How AEW Is Proved to be a Worthy Alternative to WWE in Just One Year

Cody Rhodes s tood bloodied atop a 20-foot high steel cage, steadied his nerves and attempted a foolhardy moonsault — in laymen terms, a backflip splash — onto his waiting opponent. AEW has not only emerged as a rival to the decades-long dominance of sports-entertainment power WWE, it gets a three-count on the ratings chart against the WWEs counterprogramming show NXT most Wednesday nights. Rhodes said it didnt take long for AEW in both match quality and storytelling to prove a worthy alternative to WWE. The NXT vs. Dynamite showdown hasnt quite reached the hostility of the Monday Night Wars of the late 1990s — think of it more like a Wednesday Night Tussle — but AEW has kept its ratings steady, even as the industry wrestles with the best way to put on shows during a pandemic where fans at live events are scarce. And theres no doubt the former WWE talent Rhodes, Chris Jericho, AEW world champion Jon Moxley, Miro, Brodie Lee, Jake Hager, Shawn Spears, Taz, the list reads like a WWE 2K15 game has aided in the familiarity factor for lapsed fans.