Credit: WWE.com
A week later, the internet is abuzz over WWE TV being edgier. Happy go lucky WWE Champion Kofi Kingston flipped the bird. The true lead announcer in WWE dropped a s bomb. All signs point to, yeah Vince knows he's in trouble... But is Vince really in trouble? Two shows into AEW I say it's not as bad as we thought. The attendance figures and ratings are telling us interest in WWE is going down. I don't think AEW is a real threat.
I am NOT a fan of the Young Bucks telling us that the chair that split Cody Rhodes' head open was fake or "gimmicked". As I am fond of saying, kayfabe is not trying to convince people the work is a shoot. It is all about respect. By all accounts MJF is running the kayfabe interview masterclass. The Bucks could have said something about how they're going to visit Cody in the hospital and if they catch Spears before he does they're going to superkick his head off. Or something. Two shows in they're letting us know the one angle anyone is talking about was fake. Yuck.
I had hope AEW would give us wrestling with stakes and consequence. What they have given us is a man with no legs competing for a title shot... With a guy who wouldn't take his hands out his pockets. Someone lit a square during this match, and subsequently got that cigarette stapled to their forehead. Again, in a match to determine who would compete for the AEW Championship. Yuck. Next show, the guy who oils himself up to escape holds had a competitive match with a non wrestler. I don't mind wrestlers selling for actual athletes, because the idea Shaquille O'Neal or some NFL player is believable. Jebailey is not that. And they're just having hardcore matches just to have them. I was hoping they would build storylines that called for gimmick matches. As it is, how is AEW better than or different from WWE? AEW feels like an indie show with less production values than NXT, which is WWE sponsored indie wrestling. They're doing a lot of goofy things suggesting they do not want to be taken seriously as an alternative.
If AEW is giving us some decent in ring stuff with no storytelling and minimal promos worth anything... Again how is that different from or better than WWE? WWE at the moment is proof that you can put the belts on the internet's favorites and that doesn't translate to people watching or going to shows. The in ring work is good. Wrestlers turn face and heel seemingly indiscriminately. Wins and losses are immaterial. You can go from not even being on tv to being in a championship match. Or you can be a champion that never works on tv. Character development is not a thing. Promos don't make you want to see the match, they make you yawn and see what is going on on Twitter or if someone posted a new YouTube video or something. WWE thinks social media helps them when it is the opposite. Social media is an echo chamber of negativity where the only positivity is someone stunting on you from somewhere tropical. They need to to make content that makes us put our phones down because we can't miss anything. IMAGINE THAT.
As it stands now, I hope AEW stops bastardizing stips and telling us it's a work, and WWE keeps pushing the envelope to make promos and storylines more interesting. I want wrestling to make me not want to go outside or do anything else when it's wrestling time.