When I first heard about AEW becoming a new promotion in January 2019, I was originally excited to see what this new promotion is about, but fast forward to May 2021, I see numerous similarities between AEW and late 1990s WCW and that’s definitely not a good thing for me to say.
This article isn’t about me hating on AEW like a lot of people are, but I am providing legitimate reasons as to why I don’t watch AEW very much anymore & not to mention, I don’t watch WWE very much nowadays because of the business decisions that they’ve done to alienate me such as banning wrestlers from using Twitch, TrashbagGate, to The Saudi Arabia shows.
Here are legitimate reasons as to why I don’t watch AEW anymore.
The Elite Have Too Much Creative Freedom - I don’t like active wrestlers getting too much creative freedom because it leads to ego trips, nepotism, and the golden shovel treatment being inflicted on younger wrestlers. This was one of the biggest downsides of WCW back in the day when they gave certain guys like Hogan & Nash too much creative freedom over the shows and outcomes of their matches leading them to often bury young talent just to stroke their ego. The Elite are doing the exact same thing that Hogan & Nash did back in late 1990s WCW: burying young talent to stroke their own egos. When you have active wrestlers such as The Elite writing and running Dynamite, that’s often not a recipe for making a good show.
Also, The Elite don’t have any expertise in creating compelling storylines and compelling television that keeps fans and viewers intrigued and engaged to wanna watch more to see what will happen next week. One of Tony’s biggest mistakes so far is giving The Elite way too much creative freedom and instead, that should have went to real wrestling minds like JR, Tony Schavionne, Dean Malenko, Tazz, Big Show, Sting, Jerry Lynn because they worked for bigger wrestling companies that knew back in the day on how to come up with and create compelling storylines and keeping viewers engaged to wanna tune in next week.
Much Of The Wrestling On Dynamite Isn’t Really That Good - Sure they got some good wrestlers like Cody, FTR, Shawn Spears, and Nevile, but many of the small wrestlers they have on Dynamite aren’t ready for TV because their wrestling quality isn’t as good as I thought it would be because there too much of an overemphasis on acrobatic gymnastics aka flippy stuff that often leads to heavy lack of selling, chemistry, psychology, and getting time to take things slow to give them time to breathe as well as too many botches happening during matches on Dynamite.
I don’t mind a wrestler mixing up athletics with technical, psychology based wrestling, but one of the biggest things that gets under my skin nowadays is when there’s a crowd of 4-8 people are standing there waiting to catch someone and that spot has been so done to death in modern day mainstream wrestling especially in NXT War Games matches. When I used to sometimes watch long highlight clips of Dynamite on YouTube, the actual wrestling makes me absolutely cringe to the point of me stop watching. At least with WWE, they teach these guys that they bring in from the indies how to sell and make their moves look real unlike on Dynamite.
Overusage of Flippy Stuff in modern day wrestling is NOT Wrestling!!!!
The Whitest Wrestling Promotion In America - I remember when AEW said themselves that they would definitely focus on “diversity and representation”, but it’s literally the complete opposite in 2021 as 3 of their 4 champions are white guys, most of the guys that get heavily pushed on Dynamite are white, there’s absolutely no diversity behind the scenes like agents, producers, managers, etc., & the black, brown, and LGBTQ wrestlers they have are really token wrestlers that they only signed just to mark off checkboxes rather than promoting real genuine diversity and representation in their company.
And the last thing I wanna point out is that AEW is the whitest wrestling promotion in the entire country because all the guys who are running the company are a bunch of white guys who will quickly hire their white male friends in a heartbeat over a black, brown, let alone an LGBT wrestler. When I see no true diversity or representation not only on Dynamite, but behind the scenes, that completely pushes me away from AEW.
At least with WWE, they know who they’re gonna push to the forefront and even though this is a political move WWE did last year, but it worked. Putting The WWE Title on Bobby Lashley was clearly the best decision they did and it has definitely been beneficial for Lashley who is now at the peak of his career because he looks like a million bucks with that WWE Title around his waist and even holding it on his shoulder while dripping in a sick looking suit and tie with MVP as his mouthpiece. And there’s more genuine diversity and representation amongst wrestlers and champions on RAW, Smackdown, & NXT than the pure whiteness showcased heavily on Dynamite.
The Upper Management’s Condescending Attitude Towards Fans - When AEW was launched in 2019, they said that they will listen to what the fans want, but fast forward two years later and they have been acting very condescending towards fans by not only sending some of their delusional fans to attack non-AEW fans on YouTube & social media for constructively critiquing the flaws that are currently rampant in AEW, but recently AEW has gone out of their way to silence certain YouTube wrestling content creators who also offer legitimate constructive criticism of their product and specifically their weekly show called Dynamite by continuously abusing and exploiting YouTube’s copyright system by throwing out copyright claims that has not only gotten some YouTube wrestling channels shut down, but have even thrown copyright claims towards those YouTube wrestling content creators who use either an audio or video clip from Dynamite without permission. AEW really love stroking their own egos just to act condescending towards fans and it’s disgusting.
Women’s Wrestling Is Still Being Treated As An Afterthought In AEW - For those of you who have read my previous articles on women’s wrestling know that I have been a huge fan of women’s wrestling since 2007. One of the biggest things that absolutely disgusts me more as a wrestling fan is when certain wrestling promotions like WWE and especially AEW give themselves a pat on the back for doing the absolute bare minimum for the women. Much like The WWE main roster, women in AEW are still treated as an afterthought just two months after they had the best women’s match in the history of the promotion in Baker/Rosa II in The Unsanctioned Lights Out Match in a Dynamite main event. Ever since that match, the women’s match times on Dynamite have been significantly reduced to the point of it becoming unwatchable like it was in 2019 and especially during The Pandemic Era Of 2020. I can’t stand it when a wrestling company like AEW acts like they’ll promote women’s wrestling, but continues to undermine the women on their roster and women’s wrestling in general. No wonder why big name female wrestlers like Taya Valkyrie and Deonna Purrazo decided to pass on signing with AEW for this particular reason.
Note: Other reasons why I don’t legitimately watch AEW very much: 1) no credible big monster heel 2) start & stop pushes for certain wrestlers such as Scorpio Sky & Nyla Rose 3) Black, brown, & LGBTQ wrestlers are treated as an afterthought by the promotion.
The Conclusion - AEW has the potential to be better than what they are right now, but as long as they keep doing the same 5 things that I mentioned above, the product will continue to suffer and suffer to the point of more people giving up on watching AEW.
By Kwame Shakir
This article isn’t about me hating on AEW like a lot of people are, but I am providing legitimate reasons as to why I don’t watch AEW very much anymore & not to mention, I don’t watch WWE very much nowadays because of the business decisions that they’ve done to alienate me such as banning wrestlers from using Twitch, TrashbagGate, to The Saudi Arabia shows.
Here are legitimate reasons as to why I don’t watch AEW anymore.
The Elite Have Too Much Creative Freedom - I don’t like active wrestlers getting too much creative freedom because it leads to ego trips, nepotism, and the golden shovel treatment being inflicted on younger wrestlers. This was one of the biggest downsides of WCW back in the day when they gave certain guys like Hogan & Nash too much creative freedom over the shows and outcomes of their matches leading them to often bury young talent just to stroke their ego. The Elite are doing the exact same thing that Hogan & Nash did back in late 1990s WCW: burying young talent to stroke their own egos. When you have active wrestlers such as The Elite writing and running Dynamite, that’s often not a recipe for making a good show.
Also, The Elite don’t have any expertise in creating compelling storylines and compelling television that keeps fans and viewers intrigued and engaged to wanna watch more to see what will happen next week. One of Tony’s biggest mistakes so far is giving The Elite way too much creative freedom and instead, that should have went to real wrestling minds like JR, Tony Schavionne, Dean Malenko, Tazz, Big Show, Sting, Jerry Lynn because they worked for bigger wrestling companies that knew back in the day on how to come up with and create compelling storylines and keeping viewers engaged to wanna tune in next week.
Much Of The Wrestling On Dynamite Isn’t Really That Good - Sure they got some good wrestlers like Cody, FTR, Shawn Spears, and Nevile, but many of the small wrestlers they have on Dynamite aren’t ready for TV because their wrestling quality isn’t as good as I thought it would be because there too much of an overemphasis on acrobatic gymnastics aka flippy stuff that often leads to heavy lack of selling, chemistry, psychology, and getting time to take things slow to give them time to breathe as well as too many botches happening during matches on Dynamite.
I don’t mind a wrestler mixing up athletics with technical, psychology based wrestling, but one of the biggest things that gets under my skin nowadays is when there’s a crowd of 4-8 people are standing there waiting to catch someone and that spot has been so done to death in modern day mainstream wrestling especially in NXT War Games matches. When I used to sometimes watch long highlight clips of Dynamite on YouTube, the actual wrestling makes me absolutely cringe to the point of me stop watching. At least with WWE, they teach these guys that they bring in from the indies how to sell and make their moves look real unlike on Dynamite.
Overusage of Flippy Stuff in modern day wrestling is NOT Wrestling!!!!
The Whitest Wrestling Promotion In America - I remember when AEW said themselves that they would definitely focus on “diversity and representation”, but it’s literally the complete opposite in 2021 as 3 of their 4 champions are white guys, most of the guys that get heavily pushed on Dynamite are white, there’s absolutely no diversity behind the scenes like agents, producers, managers, etc., & the black, brown, and LGBTQ wrestlers they have are really token wrestlers that they only signed just to mark off checkboxes rather than promoting real genuine diversity and representation in their company.
And the last thing I wanna point out is that AEW is the whitest wrestling promotion in the entire country because all the guys who are running the company are a bunch of white guys who will quickly hire their white male friends in a heartbeat over a black, brown, let alone an LGBT wrestler. When I see no true diversity or representation not only on Dynamite, but behind the scenes, that completely pushes me away from AEW.
At least with WWE, they know who they’re gonna push to the forefront and even though this is a political move WWE did last year, but it worked. Putting The WWE Title on Bobby Lashley was clearly the best decision they did and it has definitely been beneficial for Lashley who is now at the peak of his career because he looks like a million bucks with that WWE Title around his waist and even holding it on his shoulder while dripping in a sick looking suit and tie with MVP as his mouthpiece. And there’s more genuine diversity and representation amongst wrestlers and champions on RAW, Smackdown, & NXT than the pure whiteness showcased heavily on Dynamite.
The Upper Management’s Condescending Attitude Towards Fans - When AEW was launched in 2019, they said that they will listen to what the fans want, but fast forward two years later and they have been acting very condescending towards fans by not only sending some of their delusional fans to attack non-AEW fans on YouTube & social media for constructively critiquing the flaws that are currently rampant in AEW, but recently AEW has gone out of their way to silence certain YouTube wrestling content creators who also offer legitimate constructive criticism of their product and specifically their weekly show called Dynamite by continuously abusing and exploiting YouTube’s copyright system by throwing out copyright claims that has not only gotten some YouTube wrestling channels shut down, but have even thrown copyright claims towards those YouTube wrestling content creators who use either an audio or video clip from Dynamite without permission. AEW really love stroking their own egos just to act condescending towards fans and it’s disgusting.
Women’s Wrestling Is Still Being Treated As An Afterthought In AEW - For those of you who have read my previous articles on women’s wrestling know that I have been a huge fan of women’s wrestling since 2007. One of the biggest things that absolutely disgusts me more as a wrestling fan is when certain wrestling promotions like WWE and especially AEW give themselves a pat on the back for doing the absolute bare minimum for the women. Much like The WWE main roster, women in AEW are still treated as an afterthought just two months after they had the best women’s match in the history of the promotion in Baker/Rosa II in The Unsanctioned Lights Out Match in a Dynamite main event. Ever since that match, the women’s match times on Dynamite have been significantly reduced to the point of it becoming unwatchable like it was in 2019 and especially during The Pandemic Era Of 2020. I can’t stand it when a wrestling company like AEW acts like they’ll promote women’s wrestling, but continues to undermine the women on their roster and women’s wrestling in general. No wonder why big name female wrestlers like Taya Valkyrie and Deonna Purrazo decided to pass on signing with AEW for this particular reason.
Note: Other reasons why I don’t legitimately watch AEW very much: 1) no credible big monster heel 2) start & stop pushes for certain wrestlers such as Scorpio Sky & Nyla Rose 3) Black, brown, & LGBTQ wrestlers are treated as an afterthought by the promotion.
The Conclusion - AEW has the potential to be better than what they are right now, but as long as they keep doing the same 5 things that I mentioned above, the product will continue to suffer and suffer to the point of more people giving up on watching AEW.
By Kwame Shakir
Tags:
Wrestling
Who the actual F**k writes like this? Seriously touch some grass
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