AEW is coming

The prospect of having a true No. 2 company that could legitimately make inroads on WWE’s market share is certainly interesting and exciting. We may not be there yet. How can AEW avoid being the “next” TNA, XWF, or MLW v 1.0?

Erich Bischoff’s number 1 directive with WCW are truly words to live by. AEW needs to decide what area they can be better than or different than, whilst avoiding being less than. There are some key areas that fall under those three categories and I think it might be useful to evaluate some of them this week.

Areas that AEW has a very reasonable opportunity to be BETTER than the WWE:

AEW can easily produce more coherent and interesting finishes and storylines just by virtue of simplifying the process. Over the past few weeks, some of the most downloaded and played podcasts in the short history of rasslin’ podcasts have been Jon Moxley’s appearances. Moxley when into granular detail to explain just how complicated, frustrating, and inefficient the WWE creative process can be. Although many people have criticized AEW’s approach to placing inexperienced, active talent in executive and administrative roles, it does provide the opportunity for those same officials to roll back some of the bloat that has been steadily creeping into WWE’s production since the mid and late ’90s. Imagine how much more good stuff can actually make it on to TV when it doesn’t take 3 hours to produce a backstage, pre-tape promo.

I should be clear to point out that the following statement is not meant to be derogatory in any way. Wrestlers tend not to “write” very complicated storylines for themselves to execute. In terms of wrestling psychology and performance, the ideal way to present the issues that build into matches at live event and TV tapings is to be as simple as possible. The less information there is to memorize and prepare for in order to process a given storyline as a fan, the more freedom and focus talents are afforded between the ropes.
Having active wrestlers added back into the creative and booking process could also provide us with progressive storylines that focus on personal issues. “Personal issues sell tickets.” Standings don’t do anyone good (remembers the 8 or 10 times promotions have tried to get over a “Top 10” standings system?”, points systems never got a single human being over, and presenting endless amounts arbitrary No. 1 contender’s matches is no better than drawing names from a hat. (No. Things like BOTSJ, The World Tag League, or the G1 don’t count as those are simply the vehicles their promotions used to tell overarching stories when they are done right. There are many examples where simply winning tournaments or being ranked No. 1 didn’t ever get anyone over.) Wrestlers are taught very early on what the golden rule of wrestling is: “Less is more”. Hopefully, AEW provides wrestlers the opportunities to present streamlined stories with the appropriate among of in-ring intensity. This is an easy way to present something that is objectively better than what WWE currently produces.

Unfortunately, there are a few things that AEW will not be able to do any better than WWE does, and I feel it is important to consider those things as well. This is no different than the where the WWE sits in their own position with their strange niche inside the intersection of Sports and Entertainment. Much the same way WWE will never be able to compete with major network’s presentations of the Super Bowl, AEW will unlikely be producing and presenting a mega event on the scale of something like WrestleMania. Historically speaking, the last time any major promotion in the world had better television and event production would have been the state-of-the-art production that WCCW had until the WWF caught up somewhere between 1984 and 1985. Infamously, ECW leveraged their poor production values and incorporated that image as part of their brand- at least until TNN had any input on the matter. AEW does have some WCW and WWE alumni on the team, but nothing scaled on the level of what WWE operates on currently.

Areas that AEW has a very distinct disadvantage compared to WWE:

The roster is not currently, on the level of WWE and may never be. AEW can’t stack up against WWE’s roster from top to middle let alone top to bottom. Kenny Omega is a phenomenal talent and is tremendously fun to watch. As a matter of fact, I’m trying to think of a match of his I didn’t like other than the boat match that everyone slept walked through. Omega is a top-level guy and I’m excited to see him get the opportunity to get over in the states with his natural charisma and smooth and athletic style in the ring. Then it goes downhill quickly after that.

Chris Jericho is great and is a linchpin type of legend who can hang around the next few years to put over AEW’s developing talent. At this stage of his Career, Jericho is more removed from himself physically and as a character than he is removed from Terry Funk in 1997. To draw a further comparison, Jericho has already worked AEW’s version of Living Dangerously. Cody and Dustin Rhodes had the absolute best match Double or Nothing and the Jon Moxley appearance blew the roof off the building to close the show. So, all the highest peak of the show came from WWE performers. That isn’t an inherently bad thing, but it does prove that the promotion is at a disadvantage when it comes to the quality and star power of their own roster.

If there are or ever was true World Tag Team Champions, Fenix and Pentagon Jr. In a weird way, that is not necessarily the best-case scenario for the promotion. They are on Impact doing Death Matches with LAX, they are on AAA doing AAA things, they are on MLW having monumentality bad matches with Teddy Hart, they are EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME and God bless them for that. If they are to be on the top end of some of AEW’s programming on any consistent basis, this creates multiple challenges with them creatively. It also overexposes them as a product, and it becomes very difficult to promote them as anything worth the viewer’s attention.

Cherry picking the indies isn’t going to develop talent any better than what the WWE does currently. The most likely scenario is that AEW no ability to create any positive roster turnover at all as things are. This has a net negative effect on AEW’s roster. While it is true that so many of WWE’s top talents are indy guys that learned much of what they know by wrestling each other in Bingo halls across the countries, that is very different than doing all that and then being put through the process and responsibility of getting through WWE’s development process and then being put on the road in a Major League environment. If the performance center, developmental system, and WWE main roster is truly such a terrible thing (as so many have complained about before), why did all the most over portions of Double or Nothing explicitly involves high level, WWE talents? Simple answer, they all learned the best of what they know with the direction and support of WWE’s system.

Johnny Gargano was a good wrestler before he ever got to NXT. Now, Johnny Gargano is a good wrestler who has direct access to learn from Shawn Michaels. It doesn’t matter if Gargano EVER gets out of NXT, he’s still had the opportunity to rub shoulders with and learn from the talent that has done it better and longer than he has. Whenever it comes time for someone like Moxley, Gargano, or even Cody Rhodes to leave WWE, they are ALWAYS more over and better performers than they were when they came in. AEW has an uphill battle moving forward to maintain a competitive roster and the capacity to develop and cultivate their own attractions down the line. Their production values inherit a natural disadvantage due to the lack of administrative experience and the overall size of support staff. There are some things that AEW can also do differently to accentuate the difference in their presentation when compared to WWE.

Areas that AEW has opportunities to be very different than WWE:

AEW can be the “for us by us” promotion. Throughout the Monday Night Wars period, Vince McMahon wet t great lengths to present the WWF as the underdog promotion. These days, WWE is firmly in the position of the nations of heel promotion. AEW can be the underdog as they have clearly tapped into a part of the market that feel underrepresented for the past few years. There are some advantages to being in AEW’s position.

In the case of Moxley, and as evidenced by the 15-minute sellout for All Out, underutilized wrestler that WWE failed to capitalize on may be able to come to AEW with a higher profile than when they left the WWE. This sounds somewhat counter-intuitive. How can someone like Dean Ambrose leave the No. 1 promotion to show up on the No. 2 promotion and be more “over”. The reality is that Dean Ambrose may have been just as over while working in New York, but the fans he was over with were apathetic about his presentation. AEW should be able to capitalize on their position as a place for the fans to make further differentiation.

AEW is not beholden to being homogenous. As I stated before, AEW may never be able to match the production quality of a giant, corporate media conglomerate like WWE. Although, with advances in technology, that gap is closing faster than it has been in the past 20 years. AEW doesn’t have a universal set and I love it. Not only is there no universal set for AEW, but there is no one that has a pre-conceived notion as to why a universal set is necessary. There is no reason that AEW shows need to look the same every time out.

AEW can safely change up the look, location, and formats of their show to highlight why they are the best alternative to WWE’s product. This is, perhaps, one of the most exciting prospects of AEW’s emergence over the past year. The canvas is blank. Rather than using WWE’s palette, I believe it will be extremely important for AEW to take advantage of this fact to find ways to appear spontaneous and exciting as a brand. There was NO REASON that the first Monday Nitro had to take place in the Mall of America other than the fact that the WWF never would.

AEW has the flexibility to be a WRESTLING company and everyone is ok with that. WWE is a giant Media company with a diversified range of products and services. Believe me, there is a very good reason for WWE to operate that way. Again, AEW is not at the mercy of those same shareholders. They are not expected to make their talent available to produce movies for Netflix or produce countless non-wrestling content for their Over The Top Content service. WWE can continue to be a Sports Entertainment and AEW has a Wrestling market that is wide-open and ready to welcome them in.