10 Ways AEW Has Revolutionised Pro Wrestling
3. Creative Freedom
The odd complaint has surfaced - talk of handcuffs coming out, etc. - but tellingly, those talents aren't on television.
The inference is that those who got over were permitted to get over using their own creative agency. Darby Allin is a true maximise-your-minutes performer who needs all of 30 seconds to get over as a unique and compelling personality and build his programmes with his own haunting, black-and-white short films, the eerie tone of which artfully conveys the level of danger his opponents imminently face. Sammy Guevara's vlogging is used to facilitate comedy spots; Hangman Page gets over even with his own banter title graphics, in a fantastic touch; the EVPs, obviously, are in control of their own storylines, which after some not insignificant flaws have now incorporated Being The Elite's excellent episodic quality into the traditional, serious TV context.
The promos are penned by the those who cut them, not a hack ex-TV writer, allowing Chris Jericho and MJF to get over huge as piss-funny d*ckheads, Cody as an articulate, impassioned pure babyface, Britt Baker as a wonderfully aloof "role model".
AEW insisted, over and over, that it was a wrestling promotion run by wrestlers, and they recognise and encourage the independence of the contractors.