It should, at this point, go without saying. And yet, it really does just bare repeating. Pro wrestling will never be the same after these next three days. It’s wonderful to be able to say that, for the better.
While in the mainstream conscious, pro wrestling might’ve tanked over the past year or so, an undercurrent has been building for years. The success, international expansion and consistency of New Japan. A quality rebound for Impact Wrestling, finally having found an identity after all these years. The acclaimed revival of MLW. Of course, the birth of an in-universe alternative in the form of NXT. And, quite relatedly, signing upon signing of indy stars by WWE.
That last part might not seem to have aided this at first, but upon reflection, it’s one of the strongest influences.
For the longest time, WWE refused to sign indy talents. They opted for homegrown stars built through their system. But, to be frank, this largely failed. In the late aughts they were left with very little. With initial exceptions CM Punk and Daniel Bryan leading the way, little-by-little, WWE’s rosters began to deepen with the likes of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens… indy darling after indy darling, until it got to where it is now.
After a successful two week trial period of sorts, NXT is about to launch it’s first-ever episode to be wholly live on the USA Network. And they’re putting that foot forward with a roster headlined by Adam Cole and his fellow ROH alumni brethren in the Undisputed Era, EVOLVE discovery Matt Riddle, PWG standout Keith Lee, all-round indy stars Johnny Gargano and Candice LaRae, New Japan’s Kushida, Progress’ WALTER and so on and so on…
This is important. Because as I said, years ago, WWE would’ve scoffed at signing any of these same people and in many cases actually did! And this was always silly but they managed to convince a chunk of their fanbase that this was true, that workers on the indies were naturally inferior. Nowadays though, there’s just no real argument there. They have gone after, and will continue to go after every single notable indy wrestler who becomes available. (Lucha Underground’s King Cuerno recently reported to the Performance Center, by the by.)
In this sense, it really legitimizes these people and the places they found their start in. You never really know where the next WWE or NXT champion is going to emerge from.
Thus began a revolution for all of pro wrestling.
The rise of New Japan helped give new life to Ring of Honor. The expansion helped make the Elite into international, bonafide stars. The very idea of NXT helped remind people that pro wrestling can still be great in the modern age as well as help point them to other places they could look for an alternative. Just turning people on to the concept of an alternative was mind-blowing for many.
This all, in my estimation, helped lead to the fateful event known simply as All In. 13 months ago to this day, that independently-promoted show sold out a 10,000 seat arena, something that hadn’t been done in the US by anyone other than WWE since the peak of WCW. This proved something that those paying close attention already knew, that there was life outside of sports entertainment. Little did we know at that point what Tony Khan had already been planning for months, laying the groundwork for what would eventually be announced on January 1st of this year.
Rumblings did begin to surface shortly after though. Around this time a year ago, trademarks were filed, one for Tuesday Night Dynamite – which eventually morphed into simply AEW Dynamite because Wednesday Night just isn’t as catchy – and of course… All Elite Wrestling.
And thus, pro wrestling in the United States finally has a legitimate #2 promotion again.
It’s hard to believe it was nine months ago that it was officially announced. The wait for the show to get into full gear – for lack of a better term… – has been a long one, but it’s been interlaced with some stellar outings, particularly the major PPVs, and innovative work promoting them through their Road To series.
But there’s no longer any need for any stop-gaps, effective though they may have been. We’re in the real deal now. As I write this, I’m sitting in a hotel room in DC, having just flown for two hours after leaving Mississippi. AEW Dynamite premieres tonight and I’m not just excited to be in attendance for it, I’m honored. It’s the kind of thing I’ll be able to talk about for decades. Imagine being able to say you were there at the first Monday Night Raw or the inaugural Nitro, or even there in Fullsail for the first show of NXT’s second life back in 2012.
I have all the faith in the world that it will deliver, but regardless of what even happens here, the history will have already been made the moment the show goes live on TNT. The war begins tonight…
Competition is here.
Immediately, WWE went out of their way to claim AEW was not competition whilst simultaneously confirming otherwise with their actions. Be it consistent counter-programming, a weird mention on their own show that to this day nobody understands, or most blatantly, the changes that they’ve made to their own product.
It was always said that competition would force WWE to do better. Results have been hit and miss but it’s fair to say that over the past few months, WWE”s product has taken a big step up from where it was in the summer. Mind you, it was a pretty abysmal summer, which led to PPV ticket sales cratering and main events being vehemently turned on. (Wonder how many people even remember the name “Stomping Grounds” right now…)
In recent months we’ve seen an uptick in quality TV matches, renewed pushes for some underappreciated performers – certainly not all, but some – a few new stars being given a chance to shine, some risks being taken creatively for better or worse, and most recently, the heralded, overdue and exrtremely welcome return of pyro!
If you don’t think AEW has to do with this, that’s fine.
But I know what I see when I look at this. It’s WWE trying to fill up the holes that AEW wants to exploit as an alternative. They called them blood and guts a week before having Rollins spit up blood, (from his guts, presumably) let their remarkable talent show out more often to try and match them in the ring, re-introducing pyro after AEW made it very clear they were already bringing it back… and of course, the obvious; elevating NXT to fight back against them. This is something they could’ve just as easily done last year in my estimation but no, it needed AEW as an excuse.
We’ve already seen that NXT has more power than anyone gave it credit for.
It debuted on USA with, all things considered, a pretty staggering 1.2 million viewers. Naturally it dropped a bit week 2 but still retained over a million. For a show that got it’s start as a developmental territory, and has always aimed itself at the hardcore base, that is absolutely insane. How it will do against AEW this week is the real litmus test, but we have proof now that this brand has legs in prime time. You know, in case all the big stadium sellouts for Takeovers didn’t prove that enough as is…
I’m an optimistic sort, as you may gleam from this article. And I believe that as long as WWE continues promoting NXT hard on Raw and SmackDown, and the shows themselves keep delivering like they have been, there’s no reason that 1.2 million has to be the cap. Don’t get me wrong, it’d still be great even if that did become the norm. But I really do think it can rise from there, and perhaps even match it’s red and blue brothers in the ratings one day.
Regardless, I think it’s fair to say that WWE and it’s various brands have already been greatly improved by having competition. And the fight is still a good few hours away from actually starting…
And then, of course, there’s SmackDown.
Not really as significant for pro wrestling as a whole as the shows on Wednesday, but this is easily the most important thing from WWE’s perspective. Fox gave them a cushy deal in spite of depleting ratings, but it’s began to appear as though this wasn’t as naive as it appeared. Fox do have various ways to opt out of this TV deal if WWE don’t give them the kind of show and the kind of ratings that they want.
For the first time that I can personally recall, there is real pressure to make SmackDown a big deal. In fact, I think we’re on the precipice of SmackDown being the premiere show in WWE for the first time… ever! Of course WWE will never want to let Raw fall too far. In theory, if they can nail this going forward like they hope to this week, WWE could have three thriving brands on national television each week putting out the goods. Kind of a crazy thought given how much they cratered just months ago, but it’s possible!
With 205 Live slowly melding into NXT and NXT UK also having a fine first year of existence, we’re getting to the point where WWE doesn’t really have a B-Brand anymore. And that is absolutely a good thing no matter how you slice it.
WWE cannot afford complacency anymore.
Be it from pressure from Fox, AEW, or their own fanbase, it’s pretty clear that WWE isn’t going to be allowed to coast. The long-established top dog of pro wrestling is going to have to back it’s Universal champions claims and actually be the best pro wrestling on the planet if they want to keep this momentum going. You can’t just do a handful of blowout shows a year and spend the rest of the time on auto-pilot. It’s not good enough anymore.
They don’t want to be the uncool show. I know for a fact they’re concerned about that. They’ve lost the kids and teens dramatically, in fact data suggests that WWE’s strongest audience is the Over 50 crowd. This is not good. For somewhat obvious reasons it’s not particularly sustainable. It’s also not the audience you can really ask to buy your merch or get invested in a brand new form of wrestling like NXT, or the indies they’ve allied with to put on the Network like EVOLVE, Progress, or WXW.
And of course, if you make younger fans and make them loyal to you, that’s great future proofing for the years to come.
Ironically, making their product PG and being ‘aimed at children’ really hurt their youthful base. In the halcyon days of the Attitude Era they had tons of kids and young teens watching. It’s a point I think a lot of people miss when they discuss the pros and cons of hearkening back to that point. You wouldn’t think of it as the time WWE was the most popular with kids. But they were cool back then. And being cool goes a long way with the younger crowd.
I’m certainly not suggesting we bring back sword-wielding castrations and hand-birthings, (a lot of the Attitude Era was actually pretty terrible but that’s a column for another day) but WWE does desperately need to start resonating with this audience again. It needs another period of being the hot sensation. It needs to somehow connect with the people of the 2020s in the same way they connected with those of the 1990s.
This is a big reason why having a show written exclusively to please a 74-year-old man is a huge issue.
And it’s also a big reason for WWE to take AEW seriously.
Because AEW has stricken at this. The data has shown that a lot of AEW”s ticket and PPV buyers are under 30. They’ve already shown they know how to appeal to these demographics. Be it with the sheer freshness, their rebellious spirit, an emphasis on inclusiveness, presenting an alternative to a base that likes wrestling more than they like WWE, having just enough edge to keep from being childish, or… the people they push.
This is a pretty key one as AEW has put a lot of focus on competitors in their 20s. A good few in their early 20s at that. The gothic daredevil Jeff-Hardy-mixed-with-Raven style Darby Allin is 26. Sammy Guevara, set to take on Cody Rhodes in the first match in Dynamite history, is also 26. MJF, already thought by many to be the best new heel and the best talker in general of his generation, is only 23 years old. The popular burgeoning Jurassic Express act features Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy backing up Luchsaurus – both of the former being 22. Even Hangman Page, who came within a hair of becoming the first-ever AEW World Champion weeks ago, just turned 27.
Youth is up and down the roster of AEW.
That’s of course great for the obvious reason. If you can make them now, you’ll potentially have a star on your hands for a long, long time. But there’s also the fact that these people tend to appeal to the youth. When they see someone closer to their age, they see someone they can relate to. Think about that Jeff Hardy allegory I made earlier. Teenaged girls still go nuts for him to this day.
WWE tried to do a youth movement of their own in the mid-to-late 2000s. It pretty much entirely failed. From Rene Dupree to Chris Masters to Kenny Dykstra to Ted DiBiase, and plenty others in-between. A lot of 20-somethings floundered in WWE’s system. Seemingly, this turned them off from signing people at that age for a while. But AEW has proven that they simply went about things wrong. Their younger stars have had no issues performing at a high level and connecting with a broad audience thus far.
This isn’t new or out of nowhere, as much as it might seem to some.
We’ve been on track for this for a while. The revolutions hit at the small scale, then at the mid-level. It’s worked it’s way up to the top.
Somehow, someway, in an era with so little public interest in pro wrestling, an incredible generation of talent has emerged. We’re at the forefront now of seeing tomorrow’s stars being made today and en masse. To put it simply, this is something we haven’t seen since the mid-90s boom.
Whether it will ever reach that kind of popularity or anything comparable, I don’t know. The numbers from the late-90s and early 2000s are honestly kind of hard to wrap your head around with today’s mindset. All I know is that this time next year, pro wrestling ought to be a lot healthier than it is now. And the same should go for the year after that as well.
We are at the start of what should be a massive uptick of business. And more than anything, we’re entering paradise for the hardcore wrestling fan. No matter what kind of wrestling you like, it’s there for you.
What I want this article to illustrate more than anything, is that this isn’t just talk. This is real. This is the new normal, this is our lives now, as wrestling fans.
And I myself am looking forward to a wonderful life, indeed.