Select Answers: Will merger kill AEW?, Mania 43 Possibilities, Jacob Fatu

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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With the potential sale/ merger if WBD and Paramount/Skydance why do fans not seem to understand that AEW is a important part of the WBD library both on cable and streaming as an ad revenue driver and subscription service and that TKO can’t force them off even if the merger occurs.

I think a lot of the worst people are fantasy booking things that they don't really know about or understand. There are connections between TKO, WWE, UFC, Dana White, Triple H and this Presidential regime that are absolutely real, and the settlement between Paramount and Trump happened. Paramount's purchase will almost certainly be approved as a result. Trump isn't going to be president forever, and this power won't be yielded forever. I see people constantly saying that WWE will corner the market and freeze AEW out of a TV deal.

WWE had to pay $20 Million because they nixed an MLW deal to Tubi! Think about that. They were so territorial that they jumped in front of a 20 million dollar train to keep MLW off a Fox partner platform, only to end their relationship with Fox anyway. I'm going to go out on a very brave branch and assume MLW's Tubi deal was less than the established $185 million per year AEW is getting. The Khan family is very powerful, probably has better attorneys than MLW had (sorry Court Bauer), and WWE has shown they will settle. I can't imagine WWE would be dumb enough at this stage to set themselves up to get sued again.

Is there anyone (plausible) you’d say would be a DEFINITE no for WM 43, regardless of the mountains of money offered?

I'm not even really sure who the actual options would be at this point. The Rock is the biggest one, obviously. He comes with his own issues as we've watched the last two WrestleManias unfold. Stone Cold Steve Austin's name is always brought up in situations like this, and Fightful did report he said he thought he had one more in him. I can't see Undertaker doing more than a Chokeslam. He knows his days are up.

So what's left? Maybe Chris Jericho would be available. If I were him and wanted a gigantic payday, I'd explore that option. Kane keeps himself in shape and has no moral obligations to speak of, I think he's an actual option. Sean Waltman has teased here and there the possibility of a match. What is Ken Shamrock doing these days? Maybe some guys like Paul Wight, Edge/Cope, etc will become available, but I think it's more of a question of who could possibly say "yes" as opposed to no.

Has WWE gave up on Jacob Fatu? He has went from a major singles star to a 3rd string trios star.

I haven't heard anything about them giving up on him. I do think he should be featured more prominently. It feels like he barely wrestles these days. Everything I've ever heard is that they've liked him and know that he's a special talent.

For some of these surprise returns, how far in advance are you hearing the merch teams get to develop/design T-Shirts and such. I'm also curious if you've heard any stories of those departments working on a rollout but not knowing the wrestler it's intended for. That's for all the great work!