5 Big Weaknesses Of AEW That WWE Must Capitalize On

All Elite Wrestling’s honeymoon phase is over as—despite having perhaps the best overall TV product in wrestling—the chinks in the armor of WWE’s new No. 1 competitor are starting to show.

The good news for AEW is that it has consistently outperformed NXT in the viewership department in 2020, establishing itself as the earlier leader in pro wrestling’s new “Wednesday Night War.” The bad news, however, is that AEW Dynamite is still experiencing its fair share of growing pains. For all of the great things AEW has done—like slowly but surely building up stars such as Scorpio Sky, Jungle Boy, Adam Page and Darby Allin—the upstart promotion has also made a lot of mistakes along the way, some of which are already in the process of being remedied but have also provided WWE with the opportunity to to take advantage of its shortcomings.

Initially, AEW’s mistakes were easily forgiven by the notoriously critical pro wrestling fans, but the further away AEW has gotten from its infant stages, the more susceptible it will be to some of the same criticisms WWE has gotten in recent years, when the company has come under fire for overlooking talented stars and producing poor storylines, among other issues, at different times. On that same token, some of AEW’s clear shortcomings also pave the way for WWE—in spite all of its own booking problems—to be able to capitalize on the weaknesses that have developed for the new kid on the block.

Here are five big drawbacks of AEW that WWE must capitalize on as pro wrestling’s battle for fans rages on.

Confusion About Heels And Babyfaces

Prior to AEW’s TV debut last fall, it was reported that the company wouldn’t be utilizing the traditional heel and babyface roles, instead essentially having its stars lean toward one role or the other depending upon the story the company wants to tell at the time.

That’s a fine strategy in theory because the most natural and best TV characters typically do indeed have shades of gray, and in reality, that philosophy has been pretty well-executed by AEW. In fact, that is one of its most endearing qualities because it has created a product that is more rooted in reality. Even though AEW’s fluid heels and babyfaces give the company more flexibility when it comes to its booking, however, critics will point out that it’s sometimes resulted in confusion about whether those stars should be booed or cheered. There are several stars who do babyface-like things when they’re technically a heel (or vice versa), including names like Chris Jericho, Orange Cassidy and The Lucha Brothers, who appear to be villains but go out of their way to try to pop the crowd. In other words, they’re “cool” heels, and cool heels aren’t known for moving the needle.

For all of WWE’s faults, one thing it does do well is draw a definitive line between good and bad. Top heels like Baron Corbin and Seth Rollins don’t pander to the crowd the way that Jericho does at times. Big babyfaces don’t beat down other babyfaces for no reason the way that The Lucha Brothers did before seemingly turning heel by aligning with PAC to form Death Triangle. While AEW should try to differentiate itself from WWE in certain ways, there is a marked difference between trying to create characters with shades of gray and pushing characters in a way that makes the TV audience frustrated by a lack of clear direction.

For now, AEW is having some success by choosing not to book full-fledged heels and babyfaces, but WWE could have a leg up on AEW if the latter flip-flops so much that fans grow frustrated with the constant changes on the babyface/heel alignment. Likewise, some fans will always prefer that classic clear line between good and evil, which WWE typically gives them.

Corny Gimmicks Galore

AEW has a wide array of gimmicks, which are performed by very talented superstars but aren’t exactly clicking with pro wrestling fans.

The list of over-the-top characters in AEW reads about a mile long and includes boring stables like the recently disbanded Nightmare Collective and The Dark Order, rarely seen performers such as The Librarian, popular ones such as Lucha Express or the “alien” Kris Statlander and nonsensical ones like The Butcher, The Blade and The Bunny. Pro wrestling fans know that they’re going to have to suspend their disbelief to some extent every time they watch a wrestling show, but AEW has taken that expectation to the next level with its reliance on a slew of gimmicks that come across as corny, if not downright substandard.

Those types of characters may have worked more consistently in the 1980s and 1990s, but today? Eh, not so much. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule as stars like Luchasaurus and Orange Cassidy—whose gimmicks are totally ridiculous—have a very strong connection with AEW’s fan base. But AEW risks coming across as a B-level shows if it relies too heavily on these campy characters. That’s something WWE should benefit from as most of its performers—aside from the rare act like Bray Wyatt—have characters that aren’t as far-fetched as faux butchers, librarians and aliens.

If AEW wants to truly keep pace with WWE, it will need to shy away from gimmicks like The Dark Order and The Nightmare Collective (Brandi Rhodes pulled the plug on that one already) moving forward. WWE, meanwhile, can capitalize on that shortcoming with quality booking of its few gimmick-based performers like Wyatt or King Corbin as well as a reliance on characters without over-the-top gimmicks.

The Women’s Division

Perhaps the biggest letdown regarding AEW thus far has been its lackluster women’s division, which is dealing with a number of issues: Subpar booking, too many bells and whistles, and a lack of overall star power.

Sure, there are some bright spots in AEW’s women’s division, with stars like Statlander, Nyla Rose, Britt Baker and even Riho showing plenty of promise to develop into household names one day. But AEW’s budding women’s division can’t hold a candle to that of WWE, which is absolutely loaded with talent on Raw, SmackDown and NXT. WWE has noticeably scaled back on its push of the women’s division since WrestleMania 35 last year, but as evidenced at Survivor Series and TLC last year when women’s matched main evented both shows, WWE may be heating back up on its female stars again.

Both WWE’s and AEW’s women’s division are far from perfect, but there’s a lot more to like about WWE’s women’s division, which features more high-profile names—like Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, etc.—and more talent overall. Kenny Omega, who is in charge of creative for the women’s division, has taken exception to complaints about how AEW has booked its female stars thus far, but fans are right to moan and groan about the terrible on-screen portrayal of its female stars, the mundane characters, the poorly written stories and the general lack of TV time.

If WWE has one clear advantage over AEW other than its already built-in fan base, it’s the huge discrepancy between its women’s division and that of AEW. In order to really put the pressure on AEW, WWE should push its women’s division even more strongly than it already does.

A Lack Of Star Power And Over-Reliance On Former WWE Stars

What really prevented Impact Wrestling from ever becoming a viable competitor to WWE is that, roughly a decade ago, it developed a reputation as a place for WWE castoffs.

That was certainly true to an extent as Impact was chock full of former WWE names ranging from Hulk Hogan to Jeff Hardy to Rob Van Dan, among a slew of others. While AEW certainly hasn’t reached that point just yet, the company is already drawing some comparisons—albeit very loose ones—to Impact because of its over-reliance on former WWE stars, including Jericho, Jon Moxley, Jake Hager, PAC, Dustin Rhodes, Cody Rhodes and others. Though it makes sense for AEW to use former WWE stars with national TV exposure as it attempts to build up its audience (and it has, for the most part, done a good job of booking those stars), AEW needs to ensure that it finds that healthy balance between having not enough globally recognizable names and relying too heavily on former WWE stars.

It is and will continue to be a lengthy process for AEW to establish its homegrown talent as household names, but at least right now, it’s clear that AEW has a lack of mainstream star power beyond its former WWE stars, which is a problem that will ideally be fixed over time. Right now, though, AEW has the tough task of developing its top stars like Omega, The Young Bucks or SCU so that they become more recognizable in the general public. Arguably the biggest advantage WWE has over AEW is that it has considerably more major stars, including part-timers like Brock Lesnar, John Cena and Rousey, and full-timers like Lynch, Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan.

In order for WWE to extend the gap between itself and AEW, it needs to make the most out of what is obviously a huge star power advantage over the budding AEW. On the flip side, AEW must create stars who can become the company’s equivalent to the Cenas and Lesnars of the world.

The Overabundance Of Stables

If the lousy booking of the women’s division isn’t the biggest shortcoming of AEW, then its overabundance of lackluster stables is.

The Nightmare Collective. The trio of The Blade, The Butcher and The Bunny. The Dark Order. These three stables highlight some of the biggest problems that have plagued AEW as of all these factions come across as something you would see on an indie show, not a national TV product. While AEW has had some success with The Elite and The Inner Circle, the cons associated with its overabundance of stables—many of which are almost exactly alike—heavily outweigh the pros of having so many groups, most of which are badly booked and far from exciting to watch. You’d be hard-pressed, after all, to remember an episode of AEW Dynamite that didn’t feature some sort of huge “schmoz” involving 10 or more wrestlers, which is proof positive of its over-reliance on factions of three o more stars.

WWE has scaled back on its use of stables in recent years, but it has also had its fair share of successes with the likes of The New Day, The Shield and The Wyatt Family, just to name a few. Even unofficial trios like Roman Reigns and The Usos or Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode have been more entertaining and less ridiculous than what we’ve seen in AEW, where The Dark Order and The Nightmare Collective have largely fallen flat and trios have become the norm. WWE has all the tools in the world to be able to create and push compelling factions, and consistent execution of doing so would give pro wrestling fans even more of a reason to prefer WWE over AEW.

At the very least, staying away from booking official stables altogether—unless there’s a very good reason not to—would be a wise move for WWE at a time when AEW is demonstrating exactly why factions can sometimes be overdone.