Why It Is Literally Impossible To Hate AEW

FTR are the Revival in NXT, effectively. They still work an electrifying update on the southern style tag genre. Miro is heel Rusev stripped of the xenophobia which he has replaced with a more monstrous intensity. Malakai Black is Aleister Black, only he actually wrestles on television. Andrade is a 50/50 midcard banger generator only with a better - more traditionally WWE-friendly! - physique.

If you can't enjoy their work in a different promotion, and can only enjoy their WWE work as a result of the initials of the promotion, then it does not get any more biased than that. You are a mark for a set of initials. If it's just about the initials, and the talent doesn't inform your enjoyment of the promotion, then you can't do "six stars in the Tokyo Dome" jokes.

What if - and this is very unlikely - Roman Reigns becomes All Elite? He is the man that the WWE ultras praise as the antithesis of AEW. He was born into the WWE system, he's the embodiment of a WWE star, and he is, earnestly, a very cool and hugely talented individual. WWE feels like gigantic and rewarding promotion whenever he's onscreen. But what if he worked for a different promotion? Does he become "not that good anyway"? Do you not get how unhinged the thought process is? If you extend the logic of it, you'll be acknowledging some greenhorn from NXT 2.0 as your Tribal Chief purely because Norman Smiley taught them how to apply a hold. Norman Smiley worked less than 10 WWE dark matches in his entire career.

So what, you might say. You like WWE. You're not necessarily into the wrestlers themselves; you like the glossy production, the very wordy approach to storytelling, and mostly the idea of what a WWE Superstar looks like.

AEW even does WWE-style wrestling as part of its self-styled "buffet", for f*ck's f*cking sake.

CONT'D...(5 of 6)