Brett Lauderdale: AEW Has Always Been Gracious And Generous To GCW
Brett Lauderdale comments on GCW’s relationship with AEW.
AEW has always been gracious when it comes to letting their talent wrestle on the indie scene. One of the biggest examples of this is Jon Moxley, who wrestled for GCW, Wrestling REVOLVER, Defy, PWG, and Northeast Wrestling throughout his first couple of years with the company.
Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Brett Lauderdale said that he’s only met Tony Khan on one occasion.
“Never. I still have never talked to Tony Khan. I met Tony Khan one time in my life. One time I met him. It was at UFC in Jacksonville, like their first live event, the first deal back from COVID or even, I guess, during COVID depending on how you look at it. But when UFC did that show with a live audience in Jacksonville, I went to it and Tony was also there. I actually went with Joey Janela and Joey said, ‘Tony’s here. He’s going to come say hi,’ and Tony walked in and said, ‘Hi’ to Joey. I said, ‘Hey Tony, thanks for letting us work with Joey.’ He shook my hand and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, anytime.’ That was the full length and extent of my one and only discussion and time talking to and meeting Tony Khan was thanking him for letting us work with Joey. That was it. I’ve never talked to Tony since I never talked to him before that and that’s it.”
Lauderdale went on to admit that there has been some bumps along the way in the relationship between AEW and GCW. Still, the company is trusted more than other promotions.
“We’ve worked with many since then. Yes, there’s been some bumps, of course, along the way, and I’m sure there’s times where they might’ve been frustrated with things that would have happened that they might not have wanted to see happen. I’ve also been frustrated with things that may have happened with AEW talent on our show where I know like, ‘Damn, we shouldn’t have done that,’ or ‘That wasn’t supposed to happen.’ I get it they’re running a TV company and they give us, as I mentioned earlier, GCW is in a unique place where I think we are given trust that is not given to a lot of other indie wrestling companies. So I think over the years, whereas they may have to call or the wrestlers may have to get permission or the promotion needs to check in with AEW to tell them what the match is and what’s going to happen, we’ve kind of been able to not always have to do that because they sort of trust us. So I understand over the years where something may have happened, where they may have pushed it they would have said, ‘Why are we giving GCW so much leeway?’ or frustrations. Of course we’ve heard things like, ‘AEW no longer allowing talent to work with GCW.’ I don’t know of that ever actually being a real thing. I don’t know that that ever really happened. People may have said it and there may have been sentiments, ‘Let’s cool this down for a little bit,’ but AEW has always been gracious and generous to GCW in ways when they didn’t have to.”
Lauderdale went on to clarify that there has been been any type of rivalry or animosity between AEW and GCW.
“So they could have said no at any time, but the door may have closed halfway, but it never fully shut and it’s always reopened. Right now I think we’re in a really good place and I don’t care if I ever talk to Tony again. Of course, I would love to talk to him and thank him personally, but I don’t need to have a discussion with Tony, you know? I don’t even know what we would talk about. He’s such a busy guy. I know because I run one company, I run GCW and that consumes every minute of every day for me. So this guy runs a wrestling company, an NFL team, a soccer team and everything else he’s got going on. I don’t know how he makes time to do anything. I think we can easily coexist. Obviously, we’re both in wrestling, but we’re in totally different worlds. There’s never been any type of rivalry or animosity. I get it, if they get upset about something or somebody gets pulled, that’s their right.”
Speaking about the situation with Ricky Starks (Saints) in 2024, Lauderdale stated that it is a privilege to have TV talent work for GCW.
“That thing with Ricky Starks, I get it. I did not love that he was no longer allowed to do GCW, but also it’s the same as when you book any TV talent from any company at anytime. It’s a privilege to have the TV talent on your show. You do it with the understanding that they could be pulled at any time for any reason. That’s just how it works. So if Ricky Starks has an ongoing issue with AEW and it bleeds over to GCW, it is what it is. That’s the way the game goes. That’s something that, again, we have to understand can happen at any time. It sucked in the moment, but life goes on, wrestling goes on, GCW goes on and this one didn’t work out, but hopefully the next one will. That’s just how I look at the relationship with AEW.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Brett Lauderdale spoke about HOOK’s current run in GCW. Check out his full comments by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Brett Lauderdale in the video linked at the top of this article. After that, head over to our YouTube channel to catch a full review of all the action.
