The True Story Behind PAC Quitting AEW
PAC may have turned himself heel over this, not, as a BASTARD, that he will care. He also may have compromised his drawing power on these isles, as long as he remains Dragon Gate’s top star. If it wasn’t already obvious, it is effectively official now: PAC isn’t going to lose cleanly as Dragon Gate’s top Champion. Disseminating this information through Dave Meltzer, who relayed it to the public via coded message, felt like returning fire.
Ultimately, this is a situation for which the wrestling fandom at large can have few complaints, now that the raw emotion has subsided. We asked for this. We asked for a company steadfast in a philosophy, and not susceptible to the erratic whims of an autocrat. We asked for wins and losses to mean something. We asked for championships to regain their prestige and inherent drawing power in an age of WWE inflation.
Several commenters, distressed by the news, wondered why AEW could not proceed with the match as advertised with a revised, politicised disqualification finish, but again, this arbitrary, copout booking has proven so wildly unpopular in WWE that it, in part, created the platform for AEW’s very existence. AEW aims to present a product in which conclusive, clean wins and losses form a coherent framework in which its audience can invest.
Search through the vast majority of WWE critiques, and this is key to everything. Several major WWE programmes over the last two years have alienated the public as a result of this mentality: AJ Styles Vs. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, most infamously.
Before Sunday’s awesome Universal Title match, this very booking philosophy rendered the Phenomenal almost normal in the minds of the WWE Universe.
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