AEW must not become the Harvey Dent of professional wrestling

AEW seems poised to be a shining light for the world of professional wrestling, but they mustn’t go the way of Harvey Dent.

All Elite Wrestling, or AEW, make their debut on TNT on Oct. 2. When the company goes live on cable, they have the potential to be the first legitimate competition we’ve seen for WWE in nearly two decades. Even Impact Wrestling, formerly TNA, never truly competed with wrestling’s monolith.

With that potential comes a level of pressure, and a responsibility to be careful about the pedestal we place others upon. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to Harvey Dent, an ally turned enemy of Batman played by Aaron Eckhart in the award-winning 2005 film The Dark Knight.

For those who haven’t seen the film, allow me to explain things. Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent began the film as a shining light for the city he served. He was working within the system for the greater good, and others were recognizing it.

Even The Caped Crusader saw that potential, telling Dent he was “the first legitimate ray of light in Gotham in decades.” In case you can’t tell, hopes were high that he would finally bring about real change for a city in desperate need.

Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go according to plan. Dent’s girlfriend was killed, Dent himself was kidnapped and burned, and everything that happened sent him spiraling into madness. By the time the dust settled, Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon said that Dent had killed five people, two of them being cops.

However, Batman refused to let that truth be known and convinced Gordon to claim Batman himself committed those crimes. By protecting Dent’s name in the short-term, they allowed him to become a martyr for the city and for a law, the Dent Act, to be passed in his name. If his sins were revealed, they believed it would undo all the good he’d done.

Of course, this was a horrendous choice that ultimately led to even worse things. When the truth finally came out years later (in the film The Dark Knight Rises), it was used as justification for the abrupt release of violent criminals and ultimately helped put Gotham City under terrorist-imposed martial law.

Now, I’m simplifying a few things for the sake of brevity, but the core issue here is how Dent’s successes and failures were treated. Even as he did good, he was raised to a level of importance that provided him too much influence and power. Then, when he ultimately failed, his sins were ignored.

More from All Elite Wrestling

• It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
• Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
• WWE and AEW will put on a full court press for Kazuchika Okada in 2024
• 3 potential challengers for AEW Women’s Champ “Timeless” Toni Storm
• Three necessary changes for All Elite Wrestling to shun the “WWE-lite” tag

AEW has the potential to do great things. I sincerely hope they can be the shining light some are hoping for, and bring about true change to an industry in dire need of a better example at the top. That doesn’t mean any transgressions can be ignored.

Just as AEW presents themselves as the diverse alternative that treats their employees well and takes care of their own, we must be sure that’s actually what is happening. We have seen positive steps and actions taken so far, but this journey is just beginning.

If AEW does things that are ethically improper, even if their product is otherwise good, those bad acts can’t be ignored. Just as WWE’s feet are held to the fire for partnering with Saudi Arabia and their history of sexist and racially insensitive writing, AEW must have their feet held to the fire should they do something that merits that response.

“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

Harvey Dent said that, and it was later reiterated by Batman. Right now, WWE is the villain. Despite an abundance of talent and positives in some respects, they continue villainous actions and put themselves on the wrong side of history. We don’t yet know if AEW will do anything villainous, but we must be prepared to act if they do.

“The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.”

Those words by Harvey Dent echo of the promises that AEW has made. We want AEW to be the dawn that professional wrestling has needed, but we can’t force that like was done with Harvey Dent.

The company’s chips should fall based on their own actions and not the hopes that others have for what they could do. When AEW debuts on TNT, I hope to be back here talking about how it was absurd for me to ever think they’d become the villain. I hope we all have a good laugh about how great the company becomes, and how the fears of overlooking their sins were simply overblown.

I don’t want to look back and say “I told you so” about a company that’s proven to us they didn’t deserve their placement. I don’t want their shining light to become darkness and be a detriment to this industry or their employees. I don’t want that to happen, but you can be sure I won’t be quiet if it does.