As PWMania.com previously reported, AEW recently sent out a document outlining some of the changes they intended to implement in terms of performer and fan safety, such as banning or requiring talent to be cleared to do certain things, such as moves and actions.
The protocols were developed by the AEW medical team, coaches, and referees to help protect talent, staff, crew, and fans. You can find the list by clicking here.
Dave Meltzer discussed the backstage reaction to the list on the Wrestling Observer Radio.
“I actually have heard from a lot of guys. I asked a lot of guys, but it’s like, the story’s obviously true. You know, I mean, everything that you read and everything like that. I mean, there’s a list and all this, but like, it’s really, like aside from the fact that Bryan Danielson did the convulsing thing once, that nobody really thought was a good idea, so it will never be done again. Whether they had a rule against it or not, it still wasn’t gonna be done again. And the spitting thing, I saw that big spit spot that I forget whether it was Jay or Juice, but I remember it was all over Dax Harwood’s body on Saturday night. It’s really nothing like the rules of the band stuff have been in play. They haven’t been written down, but those are all rules that have already been in play since like the beginning, since the first time Chris Nowinski and Tony Khan talked and Chris Nowinski talked to everybody. It’s like those things that you see as banned, they’ve always been. It’s not like this is something new.
You have the brawling in the crowd with the blood, that’s somewhat new, but there’s nothing there that’s gonna change anything. And then all the stuff where we need agents’ approval, the reality is the stars are all gonna get agent’s approval anyway. Like one person goes like, ‘Look, if I did every single one of these things mentioned, I’d tell the agent now,’ you know what I mean? Beforehand. And every now and then something will happen because of the nature of how the match goes, where you want to do something and you just kind of improvise because it’s not all scripted, laid out move or move. And, you know, you may end up doing that and will you end up, will they, ‘Hey, please don’t do that, it wasn’t approved.’ If you’re a pro and you’re a top guy, they’re gonna give you the benefit of the doubt of the improv improvisation. Or at worst, they’ll just say, ‘Hey look,’ you know, whatever. But it’s like they’re not gonna take away people’s rights to have the matches. They’re not gonna tone like people think it’s gonna tone down. They’re gonna be like WWE, there’s going to be, and this is from multiple people. There, there’s gonna be no change in the matches of these guys. It’s not really like a major thing; it’s like, again, all those dives on the stage and things like that, you know, the cameramen know people know ahead of time because they have to know how to shoot him. So that’s gonna happen. Now as far as will there maybe be stuff to where, but this should always be the goal, you know, and we saw it on….remember that last pay-per-view we had, we had no blood in all of those matches. And because all that blood was gonna be in the main event, and, you know, that’s already in play.
I think that like, again, like hard way blood, whatever, but I mean, as far as intentional blood, I think when it comes to a pay-per-view or tv, you know, it’s like if there’s an accident, no one’s getting fined for an accident, but you don’t want blood in every match. You don’t want blood in six matches on a pay-per-view show, either. That’s just part of it. And, and so yeah, I mean as far as like talent-wise, it’s like people were going like, you know, ‘What does talent think?’ And it’s like, they don’t really…no one’s mad. It’s kind of like the band stuff has already been banned for the most part other than the spitting. And of course, we can go without spitting. Right. Or bleeding and bleeding on fans, which is never a good idea or, you know, whatever. Or stealing drinks from fans, which, you know, there’s what value of entertainment do you lose by not doing that? So, it’s not something that anyone’s concerned over or anyone thinks is negative. It’s pretty much. I think everything’s gonna be largely the same. I think some people want to go, ‘Oh man, it’s like they’re, they’re now they’re really cracking down’ and it’s like, kind of always been, most of these rules have already been there for a long, long time. I joke.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
