10 Times WWE Ripped Off AEW
9. The Hard Cam Position
AEW nailed how to do empty arena wrestling from the first show, because the company made a concerted effort to make the best of it - to work inspiredly around a sh*tty situation and compensate for its grimness.
WWE in contrast reportedly gave up, for a time, insisting with dummy spat forcibly from mouth that empty arena wrestling was impossible, and loading the first wave of shows with minimal obligated grey original content and replays from its vast archive.
The first step AEW took was the most obvious: don't shoot the empty seats from the default hard cam position, thus reminding the audience constantly of that which they are attempting to escape. WWE's initial approach did yield a quality bit of absurdist comedy involving Steve Austin, but mostly, the empty seats cloaked everything with a rehearsal vibe in what amounted to an open casket funeral for wrestling.
AEW made the immediate decision to move the hard camera in front of the stage, creating a beautiful looking backdrop accentuated by the bantering din of the wrestlers ringside. AEW shows felt like an emulation of an intimate Indie, the loving embrace and soul of which was beneath and beyond WWE.
They did eventually get it, and brilliantly, some stans "Well, actually'd" the decision, citing ROH as the inspiration.
Sure!