All Elite Wrestling is a company that was created in 2019 by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks. What was once an exciting young company with high hopes to take over the wrestling world is now one that is considered to be falling from grace.
In recent weeks, AEW Dynamite’s weekly viewerships have fallen into the 700,000’s. This is a huge fallout from their ratings in 2022, which was around 900,000 live viewers. There are multiple reasons why the once-hot company has now become cold, including bad booking, bad financial decisions, and backstage problems.
However, AEW is still a company with great talent such as Bryan Danielson, Kazuchika Okada, and Kenny Omega. They also have a bright future with Swerve Strickland, Will Ospreay, MJF, and other young stars.
These are 3 ways how AEW can reach its full audience and potentially contend with the WWE.
Replace The AEW Staff
A major thing that AEW needs to revamp is its backstage staff. AEW President and Head of Creative Tony Khan has proven himself to be an incompetent booker and he is the main reason for the decline in viewership and attendance from 2022 to 2024.
AEW desperately needs a booker who has had prior experience in the company, whether that be for WWE, ROH, TNA, or NJPW. For the second biggest company in wrestling, it’s not ideal to have someone who’s never been involved in the business before running it.
They also don’t just have a booking problem, they have a staff problem throughout the company. Their executive Vice Presidents are current wrestlers for the company, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, so they will always favor themselves. Head of Talent Relations Christopher Daniels is also a current active wrestler for AEW, so there will be disparities in that regard as well.
The first step AEW should take in terms of making the product hot again is to replace their current staff with a new one. This would include people who have more experience in the business and don’t have any personal bias towards anyone.
If they decide to take this step, the company will automatically be viewed in a more professional eye. It will also decrease the likelihood of backstage fights which is something that has been a problem for AEW in the past.
Better Storytelling
AEW’s focus ever since the beginning of the company’s foundation was around matches. While that was great for a short period of time, it’s clear that most wrestling fans prefer storylines over in-ring work.
One of the major issues that AEW is criticized for is booking matches that don’t have a story behind them. This was seen in the 5/8 episode of AEW Dynamite in which Jay White faced Rocky Romero and Mariah May faced Harley Cameron. This has been a recurring theme in the company where they don’t build feuds between their wrestlers.
A key step for AEW to level up would be to lay back on matches and go deeper into stories. Notable names such as Christian Cage and Samoa Joe have done this in recent times but besides that, the company needs to book better storytelling for the future.
This will automatically result in more interest in the company, as interesting stories and feuds are the main reasons why people tune into wrestling.
Also Read: Rio Grande do Sul: Proof MMA Is More Than Just Takedowns in the Octagon
Remove Championships
Another major critique that is given towards AEW is that the company has too many championships. Across both AEW and ROH, their sister company, there are a total of 16 championships and 21 champions.
For a roster of their size, this is an unrealistic amount of champions and this number should definitely get reduced.
Too many championships on the shows make each title less significant as it is an indication that they are not very difficult to retrieve. There are many titles across both companies that don’t serve a purpose and can easily be retired. These include the AEW Continental Championship, the ROH World TV Championship, and others.
Removing titles would make the remaining championships more prestigious and would also allow for every title to have its purpose and meaning.
These are just some of the changes AEW should make if they want to get past their cold streak and potentially start competing with WWE once again. It would take a lot more than this to get to that level, but these are some main improvements that could have drastic changes on the product.
About The Author
Shayan Malik has always been an avid fan of sports. He is currently studying sports communication, hoping to take his sports knowledge to the next level. He enjoys writing about combat sports and basketball.
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