10 Secrets Behind The Rise Of AEW
5. Abandoning An Ambitious Concept
When AEW first announced its partnership with TNT/WarnerMedia, the press release promised programming elements that never materialised.
The early copy promised that AEW would hook its audience by "tracking each competitor's wins and losses as the wrestlers pursue championships, analyzing their moves, assessing damage to their opponents, and providing insights into their winning streaks..."
Cody echoed this in the media circuit by claiming to Variety that the ethos of wins and losses mattering would extent beyond the rankings. "We’re talking about percentage of times someone loses to this particular manoeuvre, percentages against somebody of this height, a whole by-the-numbers approach that really intrigues me."
This never did happen.
It was an ambitious concept that sought to differentiate AEW from the soapy meaninglessness of WWE's declining product, but it swung too far in the opposite direction. The idea was dry and ultimately without any significant narrative benefit: it was fairly obvious that Marko Stunt was going to struggle against larger opponents, and the fans could be trusted to infer that Kenny Omega's One-Winged Angel was a powerful weapon. It entailed a lot of spreadsheet work for no pressing purpose, and Mid-South Tony instead set about emphasising the emotion of victory at the expense of the analytics behind the win.
Given the extent to which fans have connected with the promotion - it is fervent in those arenas - he made the correct choice.