AEW got it right with Private Party

Two weeks ago on AEW: Dynamite, Private Party defeated The Young Bucks to advance to the second round of the AEW tag team tournament.

For those who do not know about Private Party, here is a great resource. The win was a shocker, due to The Young Bucks being the top tag team AEW. The Young Bucks were expected to win the tag team tournament, not lose to an unknown tag team.

In professional wrestling, sometimes it isn’t the win that defines the wrestler, but how the wrestler wins and everything that comes afterwards.

Independent wrestling fans knew of Private Party, but they were unknown on the national audience that AEW Dynamite brings. Their debut match in AEW Dynamite against The Young Bucks was an incredible display of tag team wrestling.

Wrestling fans love to see “the next big thing coming”. There is a desire to see greatness start and rise to the top of the card.

Fans saw the crowning of Private Party as a new great team in AEW.

What AEW got right with Private Party was not the win itself, it was what the win told the fans.

This wasn’t the frustrating match fans have grown accustomed to. It wasn’t the established talent in pro wrestling dominating the younger talent, only to have the younger talent win on a fluke victory.

This was a match where Private Party were not portrayed to a new audience as a fluke team who got an upset victory. The match was shown as a new tag team who could hang with the top tag team in AEW, The Young Bucks.

AEW had an opportunity to make a new tag team credible and they succeeded.

The post match promo by The Young Bucks was equally as important. They stated that they were outworked, and Private Party was the better tag team. That quick 40 second video clip did more for Private Party than the win could.

This wasn’t a case when a team got a win that they “did not deserve” in the eyes of the defeated team. This was a win where the top tag team in AEW stated they were outworked by Private Party.

That clip solidifies Private Party as a legitimate tag team in the eyes of AEW fans who may not have previously known of them.

Where Private Party goes from here is unknown. For now, they had a match with the top tag team in AEW, where they were made to look like they belong.

It is difficult to not compare AEW television to WWE television. What AEW got right is compared to what WWE got wrong and vice versa. If you compare how AEW introduced Private Party to how WWE reintroduced Chad Gable via the King in the Ring Tournament, the differences are noticable.

Gable was built as a fluke competitor, never to be taken seriously. The story that seemed to be told to fans was that Gable didn’t deserve the success he was earning by advancing to the finals of The King of the Ring. This now leads to Chad Gable, the legit Olympic amaetur wrestler, being mocked for his lack of height.

Private Party were shown to not be less than The Young Bucks. Private Party was shown to be The Young Bucks equal.

That is how you legitimize new talent. AEW successfully introduced a tag team to fans that may have never heard of them. Everything from the way the match was structured, to the victory in the match by Private Party, to the post match promo was designed to make fans take Private Party seriously.

The Young Bucks communicted to fans that they should take Private Party seriously.

There are many exit ramps between two wrestling companies being at war, and two wrestling companies drawing comparisons to one another. This is an era where fans have more professional wrestling options than ever before.

WWE is asking their audience to commit weekly to 7 to 10 hours of professional wrestling. For context, that is the same amount of time of season 1 of Breaking Bad. That is not to compare WWE to Breaking Bad from a television standpoint. What that does illustrate is that it is a heavy ask, week over week, to watch 7-10 hours of WWE television.

AEW succeeded in their first three episodes on TNT. They are providing fans with an alternate option that will inevitably draw comparisons to WWE. To get an idea of what AEW is doing right, you can look at how Private Party was debuted on TV to how Chad Gable has been reintroduced.