Select Answers: AEW over WWE, Jarretts/TNA, Tay Melo, ESPN/WWE, Nixi, incoming AEW names (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.***

Do you think AEW has a real chance of overtaking WWE in the market in the next year or so given how badly the fed product is declining?

No. I don't think the scale of WWE compared to AEW is truly understood. WWE's media deals are so much heavier than AEW has right now, too. That could all chance if the WBD/Paramount thing just makes AEW the apple of their eye and they decide to help push a new wrestling empire, but it will take a major fall from grace for WWE to be below number 1 as far as scale for a while.

I’ve always wondered did Jeff Jarrett and his father make their money back they invested into TNA? Or did they take a loss

Well, I would imagine Jeff ended up turning a profit over the years, including the salaries and the sales and the cooperative deals. I can't say that for certain though. I find it hard to believe that Jerry Jarrett ever made his money back.

Nixi XS over on the F4Wonline platform this week, part of the Bryan and Vinny show. She has a fantastic personality and comes across as very charismatic. Have you seen any of her work? Do you any of the major wrestling promotions to be interested in her?

Yes. I've seen Nixi work a number of times. I posted pictures from Dream Pro Wrestling of her on my SeanRossSnaps Instagram account. She has a great look and great presence, and is coming along in the ring. Virtually every company has had her backstage a number of times over the last year. It got to the point to where it felt like every week she was backstage at AEW or WWE events.

Hey Sean! In a recent update you laid out the influence MJF had on the booking of the world title. Just how involved is he in the booking of the main event scene and how do other talents feel about that? Has he had influence on the creative for Hangman and Swerve, who have been booked kind of erratically this year?

I know for sure he has a major influence over the programs that he's in, and contributes creatively in some other regards. I'm not sure if he has a special deal or anything like that, but his creative influence and contributions have been well known for quite some time in AEW. I don't think he has any influence on Swerve Strickland, Hangman, or Moxley and people like that outside of his programs with them. Some talent don't want any wrestlers having any creative influence. Rarely do I hear talent thinking it's a good idea.

Hey Sean. Now that MCMG are officially All Elite, aside from Creed & Kofi, who else from the releases have you definitively heard are on AEW's radar?

Those are the ones I expect, but maybe Kairi does too. I don't see a lot of others coming into All Elite Wrestling full time, but I could see some of them just staying on the radar. I feel like Sheamus could end up making appearances, and maybe Alba Fyre as a partner for Isla Dawn. Cobb has been one that Tony Khan had been interested in for a while.

I've noticed wwe doesn't counter program aew with the main roster why do you think that is

Well, that's pretty easy. Their broadcast partners for the main roster don't really play that shit. They're paying a ton of money to get numbers, not be involved in a dong measuring contest with the competition and split the audience. Even USA Network had enough of it less than a year into the NXT/USA deal.

Hey SRS, I saw you mentioned on Twitter that Andrade and Kevin Knight's new themes were not produced by Mikey Rukus. Do you know who produced it and Is there a reason why Mikey wasn't involved in the creation?

Well, Kevin Knight's got canned pretty quickly. Mikey Rukus would do the themes if asked to, and has no problem producing themes. However, a lot of times wrestlers want to do their own things, or utilize music from their friends. It almost always ends up being expensive for AEW between licensing, and missing out on streaming rights.

Could Tay Melo go back 2 WWE

If Tony Khan is to be believed, she wants to wrap up her in ring days for now and step away from wrestling. However, if she wanted to do that, she could simply tell Tony she wants to take time off and just still get paid. That's the confusing element of this. He will just give time off to anyone that needs it. I don't expect her back in WWE though.

Hey SRS… is ESPN done presenting the 1st hour of PLEs on network tv?

No. There were just some scheduling conflicts that prevented it for Summerslam. It will still be utilized. Especially for some major shows that WWE does that ESPN wants to push out to the world and get eyes on things.