AEW Is ALREADY Doing This One Thing Better Than WWE

Contrast this match, and so many others, with the various subplots that emerged from AEW Fyter Fest.

On the much-maligned Buy In, one inspiring story stood out amid the embarrassing dreck: the breakthrough performance of Private Party, a charismatic and exciting youth movement of an act. They lost their three-way match against the Best Friends and SCU, but not before dazzling the crowd with unique, ultra-athletic tandem spots.

Hoss prospect Nyla Rose lost, too, through her own hubris, in an ironic spin on the tortoise and hare fable. She dominated the slight joshi pair of Riho and Yuka Sakazaki in a creatively structured match, only to lose having willingly given up the opportunity to win. The result neatly side-stepped the inherent problem with booking monster characters; their size demands dominance, but that inhibits graduating long-term narrative progression. This version of Rose is a raw monster reliant on size alone. With the rage of failure as a motivator, her final, determined form represents a better-developed character and a more interesting, lengthier arc.

Jungle Boy drew a big reaction with his own, different showcase of raw ability—but he lost, too, as a result of his naive strategy and lack of experience. There's an in-built logic to his loss; it wasn't arbitrary, but rather necessary. Jungle Boy is just 22 years of age. He already projects that which cannot be learned, and he’s still tiny, and he performs with what is a decidedly “early career” gimmick. In 10 years’ time, he might perform as himself, with a heavier frame, and without the green quality to his act that at this point actually benefits him.

He should lose matches at this point in his development.

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