10 Genius Ways Tony Khan Can Get The AEW Magic Back
9. Redesign The Set
AEW looks like a great and fun show, with its vibrant arena lighting, chintzy sparkler pyro and retro-tinged spotlights...
...if you're a millennial raised on halcyon-days WCW Nitro. If you're closer to 18 than 49 in the key demographic, and immune to the literal glow of the promotion's nostalgic look, Dynamite looks second-rate in comparison to the mega-budget competition.
Abandoning an aesthetic that longtime AEW fans have come to find comfort in might not seem like a way of bringing the magic back, but part of the magic is AEW feeling big again, like a contender again. For the AEW base, many of whom were fans of WWE before they were driven away, it was intoxicating that their idea of what wrestling should be was both serviced and threatened to knock "the Fed" off its perch.
The look of a show is vitally important. NXT looked tiny compared to AEW upon the advent of the Wednesday Night War, and while the difference between WWE and AEW in 2022 isn't quite as drastic as that, it's noticeable. Tony Khan, to make AEW feel bigger and more lavish, should make his TV shows look more like his pay-per-views: futuristic and LED-heavy, but in a more elegant, understated way than the competition. Weekend nights feel big-time in a way that is still authentically "AEW".
Where would that leave pay-per-view, then, if the TV looked indistinguishable from it...?