10 Ways WWE Is Better Than AEW
In defence of the (almost) indefensible - what WWE are still getting right that AEW can't crack.
An all time cake-and-eat-it moment, this.
Over the years (and especially the last three), you might well have read a number of articles on this very website calling for unity between wrestling fans behind the cause of great wrestling over favourite multi-billion dollar organisations.
Not to be confused with the "just enjoy it!" brand of toxic positivity, this particular request has echoed from corners exhausted by the most visceral debate between fans of either WWE and AEW (and it is these two companies, nobody ever gave a flying f*ck when TNA were pretending to make a fist of it in the 2000s, and people were even less bothered when NJPW was inarguably the best product in the world at various points in the 2010s), when all the action's there to be sampled and/or devoured.
It's both reasoned and flawed.
Reasoned because wrestling theoretically needn't be tribal beyond having favourite specific wrestlers. Flawed - somewhat hypocritically so - because everybody constantly goes on about how competition was good in the territorial days, in the 1990s and even now!
To this end, here are 10 Ways WWE Is Better Than AEW, with the exact counter-point article hopefully elsewhere on WhatCulture.com as you're reading these words. We're not here to tell you to like both, but it doesn't mean they don't have certain strengths...
10. Building ONE Star Still Fundamentally Works Just Enough
All too often, the only star Vince McMahon gives a sh*t about building has initials rather than a name, but when he does actually like one of his wrestlers, he backs them to the hilt.
Since John Cena reshaped what it was to be Titan's top star then got off the full time grind for good after 2015, the WWE letters have been harnessed to flog tickets and TV shows more than ever (and more on that elsewhere in this article). But Roman Reigns' megapush since August 2020 has at very least proven that audiences will stay sustained (if not grow all that much) if they're given at least one relentless winner to stick with.
The 'Tribal Chief's run has come at the detriment of many aimless midcarders on SmackDown - nobody on the regular main roster can claim to be in his orbit - but the blue brand's ratings have stabilised around two million anyway. Wins and losses and rankings are all-important, but there's not a single top star or belt-wearer promoted with as much conviction as 'The Head Of The Table'.