Brett Lauderdale Comments On AEW Running Hammerstein Ballroom Shows Before GCW

AEW is set to hold a trio of tapings next month, less than 30 days before GCW heads there, and Brett Lauderdale recently weighed in on the matter. AEW is holding ROH Final Battle, AEW Collision and AEW Dynamite on December 20th, 21st and 22nd, while GCW returns to Hammerstein on January 19th. Lauderdale was asked on the The Business of the Business Podcast about the timing of the AEW shows and noted it wasn’t the best for GCW as a company.

“I don’t know Tony Khan personally and I don’t know enough of their people well enough to know or to speculate that they would particularly do something like that just to hurt us,” Lauderdale said (per Fightful). “Without that being said, the traditional etiquette would be, there is a window where you don’t go to the same buildings. Should that window exist? You can call it an unwritten rule, or in many cases it’s a written rule. I’m sure when AEW goes to venues, they probably have a rule written in that no other wrestling show can go there within 30 days or 60 days. It’s a pretty standard practice in the wrestling business and a lot of entertainment industries, both written and unwritten.”

He continued, “Do I think they literally set out to look for a way to hurt GCW? I’m not ready to go that far with it. Do I think that maybe it wasn’t the most polite thing to do? Maybe. They are a billionaire company with endless resources and they run multiple television shows every week so they could run an event there anytime they wanted. They don’t have to do it in December or January. They can do it in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. They could do it every month if they wanted to, but they chose to do it in late December, which is less than 30 days before we are there. It’s not the greatest of circumstances for us.”

Khan noted in an interview this week that he’s wanted to run the venue for years, and that the shows are “going to be a big deal for us.”

Brett Lauderdale Comments On AEW Running Hammerstein Ballroom Shows Before GCW

Brett Lauderdale Comments On AEW Running Hammerstein Ballroom Shows Before GCW

Brett Lauderdale Comments On AEW Running Hammerstein Ballroom Shows Before GCW

Brett Lauderdale Comments On AEW Running Hammerstein Ballroom Shows Before GCW

Brett Lauderdale Comments On AEW Running Hammerstein Ballroom Shows Before GCW