10 Reasons AEW Is Still The Undisputed Best Wrestling Promotion
9. The Promos
WWE's promos are more impressive and believable now that Vince McMahon is only rubbing weird elbows with talent in a social context.
Some are great, some less so, but the very best interviews feel more like a new company mission statement than something that truly builds interest in a match. Kevin Owens ushering in this new philosophy with world class delivery is very rewarding, but the dialogue in the ongoing Judgment Day saga is risible and wholly artificial: about where we've been for much of the last 21 years.
AEW remains the best promo company since the heyday of Jim Crockett Promotions.
Jon Moxley is a living folk hero who, in addition to articulating the heart of the promotion, is fantastic at painting a picture of the offence he is about to deliver or has delivered. "They're still mopping Punk off the mat" was such a glorious way of putting over that he'd squelched him.
Bryan Danielson, too, is so good at the threat: his "I just want to crush his trachea" line aimed at Zack Sabre, Jr. made the elusive match that bit more must-see.
Eddie Kingston is phenomenal at making it appear that his rivalries consume his entire soul. Chris Jericho continues to nail an intoxicating brew of actually funny material, so-bad-it-it's-good stuff, and actual menace. His fountain of youth bit from last week was pure poetry, too. What might scan as nervousness on the part of Hangman Page is obviously taken as charming vulnerability from crowds that still adore him.
And in MJF, AEW has a despicable heel, a content + delivery machine, who is amazing at teasing his future direction to create mystery but obscuring the key details well enough that the twist always resonates as a shock.