AEW and the Transition from Marks to Plants

AEW's inaugural event, Double or Nothing, was a massive success. Not only did they put on a hell of a show, but they also had an estimated 100,000 PPV buys which is incredible in a market where the two most dominant brands, WWE and NJPW, will give you everything for less than $10 a month. They showed a variety of styles, and the crowd was into it from start to finish. It makes all wrestling fans wonder how they can build on this in the future.

The most amazing part of Double or Nothing is they built up the entire card with almost no wrestling. Instead, they utilized YouTube shows to not only build up the matches but set the framework for future feuds as well. It's amazing how they changed the game, and I think they are ahead of the curve on the future of pro wrestling.

The best example of this is Cody. Cody is beloved by fans of AEW, because he is a huge reason that it even exists. Between The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and him, they are setting a path for where the organization goes, and Cody definitely seems like the leader out of those wrestlers as well. But here's the thing with Cody, he's not a babyface. He's the most heel heel that has ever heeled in wrestling. Cody has never smiled in his entire life; he's only smirked. I love the guy, but I also totally want to punch him in the face.

So you have Cody who is easy to hate but he is providing you with what wrestling fans have been craving for years, so you also kind of love him. He cheats in his matches but gets cheered at the end of the show. No matter what people say, wrestling is still built on faces and heels, and that is where AEW needs help from a character that is often overlooked in the grand scheme of pro wrestling, the fans.

The fans that are already supporting AEW are not your traditional wrestling fans, but they are almost reverting back to what fans used to be. WWE fans cheer the guys they like and boo the guys they don't. That seems logical, but it runs into problems when clear babyfaces like Roman Reigns get booed out of the building. 30 years ago, things were much simpler in professional wrestling. The chosen good guys always got cheered and the chosen bad guys always got booed. It was a more innocent time, and even though we have lost our innocence, the fans of AEW seem to be reverting back to those simpler times.

But instead of AEW fans being marks, I think they're closer to plants. Magicians famously used plants to make the audience think anything was possible. It would look like they were picking a person at random, but really, that person was in on the trick to make sure everything went according to plan. This is what wrestling fans have become. We're all a bunch of plants, and we are in on what is supposed to happen. So we can love Cody as an executive but boo his every move in the ring, because he's the bad guy, and it's fun to be in on the show. Look at a guy like MJF, who is objectively hilarious, but you have to boo him, because that's what makes the show better and more enjoyable.

AEW realizes that wrestling fans want something different. We don't need to be tricked, because it's more fun to be in on the trick. Fans pay to see a WWE show; they pay to be a part of an AEW show. That sure sounds like a lot more fun to me.

What It's Like To Attend an NXT Taping

So, although I have gone to a couple of NXT house shows since moving to Florida, I still had yet to make it to the promised land. That, of course, being the Full Sail Arena where the NXT tapings and Takeover events take place. Although I wasn't able to get tickets for Takeover (those things sell out fast), I was able to get general admission tickets for the tapings of the next four episodes of NXT. Instead of going over the wrestling I saw, I wanted to go over the experience of seeing NXT live.

Logistics
As I said, tickets for the Takeover events sell out super fast, but for the tapings, it wasn't too hard to get tickets. I think they had tickets up until about two weeks before the show. There is plenty of parking, so that was nice. Also, they allow you to bring in food and drink but no bottle caps. You would have a better chance of getting a gun in there than a bottle cap, but, like, don't bring a gun. Be cool, it's supposed to be a positive place.

The Arena
So I knew that the Full Sail Arena wasn't big, but it definitely looks better on the WWE Network than it does in person. The bleachers only go back ten rows, so it is impossible to have a bad seat. I thought the show started at 6:00, so we got in line at 5:15, thinking doors would open in 15 minutes, but it turned out doors didn't open until 6:00. We were still only about halfway up the line, but we ended up getting third row seats in the bleachers. Even had we shown up at 6:00, we still could have gotten quality seats, as it is a very fan friendly venue.

The Matches
Although I won't go into specifics on the matches, what I will say is that the show does a good job of going fairly quickly, considering they are producing about four hours of wrestling content (the backstage segments are not done during the tapings), as they go through matches fairly quickly, empty the ring, and start the next match. In between shows, there is maybe a three-minute break, so there is very limited down time. What I would say is that the matches were good, not great, as they save the big stuff for the Takeover shows. Still, the matches are fun, and as a fan of old school wrestling, it was nice to see a couple matches just set up to be the classic good wrestler vs. jobber squashes.

The Fans
The fans can basically be broken down into five distinct groups, which is more diverse than I would have expected. Anyway, here are those groups:

People Who Like/Love Pro Wrestling
This is the category I identify with and what I was expecting a lot more of. There were still a decent amount of these people who were just looking forward to watching some good wrestling, cheering the good guys, booing the bad guys and having a good time with it. We understand it is predetermined, but that doesn't mean we don't get lost in the moment from time to time.

People Who Like/Love WWE
I was standing next to an affable gentleman in line, and we got to talking about WWE, and it was pretty clear that we are very different wrestling fans. I like who I like, but this guy liked exactly who the WWE wants him to like. He's a Cena fan, and he thought his match against Rusev at Payback was the match of the night; I thought it was hot garbage. I liked the tag match from Payback, and I'm pretty sure this guy didn't give a shit about that match. Hey, to each their own. These are the fans the WWE wants, and they probably enjoy wrestling more than I do since their favorite wrestlers actually matter.

Super Smark
These people care about pro wrestling, but they, unfortunately, don't know how to love. Instead of embracing everyone for their individuality, these people are there to point out what is wrong. A wrestler got a "Headlock City" chant going, and someone near me yelled out, "That's a chinlock." Dude, the chin is part of the head, it's a form of headlock. There were also lots of people telling a returning wrestler who is not very skilled in the ring. Plenty of people told this guy how awful he was when he did anything, even when it wasn't bad, they had already predetermined that it was going to suck. These are not fun people to be around.

It's Still Real to Me, Damnit
The people who take wrestling way too seriously. I had one of these super fans right in front of me, and she loves Blake and Murphy. Apparently, one of them is dating Alexa Bliss. Also, apparently one of them will say that he is this lady's husband. She is, um, not attractive, so this is definitely not a genuine thing, but she acted as if it was. She was like a 35-year-old adult who defended those guys no matter what they did. Wrestling is very real, and if you say anything bad about Blake and Murphy, she will threaten to fight you and/or have them fight you. This woman was a treasure.

Gronk
The last set of fans are Gronks. As in, Rob Gronkowski, because he was there. They show up late with 20 mostly gigantic people in Mojo Rawley shirts, where they sit in the front row that was blocked off for them as other people are forced to stand due to there not being enough seats because of Gronk. They wait for Mojo's match, cheer, celebrate, and leave to go Gronk up some other place.

Gronks are the worst, but really, everything else about the NXT experience is pretty great. If you happen to be stuck around Orlando for any period of time, I promise there is no better $10 spent than seeing NXT live.