The AEW “Problem” Isn’t Really a Problem.
It’s no secret that All Elite Wrestling has been setting the wrestling world on fire since it’s inception in 2019. That’s a whole entire story in itself, but to those who endured years and years of WWE, it’s totally a breath of fresh air. With being such a hot promotion and an alternative to the stale completion, we’ve seen the signing of so many BIG names to AEW. CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Malaki Black, Ruby Soho, Adam Cole, Keith Lee… the list goes on. Though that may be a dream roster to some, a lot of people call the signings of all these wrestlers a “problem”.
To an extent, I can see why people would think that, but if you sit back and take a look, this “problem” is probably AEW’s greatest strength. Not necessarily for the obvious All-Star roster, but for reasons entirely different.
Let’s look at WWE, not to trash talk them, but for comparison’s sake. WWE tends to put the success of the company on one or two wrestler’s shoulders. Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesner. The trend seems to be that if the company is in some sort of bind, they’ll call Brock Lesner’s number and throw a title around his waist. For the WWE faithful, that’s a great thing. They love seeing Brock destroy people. And to his credit, he does a great job. However, to those fans looking for something different, for the talent sitting in the back that have scratched and clawed their way to the top… Just to have that all thrown out the window to satiate Vince’s love with the same ol’ formula, it becomes tiring. What happens if Brock, Roman, Ronda, Flair and Becky all walk out on the company for whatever reason? Where does Vince go from there?
We all may remember when WWE went and signed all these guys from the Indies like Seth Rollins
Back to AEW.
Though they totally have their “top guys” (and girls), there is never a reliance on just one or two wrestlers. Even with a smaller roster at the start, they’ve done a great job rotating talent. We’ve seen Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Hangman Paige all get their time in the spotlight. During the Covid Era, we’ve seen the meteoric rise of younger, lesser known talent. Darby Allen, Anna Jay, Orange Cassidy, Hook… the list goes on. That’s just a testament to how well Tony Khan and everyone in their backstage rolls has done with this company.
So here’s how the crazy amounts of signings benefit the growth of All Elite Wrestling.
Contrary to belief, wrestlers are human beings… Yeah, who would’ve thought?! Fatigue and injury are a huge factor in a wrestler’s longevity. Essentially, you have this “revolving door” of talent… Men and women who can carry any given company on their own. This plays into the fact that AEW does not rest the success of their company on one person. Maybe fans want to see Kenny Omega, but when he’s out with an injury, no one is losing sleep when you have Adam Cole, Sting, Bryan Danielson, Keith Lee, etc. In-turn, this allows Kenny to stay away for as long as possible to allow himself to take care of his injury and properly heal, as opposed to rushing back and ruining his future. What this also does is allow the fans to miss Kenny, so that when he does make his return, the “pop” will be bigger than ever. Not having talent on TV every single week (for whatever the reason may be) makes AEW’s top notch, long term story telling so much easier to execute.
Another great example of a company having a CRAZY amount of talent that only benefits them is New Japan Pro Wrestling. If you don’t watch NJPW, you may not know many of their wrestlers, but anyone who’s up on it understands how much talent they have on their roster. Despite that, mostly everyone gets their shine. Especially in their tournaments. You have guys who may not be the “top guy” at the moment, going toe-to-toe with guys like Okada and Naito, in-turn, making them just as relevant as the guys on top.
With All Elite Wrestling hitting it out of the park 9 times out of 10, it almost seems like people are always looking for any reason to knock the company. Yeah, they’re not perfect, but that’s also subjective. At the end of the day, this “bloated” roster is definitely something that benefits AEW more than it hurts them. Especially with the way they pace things compared to WWE.
Just a quick disclaimer… This was written before the ROH acquisition and the plague of injuries that has struck AEW recently. Both actually further my point about the “bloated” roster. Being that a lot of TOP guys are injured, that allows other talent to not only get some spotlight, but allow the injured wrestlers to take their time and properly heal. So at the end of the day, that “problem” that people keep pointing out isn’t really a problem in the grand scheme of things.