10 Totally Bizarre WWE Moments You'd Never Remember Without This Article!
4. SmackDown Beats AEW To The Punch
AEW is generally a very good wrestling product and a superb one at its best.
Books could be written on the depth of its quality - and one has, by me, which you can order on Amazon right here! - but the core foundational element is that every match matters as a result of the rankings system. If a wrestler strings together a series of wins, two plus years of robust consistency has allowed fans to trust that they can subsequently invest in that wrestler's arc. Jungle Boy is the latest act to benefit from the framework.
But did you know that WWE actually got there first?
Typical AEW, relying on old WWE stuff!
Except WWE abandoned this concept within weeks because its existence held them to a standard and didn't allow them to simply do whatever the f*ck they wanted on any given week.
The system differed from AEW's, in that it wasn't based on wins and losses because they don't matter; instead, it was peer-voted. The 'Top 10 List' at the very least allowed fans to determine who was positioned as stars, and who one day might crack into the title picture.
It was a potentially useful tool and storyline driver.
It was binned off because nothing can possibly matter.