5 things you need to know about All Elite Wrestling's TNT TV deal

News broke today that All Elite Wrestling, the new wrestling promotion launched on New Year's Eve by The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, and Tony Khan, will officially make its television debut in October.

Since announcing the formation of AEW, the promotion has run three critically successful events, with Double Or Nothing serving as the inaugural event over Memorial Day weekend. The company followed the PPV in Las Vegas with Fyter Fest and most recently held its Fight For The Fallen event, which featured Cody and Dustin Rhodes vs The Young Bucks.

As the company continues on the road to its All Out event, the highly-anticipated follow-up to last year's All In event, let's take a look at 5 things you need to know about All Elite Wrestling's new television deal with TNT.

#5 The show will premiere live on October 2nd at 8 pm EST

The guessing game is over where it concerns All Elite Wrestling's new television show, as the company officially announced today that the show will premiere on Wednesday, October 2nd at 8 pm EST.

The yet-to-be-named show will air weekly on Wednesday nights from 8pm-10pm EST, and the official announcement regarding the show's name is forthcoming.

With the show airing on Wednesday nights, All Elite Wrestling avoids direct competition with WWE's main roster TV shows, as Raw airs on Monday nights and will continue to do so when the company's new deal kicks in with NBCUniversal. Meanwhile, SmackDown Live airs on Tuesday nights and will move to Friday nights when WWE's deal kicks in with FOX Sports on October 4th.

Interestingly, the first episode of AEW TV will air in the same week that WWE premieres its first episode of SmackDown Live on FOX Sports. With such high profile shows running on October 2nd and October 4th, there is no doubt both AEW and WWE will be looking to put their best feet forward in order to draw eyes to their respective shows.

#4 AEW TV will compete with WWE NXT

When All Elite Wrestling announced back in May that the company would be airing its weekly TV show on TNT in October, the company initially targeted Tuesday nights for the weekly TV show, according to Sports Illustrated.

"AEW was initially believed to be targeting Tuesday night’s for its television product but TNT’s coverage of the NBA made that difficult," reports SI.

With AEW choosing to air its show on Wednesday nights, All Elite Wrestling's first hour of TV will go head-to-head with WWE NXT which airs on WWE Network from 8-9pm EST.

While Cody Rhodes has maintained in interviews that AEW is not intended to mirror WWE, comparisons will likely be drawn by wrestling fans, which could lead to a number of fans choosing one product in favor of the other.

Speaking at TCA19 this week, Cody Rhodes noted, "the thing we have to do is not focus on WWE. The thing we're providing is very different. WWE coins themselves 'sports entertainment.' We coin ourselves 'pro wrestling.' I don't think the shows will look or sound like one another."

#2 The AEW wrestlers will typically only compete one night a week

All Elite Wrestling has been very transparent about wrestler safety, noting that the health and well-being of company talent is of chief importance to AEW higher-ups.

While speaking at TCA19 this week, AEW's Chief Branding Officer, Brandi Rhodes, noted that All Elite Wrestling talents will typically only compete once a week, in order to give them plenty of time to rest their bodies and spend time with family.

"Well being is very important to us," said Rhodes, adding All Elite Wrestling is not looking for "cookie cutter" talent, and will be looking to add diversity to the company's roster.

With talents working very limited schedules compared to companies such as WWE, Ring of Honor and New Japan, AEW could become a very attractive place to work for talents who are looking to reduce the amount of time they spend in the ring.

#2 Blood and violence will not be a regular aspect of the TV product

All Elite Wrestling fans will likely never forget the bloody battle which pitted brother against brother at Double Or Nothing when Cody Rhodes faced his older brother Dustin Rhodes.

The bout was a slugfest, complete with blood and hardcore violence, an aspect of pro wrestling which has been largely absent in the current, mainstream space.

Despite the hardcore nature of several AEW bouts to date, fans should not expect bloody violence to be a mainstay of the AEW TV show coming October 2nd.

Speaking at TAC19, Cody Rhodes noted that the more hardcore, bloody matches will be reserved for PPV's and special events, and likely will not be regularly featured on the TNT show.

It remains unclear as to why AEW will be straying away from the hardcore aspect of wrestling for its TV show, but it could be because blood and violence fare better on PPV, and less favorably with network executives looking to sell ad space.

#1 Notable names appear and do not appear on the roster

Along with the announcement that All Elite Wrestling's new TV show will premiere on TNT on October 2nd, the official press release noted the following regarding the show premiere's talent roster.

AEW is headlined by Cody & Brandi Rhodes, The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson), Kenny Omega, Hangman Adam Page, Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley. The roster is also filled with incredibly skilled competitors including Nyla Rose, Awesome Kong, Dustin Rhodes, Jungle Boy, Dr. Britt Baker, MJF and SCU. In addition to being in-ring talent, Cody, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega also serve as EVPs with Brandi Rhodes serving as Chief Brand Officer. Renowned commentator Jim Ross has also joined the league.

It's interesting to note that the initial talent roster does not make mention of three key names - PAC (aka Neville in WWE) and The Lucha Bros, consisting of Pentagon and Fenix.

The press release does mention Awesome Kong, who is a former Impact Wrestling Knockout and WWE star, confirming Kong will indeed be part of the AEW TV roster going forward.

Regarding PAC, he previously pulled out of competing in his scheduled match at Double Or Nothing, due to creative issues, and his status with the company remains unclear at this point.

Will you be tuning into the premiere of AEW on TNT? Let us know in the comment section!