10 Secrets Behind AEW's Booking Magic

5. Collaboration

Darby Allin Jon Moxley
AEW

AEW is booked on a format sheet. It isn't written on a script.

WWE's system is so wildly stupid because it actively limits the talent and overworks those most unqualified to get them over. Wrestling never ends - when the rest of the globe shut down, the WWE writing staff pondered the best synonym for "destroy" in a Drew McIntyre promo - and it burns out its bookers in eerily similar cycles. Booking two hours of TV every week - accounting, if you give half a sh*t, for every preceding week so as to inform the next - must be very challenging. Why wouldn't any wrestling promotion leave much of the delivery up to the talent they recruited, presumably, because they trusted them to do it?

AEW as Cody described it is a wrestling company for wrestlers.

Jon Moxley's experience in it has compelled him never to read from a script again. His witty, poetic and badass two minute promos have got him over as the preeminent draw on Wednesday nights. His promos.

Darby Allin uses his film school background to artfully promote his matches and fearless persona; Kenny Omega's fastidious approach has informed this elegantly constructed Elite civil war; the Dark Order have completely revitalised their act after honing it on the carefree, expressive platform of Being The Elite.

The show with the dinosaur feels real because it's a collaborative passion project powered by belief.

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!