How AEW Just Took Fan Service Too Far
New Japan Pro Wrestling gets away with its Intercontinental Title through its roster of huge stars - it's necessary only for business reasons, in that it headlines shows on two and three-legged destination events - and is the only workable modern vision of a secondary belt. It still isn't the same. The IWGP Intercontinental Title match never feels as big nor as unmissable as the epic Heavyweight clash. The secondary strap sells some tickets, and the matches are great, and that's ultimately what all of this is for, but there's a ruthless precision to it. No Young Lion dreams of winning the IWGP Intercontinental Title.
Consider Darby Allin. His winning the TNT Championship dilutes his journey to the absolute pinnacle. He started in AEW as a total unknown in mainstream circles. He got over with his artistry, creativity, and super-dynamic polymath ring style. There's an in-character explanation for his suicide dive, otherwise the most flagrantly cannibalised move in the entire industry. Kids are copying his iconic look. He has gotten over by losing repeatedly, but showing enough spirit and quality to forge a connection with fans in narrow, harsh defeat. There's something magical about the prospect - and what it says about the belief one can place in AEW's process - of Darby Allin going all the way and winning the big one.
There's something almost patronising about the alternative, or at least deflating. He has earned - or is on his way to earning - the distinction of becoming the champion of a wrestling world that stupidly saw nothing in him. Outcast punk artist Darby Allin instead winning a corporately-sponsored second-rung prize feels off, in some hard-to-place way. Allin, to use AEW's own nomenclature, was undesirable. An AEW World Championship win would make him undeniable. A midcard, nearly-there title is almost an asterisk in his story. He doesn't have to win it, of course, but AEW falls into a plot hole otherwise.
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