How AEW Might Be Secretly Changing The Game
The promos are unscripted and at their best seminal; the storylines are booked with incredible detail with the long-term heft in mind; the victories are decisive enough to meaningly inform what comes next and establish a tier of talent to best get over the peak of the pyramid. All of this has converged to slowly shift the balance of power. Is licensed music and the enormous power it holds the next major move AEW can make that WWE won't?
The entrance themes produced by modern WWE in contrast are beyond dogsh*t. Hum Bobby Lashley's theme. You can't. It's just a splurge of down-tuned riffage with no form or hook - residual charmless Ruthless Aggression fare. Keith Lee's new theme isn't much better than the butt-rock nothing that was inexplicably thrust upon him. Mandy Rose got a new theme this year. It is slightly softer rock. Still nondescript. Still sh*te. Hardly any of these dirges are memorable, much less good, much less iconic.
WWE hasn't pumped out anything with even a hook since (the underrated) CFO$ were given the boot, and after going legit nu-metal for a while at the turn of the century, and beyond some very successful talent-pleasing gestures ('Cult of Personality', 'Bad Reputation') have refused to license music out. Fans are subjected to gruff rawk and generic R&B. The music in WWE is yet another area at which they have become utterly hopeless.
If AEW is the alternative, this is their next big hit.