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The Attitude Era had JR and Lawler were a combined 90 or so and DX was cutting edge for the time. It's what's presented in the ring that attracts the fresh alternative. Plus having an older voice to call the action is a staple of the type of wrestling AEW is going for. You had Gordon Solie, Bob Caudle, Lance Russell, and so forth being the ones telling the audience what was going on in a manner that wasn't dumbed down or presented in a way that presumed the viewers were all victims of a traumatic brain injury. Besides, so far we've had far more of the Mid South/JCP/WCW era Jim Ross rather than the WWE "BAH GAWD" style.

Just snagged a ticket for the Pittsburgh show, pretty jazzed to get to see it live.

To be fair Main Event was designed to be a show on WGN America until it got canceled and it became a weird vestigial organ designed to fulfill international TV commitments.

Regal on NXT is basically Britsh Jack Tunney at this point anyway.

Heyman can absolutely be a babyface, people love him now and he's the mouthpiece of the moody champ who kills people. Bischoff is just so naturally heelish even trying to babyface him would be weird. His sleazy demeanor and his punchable face would not translate well.

Yeah he was the cornerstone of the whole Cruiserweight division when that still sorta meant something. His run in DG was a boost for the company but a step down for him.

There's more people than you may think that notice how WWE books minorities, like how nearly black guy is some variation of "smiling babyface", and every Mexican not Rey is doing shit like carrying pinatas to the ring.

The brilliance of the Austin-Vince storyline was Vince didn't want to fire Austin because he made money for the company. Imagine portraying folks as valuable parts of the company and not faceless cogs that can be easily replaced at the boss's whim.

Yes. There's many reasons why no one's seen as a star in WWE, but everyone being portrayed as beholden to the company and unable to survive without the benevolence of the company continuing employment is a major one.

I know I keep banging on it, but lets not forget there was a whole generation of fans who grew up watching and liking non WWF/E wrestling and they didn't just cease to exist when WCW went away.

Best response I saw to those team names was "they have a strong sense of 'I forgot the assignment was due tomorrow' about them".

Also Bayley's still an asshole who's supposed to be a babyface. Dumping Charlotte out of her chair was such a dick move that made her look like a bigger bad guy than half the actual heel roster.

I mean, it's not hard to gauge what their audience is there for. It's why Cody did the throne smashing bit, it's why they do references to Vince's out of touch mindset on Being the Elite. It's why Cody has been doing everything to shape AEW as a modern-day update of NWA territorial wrestling. He would know better than most there were millions of wrestling fans in the past who weren't into the WWF/E product. He knows (and the ratings bear out) more and more people are tiring of current WWE. Obviously they weren't the first group to try to tap that market, but the stars aligned for them to be in the right place at the right time with a financial backer equal to Vince who actually has an understanding of the business.

It was a follow up to Shane fining him $100,000 for attacking an official (Elias), and KO was trying to reason with him to reconsider.

To be fair, I never thought the problem with Mike was his ability to have a good match. Dude just has the personality of a bag full of hammers.

As soon as NXT loses head to head, Vince is going to blame the small crowds (or anything but the obvious) and change everything he can.

Yeah but he's acting as if we're in a world where DVRs don't exist. I work Wednesdays and I'll be recording AEW to watch when I get home and catch NXT on the network the next day. He got USA to give them more money for NXT, so good on him for that at least. The idea that running live opposition means folks are locked in to only watching one or the other in 2019 might be the biggest "Vince is out of touch" moment so far, since it's feeding directly into the narrative he's trying to combat.

AEW: We're here to present an alternative to wrestling fans tired of WWE's product! WWE: *puts out even more product as a counter* I mean....I'm not going to claim I know more about professional wrestling than Vincent Kennedy McMahon, but how can he not see this plays directly into their hands? This isn't 1986 where you can burn out the market for a Crockett show by running a 6 hour Superstars taping the day before.

Ironic on a show where Dominic made an appearance they do an angle saying a deceased wrestler is in Hell.

Seth sucks for all the reasons we've mentioned before, but holy shit are they portraying him as the all time idiot babyface here. Braun might as well be wearing a shirt saying I'M GOING TO TURN ON YOU and he's all "you ready for our match big guy".

Sonya as Diesel to Mandy's HBK is everything.

Nikki still using her old Sanity theme whole teaming with Alexa is jarring.

Kofi with an all time RKO sell, it was like he dove headfirst into an empty swimming pool.

That segment was great.

It's really something that the official WWE video game looks like something made for the PS2. I suppose it's small consolation 2K Games hasn't turned it into a microtransaction filled cesspool like their NBA games, but yikes.