah, especially based on her vignette. It seems like she wants out of AEW, though Tony Khan claimed that she wanted to leave wrestling. She's only 31, and probably still has a lot to offer wrestling. It just won't be with Anna Jay for a while, as she's re-signed with All Elite Wrestling.

I had a conversation with my friend about WWE spending so much time and energy to counter program AEW to prevent them from getting a better TV deal. All to basically hand them legit needle movers like The New Day and potentially Bayley, right when their current deal is coming up. If they end up boosting AEW's numbers enough, do you see TKO trying to nickel and dime talent? Or will they keep on seeking talent who are more interested in being part of WWE despite making less money?

I don't think either act will heavily move AEW's TV numbers, but it does add another draw for events. The element of wrestling contracts is always cyclical. When it serves them to offer certain things, they will. Whenever they need to go into cost cutting mode, they will. They've made 3 or 4 recent signings that will cost them less combined than what one member of New Day did. Maybe even combined at HALF of what one member of New Day did. They feel that's a better financial decision for them at this point.