Why Wrestling Has A MAJOR Problem Right Now

This is how they've arrived at the risible NXT 2.0. They no longer have to try nor pretend to be something they simply don't want to be. They can just win with an overexposed skeleton crew without a World title as a narrative through line. SmackDown in particular has been piss-poor, zero effort sludge since Roman went on hiatus.

AEW meanwhile has tried everything to compete - almost to the point of parody. The promotion, and this is great but only to a point, has honed in on and struck off every last wish on the list. They've convinced CM Punk to return, Bryan Danielson to jump. The promotion's entire M.O. is to deliver everything WWE didn't want really fancy doing for much of the 21st century - stables, blood, surprise debuts! - but recently, it seems as though Tony Khan is trying too hard to make up for lost time. He is inundating his audience with so much ostensibly exciting stuff that it no longer scans as exciting.

In short, it's very easy to feel spoiled by wrestling in what is effectively the post-everything era.

In general, in a bygone era, there was far more room to dream. Prior to the Kenny Omega Vs. Kazuchika Okada series, it never once felt like wrestling had peaked in the ring. It does now. The wildest and most improbable fantasy booking imaginable has been realised with AEW signing CM Punk and Steve Austin returning to WWE for one more match. The once impossibly alluring notion of the "jump", the shock debut, has been thoroughly normalised.

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