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We Are Witnessing Another Great Wrestling Renaissance Right Now

I never thought that I would truly say this, but ever since AEW came into existence in 2019 and especially the popularity of the U.S. indie wrestling scene, we are currently living in the current wrestling renaissance right now.

Even though AEW is a young mainstream wrestling promotion that’s very hot right now, they’re not without their fair share of issues as many wrestling fans including black wrestling fans like myself have called them out for it on many occasions from not giving women enough time on Dynamite to 0 black men on the All Out 3 main match card to not pushing black men to the main event let alone top guy spots because those spots are hogged up by white guys from their 20s through 60s.

What we’re seeing now in modern day wrestling is a renaissance that hasn’t been seen since The Legendary Monday Night Wars Era in the late 1990s where WCW Nitro and Monday Night Raw were going head to head every week in the ratings battle.

Ever since AEW came into existence 2 years ago, not only are they the hottest talked about wrestling promotion today especially after the massive success of All Out 3, but the excitement for wrestling has also come back since the official end of The Pandemic Era officially ended in July. Even though I regard The Pandemic Era from March 2020 to July 2021 as the worst era in professional wrestling history, but there was plenty of great wrestling matches from Bianca/Sasha main eventing WM37 Night 1, Baker/Rosa II main eventing Dynamite, Balor/Dunne NXT Takeover Vengeance Day, to the recent crazy Lucha Bros/Young Bucks tag team rematch inside of a steel cage at All Out 3.

Another part about the current wrestling renaissance that I absolutely love seeing is the fact that unlike the late 1990s and even 2000s, I am seeing more diversity and inclusion of other ethnic groups of blacks, latinos, asians as well as more LGBTQ wrestlers having prominent feuds and title runs on in the U.S. indie scene right now and seeing all this diversity and inclusion just puts a smile on my face because i didn’t see this much at all when I first started watching wrestling during it’s peak in the late 1990s.

Even in the current wrestling renaissance, women’s wrestling is getting more respect and appreciation that it deserves because we have seen the evolution of women’s wrestling in the modern era especially here in The States since the early days of The Knockouts Division led by legends Awesome Kong and Gail Kim. Gone are the days of Jerry Springer’s Too Hot For TV stuff like pillow fights, bikini contests, etc and now women’s wrestling has shown that it can be a draw as evident by the recent success of The NWA Empowerrr event.

For nearly 20 years, WWE had a very monopolistic stranglehold over the entire wrestling business that psychologically forced many young wrestlers back then to join WWE because there wasn’t really any other place they could work besides WWE. But now, that’s no longer the case as many young wrestlers today know that WWE is no longer the only big thing in town because they have so many places outside of WWE to work like at such as AEW, ROH, MLW, Impact, and especially the hot U.S. indie scene where they can make some good money and live a substantial life outside of The WWE and this is something that The Hardcore Legend Mick Foley spoke about in his recent short video.
 

I noticed that the way WWE operates is that they’re doing it for the love of the money as seen when they get a billion dollars a year from Fox and $50 million dollars in blood money from the very controversial and reviled Saudi Arabia shows. AEW, ROH, NJPW, Impact, MLW, and the indies operate very differently from WWE in the sense of they’re doing it for the love of the art of professional wrestling.

The Conclusion - Even though AEW is a very young company with its issues, but it’s the hottest kid on the block right now especially with the success of All Out 3. They have a very very long way to go until they can catch up to WWE in terms of financial stability and equity. All the other promotions are thriving well especially those with more diverse match cards and rosters. The Current Wrestling Renaissance has become such a beautiful thing to witness.

By Kwame Shakir

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