10 Reasons You Should Be Watching AEW Right Now

If you haven't been paying attention, AEW has potential, and a large enough budget to kickstart a new era of mainstream professional wrestling.

CM Punk AEW September 2021
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CM Punk AEW PR

CM Punk AEW September 2021

It took a long time for All Elite Wrestling to find its direction and voice. But ever since All Out, the promotion’s most recent PPV event, it’s safe to say that AEW is no longer an experiment. The company has talent, potential, and a large enough budget to kickstart a new era of mainstream professional wrestling—one that, for the first time in a long time, would not be completely beholden to Vince McMahon and the WWE.

Yes, there have been missteps along the way. But that’s also because it’s been so long since anyone in the business attempted to build something from scratch on this scale and with this scope. And it’s also because AEW has this need to be a one-stop shop for every type of wrestling fan—the ones who like slow deliberate offense, and the ones who like multiple dramatic high spots, and the ones who like glass-ridden death matches. 

That can sometimes make a show feel like chaos. But it also gives AEW a sense of earnestness and unpredictability—the life blood of an industry that revels in that blurriness between work and shoot.

Here are 10 reasons why you should be watching AEW right now. 

1. CM Punk Returns

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Let’s start with the big hires. AEW is the only place where you can watch CM Punk doing what he does best—cutting promos, wrestling, and mentoring the young talent on the roster. That the former WWE star is even in a wrestling ring, after everything his former employers put him through, is pretty huge. And his match at All Out against Darby Allin shows that he hasn’t lost a step. Punk worked a narratively sound, well-paced match that elevated his opponent and put him over as a seasoned veteran, who knows how to pick his spots and capitalize on weakness.

2. Adam Cole, Bay Bay

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Also new to AEW is Adam Cole, the former Ring of Honor Champion and former WWE NXT Champion. The man is, with no exaggeration, a generational talent (check out his trilogy of matches against Johnny Gargano in 2019)—the second coming of Shawn Michaels if there ever was one. His first in-ring AEW match is against “The Elite Hunter” Frankie Kazarian on AEW Rampage, on Wednesday, September 15.

3. Hello, Bryan Danielson

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The end of All Out had a double surprise. First Adam Cole came out. And then, to an unbelievable, deafening cheer, Bryan Danielson came out. The American Dragon and leader of WWE’s Yes Movement is the babyface to Adam Cole’s heel. From being told he’ll never wrestle again to regaining the WWE Championship to now signing with AEW, the dream matches that are now possible—Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson, to name one—is must-see television.

4. Unlikely Underdogs

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Aside from the big name signees, there is also some new talent to watch out for. There’s Darby Allin, currently being managed by Sting (yes, the WCW legend is also in AEW) who has tons of potential. There’s Sammy Guevara, the young gun in Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle. And then there’s Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy (Luke Perry’s son!), who is probably the most pure babyface on the roster. These guys don’t have the technical polish of the WWE Performance Center trainees, but they have a whole lot of heart, and it’s fun to watch them grow and develop in real time.

5. The Biggest @$$#@!& in Professional Wrestling

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Wrestling fans love an antihero—the type of villain that gets cheered, because he or she subsists on sheer magnetism and charisma. But there’s another type of heel, who enrages on sight and is an unmitigated douchebag—an unlikable, untrustworthy, unironic asshole. That heel is Maxwell Jacob Friedman, also known as MJF, who is the best working heel in professional wrestling today.

It’s not a matter of whether this guy will become a world champion at some point; it’s a matter of when. He’s got the quick wit to piss off an audience, for real, and he’s only 25 years old, which means that if he plays it smart, he’s got a long career ahead of him. Watching MJF roast a smark audience that knows he’s playing a character, but still hates him regardless, is a sight to behold.

6. Creative Freedom

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When Jon Moxley (formerly Dean Ambrose) left WWE for AEW, his biggest gripe with WWE was how it stifled his creativity. Essentially, WWE would give him a storyline and give him lines; his personal input was extremely limited. And traditionally, that’s not the way professional wrestling is supposed to work. Wrestlers are supposed to determine their own destinies—they’re supposed to go out in front of the crowd and get themselves over. They do this by speaking from the heart, not repeating the lines of a screenwriter.

For better and for worse, the wrestlers on AEW are themselves, and what you see from them is largely self-generated and self-promoted. Again, it can be messy to watch. But there’s a real sense of authenticity and forward momentum to it—everyone acts differently, wrestles differently, and looks differently. And if they get themselves over with the audience, it’s on them.

7. Developing Women's Division

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The AEW women’s division has lagged, developmentally, behind the men’s division. But it has slowly coalesced around a few big names: Tay Conti, Kris Statlander, Nyla Rose, Serena Deeb, and Hikaru Shida (the longest reigning AEW Women’s Champion) all stand out. But Dr. Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa really put the division on the map with their Unsanctioned Lights Out Match on March 18. Brutal and bloody, it set a high bar for what the women in AEW are capable of.

8. Non-PG Product

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For years, in direct opposition to the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression Era of years past, WWE has been rated PG; its shows and products are intended as family entertainment. And although that’s helped the company appeal to advertisers and has broadened their fanbase, it’s also robbed the wrestlers of one of their most important storytelling devices: blood. Not gratuitous blood, but a little bit of red to show some damage after a 30-minute match where, allegedly, two grown adults are punching each other in the face.

Part of AEW’s growing pains has been knowing when to use ultraviolence judiciously—to mete it out in small doses, so the audience doesn’t become desensitized to it. But for adults in the AEW audience, it’s refreshing to be treated like one.

9. Unbelievable Lucha Stunts

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If you’re in WWE and you’re a luchador who’s not named Rey Mysterio (truly, Rey is the exception that proves the rule), then you are not going to be taken seriously by the company brass. You will reach no higher than the mid-card, if that. And at worse, you’ll be treated as a faceless jobber. Before you know it, you’ll be squashed into a Lucha House Party tag team, losing handicap matches wondering what the hell happened.

In AEW, luchadors are respected, and high-flying is more the rule than the exception. Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix, also known as The Lucha Brothers, are the AEW Tag Team Champions, currently in their first reign. And the biggest tag team in wrestling today, the Young Bucks, are unbelievably athletic and acrobatic, and perform daredevil moves that are unmatched by their contemporaries. It’s professional wrestling as theater; less about the end result, and more about the journey getting there.

10. Future Surprises

Sasha Banks

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