10 Secrets Behind AEW's Booking Magic
4. Intelligence And Nuance
AEW does and doesn't stay strict with its babyface/heel alignments. MJF has no redeeming features whatsoever - that's the brilliance of his character - and likewise, they wholly embrace the timeless, earnest babyface character once thought deeply unfashionable.
But there's a texture to the Elite that might, even if indirectly and through their disciples, move forward an industry that has stagnated for decades.
Non-WWE business exploded in the last decade on the strength of their popularity; their brilliance had much to do with it, of course, but there's a sense that their exploration of masculine roles beyond the black and white has resonated with the most devoted of NJPW - and AEW - fans. More viewers tune in to watch Jon Moxley, but more words are written, feverishly, to debate the morality in their ongoing saga.
Underneath the posturing and the complexity, you know Adam Page to be good. His attempts to project something to the contrary only deepen his arc with a real sense of pathos.
There's such a nuance and intelligence to his work - the long tights he wore at All Out as penance, the facials that always looked in some heartbreaking way like a mask, until he revealed himself on Saturday - and it's this sort of incredibly detailed, twisting long-term storytelling that creates a compelling episodic quality around Dynamite.