Leaping the gun, clearly. We’re solely three weeks into the HHH model of WWE, and we gained’t actually know what he can do till the networks and board he works for have their say over all of it, and, extra to the purpose, have their say on the scores and income his imaginative and prescient attracts. However it’s all the time enjoyable to mission out, particularly as you may see a few of the main avenues that AEW used to develop into what it’s now are being closed up.
We do have some seeds as to what WWE may appear to be beneath Journeys. For one, nearly everybody goes to get an opportunity to shine. We’ve already seen Dakota Kai and Karrion Kross introduced again (although solely certainly one of them is any good). Iyo Sky was snatched from the brink of heading again to Japan and promoted as much as Uncooked. It might seem Dexter Lumis is getting the identical remedy. Tommaso Ciampa was given a significant push in a matter of weeks, Mustafa Ali bought a TV match on the primary Uncooked after Summerslam. It’s attainable Ricochet goes to get a significant look too.
The ladies’s division is clearly going to be a significant focus, because it’s the middle of Uncooked now. A few of that’s Roman Reigns holding each main titles and solely displaying up as soon as each few weeks, however it’s already been unfold out amongst six girls as an alternative of simply the Becky-Bianca axis it was on. Hell, AJ Types has been allowed to return to utilizing the Types Conflict as his finisher, as WWE truly is now admitting there was a world earlier than and round them, and hospitals exist once more as an alternative of native medical amenities.
The foremost level, no less than to this point — and once more we’re solely a matter of weeks into this and issues might all the time change — is that the storytelling in WWE has been and appears set to be a lot cleaner. Subtlety has been reintroduced, reminiscent of Lumis’s introduction sprinkled all through final evening’s Uncooked, or the seeds being planted for the eventual Road Income cut up. We see new matches as an alternative of the identical ones again and again that maintain issues planted proper the place they’ve all the time been, and people matches get time to breathe. Even when issues finish in DQs as they did final week, it was to determine Bayley’s new faction as the middle of the present now as an alternative of simply avoiding anybody having to win or lose. There’s no rush to get somebody their warmth again. There’s a goal to all of it.
Clear storytelling, developed matches with definitive endings and pushes, and an opportunity for everybody is strictly what AEW’s calling card has been, and was the siren tune for thus many to enroll. It’s type of curious that not too long ago, the hypothesis about sure social media likes and posts have been guessing whether or not or not it’s AEW wrestlers that are sad whereas the excitement out of the WWE locker room is simply how excited everyone seems to be for what’s subsequent. It’s a pointy pivot. How a lot of that is actual, and the way a lot will final is rarely going to be clear. That is wrestling, in any case, and nothing is ever what it appears, which is type of the purpose. Nonetheless, it’s absolutely the reverse of what the case has been for the previous couple of years. It was all so simple as only one aged, senile creep being compelled out, apparently.
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It’s far too tempting to play a sliding doorways sport of what would have occurred had HHH been in cost a yr — or extra — earlier. Would Bryan Danielson have felt the necessity to soar ship to do the sorts of issues he needs to do? Would Adam Cole and his cronies be on the primary roster of WWE now? Would we nonetheless have Aleister Black as an alternative of Malakai? Would Ruby Soho and Athena have been launched? You’ll be able to play this sport for a very long time.
And you’ll set it out into the long run. It might seem AEW missed no matter window there might need been, if there ever was one, to lure Sasha Banks over to fully make over their girls’s division (if that’s one thing Tony Khan thinks is important, which may be very a lot up within the air). One of many greatest elements of being an AEW fan was dreaming, or guessing, which disgruntled and underused New York wrestler could be subsequent. That’s a a lot more durable sport now, and those HHH is more likely to stuff towards the underside of the cardboard or to catering usually are not those that AEW followers could be jonesing to see an #AllElite graphic subsequent to (to this point that record seems to be headed by Omos and Lacey Evans).
Actually, AEW has sufficient expertise proper now, and possibly has an excessive amount of. But when HHH goes to offer wrestlers WWE Cash with AEW storylines, it’s going to get awfully tough to maintain everybody round or win battles for indie expertise. Except in fact, WWE turns into bloated once more, which you’ll by no means rule out, and their hoarding of expertise years in the past is what helped create the rogue AEW within the first place.
AEW has created a few of its personal success tales, reminiscent of Wheeler Yuta or Daniel Garcia. Jade Cargill would additionally match that description, besides she hasn’t had an actual feud but or perhaps a aggressive match, which she now desperately wants. Your complete girls’s division might use extra of that. However AEW’s “4 pillars” have been a bit scattered to the wind. Darby Allin continues to be round (though ought to he be?). MJF is nowhere to be discovered. Followers have soured on Sammy Guevara. Jungle Boy seems poised for his first singles push, however it’s a combined bag. On the lady’s facet, Britt Baker nonetheless appears to rule over all, whereas their champ Thunder Rosa has by no means been given a long-term story worthy of her skills. If AEW’s essential supply of intrigue and expertise of selecting up WWE’s unused goes to dry up, their file on utilizing their very own improvement and training is spotty.
AEW nonetheless feels prefer it hinges on CM Punk and Danielson and Moxley and Omega, and all of them are damage (although Omega’s return is imminent). And the spigot beneath them that no less than supplied rotating opponents and feuds may flip off quickly.
That doesn’t imply AEW goes wherever. It has lower out a devoted and enormous fanbase that ought to land it a profitable TV deal subsequent yr, whether or not it’s in Discovery’s plans or not. The scores of Dynamite are actually giant and constant sufficient to be enticing to a couple completely different retailers (Rampage may want some work). However its methodology of maintaining the product vibrant and alluring may have to undergo some adjustments, ones that the corporate and Khan haven’t but confirmed they will nail as a lot as they’ve the importing of expertise followers thought have been starved of time in an organization all of them hated anyway.
All this stuff are cyclical, and we seem like heading right into a section the place each firms now need the identical issues. We all know how one can go about getting it, We’ll discover out concerning the different.
