10 Things AEW MUST Do To Compete With WWE
6. Push Creative Freedom...
This is something Cody has already made very, very clear, with one eye winking at the fans, and another at the boys. That's technically a blink, but you get the idea: this siren call of creative freedom, the foundation on which pro wrestling was built before WWE brought its own house rules down on it, is intoxicating.
Cody is a very, very clever man: he knows that he is the living symbol of what such freedom brings. He transformed himself from New Generation-style WrestleCrap to key executive, doing in just two years what Triple H had managed in eight. Perceived as a revolutionary, his call to arms has alerted undercard chancers and disillusioned top guys alike to a promise land of change and chance.
In WWE, Neville was a Kickoff fixture punished to serve the onscreen punishment of Enzo Amore; in AEW, he will resume his wonderfully unpleasant heel act as main event foil for the Elite's over babyfaces. In WWE, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder are an afterthought; tag team aficionados the world over can think of no more appealing a match than The Revival Vs. The Young Bucks under AEW's flattering filter. In WWE, Maxwell Jacob Friedman could only realistically hope of a very gradual NXT push on the level of a Dominik Dijakovic. Already, he's stealing scenes on the Elite as a charismatic, scheming d*ckhead.
In WWE, Dean Ambrose was a goofball. In AEW...