Neither WWE or AEW should be holding live shows during a pandemic

Professional wrestling is a strange business, isn’t it? From the days in carnivals, to smoky bingo halls, to the bright lights of national television and stadium-filled arenas of adoring fans, it’s a business that adapts and molds with the times.

It’s the cockroach of the entertainment business. No matter the circumstances, it won’t go away as the industry is woven into the psyche of America.

The coronavirus outbreak throughout the world has forced the wrestling business to adapt once again. That adaptation could have taken in many different forms – a wrestling offseason for the first time in history, specialty programming cultivated at home designed to entertain the masses, and the airing of reruns in an effort to fulfill television contract obligations to name a few.

Instead, the key wrestling companies in the country opted for something different. In the face of social distancing restrictions and shelter-in-place orders, AEW Dynamite, WWE Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, and NXT all take place as scheduled. To hell with the health recommendations, the show must go on.

Is that admirable? Maybe. The world craves their entertainment, after all.

Stubborn? Yes. The decision makers are billionaires that habitually get what they want.

Dangerous? Absolutely. COVID-19 is a lethal, unpredictable disease, given the uncertainty surrounding the science of the virus.

Therein lies the issue. Iconic cultural events, sport seasons, million-dollar concert tours, and other significant entertainment entities have suspended activity to combat the COVID-19 danger.

WWE and AEW still continue on with the danger staring directly at them. Because of it and based on what we know, their actions put the population at risk.

WWE has taken a beating over this choice and rightfully so. Leveraging power, political position, and enormous amounts of money in order to bullishly push forward with a television show is astonishingly tone deaf and irresponsible given the demographic range of their audience.

It’s also not surprising. Tone deaf and irresponsible have been foundations of WWE decision making throughout the years in an effort to keep the product ticking even in the midst of the darkest hours.

AEW isn’t saddled with that same flawed history, which makes their obnoxious decision to move forward with shows all the more troubling.

If you remove health recommendations from the equation and look at the situation from purely the business side of wrestling, AEW has severely missed an opportunity to define themselves differently than the WWE.

That’s been the goal right? The appeal of the AEW brand is that it’s different and counter to the WWE. From a fan perspective, it’s a more sports-like presentation with adult storylines, intense in-ring action, and authentic promos. From a wrestler perspective, there are fewer dates, less travel, creative freedom, and authentic input into the product.

Being the adult in the room and deciding not to run shows should have been a welcome bullet point to that list. Instead, they mirrored WWE’s tone deaf example and continue to promote their upcoming PPV event, Double Or Nothing.

Tony Kahn and the AEW stars using their influence and outlets to push stay-at-home messaging to fans would have helped the fight against the worldwide pandemic in an unprecedented era of misinformation coming from the highest of levels.

By taking a stand, AEW would have differentiated itself from WWE in a fundamental way. They’d be seen as in touch, something that WWE strives for on a weekly basis but laughably misses the mark on most times. AEW’s adaptation would have been for the better.

Not just for the wrestling business either, but for the world during a very trying time.