Why WWE Is Hot And AEW Is Cold
The Bloodline saga is enormously successful soap opera tacked onto wrestling, which at this point is secondary. The action is a backdrop to the storytelling in the Bloodline saga. The ref bump happens in every single Roman Reigns match, every single one, to enable the acting in the soap opera. The cinema comparisons are mocked in some circles because the story is very easy to understand. There is not a hint of ambiguity to it. It's mass-consumption stuff that has reached what passes for a mass wrestling audience in 2023. "Wrestling audience" is actually incorrect. With the unadulterated soap opera that is the Bloodline stuff, WWE has appealed to the WWE fans who like WWE first and wrestling second. There is no competition for that market, as TNA discovered in the 2000s. It is WWE's alone. AEW cannot crack it and show no signs of wanting to crack it.
WWE appeals to and seeks a massive audience. AEW does not, by design.
AEW is the alternative to the broad strokes of WWE, and uses a sprawling, rotating cast to tell more patient, wrestling-centric stories across the board. Many stories are advanced indirectly - as a somewhat recent example, consider the MJF Vs. Bryan Danielson feud. The challenger had to win a series of competitive challenges to earn a shot. As part of this arc, Danielson worked Timothy Thatcher, and with all due respect to a wrestler beloved by fans of the grapplef*ck style as a demigod, if AEW wanted to be number one, to appeal to the biggest possible audience, Tony Khan would not have booked that match.
Part of the AEW Vs. WWE story, that goes under-mentioned too often, is that Khan can't possibly mind being the steadily successful number two passion project. He'd have compromised his booking vision long ago, were that case. You don't win "ratings wars" with Timothy Thatcher. Khan knows this.
That said, AEW has lost some of its own audience for reasons that have little to do with WWE's success or his own bold hardcore fan-friendly approach. AEW can in theory tap into a bigger audience that enjoys pro wrestling first - they threatened to do precisely that in August of 2021 - but haven't done so in some time.
AEW is cold because, frankly, the promotion is not doing a good enough job.
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