The last few years have been some of the most eventful in the history of professional wrestling, from CM Punk's time at AEW to the unprecedented merger between WWE and UFC into TKO Holdings Group. However, the first month of 2024 already seemingly pales in comparison to everything that occurred beforehand.
As of this writing, January 2024 has already seen the rebirth of TNA Wrestling, reports that Mercedes Mone is seemingly AEW-bound, Mustafa Ali's impact on tickets sales across independent wrestling, Kazuchika Okada leaving New Japan, and confirmation Monday Night Raw has found its new home on Netflix.
Then there was the proverbial nuke that dropped on January 25 as new allegations against Vince McMahon emerged accusing the longtime WWE chairman of sex trafficking as part of a former employee's lawsuit.
With all this news and more seemingly to come, 2024 is poised to be the craziest year in professional wrestling shaped by contracts, media rights, and legal fallout.
Contracts and Free Agency
Heading into the new year, it had already been teased that 2024 was poised to be one of the biggest contract years in the history of the business as multiple high-profile names were reaching the end of their deals.
It began in TNA Wrestling, which would still go by the name Impact until January 13's Hard to Kill pay-per-view, as two of its biggest Knockouts stars had reached the end of their deals. First was Deonna Purrazzo, who's contract pretty much ended at midnight on New Year's before being quickly signed by AEW and thrust into a major program with the AEW Women's World Champion, Timeless Toni Storm. It came out in the following weeks that former Knockouts Champion Trinity, also known as Naomi in WWE, was set to finish up at TNA's second set of January TV tapings and is believed to be heading back to WWE. Despite the losses, the company has still hit the ground running in 2024 by securing the services of Nic Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziggler, AJ Francis, and Dana Brooke, now going by Ash by Elegance, to try and fill those gaps.
Across the Pacific, New Japan Pro Wrestling was poised to have multiple contracts end in the days following Wrestle Kingdom 18. The core set of contracts belonged to longtime New Japan star Tama Tonga and most of Bullet Club War Dogs outside of the group's leader, David Finlay.
The biggest shock, though, came at the announcement that Okada, New Japan's biggest star, was going to be leaving the promotion after over a decade of making it “rain.” His decision to leave the promotion seemingly caught the entire wrestling world by surprise as he was considered a New Japan “lifer” by many fans and insiders across the industry. Since announcing his pending departure saw, speculation has run rampant about where may end up between AEW and WWE.
AEW has been considered the frontrunner to secure Okada's services due to New Japan's relationship with AEW and the flexibility it would provide him in terms of schedule and living arrangements. However, the possibility of joining WWE has not been written off due to the kind of money they could pay him along with the bigger shows for him to perform on.
Then there's the ever-looming question of where Mercedes Mone will end up landing.
Fan speculation has been rampant since the end of 2023 about her future, with just as many believing she is AEW-bound as those who feel they are going to see the return of Sasha Banks in WWE. According to many within the wrestling media and even several promotions, Mercedes is expected to appear “imminently” outside of WWE. Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp was among the first to indicate she was joining AEW, outright, though understandably hesitated to commit 100% to it as he had not seen or heard of a signed contract. That said, he remarked that if she were to return to WWE, the real story was going to be whatever happened behind the scenes between her and AEW.
The rest of 2024 will see plenty more big names come up for free agency, especially within WWE as multiple big names stars have contracts coming due. Drew McIntyre appears to be the first name who's contract is set to expire shortly after Wrestlemania, followed shortly after by Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Sheamus, and then Finn Balor and Ricochet as the year rolls on.
AEW's free agency situation is not as clear, though, as several big names due to have contracts expire have already or believed to have already resigned with the promotion. The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and Hangman Adam Page all signed new deals in Summer 2023 while MJF is believed to have quietly resigned at some point, though there has been no official confirmation.
That said, the promotion has already lost a notable star in Andrade El Idolo as his contract ended on January 1 and he is believed to be returning to WWE soon. Questions also surround the contract status of Ricky Starks, who's contract is believed to be up at some point in 2024. While there is strong fan speculation that he could find his way to WWE, there has been no official word on his status as of this writing.
Then there is the embarrassment of riches on the U.S. independent scene that are available for any notable company to try and scoop up. AEW has already done just that with the reported signings of standouts Queen Aminata and Bryan Keith, though it isn't clear if their deals are tiered or full-time. Other notable names available at the time of writing include Alex Hammerstone, Richard Holliday, Kamille, Gringo Loco, Jack Cartwheel, Shelton Benjamin, and many more.
Finally, there is Mustafa Ali and his world tour that has already proven a massive draw in the first weeks of 2024. Multiple independent promoters have said the former-WWE star has had a massive impact on ticket sales, with multiple shows featuring Ali selling out in quick fashion. New Japan has even gotten in on this for April's Windy City Riot, which has already become one of the promotion's most successful shows not being co-promoted with another company like Ring of Honor or AEW.
All this sets the stage for a year that will likely see talent moving all over the proverbial chess board in a manner reminiscent of the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW. The battle saw multiple stars jump back and forth as both companies tried to get the edge, whether it was WCW bringing in older, big name WWF stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage or WWF managing to steal away notable younger talent including Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero.
However, a more apt comparison may be the peak of the territories due to the volume of places wrestlers can go work. The wrestling landscape in the U.S., alone, has companies like WWE, AEW, MLW, TNA, and the indies available for wrestlers to make a full-time living. In addition, the internet and general globalization has made working full-time in Mexico, Japan, or Europe much more viable than it had been even in the 2000s.
TV Rights and Streaming
After free agency, there is what 2024 could still hold promotions trying to land potential TV and streaming deals.
WWE started the year in big fashion with the news that Raw would be heading to Netflix starting in January 2025 as part of a massive $500 million/year deal. The deal reportedly lasts for ten years, has an opt-out clause after five years, and a ten-year extension option available for Netflix to take once the initial ten years are up. Netflix will become the official home of Raw for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Latin America once the deal goes live, will air Smackdown, NXT, and premium live events for overseas audiences, and produce new original projects for WWE and Netflix including documentaries and original series.
With Raw's TV rights' settled, the focus now turns to AEW as its current TV deal is set to expire in October 2024.
The promotion's current deal was inked in January 2020 and was for roughly $175 million over the next four years. It is believed the promotion may have seen small increases with the additions of Rampage and Collision to its weekly programming. However, the deal remains one of the lowest among the previous deals let alone the deals WWE was able to get for Raw, Smackdown, and NXT to close out 2023.
Despite the apparently low number, the belief among many insiders is that AEW is due to receive a sizable pay increase with a new TV deal that may even include streaming.
Early speculation suggested AEW could sees as much as $1.4 billion in the next TV deal, making the aforementioned free agency market much more interesting as the year goes on due and both promotions try to land new stars. It would also validate the rapid growth of AEW over the last five years, going from an ambitious start-up to a proper, nationally-televised wrestling promotion.
The next part of a potential deal is how streaming could factor into things for AEW as 2024 rolls on.
WWE has wisely kept a foot in the streaming door since the launch of the WWE Network back in 2015. While the standalone service was not as successful at launch as WWE hoped, though not it still managed to find a sizeable audience who used the service for premium live events or network-only show. The app was then, as Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp said, “strip-mined” for content that would be licensed to channels such as Fox Sports, A&E, and more.
AEW could follow a similar route to securing its next TV deal that involves streaming with it, most likely on Max if the new deal is with Warner Bros. Discovery. It was suggested that, like WWE on Peacock or Netflix, Max would become the de facto streaming home of AEW over the duration of the new deal which would likely see pay-per-views air live on the service, the entire AEW library to that point, and new programming made specifically for Max.
It also remains to be seen how Tony Khan's Ring of Honor could factor into a new TV deal for AEW. Khan has hinted in the past that the ideal situation would be bundling together Ring of Honor with AEW, though it isn't clear what they could entail. Ring of Honor's weekly show currently airs on HonorClub, though this would likely change if AEW's new deal did manage to bundle together Ring of Honor.
There has been reported interest in Ring of Honor's weekly show from the CW, before the network landed NXT, though Khan did not pursue this as his focus remained on securing AEW's next deal.
Additional promotions such as TNA and MLW have reportedly been on the lookout for TV deals that would secure them a piece of the proverbial pie.
Big Time Matches and Shows
The year didn't waste time when it came to offering big shows, matches, and events across wrestling for fans to enjoy or get excited for.
January has quietly become a big month in the world of wrestling thanks to big shows like the Royal Rumble and Wrestle Kingdom taking place to kick off the year big. The latter has become even more special as it looks to be the final Wrestle Kingdom stars Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada will partake in as official members of the New Japan roster.
In regards to the Rumble, the titular matches are typically full of surprises to excite fans in the moment or for what could come following the match. The 2024 edition is already set to be a special one as it marks the first Rumble match CM Punk has been part of since walking out of WWE following the 2014 Royal Rumble. Fans have also speculated about who could appear in either the men's or women's Rumble match, with a common hope being the official in-ring debut of Jade Cargill after signing with WWE in September 2023.
TNA Hard to Kill may not have had the grandeur of the Rumble or Wrestle Kingdom, but it was an important show, nonetheless, for TNA, itself.
Up until the last several years, the company's lifespan had been mired with backstage problems and criticism for its creative direction despite the world-class talent that the promotion spotlighted. It effectively poisoned the TNA name for years, leading to the name change to Impact, though this changed under the leadership of Scott D'Amore who, alongside an extremely talented roster, managed to regain the good will of fans. It culminated in Hard To Kill, which saw the company revert back to the TNA name in a move that was welcomed warmly by fans.
As for what the rest of the year holds, it is looking to be a crazy year overall.
WWE is set to have its most internationally diverse event calendar in history starting with February's Elimination Chamber event emanating from Perth, Australia. From there, the post-Wrestlemania season kicks off in Lyons, France with Backlash, Money in the Bank heading to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the Bash in Berlin at Berlin, Germany.
There will likely be more Saudi Arabia shows, as well, as part of WWE's ongoing deal though neither have been announced as of this writing.
While AEW's calendar isn't as full yet, the company already has two major events it is building toward over the coming year. First will be Revolution in March taking place at the Greensboro Coliseum, a show that will be built around the final match of Sting's career. Alongside that, the show will mark the first AEW pay-per-view with Will Ospreay as part of the roster and there has even been fan speculation that Mercedes Mone and Okada, if AEW does land them, may debut at the show.
Summer will then see AEW head back to London for All In at Wembley Stadium which had reportedly sold well over 36,000 tickets by the end of 2023.
One of the biggest ticket movers of the year already, though, hasn't been a company, but a single wrestler.
The announcement of Mustafa Ali's “2024 world tour” was met with almost universal excitement to see what the former WWE star was going to do now that he was back on the indies. This excitement has translated into ticket sales as several shows with Ali promoted for them sold out almost immediately and promoters have admitted they don't remember the last WWE name who had such an impact. It has event translated to New Japan's upcoming Chicago show in April, which has sold nearly 5,000 tickets in almost-record time.
It Can't All Be Positive
While all the previous news and announcements have already shown how crazy a year 2024 has been and will likely continue to be, not all the biggest news stories will be positive ones.
Vince McMahon's alleged proclivities once again entered the media's focus when the now-former WWE executive was hit with a lawsuit by a former employee. The employee in question, whose name will not be given out of respect for her situation and privacy, alleged she was the victim of sexual assault, trafficking, and abuse by McMahon and former WWE executive John Laurinaitis, though it claims several more unnamed individuals were involved indirectly.
TKO Holdings said it would be looking into the matters internally while McMahon outright denied the allegations.
One of the biggest names the suit implied to be involved was Brock Lesnar, though he is not named outright. The suit detailed how the victim was allegedly used as a bargaining chip by McMahon to resign a WWE star and former UFC Heavyweight champion in March 2022, which many outlets speculated to be Lesnar based on the description and timing.
The impact of the suit against McMahon was felt almost immediately as reports emerged that Slim Jim, one of WWE's biggest partners, was considering pulling its sponsorship. It turned out to be true as less than 24 hours after the suit was filed, Slim Jim announced it was hitting the pause button on any promotion plans it had with WWE.
Slim Jim's decision appeared to be the first domino to fall as hours after the news broke, it was announced McMahon had tendered his resignation from all positions in TKO and WWE. Fan concern of him attempting to find a way back in, again, were quickly squashed as multiple insiders explained that McMahon did not have the allies on the board he previously had and that while he still owned a large amount of stock, it was not the kind that granted him the voting power McMahon previously had.
At the time of this writing, it has also been reported McMahon's resignation could be the first of many to go as a result of this lawsuit. PWInsider reported the “belief” within WWE is that Endeavor, WWE's parent company, would be looking to “sweep out” any one closely associated with McMahon to give the company a “fresh start” going forward. While no names were given, it was reported people who could be on the chopping block would include anyone brought back by Vince after he forced his way back into WWE or just longtime employees who have direct connections to McMahon.
It is unclear at the time of writing if this “sweep out” would include any remaining members of the 2022 internal committee that looked into the original allegations against McMahon, which was called into question as part of the new lawsuit.
Transformative Year
With all this news taken into account, it tees up 2024 to be a truly transformative year for the world of professional wrestling.
Recent history has seen wrestling emerge as a key player in the media landscape due to its ability to draw TV viewership alongside live sports, news, and select reality TV shows. The money at play confirms this view and could see more promotions find their way to notable TV networks and streaming platforms, resulting in more options for wrestlers and viewers.
Within WWE, though, the lawsuit could bring amount some of the most drastic changes in company history. McMahon's resignation means the promotion will have the first full year without him involved at any level since he began working for his father in 1971. Only time will tell just how deep these changes are and what WWE looks like in a true post-McMahon era.
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