The WWE/AEW Age Divide - What It Actually Means
NXT helped WWE get its sh*t together in 2013/14. They're potentially not due an intake that watched that product as kids for another five years or so, compared to AEW reaping the benefits of the sweet spot right now.
To be in your mid-20s and "making it" in WWE is to be at the whims of a detached billionaire 50 years your senior scripting the dialogue he thinks will make you sound cool. Contrast that with the success of mid-to-late 30s guys Cody, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Jon Moxley and several other power players in the upstart promotion.
It's not short on a youth movement - Hangman Page, Britt Baker, Jungle Boy and MJF will all make even bigger successes of themselves in the company than they already have - but they'll be guided by those aforementioned names and other colleagues that knew what made them tick and want to make it the norm again.
AEW wins that key demographic because they are it. It is WWE's job now to ensure the current generation get a better show than the one they're being offered in order to offset this phenomenon happening again for generations to come.