10 Things AEW MUST Do To Compete With WWE

10. Spend The Money

Perception is everything in professional wrestling.

Several disenfranchised WWE fans are hesitant to venture outside of the bubble because everything else looks small time, or less glamorous, in comparison. Anecdotally, an old writer colleague felt removed from New Japan's minimalist production before persisting with and falling for it. This is a real thing, a perception of value warped entirely by capitalism:

If something is so good, why don't more people like it?

It's a cultural shock, one especially bracing to the WWE fan. Wrestling to them is a synonym of WWE. They've persisted with WWE despite falling out of love with it because it provides a level of comfort and familiarity. Something unfamiliar, which they have been conditioned for years to accept as an imitator, is daunting.

ALL IN took the eclectic Independent product and dressed it up ready for its debutante ball. The grand production was the impetus behind AEW and its imminent expansion into network television. It was a masterstroke, really: Cody and the Young Bucks transformed buzz into big, visualising on behalf of money players an alternative to WWE. The same could be true of the wrestling fan, provided it looks significantly bigger than ROH or the TNA of old. Talent jumped to that organisation, but their fans did not. The LOLTNA stigma did not help, nor did the small-time look of the Impact Zone. It felt to fans like a downgrade.

A massive, vibrant stage is needed; otherwise, it will all look a bit niche, a bit hipster - and this dreaded tag is as alienating to certain, defensive fans...