10 Booking Steps AEW Must Make Following Double Or Nothing 2021
6. Introduce International Stars On A Regular Basis
AEW, in true AEW fashion, debuted DDT staple Konosuke Takeshita - deemed one of the next big things in professional wrestling - on their first house show, The House Always Wins, rather than on AEW programming. His two subsequent Dark: Elevation appearances on the 12 and 19 April editions were overlooked, too. When he appeared, there wasn't a big deal made about it, despite his high-ranked status in Japanese wrestling.
This is fine.
When AEW brought the guy in, they knew they didn't have him for long, and so they merely used him in meaningless roles. He defeated Danny Limelight one week, and then Limelight and the Sydal brothers the week after. This won't get him anywhere, but it doesn't need to. AEW were simply capitalising on the success of a foreigner to get some more eyes on themselves.
They should capitalise on this on a semi-regular basis. It's key, however, that these international talents aren't slotted into top-tier roles, unless it's for a specific reason (see: Jon Moxley vs. Yuji Nagata), but rather used on Dark and Dark: Elevation.
Because these shows rarely carry over to the 'main' AEW story arcs, it allowed Trent? to reunite with Rocky Romero for one night only. If these shows did carry over, they'd need to explain why Romero wasn't there. Stick to Mondays and Tuesdays to execute this perfectly.