10 Major Moves AEW Could Make On Its Debut TV Show
4. Change The Format
WWE's flagship TV is mired in and defined by a rotten formula. The consensus is so strong that it was Paul Heyman's very first target of change.
To differentiate itself from the competition/alternative/whatever, AEW must deviate from the episodic TV formula and not adhere to its own. The way WWE has treated commercial breaks has ranged from formulaic to laughable in 2019; in changing it, WWE simply replaced a contrivance with a contrivance. The suicide dive into a chinlock spot is so convenient that it kills suspension of disbelief. The weird Two Out Of Three Falls experiment did the exact same thing, only it jobberfied so many acts with those flash first falls.
Why not take the fans away from the heat of the action, creating a sense of can't-miss urgency? Cutting to commercial at random would add a sense of spontaneity and reality around the show while at the same time conditioning an appetite for uninterrupted, white-hot action on AEW's premium pay-per-view attractions.
Begin TV broadcasts with a match, but not every time. Don't book impromptu matches, which break the illusion of a card booked in advance with all time accounted for; otherwise, it will feel like a predetermined sham riddled by plot holes.
Sports entertainment, and its hackneyed, unfulfilling tropes, is dying. Restoring the veneer of reality is crucial to the sports presentation and dating the competition.