WWE Vs AEW - The New Wrestling War

This is less plausible; in spite of the sentimental poetry of AEW’s new broadcast home, and Cody’s Crockett-adjacent philosophy, that lapsed southern audience was drawn to the good old boy babyfaces, the salt of the earth, the legitimate tough guys: Dusty Rhodes, the Von Erichs, Harley Race. The complexion of the AEW roster is very much removed from those archetypes. Kenny Omega is purposefully affected in his Best Bout Machine guise. The Young Bucks remain unfairly stigmatised in many circles as kayfabe-flaunting brats. They are the top stars, Chris Jericho excepted: elsewhere, the broader make-up of the midcard—the transgender Nyla Rose and the openly gay Sonny Kiss, most notably—may struggle, at best, to connect to that disconnected audience.

As an example, the Republican component of WCW’s old home state of Georgia, the base of Turner’s operations, has commanded all branches of the United States government since the mid-2000s. Modern wrestling fans skew liberal. Much of that lapsed audience does not, and it is the much to which AEW aspires.

Might AEW, and its socially and stylistically diverse roster, risk fracturing the appeal of wrestling across an already fractured cultural base? The same audience that may be drawn to Nick Aldis and Cody’s exquisitely old school NWA World Heavyweight Title match at ALL IN will almost certainly be repelled by the brand’s more comedic and postmodern leanings. September 1, 2018’s mega-event was both a dream and a nightmare for the emblematic Jim Cornette. AEW’s key selling point—its eclectic contrast to WWE’s rigid formula—may also unravel it.

CONT'D...(4 of 5)