GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale Claims Deal With AEW Isn’t Dead

GCW owner Brett Lauderdale believes his company‘s relationship with AEW is not over. The two companies’ relationship has been surrounded by uncertainty. It happened when Jon Moxley extended his contract with AEW.

At the time, Jon Moxley was the reigning GCW World Champion, and he was going to defend his title at GCW Fight Club. According to the terms of the agreement, Moxley would only compete for AEW and its international partners. Moxley was later defeated by Nick Gage at GCW Fight Club as a result of interference from AEW’s Stokely Hathaway and W. Morrissey.

Since then, rumors have circulated that AEW no longer wants its talent to participate in GCW shows. Lauderdale was questioned about the speculations in a new interview with Sean Ross Sapp. Lauderdale said that if such an edict exists, it has never been disclosed to him.

Lauderdale stated that he is still in touch with AEW wrestlers and discusses opportunities with them. Moxley, for his part, thinks it would be a leap to say the former GCW World Champion would never work for the company again. “I think, and I’ll be totally honest with you, if that is such a thing, it’s never been communicated to me,” Lauderdale said.

So if that is a new rule, nobody told me that. I still have good relationships with a lot of AEW talent, and I still discuss opportunities with them. Obviously with Mox, he’s a lead story, no matter where he is or what he does, or who he’s working with. So I think it’s easy, and I can understand how people can see Mox’s new arrangement with AEW and assume that he’s never going to appear in GCW again. I would say even that may be taking a leap. I wouldn’t be surprised if Moxley turned up at a GCW event two months from now. It wouldn’t surprise me.

Sean Sapp then joked that Moxley might battle WWE star Omos in a GCW show, and Lauderdale agreed sarcastically. He then made it absolutely clear that he does not think the AEW/GCW relationship is dead. He also stated that the circumstances of companies working together are always changing.

“Yeah, to face Omos. That’s a dream match for me. I get it, I know how the wrestling world works and the online wrestling community, and the way general discussion works, that people sometimes take one piece of a story and it turns into something completely different. So I don’t think that this relationship is dead.”

“I don’t think that there’s a ban. There’s always different guidelines in place. There are certain people that are available and certain people that aren’t, and the rules on how, when, and why, those things change all the time. They’ve changed since day one, from the first time we had AEW talent on our shows. Again I hear about new changes for everybody all the time. That’s one thing about wrestling is things change every day. So it’s very possible that maybe that even was a rule for a day, or a week or a month, or whatever. But these things change all the time. Circumstances always change. So I mean certainly, I would hope not.”

The GCW promoter then mentioned how AEW has been helpful to the company. He highlighted Moxley and Joey Janela as examples, as Janela often competed for GCW while under contract with AEW. Lauderdale stated that, no matter what, he’s grateful for the collaboration they’ve had up to this point.

AEW has been very good to us over the years, and we’ve been blessed to have access to people like Moxley and Janela, when Janela was under AEW contract, he was always available to us. We’re lucky, we’re lucky to have been able to work with the people we have. Whether it’s over now or whether it continues for another five years, either way, I’m thankful for what we were able to do with AEW, and hopefully we’ll be able to do more.

Lauderdale mentioned GCW’s move to FITE+ in the same interview. Lauderdale recently stated that GCW will most likely not return to the Hammerstein Ballroom in January 2023. Let’s wait and see what happens. To get the latest updates, keep an eye on Ringside News.

What do you think about the relationship? Let us know in the comments!