10 Ways AEW Is Nothing Like TNA
9. Arenas Not Asylums
Location matters, it really does. Few things in professional wrestling look better than an arena full of fans going wild in front of some elite-level wrestling. If the audience is having fun, the whole production just comes across as so much more legitimate, so much more acceptable. Even the most obsessive of wrestling fans must admit that the sport is always fighting a battle for legitimacy, and that fight is eased by the adoration of thousands of people.
AEW has had this from the get-go. This doesn't just help it stand out from TNA; the atmosphere inside the arena was what set it aside from NXT in those early days. This is all somewhat moot now that fans aren't allowed in the arenas, but that is neither here nor there in this case. AEW is immediately legitimate in the eyes of casual fans because of its setting. It looks like something worth giving a hoot about.
TNA was hampered from the get-go by its own Asylum, of having to fill a sterile environment with the excitement that a pro wrestling show needs. The promotion was banking on the quality of the show doing all the work when it came to attracting fans, ignoring the simple herd mentality that mainstream culture is built on.