As AEW prepares for its biggest show of the year, All In, at Wembley Stadium, the biggest storyline surrounding the promotion isn't the retirement of Bryan Danielson, the past sins of Swerve Strickland, the confusing booking of the Young Bucks, or even the Revolutionary War between MJF and Will Ospreay but instead the contract status of the Lucha Brothers, a pair of promotion OGs who have been fixtures of the tag team division since Day 1 on Dynamite.
You see, with their contract set to expire later this summer, rumors have been swelling that Penta El Zero Meido and his younger brother Rey Fenix are WWE-bound, with some even noting that the former will be in Orlando this week to presumably talk turkey with the promotion about a future deal.
Now to some – read: WWE fans – this news is great, as the Lucha Brothers are among the best tag teams in the world today, and flipping them from AEW to WWE would undoubtedly help one company at the expense of the other, but not everyone is so quick to believe the swelling rumors, including Penta himself, who took to social media to tell fans that the reporting is more or less misinformation.
Welp, that's that, right? The Lucha Brothers are sticking around in AEW, (hopefully) working more matches with Mystico in CMLL and all the rumors are just that? Eh, not necessarily, as according to Fightful Select, there's a reason why Penta may be going to bat for AEW now while at least his brother is still under contract because Tony Khan has the ability to add on injury time that could theoretically lock one or both Brothers up for a few more months or even longer, as both have missed time for one reason or another. By tweeting this out, in theory, Penta may be doing his best to squash the rumors of premature negotiations in the hopes of getting on the “good” side of AEW's booker, as if there's one thing TK hates, it's WWE tampering with his contracted wrestlers.
Could the Lucha Brothers ultimately stick around in AEW, sign new, lucrative deals, and remain the premier Lucha tag team outside of WWE – or in WWE, for that matter, too? Sure, they have more reason than most to remain independent due to their spots in CMLL, on the Mexican indie scene, on the SC indie scene, and via their own indie shows through Republic of Lucha, and if Khan has the money to keep it that way for as long as he would like. Still, the call of WWE's bright lights is strong, and if they want a shot at becoming the best tag team in the world, a slightly higher-paying contract may not be enough to keep things copasetic.
Tony Khan's big announcement probably isn't Lucha Brothers-related
Because of how Penta worded his social media post, some fans have openly wondered if the older Lucha Brother could be declaring that he has signed a new deal with AEW, as opposed to simply noting that he is still under contract with the promotion.
Why? Well, because Khan continues to tweet about “big announcements” coming in the future regarding the promotion, which mostly likely means a new media rights deal but could also mean using some of those new funds to lock up talent like Daniel Garcia, Penta, and Fenix too.
Unfortunately, when you really read into Khan's comments about AEW's “big announcement,” like in his interview with Case the Producer from Q101's Brian & Kenzie Morning Show, it sure sounds like he's talking about the media rights rumors that have been abound for literally years now.
“Right now is the most important time ever in AEW. We're on the verge of the most important deal we'll ever make, this upcoming media rights, and it's been great working with Warner Brothers Discovery on the future. For all these years, we've had so much great experience with Warner Brothers Discovery, and now, under the leadership of David Zaslav, the company, for us, the connection, the things we've been able to do, I think it's getting stronger and stronger,” Tony Khan explained via Fightful.
“I think now, over five years, it's really been building to this point where AEW's going to jump into the media rights and be a very profitable, successful company that has lived up to every expectation we ever could have had because we've done so many amazing things in this years. We've had all these amazing pay-per-view records. We've really come in, and we've done pay-per-view numbers, whether adjusted or straight-up, head-to-head, very strong compared to the last few years of WCW, and I think that's really a success story. I think pay-per-views are really fun, but it's a really interesting business point that our business on pay-per-view has continued to get stronger. This year's been great for us; we've had some huge events, including Revolution, which was one of our biggest pay-per-views ever.”
Now granted, if AEW does get the bag from WBD, they will almost certainly use some of that influx of money on more star power, including a certain “Irish Lass Kicker” who has been on the free agent market for some time now but to hope that such an announcement is instead regarding a bottom-of-the-ninth home run deal to bring back the Lucha Brothers feels somewhat unlikely, unless, of course, WWE isn't as into the duo as some assume they are.
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