WWE Vs. AEW: How Do The Empty Arena Shows Compare?

8. In-Ring Action

WWE:

Not bad, but not enough; WWE's Performance Centre shows are light on new in-ring content, but perhaps understandably so. The traffic in and out of the PC is vast. The scale of the company is vast. Producing seven hours of original weekly content as normal this week is an invitation to this not happening at all next week. Safety is paramount. Still, the action doesn't feel consistent with the apparent trenches spirit. It feels obligatory and careful more so than defiant and celebratory.

If fewer matches = relatively safer, this doesn't explain the brevity - nor does it explain why 205 Live even went ahead, much less with a 10-man tag.

AEW:

AEW's in-house style - and or lack of one - better lends itself to this awful new context. The Lucha Brothers Vs. Best Friends deliberately limited the dives and the aerials, with no crowd to manipulate into "This is awesome!" chants, and instead created a squelching sound canvas to compensate for that lack of crowd noise. Trent helpfully allowed Pentagon Jr. to play his tenderised thigh as an instrument for this purpose.

The four-way Women's match emphasised spots and pace over a gripping, focused story, and in contrast, the main event was a very good, storied match that incorporated six men and much of the pseudo-audience into an escalating, thrilling series of distractions/beats.

But how advisable is all of this...?