Why AEW Is Beating WWE At Its Own Game
Much is made of who's the bigger star or the best wrestler, Kenny Omega or Roman Reigns, in the tribalistic AEW Vs. WWE culture war.
Too much, because that's not the point: the point is to build slowly towards the future, and since it took them eight years to get Roman right as the one full-time singles megastar they have, the future looks decidedly bleak. The job of the pro wrestling booker is to create stars; Vince McMahon books WWE, and the biggest star they have not named Brock Lesnar is guided by Paul Heyman. As is Brock Lesnar.
In a more sweeping, anecdotal sense, AEW is winning the battle of the buzz in 2022, too. Wrestling fans for well over a decade, almost two, were haunted by the ghost of the Attitude Era. The format, the stars, the constant talking heads retrospectives: one era hung over every other. People have finally stopped f*cking talking about it because, at long last, there's actually something worth debating in the modern wrestling mainstream.
Sometimes it's wild to think that NXT was a red-hot expensive arena ticket in just April 2019, but then, this is how pro wrestling used to move: quickly, and with actual consequences.
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