WWE and AEW are rolling: Are we living the best case scenario for wrestling fans?

The crowd in St. Louis for AEW Dynasty this past weekend was on fire. They were loud all night. They enhanced the action. They offered a number of chants: some of the typical ones, and some that were more creative. “Please be careful” during the tag team ladder match was my personal favorite.

More relevant to this topic, the Dynasty show was filed with the classic “A-E-DUB” chants. Sprinkled in with some “fight forever” and some “holy (bleep)” chants, it sounded like the crowd from the early days. It sounded like the new excitement that surrounded the first AEW shows, the awe at what was happening in the ring.

Back when AEW was establishing itself, there was a strong sense of the shared experience to make it a success. Fans were excited to see some amazing in-ring matches, and AEW was delivering something different.

The last couple months or so have provided an embarrassment of riches for wrestling fans who enjoy a variety of programming. For example, I think there are lots of fans who watch and enjoy WWE, understanding what those shows have to offer, and then also watch and enjoy AEW. They might even dabble in some New Japan Pro Wrestling, some Ring of Honor, or some other combination of smaller promotions and indie shows.

In each case, presuming that one is in the business of watching pro wrestling to enjoy themselves, the fun of watching different companies with different styles and different talent is that you can enjoy the strengths that each has to offer.

I watch WWE and AEW. My favorite experience watching both companies is when they offer two high-quality products that are distinct from one another. I think we are living in that world right now.

Thanks for reading this free preview - paid subscribers receive these weekly essays in their inbox each Wednesday morning. Click below to subscribe or upgrade your subscription.

WWE does the spectacle. The huge show. The press conferences. The stars appearing on talk shows and doing book tours. It’s TV PG, although Triple H seems interested in bringing back some of the blood that has mostly been confined to AEW in recent years.

Even so, WWE is generally safe for kids, wearing their John Cena gear from head to toe, with the return of juicing and the Rock’s recent behavior and language on cable television notwithstanding.

WWE offers the polished production, and they have the stage to deliver huge moments like the series of surprise appearances during this year’s Wrestlemania. With Triple H at the reigns, they are delivering on those opportunities in a big way.

AEW is the alternative. It’s a plenty big company that is well established now, five years later. But they still offer a bit of that gritty side that won people over in the first place. AEW is TV 14. It has the edgy stories and the swear words. To my dismay personally, it has most of the bloody matches. It certainly has the bloodiest matches and segments.

It has the glass spots. It has the thumb tacks. It has the barbed wire. And it has biting. So much biting.

AEW offers the dream matches, even if we’ve reached the point of diminishing returns with that concept. It offers the best of the best with in-ring action, with long matches that often turn into classics.

Whether it’s intentional or not on the part of the people in charge, I feel like we’re watching both WWE and AEW in a pretty good groove right now. WWE is enjoying the momentum of a great Wrestlemania to set up some big things ahead, teasing the return of the Rock while riding the coattails of the ultimate baby face in Cody Rhodes. It’s a spectacle, in the best sense of the word.

Meanwhile, AEW seems to be leaning into the best that it has to offer with in-ring action. A couple of questionable jabs at WWE in recent weeks notwithstanding, the presentation seems to be leaning into the unique identify that AEW can offer as something different.

I mean, the main even this week on Dynamite had Will Ospreay versus Claudio Castignoli. It was great. And that was just a free match on TV before a classic pay-per-view.

I’m enjoying this week-to-week experience as a fan. I found Wrestlemania quite entertaining. That weekend’s shows delivered big moments for fan favorites like Sami Zayn and Bayley. There were big entrances and fireworks. The Rock appeared on both nights, and he was joined by some other legends in a wild main even on Sunday night.

The entire weekend built to a moment that will stand up as one of the biggest in company history. Cody Rhodes has the fans behind him in a way that will become a shorthand for popular baby faces in years to come. You know, people will say, “so and so is over, but not like Cody,” or, “it’s crazy how over so and so is, it’s like Cody!”

Cody Rhodes also had a great run as a top baby face in AEW. He had the crowd behind him and cut outstanding promos. But it wasn’t like this. His run in WWE shows the difference. It’s not better or worse, but it is a larger scale. The AEW champion isn’t going to be on the Today Show anytime soon.

That’s OK, by the way. It provides useful context for how WWE can exist and thrive, building a big story to a big moment that only they can deliver.

I was really looking forward to AEW Dynasty this past weekend. The build leading up to it was, in many ways, the dream of what AEW could become when it was founded a number of years ago.

This show was scheduled within one month of that huge Wrestlemania. There might have been a temptation to try to match that, impossible though that task would be. AEW might have been inclined to attempt a WWE-esque presentation or show.

With an episode of Dynamite in the build to Dynasty that included multiple digs at WWE, it was reasonable to worry if they were veering back off the path that had been serving it well lately; would they still stay the course on the recent shows that have felt true to AEW’s identity?

(Instead of bleep, I’m going to borrow the old trick from the Good Place to avoid cursing in the paragraphs below).

Two matches from Sunday night’s Dynasty show had the crowd chanting wildly before the action had even started.

Okada and PAC stared each other down to open the show.

“Holy shirt!” “Holy shirt!” “Holy shirt!”

Later, it was Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson in what was billed as a dream match by in-ring announcer Justin Roberts. Before they had even locked up, the crowd was chanting once again.

“Holy shirt!” “Holy shirt!” “Holy shirt!”

That level of excitement and buzz generated by the mere idea of a match is central to how AEW built itself up and built a loyal fan base.

Cody Rhodes brought pyro back when he was with AEW. Not single-handedly, mind you. But he clearly had a lot to do with it.

Now Cody is in WWE, where they can deliver production value and pyro on another level.

That’s just one detail that provides context for a fascinating dynamic as I write this. In so many ways with his current run, Cody Rhodes embodies exactly what makes WWE special. He’s doing it within five years of serving as a founding member of AEW.

We should all be chanting, “thank you, Cody.”

What are we headed for with major shows for AEW and WWE this coming summer? Are we going to get Cody Rhodes versus the Rock within the same timeframe as Will Ospreay main-eventing All In at Wembley Stadium? If we are, could we witness two more classic moments from each company, thriving and delivering on what they can offer fans?

I think we might be headed in exactly that direction. And I think it’s pretty great.