{"id":89619,"date":"2019-11-25T14:54:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T20:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=89619"},"modified":"2019-11-25T14:54:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T20:54:43","slug":"guest-editorial-the-reasons-i-prefer-nxt-over-aew-and-why-nxt-on-usa-will-be-consistently-outdrawing-aew-dynamite-within-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2019\/11\/25\/guest-editorial-the-reasons-i-prefer-nxt-over-aew-and-why-nxt-on-usa-will-be-consistently-outdrawing-aew-dynamite-within-months\/","title":{"rendered":"GUEST EDITORIAL: The reasons I prefer NXT over AEW and why NXT on USA will be consistently outdrawing AEW Dynamite within months"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2851616418\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>I watch both NXT on USA and AEW Dynamite, but NXT is my clear preference. They have better top-tier talent, a great women\u2019s division, and their mid-card wrestlers are head and shoulders better than AEW, in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the top tier, AEW has:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chris Jericho, who is very old, noticeably slower, and much heavier than in his WWE days. He is the best talker and strongest character on either show in my opinion, largely because he is free from the corporate reins. But his in-ring wrestling is nowhere near what it was five years ago. And at 49 no one should expect it to be.<\/li>\n<li>Kenny Omega, who hasn\u2019t shown anything in AEW. I saw him three or four times in Las Vegas with ROH and he wasn\u2019t my cup of tea. His promos always sound the same to me, especially the goofy ending that he uses every time.<\/li>\n<li>Jon Moxley, who could be a big star but they\u2019ve barely used him. He needs to ask out of his deal and go back to Japan where they\u2019ll portray him as a star.<\/li>\n<li>Cody, who it\u2019s hard for me to see as a top guy since he was a mid-card character guy his whole career and if his name had been something other than Rhodes might not have been that high based upon his body and style. He\u2019s become a pretty good promo, but I just don\u2019t think mainstream wrestling fans will ever see him as a top guy who can carry a company.<\/li>\n<li>The Young Bucks, they\u2019re either you\u2019re style or they\u2019re not. Again, I don\u2019t think that mainstream fans would ever take their no-sell jumping jack style seriously. There\u2019s an audience for them, I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s very big.<\/li>\n<li>The Lucha Bros are AEW\u2019s best in-ring performers, but they\u2019re not framed as such. I just saw them with FSW in Vegas and they were five-stars each in their individual matches.<\/li>\n<li>Pac. I\u2019m an old school guy and he\u2019s was too small and tumbling\/gymnastics for me. He\u2019s the bottom of AEW\u2019s top tier and I\u2019d be surprised if he drew money or sold merch. To me he\u2019s a top mid-card guy rather than a top tier player.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>AEW\u2019s second tier is a bunch of small guys and WWE mid-card castoffs. Frankly, I don\u2019t think Jake Hagar, Shawn Spears, MJF, Orange Cassidy, Sammy Guevara, LAX, Dustin Runnels, Best Friends, Evil Order, et al will ever be top guys as they were either big shots on indies that drew 200-500 fans or WWE mid-card and lower guys. I don\u2019t think you can get them over as top guys. And none of them have over-the-top gimmicks or looks that are likely to draw big. The one exception to this is &#8220;Hangman&#8221; Page, who I thought had potential, but AEW\u2019s booking has destroyed him and made him look like just another guy.<\/p>\n<p>AEW\u2019s Women\u2019s Division is a dumpster fire. They would be better taking it off TV and spending a year training those ladies. I don\u2019t see how anyone can take Riha seriously. She\u2019s 5 feet tall and 95 pounds at best. She doesn\u2019t have any big moves that draw attention. It\u2019s not credible that she could win a real fight. They tried to push Dr. Brit Baker, but she\u2019s really green. Not a bad look, but a horrible in-ring performer (everything she does looks like a paint by numbers). They\u2019re trying to push Brandi, but she\u2019s not a wrestler. If she weren&#8217;t Cody\u2019s wife, she wouldn\u2019t have a job. As for the rest of the women, no one stands out.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, it\u2019s not hard to see why AEW lost more than 30 percent of its audience in its first five weeks, and why their live attendance is declining too. It\u2019s pretty clear that they papered the first 4 weeks given the quantity of tixs and selling price on the after market on the day of the show. There is definitely a niche fan base for AEW, but after five weeks, I don\u2019t see many positive signs.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at NXT\u2019s top tier, they have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adam Cole, who\u2019s small but works big. In-ring he\u2019s as good as anyone on the AEW roster. His promos aren\u2019t as good as Jericho and maybe Cody, but they\u2019re still pretty good. And he\u2019s a much better worker than either of those guys.<\/li>\n<li>Finn Balor is a huge international star on the level of Omega. Like Omega, he hasn\u2019t got over big time in the USA, but he\u2019s way better known than Omega in the USA and Europe. Both are well-known and top guys in Japan.<\/li>\n<li>Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa are both five-star in-ring wrestlers and really good promos. They\u2019re equal to or better than Cody and Pac, probably much better in the eyes of mainstream fans since they\u2019ve never had corny mid-card TV gimmicks like Dashing Cody or Stardust or The Man That Gravity Forgot, and their TV roles with NXT have always been as top guys.<\/li>\n<li>Velveteen Dream is still raw as a character, but he is distinctive and has more upside than any of the young AEW guys. And he\u2019s really young, while virtually all of AEW\u2019s top tier are mid-30s or older.<\/li>\n<li>Matt Riddle has so much charisma and is a great in-ring guy for as little wrestling experience as he has. I think he\u2019ll main event a Mania in the next 5-7 years. He might have a top match in 2020 if the Goldberg rivalry works out.<\/li>\n<li>Bobby Fish and Kyle O\u2019Reilly are at least the equals of the Bucks or the Lucha Bros as a tag team. I believe they held the same or similar titles as those teams in ROH and NJPW. I\u2019m sure they don\u2019t move as much merch as the Bucks, but that doesn\u2019t benefit AEW since you\u2019ve reported that they gave the Bucks 100 percent of their merch rights.<\/li>\n<li>Walter is a budding top guy who could also main event a Mania or SummerSlam someday, and his Imperium stable is really good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NXT\u2019s mid-tier is way better than AEW. Keith Lee, Dominic Dijakovic, and Damien Priest all look like big-time stars going forward. Roderick Strong, Cameron Grimes, Shane &#8220;Swerve&#8221; Scott, and Killian Dain are all great carpenters with the potential to move into the top tier. And the Europeans Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are really good in-ring and on the mic, way better than any of AEW\u2019s mid-card guys.<\/p>\n<p>NXT\u2019s women are awesome, maybe as good as WWE\u2019s main roster. Shayna is a top five female in the business today. Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, Rhea Ripley, Candace LeRae, and Mia Yim are light years better than any of the AEW women. And Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox are still developing after injuries, but they\u2019re also better in ring than the AEW women. And they have Toni Storm and Piper Niven in the pipeline when\/if needed.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-4165576915\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>So why do I prefer NXT? Talent, and lots of it. NXT not only has a better roster at the present, but they have a strong pipeline as well. NXT\u2019s in-ring work is also much tighter than AEW\u2019s. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how things shake out, but my best guess is that in six months NXT will consistently have a larger TV audience than AEW, and NXT will be stronger financially too (on its own) because it isn\u2019t burdened by the huge salaries AEW is apparently paying.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Submit a guest editorial for consideration to get published on PWTorch.com by sending a well-edited 6-12 paragraph single-topic point of view to <a href=\"mailto:pwtorch@pwtorch.com\">pwtorch@pwtorch.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1336876128\"><div id=\"pwtor-3944009325\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>I watch both NXT on USA and AEW Dynamite, but NXT is my clear preference. They have better top-tier talent, a great women\u2019s division, and their mid-card wrestlers are head and shoulders better than AEW, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2019\/11\/25\/guest-editorial-the-reasons-i-prefer-nxt-over-aew-and-why-nxt-on-usa-will-be-consistently-outdrawing-aew-dynamite-within-months\/\" title=\"GUEST EDITORIAL: The reasons I prefer NXT over AEW and why NXT on USA will be consistently outdrawing AEW Dynamite within months\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-guesteditorials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2019\/01\/NXTTakeoverPhoenixArena_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89620,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89619\/revisions\/89620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}