5 Reasons Why AEW Is Going To Be A Successful Company For Years To Come
May 25, 2019, proved to be a historic day within the world of professional wrestling. This was, of course, rooted in All Elite Wrestling making its official broadcast debut with its Double Or Nothing live event at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was not only the first PG-14 wrestling pay-per-view in a decade, yet also considered to be the first major non-WWE wrestling pay-per-view from a U.S. based company — putting aside Ring Of Honor's involvement in the recent G1 Supercard at New York's Madison Square Garden — in a long, long time.
While information about the viewership of Double Or Nothing has not yet gone public, all signs point to the event being a success both critically and commercially. Ultimately, there leaves little question as to whether or not there is room for a major competitor to WWE in the "sports entertainment" market, and whether there is an audience for the said marketplace. After watching last night's event — including its Buy In pre-show — I am convinced that AEW is here to stay on a long-term basis, and below and on the following slides are reasons as to why that is the case.
#1 The event had a lot of surprises
When I say that the event had "a lot of surprises," this does not just mean that fans were excited about unannounced walk-ons. This more so brings attention to the fact people were not sure of what was going to happen at the event. Sure, Jon Moxley "could" be signing to AEW, but where were all of the sightings of him prior to his appearing on-camera?
Similarly, Bret Hart appeared on the WWE Network last month as part of a WWE Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. Whoever thought that he would be appearing as part of an AEW event and possibly willing to burn a bridge with WWE? The same question goes for Diamond Dallas Page, who had a quick walk-on appearance during the match between Cody and Dustin Rhodes.
While Brock Lesnar's cameo at last week's Money In The Bank pay-per-view surprised just about everyone — including talent within the match — when someone is backstage for a WWE surprise appearance, generally it is on the Internet. This did not happen with Double Or Nothing, or at least it did not occur within any of the websites or podcasts I regularly source to keep up on things. In turn, AEW clearly has a well-run backstage, doing away with the old "telephone, telegraph, tell-a-wrestler" stereotype.