The WWE/AEW Age Divide - What It Actually Means

Cody Horsemen
AEW

Ignore their placement on Wednesday Nights, or even what NXT reflects as a byproduct of WWE at large. AEW, if not a threat, are a viable and functioning alternative to Vince McMahon's wrestling empire, and that makes for an awful lot of a fun and an awful lot more wrestlers having jobs, but an awful lot of awful discourse.

The "war" is one to be enjoyed as the companies attempt to compete by serving up the best possible shows for wrestling fans. Every saccharine WWE documentary about the Monday Night Wars ended the same way - the fans had a f*cking blast. Here, the worst corners of both sides are so blinded by bias that they're forgetting to enjoy a minimum of two great wrestling shows a week.

Comparing Dynamite to NXT has been done to death, and only feeds into an unfair narrative that it's even an entirely fair fight. AEW's flagship is their biggest stage, far bigger than the quasi-developmental mishmash on the other side, but comparing the booking of Dynamite and Raw is - and Cody will like this one - back to the old days of ice cream and horse manure. One's a tight wrestling show with goals and destinations, the other hasn't been one of those for about 20 years.

And that timescale is everything.

CONT'D...

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett