10 Major Moves AEW Could Make On Its Debut TV Show
Does AEW really need its Lex Luger on Nitro moment?
The official date is set: All Elite Wrestling comes to our TV screens on October 2, 2019. The name of the show is yet to be determined, but the scope of the endeavour is very certain in itself: the upstart league has booked the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. for its debut.
That is ambitious.
AEW has positioned itself as an alternative and not competition to WWE, but that's a WWE-sized venue. With a capacity of just over 20,000, this should accommodate in the region of 14,000 fans. The novelty of the historical occasion - twinned with the buzz and the acclaim and the desire to at least unsettle WWE - should see a healthy number drawn. The precedent of demand is also on AEW's side; per the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, demand for All Out was so high that the company, theoretically, could have held its second major show in a stadium. Just one match has been announced thus far: top babyface Cody versus emerging heel act and mainstream unknown Sammy Guevara.
The pairing reinforces AEW's welcome trust in its youth movement - but the expectation of something truly monumental is inescapable...
10. Course Correction For Hangman Page
Double Or Nothing mostly succeeded in its difficult aim of getting several talents over on the same show. AEW has embraced, in marketing and action, the spirit of competition.
But the problem with affording the roster such autonomy is that momentum cannot be accounted for.
Interrupting the ceremonial unveiling of the World Heavyweight Championship, MJF stole the non-wrestling portion of the show with his savage and remorseless promo. Wishing a second, disturbing attack on Bret Hart, the ridiculously charismatic heel also made literal the comparison of Hangman Page to a horse. The promo was so effective that, gauging by the Hangman's diminished aura, he made a horse's ass of him.
AEW almost "Billy Gunn'd" Page on the night. He sold his worked knee injury to perfection, but it hardly mattered: MJF was so electric that it was difficult to feel sympathy for Page. MJF's promo at Fyter Fest is closer in tone to what AEW could aim for on their TV debut, the best candidate to open which is a new face to the mainstream capable of getting himself over in minutes.
Unpatriotic, nasty, whatever: it can't be too funny, but he could mock Page's likely All Out defeat, inviting the violent, restorative comeuppance needed to babyface him.