Who wins the Wednesday Night Wars: 6 cases for AEW
By Amelia N
1. A genuinely different type of product
The first thing that AEW need to ensure, on a consistent basis, is that they come good on their promise to offer a different type of show to what you can see on WWE programming. The WWE style of show is very high on the melodramatics; storylines are often seen as too “silly” (Erick Rowan repeatedly attempting to literally murder Roman Reigns), or “contrived” (Erick Rowan repeatedly attempting to literally murder Roman Reigns).
If The Elite have any sense about them, they’ll steer well clear of these kinds of shenanigans. Luckily, this appears to be the plan; Cody has been regularly quoted saying that AEW will be a “sports-centric alternative“, which seems to indicate that they know more than well that their chance lies in making sure their promotion offers a realistic, competitive “genuine sports” feel, rather than the high-on-drama product that WWE offer.
This has been evident during the company’s PPV offerings to date, too. Kenny Omega vs PAC at the recent All Out event was an outstanding match that was booked like nothing WWE would have considered.
Not only did the company franchise player (Omega) lose cleanly, but the match had an excellent, almost “real” feeling to it. Omega lost after attempting his One-Winged Angel finisher, which could build to a rematch where he’ll be nervous about even trying the move. Again, this level of psychology is something you never really see in WWE style matches and it was all the better for it. More booking like this and All Elite Wrestling will have a massive advantage right away.