Wrestling fans never wanted an alternative. They just wanted WWE to get better.
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Hi, I’m J.D. Spellman, and I am a long-time fan of watching sweaty people play fight in tight clothing. My general goal here is to weed through the false narratives and bad faith arguments against All Elite Wrestling in a time where online sentiment seems to be largely critical of it, and as a fan of said company, present some real questions and pose some honest issues with AEW itself, and the internet wrestling community along with it.
We will begin this escapade with a look at one of, if not the biggest, issues to plague AEW. And that is the paradox that they exist in. It’s a paradox that has been created over decades from the conditioning of modern fans on what they assume a professional wrestling product must look like.
Ironically, the roots of this paradox take hold in Eric Bischoff’s WCW Nitro. But before asking the paradoxical question itself, some background is needed.
Eric Bischoff’s Weird Place in the Paradox
If you look at the wrestling landscape pre-Attitude/Nitro Era, it looks much different from today’s product. Whether it’s the WWF, NWA, Mid-South, AWA, etc. most wrestling shows were generally formatted the same way.
Most of the action took place inside of the ring. Promos were kept brief — and generally backstage or via special vignette, and rarely inside of the ring itself. Storylines were generally easy to follow and simple to grasp. Podium interviews were the norm, cards were almost never announced to the TV public in advance, and an hour was enough for most broadcasts.
This all gradually changed with WCW and the birth of the nWo. As this captivating and “original” (this was inspired from UWF invasion of New Japan prior) story unfolded, it demanded more dialogue, more moving parts, and above all — much more drama. Slowly, there was a shift to longer opening in-ring promos, wilder stories across the entire card, and a focus away from the wrestling and more on the flash and production. Once WCW became hot and started to beat WWF in the ratings, McMahon wised up, and WWF Raw started to emulate WCW Nitro on a weekly basis in many ways.
It was the normalization of an episodic TV formula in professional wrestling.
And one can argue that the Monday Night Wars was wrestling’s height of popularity. Many fans, especially casual fans, associate this formula with what pro wrestling is supposed to look like. So when many fans started to sour on a lackluster WWE product after 19 years of a monopoly on the industry after the death of WCW in 2002, AEW, a new and exciting prospect, lured in many of these jaded fans.
But alternative means “different” and not just “another”; and this message may have been lost on many.
An Alternative is Supposed to be Different
Here’s a thought exercise: Go back and watch a Dynamite in 2019-21 and watch a Dynamite present day. Opinions vary, but I could argue that today’s product is measurably better than where it was in the past. We have bigger stars, better production value, more in-depth storytelling, and possibly even better in-ring wrestling.
But in reality, AEW hasn’t changed all that much since its inception. They are, by definition, an alternative. An alternative in the sense that it’s notably different from the norm. Burger King is not an alternative to McDonald’s, it’s a competitor. Same with Coke and Pepsi. And while AEW remains a competitor to WWE to a small extent, they are more of an alternative than anything.
Since 2019, AEW has continued to focus on in-ring wrestling over in-ring promos. There is an emphasis on putting on “bangers” to appease the core base. The product is faster, more violent, and stiffer than WWE. AEW doesn’t exist in an isolated universe, but they acknowledge and do business with a host of other wrestling promotions around the globe – something modern-era WWE has only recently begun to embrace. In-ring promos are rare and usually kept short (unless it’s MJF).
Again, by definition, AEW is an actual alternative to WWE. It’s supposed to be different. And while even at AEW’s height they never reached WWE-level numbers, they were gaining some level of momentum around 2021.
Until Cody Rhodes destroyed everything.
Cody Rhodes May Have Inadvertently Harmed Pro Wrestling
That’s a dramatic statement, but it’s worth revisiting in 5-10 years time. I like Cody Rhodes. Don’t get me wrong. Personally, without any proof, I believe Cody never believed AEW would catch fire so quickly. It was always his goal to jump back to WWE.
It’s why he booked himself out of the world title picture – something he has mentioned he regrets. New stars rolled in, from Adam Cole to Bryan Danielson, to C.M. Punk, and AEW fans began to sour on Cody a little hanging around the mid-card scene (since, you know, he refused to book himself in the world title picture). Cody was becoming overshadowed in his own promotion that he helped build.
And I get it. Why hang around the mid-card of the #2 promotion when you can become a top-billed name and future world champion in the #1 promotion? But to me, and many AEW fans, even if it was for the best – he still kind of quickly turned his back on the company he helped build.
When Cody Rhodes left AEW, it gave WWE fans to have a reason to reject AEW.
I also believe that the Punk/Elite fiasco may not have gone down how it had if Rhodes was still around. He is a steady and respected hand in the industry. If Cody stayed in AEW, we might still have Punk, and who knows where the wrestling landscape would be at this point and time.
So how did he “do it”?
Let’s be honest: Cody Rhodes likely drew some fans away from AEW and brought them back to WWE. This goes for C.M. Punk as well. If AEW were to fold after 2028 – let’s say they simply never fully recover their initial numbers of success. Or let’s say WBD just decided not to renew their deal – the wrestling landscape ultimately becomes controlled by WWE, only much worse than 2002.
WWE already basically owns TNA, the #3 promotion. They are establishing relationships with NOAH and Marigold in Japan and without AEW, I could see a renewal of their relationship with New Japan. They already have a deal with AAA, and their WWEID program helps promote “WWE approved” talent in other Indies promotions across the world. WWE will have its hands in literally everything, and it’s hard for me to see a real positive in that.
And will many AEW fans just bow down and watch WWE in that case?
I wouldn’t. I would likely just be done with pro wrestling all together. And many fans like me would do the same. It risks an ultimate monopoly and cornering of the wrestling market where only one style and formula is represented.
Many wrestling fans should be concerned with this. And with that being said, what about the paradox?
The Paradox:
If casual fans won’t naturally gravitate to an alternative because they’ve been conditioned to enjoy a certain formula, and if lapsed AEW (now WWE) fans enjoy the WWE product as is and have no “use” for AEW, is AEW supposed to appeal more to casual fans in response?
And if they do that, wouldn’t they just become ‘WWE-Lite’ and alienate their core fan base in the process? This happened with TNA in their early years, after all.
How does an alternative product remain an alternative product while growing their fan base to compete with a mainstream product? And furthermore, for fans who don’t want AEW to fold, yet won’t bother to watch or support the product, should they support an alternative they won’t like due to their own personal preferences, or do they just hope more fans watch AEW so that there’s a strong #2?
Furthermore, what hasn’t AEW already done in the eyes of armchair “experts”?
-Running smaller venues? Check.
-Releasing talent to reduce roster size? Check.
-Reducing the use of blood on TV? Check.
-Increasing production value? Check.
-Slowing down the pacing of shows from its frenetic 2023 pace? Check.
-Increasing the number of longer storylines? Check.
-Tony Khan settling down a bit online? Check.
Are these “experts” blind to the changes AEW has made, or would they even bother to watch a product they like to criticize anyway? And if so, is it worth appeasing these types of fans who think they are entitled to have an opinion about an industry they likely know little about behind-the-scenes?
If most online fans honestly have no use for a true alternative, then what exactly is AEW supposed to do?
They’re good enough to hyper-analyze to death, but not enough for people to invest enough into the success of the product itself. All for this notion that WWE is this near flawless show that fans seem to trust can do no wrong (while ignoring nearly two decades of questionable booking pre-2019) as well as clear booking flaws that even I see, and which I’ll get into in later columns.
And this is the paradox of AEW.
-JD
email: [email protected]
