The Secret Weapon AEW Holds Over WWE
Gambling with a royal flush.
Saturday night’s Double Or Nothing, the very first show presented by All Elite Wrestling, was an almost inconceivable triumph.
Digital impressions dwarfed—quadrupled—that of ALL IN, the very success of which mapped this groundbreaking destination. Even beyond the critical acclaim and the turned heads of the WWE-disenfranchised, no less an influential figure than rising Democrat star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put over Executive Vice President Cody’s strive for genuine diversity. AEW didn’t just seduce the wrestling world this week; the company penetrated the mainstream sphere.
Fittingly, for a company that leaned on a gambling aesthetic and narrative in Las Vegas, AEW holds several hands over the competition.
AEW radiated cool and danger throughout that instantly iconic closing angle. Jon Moxley disrupted Jericho’s masturbatory promo—if anything, he demanded the audience jerk him off, in a great character moment—by planting him and the referee with the Dirty Deeds. He stood on the ropes, breathed everything in, and let out a silent Motherf*cker roar. He, just like everybody else, was high on an atmosphere of revolution and defiance.
MJF almost stole the show by delivering his unique, big-time, hilariously nasty promo on its rightful stage. Cody and Dustin Rhodes formally stole it with a match as beautiful as it was disgusting, following which no less than four much-anticipated matches were either formally or all but announced: Cody and Dustin Rhodes Vs. The Young Bucks; MJF Vs. Hangman Page; Kenny Omega Vs. Jon Moxley; Hangman Page Vs. Chris Jericho...
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