10 Reasons AEW Is Still The Undisputed Best Wrestling Promotion

10. The Noise

What do you associate with a red-hot wrestling product?

Red-hot crowds.

While WWE is doing extraordinarily well in the Nielsens, even bettering the usual decline that affects Raw during Monday Night Football season, it doesn't feel red-hot. This new Triple H Era benefits profoundly from the curve that was Vince McMahon's staggeringly incompetent product. The crowds tend to get into the long matches by the end, but Triple H is in the process of retraining the audience. There's a dissonance between those watching and home and those in the arena.

AEW arenas are meanwhile bathed in noise. For all this talk of a paradigm shift, if you didn't go online once in the last two months, you wouldn't know from simply watching each show.

Consider Chris Jericho Vs. Bryan Danielson II. It was a masterclass of crowd psychology that didn't rely on a few near-falls to pop the crowd at the finish. When it was close, it was excellent, so much so that it drew a "Fight forever!" chant. Then, when Jericho hurt Danielson's ankle and capitalised with a vicious, opportunistic onslaught, the crowd emoted earnestly, desperate for Danielson to overcome.

They had the crowd from the very first second, and most AEW matches do, three years deep.