Pro Wrestling Still Needs A Proper Media, Regardless If It Wants One

I knew starting a news site dedicated to professional wrestling would be hard. I did not expect to be ignored.

Since NPW launched in May, we have received as many responses to our inquiries from the White House – one – as we have from AEW and WWE combined. 

After the UFC show at the White House in June, we reached out through the official White House media email address and asked if President Donald Trump planned to attend a WWE show. It’s a legitimate question, considering Trump’s personal ties to WWE leadership, as well as WWE sharing the same parent company as UFC.

The White House responded, on background, that they had nothing to share. This was not surprising. There’s been no indication Trump has ever made plans to attend a WWE show, though there have been plenty of rumors WWE asked. Regardless, the White House answered.

It’s not the first time that government officials have been more forthcoming with information than either AEW or WWE. 

In 2024, the state of Oklahoma’s Athletic Commission took time to discuss trans wrestler Nyla Rose working an AEW show in the state. Who broke the news of those meeting minutes? That would be me, two years before NPW launched, because I asked for them. No one else in pro wrestling media did.

I wrote then, “In 2024, pro wrestling does not get the coverage it deserves.” It’s 2026, and nothing has changed. Except I now know the reason why.

For a long time, I blamed the “media” who covered pro wrestling for chasing access and choosing easy content creation. I’ve come to realize that’s the only way they can interact with AEW or WWE.

To be clear – this shift away from traditional media to pandering to content creators and influencers is not limited to pro wrestling. 

This week, the sport of tennis has been fighting its own demons, as the US Open opened its arms to these legions of creators and instantly got rewarded with controversy, distractions, and annoyed fans. It got so bad that the All England Club, host of Wimbledon, has already publicly shut the door to influencers in 2027. Good for them. More need to follow.

What bothers me most about this content creation obsession is the vapidness of the content being created. How many chucklefests do we need to see with podcasters smiling like fanboys? 

In tennis, those lighthearted podcasts and features are balanced by the daily deluge of in-depth journalism on the sport. Every American tennis fan knows everything about Ben Shelton or Francis Tiafoe because we’ve seen them at their low points, speaking with the media after losing a devastating match at a Grand Slam. It makes the joy of their victories mean even more, because they’ve opened themselves up to us.

The reason why content creation in tennis doesn’t bother me, like it does in pro wrestling, is because fun videos have their place in a robust ecosystem of coverage for a sport. However, there is no robust ecosystem of journalism covering pro wrestling. It’s only the access type that WWE and AEW seem to accept in 2026.

As I worked on our roundup of tv networks covering pro wrestling, every network responded in some form or fashion, except WBD, the home of AEW. Some responded on the record, some responded on background, and Comet TV made an executive available for an in-depth interview. ESPN “respectfully declined” to provide any information about their wildly changing coverage of WWE on their website. I know there’s more there, and I’m still chasing it, but at least they acknowledged our existence. 

Even when WrestleCon was inundated by controversy after the announcement that Vince McMahon’s accomplice, John Laurinaitis, would be signing autographs at their event, they responded to me with their side of the story. There were many who disagreed with their stance, but they had one and they shared it. 

We’ve reached the point in late-stage capitalism where the largest companies and organizations are able to successfully dictate how they’re covered. 

In recent months, there have been a spate of former NFL players who have been diagnosed and/or died from CTE. Since every media company on the planet has a deal with the NFL, don’t hold your breath for another League of Denial investigation.

Likewise, the tech industry was once covered by some of the best and brightest minds in journalism, holding visionaries like Steve Jobs and others accountable for the technology they were developing and how they were doing it.

Today, tech journalism is essentially a press release feed. How many “CEO says” articles can possibly be authored? Turns out, there’s an unlimited supply. I believe Elon has us living on Mars in five years, which gets reported uncritically.

With NPW up and operating for several months now, it 's easy to see why wrestling journalism has been reduced to friends of AEW or WWE.

I understand, thanks to the gray invading my beard, that I’m from a different generation of journalism. One of my favorite subjects to cover in the 2000s as a reporter in Connecticut was current Senator and then state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

We were never friends. I never invited him on a podcast. He returned my calls. I knew he would tell me the truth. Sure, I also knew he was using me to break news, such as when he wanted Connecticut to know he was going after ticket resellers in 2007. I didn't mind, since I was using him to advance my bona fides as a reporter. It was a form of “access journalism” but one that developed through trust, not my preapproval to transcribe and publish everything he said. 

Since May, the only time AEW responded to me came when I requested a media credential to their shows in Boston this summer. They replied I asked too late, and I needed to do so weeks in advance. That made sense. 

For this week’s Collision in Springfield, Massachusetts, I sent in my requests weeks ago. They still denied me credentials. There will be about 5,000 empty seats on Saturday night – I’ve been to and covered events from the former Springfield Civic Center  – but there won’t be one for me. 

I’m not discouraged by this lack of access. I’m motivated. NPW was started for a reason. It’s good to know the reasoning was sound.

This is also my long way of saying, “Thank you” to everyone who has subscribed and supports NPW. I appreciate it. I will continue doing my best to give you the pro wrestling journalism you want.

For those who haven’t subscribed, please consider supporting independent journalism. 

For everyone, here’s a sample of our media inquiries since May that have been ignored.

• TNA Slammiversary: In June, I requested a media credential for TNA Slammiversary and/or an interview with TNA’s leader Carlos Silva. Amusingly, my email informed them the media request form on their website was broken – maybe it was only me reaching out? I published the questions I wanted to ask in this recap of the show.
  
• The Last Match: I asked AEW for information related to The Last Match production in London in response to a press release they sent out. No response, and there have been no stories about the play from anyone since June.
  
• MyAEW: I reached out to AEW for a comment or an interview about the MyAEW streaming service, specifically regarding the plan moving forward for airing independent wrestling promotions.
  
• AEW’s Twitch Preshow: When AEW hosted a Twitch pregame show before Dynamite, I reached out to the WBD PR contact listed on the press release. I followed up after the show too. Nothing from Gerry.
  
• Beach Break Sponsorship: When AEW hosted the Beach Break Dynamite, it was listed as being sponsored by St Pete Clearwater, who I contacted to get information about the sponsorship. I emailed after the show to ask if they were happy, since that episode had such good ratings. Even positive media outreach can be ignored.
  
• Future WrestleMania Locations: With questions being raised about future WrestleMania shows that have been announced then rescinded – as well as the potential for next year’s show to not happen in Saudi Arabia – I contacted visitor groups in Indianapolis and Nashville about what WWE told them and why it changed. Okay, it’s not a huge surprise these folks didn’t respond.
  
• NFL/WWE Partnership: I reached out to the NFL and WWE about their partnership because the NFL told me in February – before I launched NPW – that their relationship would be expanding. The NFL said they had no updates when I got around to writing the story. WWE didn’t bother to respond. 

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