10 Alarming Signs Over The Future Of The Pro Wrestling Industry
5. What Is The #3 Promotion?
ECW was the adult-oriented blood and guts league that also predicted the future with its laser-focused hipster fan service. A decade removed, ROH basked in pure high-end technical wrestling while, even though it got in its own way, TNA revolutionised the in-ring craft via the X division. A decade after that, WWE NXT folded these concepts into the mainstream without embracing the irreverent gonzo creativity of PWG.
For decades, there was always a movement, style or philosophy for completionist hardcores to embrace years before the major leagues did.
This isn't the case in 2022.
The byproduct of AEW's catch-all creative philosophy - if you were asked to book a Trios match using any worker that has wrestled for the promotion, you could go with Katsuyori Shibata, Nick Gage and Diamond Dallas Page Vs. Kenny Omega, Shaquille O'Neal and Sting - is that no other North American promotion has an identity or unique appeal of its own anymore.
As a result, Impact is an a weird, all but irrelevant place. It's either Lucha Underground or a great match delivery system, but there are great matches on AEW TV every single week. The rebooted ROH has failed because it offers nothing AEW doesn't. The NWA was once so different that it actually penetrated the discourse amid the Wednesday Night Wars of 2019, but again, AEW recruited its best talents.
It might have been argued that Corgan's NWA was the best league for promos, when Dynamite launched and Powerrr was in the coversation, because there were so few of them on those autumnal Wednesdays. Khan quickly tweaked the format, and consequently, the NWA had nothing distinctive about it, either. It is a bigger joke now than NXT, on which surfers, college students and mafiosos are what's "like that".
There's no true #3 anymore, nor does any sort of new, compelling movement exist to unsettle the majors. The next big stylistic shift is not even close to emerging.