Perception is reality.
That's true inside or outside of professional wrestling. If management could sell Giant Gonzalez as a major star and the audience bought into it then that becomes the belief within the genre. A political candidate might be a crook or bankrupt the country during their term, but if their campaign can "sell" their policies to voters during the election season then the results at the ballot box will reflect it.
The results can comeback to bite an organization or the voters in either case.
Giant Gonzalez is known for his match at Wrestlemania IX, which was panned as one of the worst WM shows in history,and depending on your perspective, someone in office might put the country into a recession. The results are ultimately what judge how effective something was or wasn't, but perception often influences the future even after they sink or swim in the grand scheme of things. Jack Swagger was booked as a former world champion, and now if he was pumping gas in Jersey, he might not be recognized. Anyone remember when Sarah Palin was supposedly going to be a force in American politics?
It's nothing new, but All Elite Wrestling continues to have a perception problem, particularly with its leadership and structure, or the compete lack thereof. The domino effect of this is ultimately that it lends validity to the criticism that AEW isn't run as a professional organization and thus has a ceiling on how far it can truly progress as a commodity within the industry. The way that this affects revenue is key, particularly because revenue and profit are the barometer, not star ratings or The Wrestling Observer newsletter awards. Where the perception can affect the future of the organization is that if fans lose faith in AEW's ability to be an alternative or to serve the audience, those fans might decide it's not worth investing in the company with tickets and pay-per-view orders. Given the uncertainty of the economy and inflation, it's a much more difficult sell to get consumers to spend money on wrestling or any other entertainment option because there's simply not as much disposal income as there was just a few years ago since the cost of more or less everything across the board has increased. The harsh reality is that fans will have to pick and choose more carefully what they spend for their "wrestling budget" than in the past.
We've heard several example over the past few years when All Elite management has little to no communication with talent, with Ricky Starks being the most recent wrestler that wasn't informed of his status with the company while he sat at home as a healthy scratch from the roster since March. CM Punk was probably the most publicized example of the lack of communication between the office and the talent, which he explained on the Ariel Helwani show earlier this year. After a triceps injury while still under contract to All Elite Wrestling, the real-life Phil Brooks explained that he wasn't given any direction or medical options by the company, forcing him to find the proper doctors and rehabilitation services to heal from the injury.
Now, Rey Fenix, one half of the Lucha Brothers tag team, has taken to social media to express similar frustration just a few weeks after it was revealed that time was added to his current contract with the company after he was sidelined with an injury late last year. His brother, Pentagon's contract expired just weeks ago and he made a surprise appearence at a AAA show last week, but as was the case within the past few months, the expectation is still that Pentagon will ink a WWE deal at some point. Presumably, Fenix is going to do the same, but finds himself stuck in a form of contract purgatory, as he is healthy and still wrestling on the independent circuit, but remains under contract to AEW despite that it seems like Tony has no plans to use him for anything.
Fenix was out of action from October of 2023 until April 2024 when he returned to television so there was roughly six months added to his deal, keeping him under contract until mid-2025. On one hand, if the terms of the contract allow Tony to add injury time and he paid Fenix under those terms while he was hurt then Khan definitely has the legal right to keep Fenix to the agreement. Fenix didn't complain when he got the check in the mail while he recovered from the injury. On the other hand, if Tony isn't going to use Fenix for anything and keeps him at AEW just to try to prevent him from debuting in WWE for as long as possible, it seems very petty and not important in the grand scheme of things.
Don't get me wrong, Fenix is a tremendous aerial performer and has the ability to be a marketable star for the organization, and the same can be said for Pentagon. I've written on several occasions that the Lucha Brothers, both individually and collectively, were underutilized in All Elite Wrestling. However, it's important to point out that Tony Khan had five years to market and promote the tag team, but for whatever reason, despite their talent and marketability with their characters, the Lucha Brothers were secondary figures in the company the past few years. Now that Pentagon's deal expired, it's suddenly important for Tony Khan to protect the investment into Rey Fenix's contract? If Fenix was that important to All Elite Wrestling, and he actually does have the talent to be a money-drawing star, why were the Lucha Brothers so under the radar?
Among the complaints that Fenix posted online was that he would tell the story when he had the chance to speak on the subject, which means when he isn't under contract to AEW. He said he was denied a doctor when he needed medical attention, and in a now-deleted tweet, he claimed that he was subjected to "inhumane treatment" by the company.
The Wrestling Observer's Bryan Alvarez discussed the situation, explaining that the medial protocols for WWE and AEW are different, but the common theme is that both companies pay for everything if a talent is injured working for either organization. As we know, WWE works with a list of world class doctors, such as Dr. James Andrews, that provide medical treatment for other sports stars. The downside to that, if there is one, would be that while WWE takes care of the scheduling, procedures, and the costs involved, it basically means that the talent are treated by the doctors that the WWE chooses for them. Of course, the publicly-traded corporation wants to see a successful return to the ring for any performer because they quite literally have a vested interest in their recovery from the injury so that they can continue to draw money for the company. Obviously, All Elite Wrestling has the same intentions, they want to see their stars return healthy so that they can be one of the reasons that fans buy tickets and order pay-per-views. As Alvarez explained it on Wrestling Observer Live, the difference is that AEW lets the talent choose the doctors that they want to receive the medical treatment from and the therapist that they work with for the rehabilitation of the injuries. For example, if a talent wants to get a referral to a surgeon from their family doctor that they trust, the AEW protocol allows them to do that. On the surface, the main difference between the two systems is that the WWE provides the doctors and rehabilitation schedule, whereas AEW lets the talent pick their own doctors to treat the injury. There are positives and negatives to each protocol, as they would be with anything else, but it really depends on the individual perspective as far as would be the better option.
If I had to guess, I'd say that there was some type of miscommunication between Fenix and the promotion. I really doubt that he would be denied medical treatment, but at the same time, one of the responsibilities of the company would be to make sure that the talent have the information they need to recover from injuries. I also doubt that Fenix was subjected to "inhumane treatment, but that's also a matter of personal perspective. Whatever happened between the two sides, it certainly appears like there's more to the story than what is already public or that it was simply a miscommunication between the office and Fenix. It remains to be seen if Fenix will tell his side of the story when his AEW contract expires. In six months, it might be a scenario where Fenix decides to focus on his debut in the WWE rather than the negativity of his experience in another company. Given that Tony Khan has used non-disclosure agreements in the past when talent exit the promotion, it's possible that Fenix might be released from his contract if he signs a non-disclosure agreement, which would prevent him from talking about the situation.
Either way, I think The Lucha brothers will eventually debut in the WWE sometime next year and probably have at least an initial successful run there. However, the biggest takeaway from this situation is that it continues to fuel the narrative that AEW runs a disorganized or not truly professional organization. When the talent has to go to social media to get in contract with management, it doesn't present a sense of optimism around the brand. Furthermore, it re-enforces the notion that All Elite Wrestling is more about Tony's vanity project than it is about being competitive in the industry.
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