Ever since AEW officially had their coming out party a few months ago with “Double Or Nothing”, the company continues to grow in popularity and viewership with casual and hardcore wrestling fans alike. Even though I wrote in a previous article that just because I like AEW doesn’t necessarily mean I like everything that I currently see in AEW because those certain things that I don’t like about AEW like the commentary and production are things that the company should improve on for the foreseeable future.
Now with that being said, here are top 5 things that I like about AEW.
Not Relying On Far Too Many Ex-WWE Wrestlers To Promote Their Product - The main thing that I definitely like about AEW is that they have avoided falling into that dangerous trap on relying on far too many ex-WWE wrestlers (unlike WCW and TNA) to promote their product. Sure you have very few ex-WWE guys like Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, Jon Moxley, and Shawn Spears, but they have so many young up and coming talented in-ring performers that they’re currently building up from “Bad Boy” Joey Janela to “Hangman” Adam Page to become top main event players in the future. Let’s be honest, WWE on the other hand relies far too much on the stars of yesteryear from Brock Lesnar to The Undertaker to boost weekly TV ratings and ticket sales and are working limited number of dates by also constantly taking away main event and TV time spots away from the young full-time performers who are on the road over 300 days a year which is very detrimental to not only the young full-time performers and fans, but also the entire company as well.
Building Up Their Tag Team Division - Another thing that I currently like about AEW is their phenomenal tag team division which has amazing tag teams from The Young Bucks, Lucha Bros., Dark Order, SCU, and especially my favorite tag team that recently signed a contract with AEW, the cool athletically gifted upcoming tag team called “Private Party”. When we look at the tag team division on the current WWE main shows, they are clearly a shell of what they used to be when you had amazing tag teams from back in the day like The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, to The New Age Outlaws, APA, The Dudleyz, The Hardyz, and Edge and Christian. Nowadays, there are too many nonsensical random tag teams that are thrown together from Nakamura/Rusev, Alicia Fox/Carmella, Alister Black/Ricochet to even The Kabuki Warriors which severely waters down the entire tag team division in WWE as a whole which includes the constant hot potato treatment of the current Raw/SD Tag Team Titles which absolutely nobody cares about at this point.
Better Stage Sets - Another one of the main things that I currently like about AEW are their stage sets like the recent “Fight For The Fallen” stage set looks and feels so authentic and different from the current stale, repetitive, and manufactured stage sets on the current WWE main shows and even their B-C list PPVs which makes them feel so unauthentic. When I watch an AEW match on YouTube, it truly feels special compared to when you see the same stale and repetitive stage sets that The WWE used for the recent Stomping Grounds and Not-So Extreme Rules events, it makes those events feel more like you’re watching a special 4 hour episode of Raw rather than watching an actual WWE PPV event.
Better Women’s Wrestling - Another one of the biggest things that I truly like about AEW is the fact that unlike that underwhelming women’s match on the “Fight For The Fallen” main show that I won’t name, but the women’s wrestling for the most part is absolutely amazing and enjoyable to watch because there are different styles of women’s wrestling in AEW from the old school technical style to the Japanese women’s style of wrestling called “Joshi”. These women’s matches in AEW not only feel so unique and special, but they definitely bring something different to the table. Unlike AEW that’s definitely putting a huge focus on the women’s division, but in The WWE however, most of the women on the current main shows are treated horribly because of Vince’s addiction to giving unwanted pushes to the subpar in-ring performers such as the overrated bimbo blondies like Alexa, Carmella, Charlotte, and Mandy at the expense of more talented in-ring performers such as Ember Moon and Sasha Banks. Most of the “women’s wrestling” on the current WWE main shows is atrocious, stale, boring, cookie cutter, and overscripted which will definitely put viewers to sleep.
Making Their Titles Look And Feel Meaningful And Prestigious - The last thing that I do like about AEW is the fact that they have made it clear that the titles that they will introduce later on this year which includes the already unveiled AEW World Title and the yet-to-be revealed AEW Tag Team and Women’s Titles will definitely look and feel to make sure they are meaningful and prestigious because let’s be honest, in WWE nowadays especially on the current main shows, the titles are absolutely meaningless because of the frequent title changes that often happen on the main shows and PPVs aka hot potatoes which has severely damaged and devalued the history and prestige of the titles such as The WWE Title, The Intercontinental Title, and The Tag Team Titles.
Notable Mentions - Other things I like about AEW are 1) very diverse roster that includes Black, Latino, and Japanese wrestlers something that WWE severely lacks because 95% of their roster is white because WWE loves to talk about “diversity” but doesn’t really follow through on it as seen in the lack of black hairstylists and creative writers in WWE. 2) Unlike WWE, AEW even does special wrestling events for meaningful causes like the charity event as in the recent “Fight For The Fallen” where they donated $150,000 to victims of gun violence. 3) And unlike WWE, AEW will be doing house shows mostly on Saturdays because of the physical and mental beatdown that they have on the wrestler’s bodies and that the wrestlers will only work the weekly TV shows and PPV events so that they can spend more time with their families. 4) Also unlike WWE, AEW doesn’t do the rinse-n-repeat formula when it comes to matches from Cody/Dustin Rhodes at Double Or Nothing, Jon Moxley/Joey Janela in an unsanctioned hardcore match at Fyter Fest, to the upcoming Cody Rhodes/Shawn Spears match at All Out 5) Unlike WWE nowadays, AEW does an amazing job of building up excitement and interest for one of their biggest events of the year in a few weeks in “All Out” because I personally recommend you check out their promotional videos for “The Road To All Out” on YouTube because they are not only better than the frequent lackluster and rushed builds on the current WWE main shows leading up to their PPVs, but they’re also fire.
The Conclusion - For those haters out that like to say that AEW “isn’t that much different from WWE” are to blind to see the glaring differences between AEW and WWE right now.
By Kwame Shakir
