How AEW Saved (And RUINED) Wrestling

And it's not as if Tony Khan is at fault for the indie scene's lack of new ideas. It's reductive to state that it's a fading hodgepodge of technical kick pad lads, irony and revolting edgelord garbage - and WrestleMania Weekend promises a lot of outstanding wrestling - but the days of the indie scene flourishing in defiance of established norms are all but over.

Conversely, there is an element of Khan operating with a certain impulsive greed, too. AEW fans have watched on as Daniel Garcia and Wheeler YUTA have experienced an awkward adolescence on television. Did Khan sign and push them too early - to the detriment of their progression and the independent scene? Were they ready, and did Khan really need them? Wouldn't it have been better - for the wider wrestling landscape and ultimately AEW - if both were allowed to develop their characters and create buzz before they joined AEW's bloated, rotating cast?

Both men are immensely gifted, but YUTA has been eaten alive on the microphone more than once, and Garcia, despite showing promise in the role of a TV-sized midcard heel, has faded under a sludge of near-constant f*ck finishes masquerading as "parody" with the Jericho Appreciation Society.

WWE smugly told CM Punk that he did not know how to work. The inverse of that now is that AEW would snap up CM Punk the second he showed promise, as an acerbic, loathsome stand-out capable of drawing earnest heat with his cult leader conviction, in IWA Mid-South. There's a good chance that Punk would have been flown in for a Dark: Elevation shot before he realised, when wrestling Eddie Guerrero, "boy do I suck". He didn't - as all great wrestlers do, he was being hard on himself - but he hadn't evolved into the next big superstar with his immortal Summer of Punk run.

The other end of the extreme has been reached.

CONT'D...(4 of 5)