(All photos credited to All Elite Wrestling)
Enter All Elite Wrestling (AEW).
To many internet fans, AEW has been the breath of fresh air that they felt they needed as wrestling fans, with their storylines and approach to the business feeling like a throwback to arguably the most successful and popular time to be a wrestling fan: The Attitude Era. The last year, they have signed talent after talent after talent from WWE’s past to shape up AEW’s future. AEW has proven in their short history that they are here for the long haul. Many fans see them as the alternative to WWE they have craved, and many have gone to say that they are THE new place for professional wrestling and have sworn off WWE forever (and in some instances, we don’t blame the fans one bit…but that’s for another day). But for all the signings they have had, they have not had that one signing that could be a game changer as far as mainstream appeal is concerned, which is important to the growth and significance of any wrestling company that even wants to ATTEMPT of dethroning Vince’s WWE as the number one company in the world.
Enter Paige VanZant…date March, 9, 2022.
On AEW’s signature show, Wednesday Night Dynamite, after Scorpio Sky defeated Sammy Guevara to win the TNT Championship, VanZant attacked Tay Conti and signed her AEW talent contract on Conti’s back (more specifically her butt), officially making the former UFC star and current Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship competitor All Elite. Her signing was picked up by ESPN, the New York Post, SB Nation, MMA Junkie, MMA Fighting, and more. This is exactly what AEW was hoping when the signing became official, and if this goes as well as they hope it does, she could do what Ronda Rousey did for the women’s division in WWE, put more eyes on their talent and their product. It’s already done wonders for Tay Conti, who looks like will be PVZ’s first feud in the company. I would not be surprised if the ladies face off at AEW’s Double or Nothing PPV on Memorial Day Weekend (May 29 to be exact) either in a singles match or in a mixed tag match involving Sammy and Scorpio. (I know it’s a ways off, but competing in their biggest arena yet…the T-Mobile Arena, which holds about 20,000 people…they are gonna need big draws to get a sell-out, and PVZ can do that) (EDIT: Paige VanZant will make her official in-ring debut at AEW Double or Nothing this Sunday in a Mixed Trios match with Ethan Page and TNT Champion Scorpion Sky (with Dan Lambert in their corner) against Tay Conti, Sammy Guevara, and Frankie Kazarian).
Her Hollywood looks, fitness-model physique, and her overall toughness (maybe not her record) as a fighter has made her among the most popular in the fighting world…as well as the most hated. The way she has been portrayed leading up to her official signing suggests she will be a heel (bad person). From what she has displayed in her time in AEW thus far, she can talk a good game and obviously get physical. If she’s even HALF as good as Ronda was at picking up how wrestling works, AEW has got a goldmine in PVZ. Many folks had her linked to wrestling for quite some time, even going as far as WWE potentially bringing her in a few years ago for Summerslam. While that ship has sailed for now, never say never for PVZ to go to WWE one day if her AEW stint goes well. But for now, PVZ is calling AEW home. And who knows, maybe by the end of 2022, we might be saying TBS Champion Paige VanZant or AEW Women’s World Champion Paige VanZant! But for now, lets see what Paige does in her new home of professional wrestling, and more specifically All Elite Wrestling.
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