10 Awesome Ideas That Were Cut From AEW
5. Stats-Based Storytelling
When AEW announced its TV deal with WarnerMedia, the press release promised something that never did materialise:
"AEW will raise the stakes for its matches and deepen fan engagement by tracking each competitor's wins and losses as the wrestlers pursue championships, analyzing their moves, assessing damage to their opponents, and providing insights into their winning streaks."
This was probably more work than it was worth for a very ambitious experimental project. It had never been done. Fans might have rejected the level of thought required to invest in the minutiae of such a product, though the popularity of Fantasy Football in the U.S. may have convinced AEW to try this out in the first instance. In addition to getting finishers over on an objective level, by showing that they were statistically effective - thereby enhancing the drama of the near-fall - this approach would have rid AEW of bad habits. If a wrestler was leaning on the finisher kick-out too often, the data would tell them to tighten their work up.
Imagine Bryan Danielson's run in late 2021. He introduced multiple finishers. The 100% success rate of every submission, visualised onscreen, would have done even more to get him over as a vicious technical killer reborn.
Since Dynamite went up against NXT initially, a decision was made to shift focus to the catch-all "wrestling buffet" vision of stylistic range and traditional long-term storytelling.
Given that AEW's booking has declined somewhat in 2022, and certain devices are wearing thin, there might be something in reintroducing the concept.