Randy Orton To AEW Possible, WWE Co-President Rules Out Threat: Report

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is the biggest wrestling company in the world and is also the most popular. They will continue to be so for at least a while longer with no other company as yet threatening their dominance.

But the emergence of All Elite Wrestling (AEW) backed by Pakistani American billionaire Shahid Khan and his son Tony is making waves in the wrestling world enough for the biggest promotion in the world to sit up and take notice. But WWE co-president George Barrios admitted that it was too early to measure the impact of the new promotion and he is certain that they will not threaten their place as the “premier global organization”.

"Yeah, too early to tell. We wouldn't talk about specifics of that," Barrios said, as quoted on Wrestling Inc. "From our perspective, we think we are the premier global organization with the greatest wrestlers in the world, one of the greatest platforms. We have a lot of confidence in our ability to manage that."

Meanwhile, recently reports emerged about AEW making a lucrative offer for one big time current WWE star, but that has been rubbished by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, with the company reportedly stating that it could be an agent trying to take advantage and getter a payday for his client from the WWE.

But Sapp reports that WWE’s third generation superstar Randy Orton has been openly discussing his willingness to speak to AEW about any potential offers. It will be their biggest coup if they manage to land the 14-time WWE champion as until now their main capture has been Chris Jericho, who is also a legend in the WWE owing to his longevity and being consistently one of the top performers, adored and hated equally by the fans.

AEW’s capture of Jericho was a major statement and his revelation about signing the biggest contract of his career caught the attention of the professional wrestlers across the globe. They are now aware that there is another promotion that has the capability to hand out lucrative deals similar to WWE.

And WWE is aware that their position on the negotiating table has been compromised with wrestlers now given an option. If they are not satisfied with the offer from WWE, they can now jump ship and explore other options with AEW or other promotions. And Vince McMahon is keen to avoid that and has instructed the WWE management to tie down all of their superstars to new deals including double-your-money deals. Moreover, they are now giving a push to all the smaller superstars to keep them satisfied.

During recent weeks there has been a visible change with smaller stars and the tag team division getting more television coverage and attention during the live events. This is in order to encourage them to commit to WWE and not look toward AEW. The likes of AJ Styles, the USOS, and Dolph Ziggler are nearing the end of their deals and the WWE is said to be eager to negotiate new deals for the trio, who are popular figures among the WWE Universe.