15 Misconceptions About AEW You Probably Believe

3. “AEW Needs To Appeal To Casual Fans”

Hangman Page
AEW

For starters, AEW is not arcane high art. It truly isn’t that difficult to follow. If anything, further to the previous entry, AEW was harder to track in 2021 - or at least, it was more rewarding to pay strict attention. The detail and foreshadowing isn’t what it was.

AEW still gets accused of not doing enough to grab the casual fan - a totally made-up construct, incidentally.

There are no endless replays. This could be corrected to an extent. There are too many throwaway matches on Collision; one or two could be dropped to further emphasise the key story beats on Dynamite. It’s also somewhat irritating that AEW doesn’t run enough video packages - not because the storylines are inscrutable, but because AEW is actually great at them, when they bother. AEW Dynamite in particular is a bit frantic and rushed. Very little is allowed to register. At this point, though, these are quirks that aren’t going anywhere, as opposed to fundamental promotional errors that will discourage some imaginary dumb guy from not getting it. This stuff is regurgitated by bad faith grifters who think they have the answer to AEW’s perennial status as the #2. It’s fine for AEW to be #2. The WWE monopoly broke people’s brains.

Literally every other entertainment genre is overflowing with alternatives that deliberately play to a demo that prefers a less broad version of that thing. Wrestling is only different because it was broken for so long.

It seems as though some fans and or critics want AEW to spoon-fed major plot points to an imaginary person with a heavy and obnoxious use of exposition. That sounds awful.

What’s better: studying Hangman Page’s range of facial expressions as a guide to where his story might be heading, or having him outright say what he’s feeling?

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!