AEW’s first pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, was a massive success and has every wrestling fan excited with what could be in the future.
For the past few years, wrestling fans have been outspoken with how bad the quality of wrestling has been, at least in the WWE. While there are plenty of indy promotions to turn to for quality wrestling, nothing was ever viewed as competition by Vince McMahon to fuel change in WWE.
That all changed on May 25, when All Elite Wrestling aired its first pay-per-view show, Double or Nothing. The show did fantastic, garnering plenty of positive reviews from the wrestling community while also reportedly doing somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 buys.
That number might not seem all that impressive but for a $50 pay-per-view, it certainly is. To compare, WWE’s Survivor Series (part of the big four pay-per-views) did 179,000 buys in its last showing before WWE switched to the monthly $9.99 format with the WWE Network.
For the first show of a brand new company, that is a massive success.
All Elite Wrestling still has a while to go before they are on WWE’s level and have the same following. The company’s TV deal with TNT, which starts in 2020, will prove to be the first big hurdle to get over.
If AEW can succeed in the weekly episodic format then WWE will have some true competition. With all of the hype around AEW, it could happen soon, or it could take a few years. Either way, there is a path to get close to WWE’s level of widespread exposure.
The company is going to have to avoid falling into certain traps that could set that path back. Here are those three traps that AEW must avoid to reach the level of success they are looking for.
3. Avoid using too many former WWE stars
The biggest pop of the night and the biggest surprise of Double or Nothing was the arrival of Jon Moxley (known as Dean Ambrose in WWE) at the end of the show. Moxley appeared, delivered Dirty Deeds to Chris Jericho, before ending the show with a Dirty Deeds to Kenny Omega on the top of the display poker chips.
It truly got a massive pop and no one really knew what Moxley was going to do after leaving WWE, aside from the fact that he was changing his name back to Moxley. There was a lot of speculation, but no confirmation.
Moxley was not the only former WWE star on the card though as there were some notable names. Tye Dillinger, now wrestling under Shawn Spears, was in the Casino Battle Royale, Jericho obviously main evented the show and Awesome Kong (known as Kharma in WWE) made a surprise appearance.
Heck, even Bret Hart showed up and unveiled the AEW World Championship.
These instances were not so bad. Moxley was extremely popular in the indies prior to being Ambrose in WWE, Spears never did much in WWE and Awesome Kong was known more for her time in TNA. Jericho has already wrestled Omega and Hart has his infamous past with Vince McMahon.
However, if having former WWE stars show up as a surprise becomes a trend, it is going to eventually become a bit redundant and turn the fans sour. It is OK if done properly, but just doing it because it is a familiar face and will receive a pop is a failure waiting to happen.
AEW will only reach the WWE’s level and maintain it if they can build stars of their own, even if they come from other indy promotions. Relying on former WWE stars is a formula that other companies have already failed to do.
2. Avoid taking too many jabs at WWE
One of the most talked about moments from Double or Nothing was Cody Rhodes not-so-subtle message to Triple H and WWE where he destroyed a throne with a sledgehammer, before kissing the AEW in the center of the mat.
Some fans loved the shots taken at WWE and the message that Rhodes was sending. Others were not so pleased with the moment, as AEW should be focusing on their own show, not trying to be better than WWE.
I fall on the side that finds this moment cringeworthy. They put on a good show with some great wrestling. Let that be the story. Let that be the message to WWE. Don’t stoop to that level of pettiness.
That is what WWE did the following Monday Night when Sami Zayn named dropped AEW and Roman Reigns no-sold Shane McMahon’s attempt at Chris Jericho’s new finishing move.
It is petty when WWE does it, it is petty when AEW does it and it does not send the right message for either company. For WWE, it sends the message that AEW is under them and they do not need to be better. For AEW, it makes it feel as is they are focused on dethroning WWE, not putting on great shows.
Subtle jabs here and there are fine and are fun. Taking massive shots like this? Those are a swing and miss.
1. Avoid falling victim to overexposure
AEW does not have to deal with this problem right away and will not have to deal with it until next year when their TV deal kicks into action. When it does kick into action and the company has to start producing weekly television shows, they have to avoid overexposing themselves.
That is a huge problem with WWE right now in that there is just so much programming to consume that it can get tiring to follow along with and conveys the idea that it is OK if a fan does not watch every single show. Raw and Smackdown alone are five hours combined across to days, not to mention 205 Live and NXT.
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205 Live and NXT are actually thriving under the guidance of Triple H but shows are dedicated entities with a limited amount of time per week. Fans get five hours of the main roster every single week, which leads to a lot of filler and useless programming.
If AEW’s weekly show is a massive success right off the gate they have to avoid falling victim to the money they can make in advertising and not extend the show past two hours or add another show.
There is no reason for a weekly wrestling show to be more than two hours and AEW should only ever consider making two shows a week if the roster was deep enough and could be split. Even then, they run into the problem of one of the shows being dubbed the B show, as Smackdown is.
The reason AEW is so exciting right now is that they are putting on one show a month so wrestling fans can be assured that every single show is going to be a fantastic one. It can be harder to have that mystique if there is too much programming.
It sounds counter-intuitive but sometimes less is more and in 2019, that is true with weekly wrestling shows.