When I was a kid, I preferred WWF to WCW. There are a number of factors that came into play. WWF was more abundant and accessible. I had satellite TV so caught all their shows and PPVs. As I recall, WCW was restricted to a highlights type show on ITV. That might not be correct, my younger self may have just lacked the smarts to find the rest of its output. 

Regardless, what I saw of them made me think WWF was the real thing and WCW was a cheap ripoff. This feeling of it being a supermarket own brand compared to the real thing came down to how it looked. That’s not to say I liked nothing about WCW and I certainly admired some of their wrestlers. If I’m honest, the main distinction came from a place of snobbery. WCW felt cheap. The Fed had better production values. 

Quite why or how this facet won me over is a mystery because Kendo Nagasaki was my favourite wrestler growing up and the final product on World of Sport was several notches below the American counterparts. 

Later on, Hulk Hogan switching companies had zero bearing. If anything, it underlined how WWF was the superior product. I had never cheered on Hogan and every PPV I silently wished Hulkamania would die before my eyes. The promise of it living forever irked me. The only time Hogan impressed me in the ring was when he played Thunderlips in Rocky III. 

Not that I was happy with how WCW was represented during the Invasion storyline. I understood the home team was always going to win but I wanted to see a fair fight. Just as if my favourite DC characters went to war with Marvel, I’d want to see Batman try and pin down Spider-Man, Superman respond to a Hulk smash. We didn’t get a true WCW face The Fed. The vortex it created highlights that even as number two, WCW had genuine value. 

Even with my biases and slanted perception, I felt bad for WCW. 

But Vince McMahon has a trait all the best salesmen in the world possess: don’t ask the consumer what they want, just convince them their product is what you need. 

The WWF (and of course, now WWE) has its own, very distinct and formulaic, style. For the majority of Vince’s rule, he stayed true to his vision and it undoubtedly worked — in a business sense. It isn’t a style that cares so much about the actual wrestling. At least not on a weekly basis. When I was younger, sometimes I did prefer the speaking segments and only really appreciated the in ring performances when it was PPV time. That was Vince working his magic on two fronts. He wasn’t giving away stellar matches for free. You needed to pay for the PPV to see genuine classics (which wasn’t a cost bearing exercise in the UK back then). The fact the weekly shows were a step below only elevated those PPV bouts even more. And it led to the second part of the method: the focus was primarily on the characters. 

There’s a reason that Shawn Michaels putting Marty Jannetty through the barbershop window was shocking then and still iconic today. 

The emergence of the nWo caused McMahon to fight fire with fire and deviate to a more adult orientated product. Once the war was over, he eventually returned to the safer PG lands, with cartoonish characters and bland weekly shows. 

And he made even more money.

At its very core, WWE is the home of unoriginal copy cat production. Its innate property is producing something that has already been tried and tested elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, it often takes the original idea, and as The Rock would say, shines it up real nice. The majority of the time—especially in the modern era—it just creates a soulless copy. Even Cody Rhodes (who has been great since his return to the company) felt the need to steal a Christian Cage scene. 

We have all heard Oscar Wilde quoted as saying: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Well, he did say that, but it’s an incomplete sentence. He actually said: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

This is where WWE’s first real rival for decades comes in. AEW has rejuvenated the industry and has tried things outside of the WWE wheelhouse.

And measured side-by-side, the things that AEW does well are great compared to the knockoff Fed version. 

But presentation and perception go a long way. It makes me wonder: if I were a kid now, would WWE’s more polished production and ease of Netflix access win me over?

I think there’s a high chance it would. It took a long time for my despair with The Fed to set in. The younger a person is, the more malleable and open to suggestion they are. Being told WWE is the Grade A product, over and over again, is going to make people believe it without an objective inspection. 

Triple H—and TKO— can run the same template that Vince did before them and expect similar results in terms of return. And in terms of dwindling weekly wrestling performances. 

The Streaming Era isn’t a traditional model. So there are parts of the template that will come under challenge. The Netflix deal is great for WWE. The increased international exposure alone is something that will lead to a further expansion of income streams. Paul Heyman is right to say WWE is mainstream again. Having RAW on Netflix every Monday solidifies this. 

AEW also has an ace in this regard. The MAX deal has been met with some derision on X. The AEW haters see it as an insignificant bonus to its output. Claiming if viewing figures were that good, Tony Khan would be mentioning them. There is probably some truth in that last point. The part they’re missing is AEW content on a prestigious streaming service is exposure money can’t buy. The thing is, they didn’t need to buy it: they were paid for the privilege. 

When MAX is integrated into Sky and Now TV in the UK next year, it appears AEW will follow. The current ITV deal expires as MAX arrives in Britain. Being on free-to-air offers more eyes, but ITV hasn’t been a good home for AEW. Most of the UK fans watch via Triller. Moving exclusively to Sky may place it behind a paywall but it should get a bigger push from the broadcaster. It was a home that did WWE no harm. The live viewing figures for RAW at 1am on Sky Sports exceeded free-to-air wrestling shows at times.  

Even with any potential boost, AEW seems to be on a hiding to nothing when it comes to wider appeal and objective approval. It may just be a matter of time. The Attitude Era found an audience because kids who’d enjoyed cartoon wrestling were older and fancied something edgier. The PG fans will become rebellious teenagers. There might be an audience in waiting. 

Perception also comes with taste. It’s like cola. CM Punk seemingly prefers Pepsi. I’m a Coca-Cola guy. One was the taste of a new generation. In wrestling terms, AEW is the Pepsi and will never win over Coke diehards. I didn’t write that analogy for the incoming pun, but Pepsi made headway with Pepsi Max. Now we have AEW on MAX. It’s the same flavour but its constitutional elements are different. 

Tony Khan has reinvigorated professional wrestling. The industry was drab—apocalyptic in feel—when it was just The Fed unchallenged. 

The appearance of AEW made WWE up its game. The problem is, WWE fans over-hype things in The Fed and have a different set of rules for what is a weak moment when it comes to AEW. 

AEW in turn doesn’t get the credit—or highlight enough—what it does better than WWE and it feels, because of the endless tirade of criticism, can be prone to pivot multiple times with stories to try and win plaudits. 

This method will never work. Tony Khan needs to have faith and stick to his guns. Hangman Adam Page’s journey to his first world title was over a long period. A time when the anti-AEW hate was barely registering. Imagine if that same set of circumstances was being played out in today’s environment. There’s no chance the story would have been given time to breathe and grow. 

WWE’s Bloodline saga has been a resounding success. It didn’t start so hot. But WWE has a history of being stubborn (often to a fault) and seeing the original plan to its conclusion. 

AEW started out as “the alternative”. It should become inward looking again. Ignore the noise. Ignore any free agents The Fed creates. Hard sell its multiple five star matches. 

For some, we’re past the point to be impartial and nothing the rival company does will get the appropriate level of appreciation from opposing fans. Hopefully for the rest, they can take a minute to realise wrestling is like music. Don’t get angry if the latest jazz album doesn’t play like Metallica. You don’t like jazz. You need to listen to heavy metal and rock albums. 

Don’t buy a dog and expect it to meow

Don’t watch entertainment and expect sports. 

Don’t watch WWE and expect AEW.