Paul Wight dismisses notion of 'paying dues' in wrestling

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 04: Paul Wight attends the "Queen Of The Ring" New York Premiere at at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on March 04, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dominik Bindl/Getty Images) | Getty Images It was only a number of days ago that a huge debate ignited about young wrestlers “paying their dues” in the industry in the wake of Avery Styles, the son of wrestling legend AJ Styles, being criticized by another wrestler for not helping take down the ring at a GCW event he worked. Dear old dad quickly jumped in to defend him and a number of other folks in the industry have the done the same, from Lexis King to Cody Rhodes. Now, AEW’s Paul Wight is weighing in with his take and he also comes down on the side of those who believe the whole “paying your dues” talk is nonsense. As he told Inside the Ring: “F—k that bulls—t. Paying your dues to me is an old-timer’s way of intimidating and bullying and f—king with the younger talent for no goddamn reason. If a talent comes in respectful with a good attitude — don’t come in like you own the place, don’t have an attitude — but why should you take heat because your athleticism, your look, or what opportunities you’ve been given, you’ve been successful on? Why should somebody hold that against you, because you didn’t drive for $35 a night and you didn’t set up some broken torn ass down ring and you didn’t struggle for all this stuff? Okay. Why punish somebody for that? “My thing is when I came in everybody was so mad at me because my first match was against Hulk Hogan. I was 22-years-old. Is that my fault? Should I have gone to independents? Should I have learned how people lie, manipulate and bulls—t in smaller leagues and promoters don’t pay you and all these other stories that all these other old-timers went through that made them seasoned? To me, that’s bitter sauce. I don’t like that punishing a younger talent because that’s not what our business is about. Our business should be about inspiring younger talent, helping them so they don’t make mistakes, helping them avoid pitfalls.” This certainly isn’t going to end the debate surrounding all this but there have been enough industry legends who have spoken up here that maybe we can leave the archaic way of the past where it belongs?