With All Elite Wrestling (AEW) continuing to engage their audience through their ‘Road To’ series to hype their upcoming event, Double Or Nothing, it would be understandable if their attentions were solely on their immediate shows.
However, in a recent interview with the New York Post, it becomes abundantly clear that this isn’t the case.
Executive Vice President, Cody Rhodes, would address the unique aspects that AEW aim to deliver in their television show. He believes these factors will help to separate them from their competition.
Cody admitted that he intends to treat their product like live sports, before highlighting that the “core to that is characters, and I think characters beam across your television set or devices in ways perhaps people have forgotten.”
“Wrestling used to have these great enhancements matches, these squash matches where you would see these characters and the things he could do,” Cody said. “He’d tell you what you had at the pay-per-view event and things of that nature.”
He would continue, explaining that “At the core of all wrestling, when it’s done right, is the characters and their connection to the audience. […] It’s really important that the character engage the audience. You don’t just want to be watching a show, you want to be participating.”
AEW USP
AEW isn’t interested in simply recycling old talent either. Their mission plan, according to Cody, is to hire “fresh [talent].”
“To give you an example: We’ve all watched a lot of wrestling where a lot of guys have been recycled and rehashed and reused, and there is always a lot of activation of the legend. I totally get that. I’m not anti it,” he clarified.
“I just think, if you’re starting a company and not many people have been starting a company in wrestling, you start with people they haven’t seen and people who haven’t gotten the opportunity and get to grow up in front of you and balance it out.”
He admitted that “It’s ironic that it’s the ex-WWE guy saying it in me, but obviously we don’t just want to do, ‘He’s ex-WWE, let’s throw him the world and hope he comes hang out with us.’”
AEW clearly want to revitalise the pro wrestling world and aim to deliver a product that listens to its fanbase — something other companies are often loathe to do.
Their next event, Double Or Nothing, takes place on May 25th 2019 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
