Jim Ross: AEW/IMPACT Partnership Has Benefitted IMPACT More
“If it helps the wrestling business, and it makes it more fan-friendly, then we all win.”
AEW and IMPACT’s working relationship has bore fruit for both companies, but according to AEW’s Jim Ross, IMPACT has benefitted from the working relationship far more than AEW has.
Ross made the claims while speaking to DAZN, saying:
"I think as it relates to Impact, that's done through the cooperative efforts of nature of Tony Khan. Don Callis is a part of the management team at Impact and the on-camera manager of Kenny Omega. I think I'm going to sound bad saying this, I'm sure. I think this relationship has helped Impact more than it’s helped AEW. But I don't know that we're measuring. I don't know that we're judging, quite frankly. If it helps the wrestling business, and it makes it more fan-friendly, then we all win. Tony Khan’s philosophy is to do business with everybody that we want that can help our brand. I think that's kind of the concept, and I don't think it's going to end with Impact.”
An argument can be made both ways. On one hand, IMPACT get to regularly feature Kenny Omega and draw many fresh eyes to the product, yet on the other no IMPACT talents have been featured on AEW: Dynamite - aside from The Good Brothers Gallows and Anderson - and Omega holding the IMPACT World Title sets them a rung below AEW in the eyes of the casual viewer.