10 Reasons AEW Is Still The Undisputed Best Wrestling Promotion

2. The Fact That It Is Being Taken For Granted Now

Orange Cassidy
AEW

This is a key, overlooked aspect of AEW's apparent decline: the promotion's incredible standard has been normalised.

Send a torrent of a 2022 Dynamite episode back in time to somebody 10 years ago, and they'd say "While it's a shame that women's wrestling hasn't moved forward too much, HOLY F*CKING SH*T OTHER WRESTLING COMES BACK AND IT'S BETTER THAN MY WILDEST PIPE DREAMS!"

AEW has answered and continues to answer all of those complaints levied against the industry in its Dark Ages of Guest Hosts, 50/50 booking, the cookie cutter style, SmackDown being a live Raw rerun for what felt like a decade, the Kane character being old enough to legally drink, John Cena's horrific patter, Roman Reigns regurgitating it...

It's not just better in contrast. That's easy. It is as good as WWE was sh*te.

In addition to every other point made in this list, tag team wrestling and its various forms are still being revived. If you liked the Hardyz, the Brainbusters and the New Age Outlawz - and you must like at least one of three, it's almost impossible not to - better versions of those acts exist in AEW.

AEW is still the undisputed best wrestling promotion.

You're just used to it now.

 
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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!