It's Official: Wrestling Needs An Unthinkable Revolution
An actual rankings system. Perhaps even a league table. A standby referee. A moratorium on stable members being allowed at ringside. Changes to the narrative that would get around the "heel sneak attack leads to match next week which referee is too incompetent to gain control of".
Now, something happened on Dynamite recently that worked exquisitely within the traditional wrestling approach. In the MJF Vs. Adam Cole World Title Eliminator match, referee Bryce Remsburg got bumped. This allowed MJF to grab the title belt, throw it at Cole, and bump himself to the canvas. In a fantastic twist, the old Eddie Guerrero trick didn't work because Remsburg was more hurt than MJF thought. Remsburg continued to sell as Cole realised MJF's folly. In an awesome near-fall, Cole struck MJF with the belt and lowered the Boom. Everybody in the arena counted along. The old way still works, but this was so effective because it subverted the tired tribute spot.
WWE is not going to change. For all its arrogant bluster, and how the conglomerate apparently "transcends" wrasslin', they rely on the same carny devices more than ever. The ref gets bumped in every single Roman Reigns match in order to block the stage for melodramatic Bloodline theatre. In order to function as it wants to function, WWE is anti-sport. And it works very well, commercially.
AEW however should strive to be different from WWE in almost every way.
A brand new way of formatting and presenting professional wrestling is needed. The thing is, heels need to be able to cheat, which some form of VAR-adjacent system would render untenable. Or do they? Should the other North American major take more influence from the more serious leanings of puro and adjust to that brand of psychology? Between most WWE crowds not caring about in-ring action and AEW crowds resembling them every other week in recent times, watching wrestling on TV has rarely felt more quiet.
Has the predominantly millennial non-WWE fanbase stopped caring about the same old sh*t that has been sold as a transgression for far too long? Is the audience, quite frankly, tired of having their intelligence insulted?
CONT'D...(4 of 5)