After 2 weeks, AEW has 3 clear strengths and 1 big weakness

After just two weeks on TV, All Elite Wrestling already has three clear strengths. But there is one weakness it will need to address.

Despite All Elite Wrestling essentially being born last September at All In, there really has been just two weeks to introduce to the new promotion to the world at large by way of its weekly television show, Dynamite, on TNT. It’s been a success thus far, with the debut episode of Dynamite posting just over 1.4 million in average views in its first week and over one million in Week 2.

Clearly, it will take time to determine just how well AEW can attract and connect with wrestling fans in the longer term. But, even just two episodes in, it’s not hard to see what AEW is doing well while also differentiating itself from the other mainstream promotion that has spent the last two decades dominating pro wrestling in the United States, WWE.

Pushing new talent

While AEW features a number of familiar faces, like Chris Jericho, PAC, Dustin Rhodes, Cody and Jake Hager, the company has done a strong job of also promoting its younger, lesser-known (to the mainstream) talents.

Private Party, for example, pulled off an upset, exciting victory over The Young Bucks in the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament last week. MJF is a centerpiece in The Elite’s feud with Jericho’s stable, The Inner Circle. Inner Circle member Sammy Guevara seems to have strong support of the company behind him and Darby Allin will serve as Jericho’s first challenger for his AEW World Championship on this week’s edition of Dynamite.

In order for AEW to do something new, they need to literally show the fans something new. While there are pro wrestling veterans who have spent time with WWE among the company’s roster, the focus is often frequently on their younger contingent who came aboard after careers in the independent, Mexican and Japanese scenes.

Additionally, with established names like Cody working with Guevara, Jon Moxley with Joey Janela (at June’s Fyter Fest), Dustin teaming with Hangman Page and so on, it creates a bridge from the familiar to the unknown. These de facto endorsements by the higher-profile veterans then legitimizes the entire roster, rather than just serving themselves.

Chris Jericho

While the focus on the relatively-unknown members of AEW’s roster is one of the company’s hallmarks, attracting established mainstream fans requires an anchor with star power, which is just what AEW has in Chris Jericho. There may be no more versatile pro wrestler in the world at the moment and Jericho’s penchant for reinvention, creating cult moments out of seemingly nowhere and connecting with crowds has been a major boon for AEW thus far.

As already mentioned, Jericho is the head of the heel stable The Inner Circle, bent both on dominating AEW and dismantling The Elite. Last Wednesday, he introduced his crew properly, putting over each member — Guevara, Santana and Ortiz and Hager — in his typically entertaining style. This accomplishes the goal set out above (pushing new talent) while further cementing that Jericho, the company’s first champion, is also the big fish in the big pond.

This is also a Jericho unleashed, unencumbered by scripts, allowing him to show off his natural ability to tell stories with both his words and his actions. Jericho can draw in new fans, while everything else AEW does helps keep them there. It’s similar with Moxley, to be sure, but there’s a reason why Jericho was tapped to be the inaugural champion. Just a clever turn of phrase becomes viral in Jericho’s hands.

Variety

The goal of AEW since the beginning has been to showcase a variety of pro wrestling styles, in the “pro wrestling is a buffet/pro wrestling is for everybody” vein. And not only have they accomplished that thus far, it is clearly one of the company’s biggest strengths.

Unlike WWE, who will recruit and sign wrestlers from various, disparate backgrounds and then try to mold them into performing in the company style, AEW is far less homogenous by design. While The Young Bucks are the top tag team among The Elite, that does not require every team in the division to mimic their style. Similarly, Cody’s old-school, bell-to-bell storytelling wrestling isn’t required out of everyone in order to put on what AEW deems a “good” match.

Signing wrestlers for the great work they’ve done over the course of their careers and then having them do something entirely different doesn’t make much sense. While it’s great for wrestlers to show off their versatility and variety of skills, everyone bringing something different to the table, things that are uniquely “them” is how AEW stands out. This is a place where a fan can get lucha libre, Japanese strong-style, hardcore (or hardcore-adjacent), Joshi, indie, high-flying and mat technicality all in one show, all the time.

There is, though, one area in which AEW could be doing a better job:

The women’s division

Unlike a solid percentage of the men’s competitors in AEW, the women’s division doesn’t have the same number of well-known names. Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes have recognition, but as of now there isn’t a Jericho-level type among them. This is a challenge, to be sure, but one that AEW can face mainly by promoting and featuring their women’s wrestlers on weekly television.

But, through two weeks, there have been only two women’s matches — Riho facing Nyla Rose for the AEW Women’s Championship (Riho won) and the team of Riho and Britt Baker taking on Bea Priestley and Emi Sakura — plus a third (Baker and Allie versus Priestley and Penelope Ford) on AEW Dark.

It’s obvious that Joshi is a priority in the women’s division, based on the pay-per-view events over the past year and Riho being AEW Women’s Champion. But Riho and Sakura, who made her Dynamite debut last Wednesday, have been the only Japanese female talent featured. Baker, too, is one of the division’s aces and her feud with Priestley looks to be picking up steam.

However, AEW’s women’s roster is filled with wrestlers who fans are less familiar with and it is not getting the same treatment as some of their lesser-known male counterparts. More matches, featuring more women, is a way to turn this around. In a two-hour show, there could and should be more than one women’s match, particularly at a time when the division is trying to get established among the fanbase.

So yes, AEW is doing a lot of things right in order to position itself as both an alternative to WWE (in particular) and as a top-tier promotion in the world of professional wrestling. It’s not all perfect, the women’s division’s presence thus far as one example.

But at just two weeks in, AEW’s plusses are outweighing its drawbacks. And there will always be room for improvement, because without improvement there can be no growth. As long as the company continues to understand that fact, this can certainly prove itself as pro wrestling that is truly for everyone.