Evan Luebbe

FTR are the latest former members of the WWE roster to come over to AEW and make an immediate name for themselves (we all know what that name could stand for). They are obviously looking to become a more edgy tag team, and Tony Khan will likely give them the creative freedom they are looking for. They began their AEW careers by getting a win over The Butcher & The Blade. After the match, they teased an eventual showdown with The Young Bucks.

Next, AEW proceeded to showcase the skill of its women’s division, which is going strong, even without arguably its most “over” woman in Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. She is nursing an injury and simultaneously appearing every week on Dynamite. She has similarly used what Chris Jericho did in WCW in 1998 when he portrayed himself as a role model. She’s put her own spin on the concept.

The Inner Circle (Jake Hager, Santana and Ortiz) demolished Best Friends & Orange Cassidy with the assistance of Chris Jericho and his bat which he hilariously named Floyd for some reason, along with a 20-pound sack of oranges.

Matt Hardy endorsed Sammy Guevara as the future of AEW, which he most likely is because he’s a homegrown talent who has improved significantly over the last 8 or 9 months since Dynamite began.

Brian Cage is an absolute animal, and this is a very creative way to include Taz in the production of Dynamite each week. His legendary trash-talk fits in very nicely with Cage’s no-nonsense approach to wrestling. Jon Moxley is also the perfect man for them to work with because he can sell everything effectively and do most of the heavy lifting around promo work.

Cody is legitimately a great leader in AEW. He is directly addressing the one area in which he has been heavily critiqued throughout his career: in-ring, and that has to be respected. In terms of his persona, I would liken him to AEW’s version of Triple H because a lot of their attributes are the same. They are both executives for their respective companies, they both frequently have super elaborate entrances, and they both are accompanied to the ring by family members. Cody is now rebooting a concept pioneered by Vince McMahon and John Cena with the WWE United States Championship open challenge. One slight difference is that Cody is putting his TNT Championship on the line each week with the pure intention of improving his in-ring skill.

Surely Cena had this same intention throughout his entire career, but he never stated it so directly. Cody has a quality where he is so peacefully detached from the outcome of actually getting better and rather just enjoying the avenues his life and career are taking him down. As a byproduct, he is naturally guided down a lifepath in which he naturally achieves his goals.

As far as the actual match itself this past week between Cody and Marq Quen goes, I had no idea Quen was that good. He did about 8 moves during the match that were flat out ridiculous, and this was all with a bad ankle. This is a great way for AEW to highlight the talent of some of their lesser-known stars, by having them work with a top-level name like Cody. He will look to elevate Jake Hager at Fyter Fest.

One thing that has me appreciating Dynamite is that everyone cooperates to get as many wrestlers as possible TV time so not one second of the two hours is wasted.

There were 2 matches at AEW Double or Nothing that really stood out from the rest – everything else was fully anticipated to happen. Those 2 matches were:

1. The brand-new, and very innovative, Stadium Stampede match between The Inner Circle and The Elite (which The Elite won with Kenny Omega’s One Winged Angel on Sammy Guevara from about 15 feet in the air); and
2. Hikaru Shida winning the AEW Women’s World Title from Nyla Rose.

It makes sense for Shida to take hold of the Women’s World Title for a couple reasons. First of all, she is much more experienced than Rose, who is only six years into her career. Rose will get better. If she is already this good, imagine what she could be in 4 or 5 years. It theoretically makes perfect sense to make someone who is that big and dominant over everyone else champion pretty early in the company’s life. She is just not quite experienced enough to set the pace for the entire women’s division this early in her career. Shida on the other hand, has been wrestling for 12 years and is much closer to her ceiling. That said, she will still probably get better considering she is only 32 years old.

The Stadium Stampede match featured everything fans could possibly want out of a brand-new concept. The company is very lucky that it’s owner also happens to be a co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. It featured many very creative wrinkles:

• Matt Hardy in the pool switching around his character and which incarnation of Matt Hardy he was about 8 times
• Nick Jackson driving white streaks over Jericho

And, “Hangman” Adam Page riding a horse through the Stadium and engaging in a bar fight with Jake Hager.

While WWE appears to be stifling its audience to a certain degree with so much talent it’s almost impossible for the company to manage all of them. AEW is doing the exact opposite – to its own benefit -and also the benefit of the company’s employees.

AEW produces one weekly television show in Dynamite and all employees use a collaborative approach to make it the best show possible every week. It’s one two-hour show. While it’s not a lot of content, it’s still plenty of content to chew on for a week. While AEW may not have quite as many employees as WWE, the employees they do have are deeply committed and invested in the success of the company.

Just look at Cody, getting a neck tattoo to show how committed he is to this endeavor and seeing it through (I’m just speculating – I really don’t know exactly why he got it, but I have a feeling it will grow on wrestling fans as time goes on). Another example is commentator Jim Ross, who described on AEW’s Unrestricted podcast on the company’s YouTube channel how he is the happiest he has been working in the wrestling industry in about 20 years. It creates a family atmosphere when everyone works toward the same goal.

The lighter travel schedule for the AEW staff absolutely supports the long-term success of the company and likely the health of wrestlers also. Every employee benefits from this – particularly the talent who performs in the ring. They can take valuable time to recharge their “proverbial” (as JR would say) batteries every week rather than trying to run their bodies into the ground. Not just the talent, but also the ring announcers and commentators get a break each week.

It is extremely impressive to see just how much the company has evolved in a rather short amount of time, and fans should look forward to the company’s next stage of evolution. They have an old-school approach and committed employees who are willing to get their hands dirty. All AEW employees, executives, and people at the top or bottom of the corporate ladder see each other on the same level as human beings. There is no real hierarchy, which fosters a very collaborative work environment. No one is the boss per se – instead everyone has an entrepreneurial attitude.

This attitude is very similar at many successful companies. Google is a prime example.

The presence of AEW is bringing WWE’s primary issues to light. None of it is Triple H’s fault even though he is the man who got demoted. AEW provides a mainstream alternative to the formulaic product WWE provides that is very teamwork-oriented and everyone affiliated with AEW is committed to presenting the best possible product each week.

The primary issue with WWE right now is that they are recruiting too much talent for Vince McMahon to employ the centralized, micromanaging strategies he prefers. NXT used to permeate the field of an attractive alternative to WWE when it was on the WWE Network, but it’s been replaced by AEW. The new mindset Tony Kahn has introduced serves as a breath of fresh air to the wrestling world.