AEW has been the talk of the world even before it was officially founded in January 2019. If you want to know about AEW, their events, their wrestlers, and the main differences between them and other promotions, you can continue to read our article, where we explain everything, you need to know.
Beginning and History
Although the promotion was officially founded in 2019, the work began with the All In event back in September 2018, and some speculate the idea of it hatched sometime in 2017 because of a journalist's comment. Dave Meltzer said that the ROH (small wrestling promotion founded in 2002) would never sell 10k tickets for an event, unlike the dominant name in wrestling right now – WWE. WCW also managed this feat, but they were the main competitor of WWE even before ROH was established, so he didn't include them.
At the time the top stars of ROH were Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, who promoted the All In event in 2018, which broke records. It featured wrestlers from ROH and other promotions, as well. It was the largest event in US wrestling history that didn't involve WWE or WCW since 1993. The tickets were sold out in 30 minutes and the total attendance was over 11 thousand.
After the AEW was established by founder Shahid Khan, Cody Rhodes, and The Young Bucks signed with them. Khan and his family, who also own shares in Fulham FC and the Jacksonville Jaguars, are the main investors of AEW. His son – Tony Khan – was named general manager, executive producer, co-founder, president, and CEO.
Currently, the promotion runs five shows on TNT and TBS. They are the main competitor of WWE, and the world is waiting to see if they will be able to match them, or even compete with them. One thing is for sure, AEW took the world by storm, and they are all trying to compete with WWE's legacy.
What are the Divisions in AEW?
As with other wrestling promotions, there are men's and women's divisions for singles and tag teams. Currently, the titles that wrestlers are competing for, and their champions are:
AEW Women's World Championship – Hikaru Shida
AEW TBS Championship – Kris Statlander
AEW World Tag Team Championship – FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler)
AEW World Trios Championship – House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews)
AEW World Championship – MJF
AEW TNT Championship – Luchasaurus
AEW International Championship – Orange Cassidy
FTW Championship – Jack Perry
*At the next big event, we will see several of these titles being challenged, and the names might change after it's done.
AEW All In 2023 Details
The upcoming All In event is going to be on the 27th of August (Sunday), and it will feature some amazing matches that are aiming to break the previous record of the All In from 2018. The most popular of the matches are the ones for the titles, like the four-way match for the women's championship between Hikaru Shida (c), Toni Storm, Saraya, and Dr. Britt Baker (D.M.D); the match for the men's world championship between MJF (c) & Adam Cole, or the match for the tag team championship.
There will also be a few other matches on the card that night, like the stadium stampede match, the tag team coffin match, the “real world championship” match, and others. You can find all the information about the event card on the AEW official website. There, you can also find posts about future events that are scheduled.
What are the Main Differences Between AEW & WWE?
It's been more than a decade since there was any competition between two different wrestling promotions, and AEW managed to accomplish that since its pre-release event the All In (2018). While WWE has had to make improvements to evolve and compete with their newest rival, AEW has also had to adjust to keep up with the wrestling giant in the industry.
There are clear differences between the two promotions, even though they are in direct competition with each other. WWE has always strived to make stars of their wrestlers and put on a good show, while AEW is the more wrestling-focused promotion.
While WWE has always been the standard in this industry, they are more focused on the “entertainment” side of things. Even so, there is still a balance between the two ever since Triple H became head of the WWE Creative department this year.
AEW has always strived to be sports-focused instead of entertainment-focused, ever since its foundation. They have a very big roster of wrestlers fighting for them, and the ranking system decides who will fight based on how good they are and their win-loss record.
The main difference between the two that fans have noticed is how long matches run. Typically, WWE SmackDown and RAW fights are around 20 minutes per hour on average. The company uses the rest of the time for promotion segments that are longer to promote a certain rivalry or fighter. On the other hand, most of AEW's matches are around 27 minutes, which is considerably longer, so their focus is the match itself, and not the promotion around it. Recently, AEW has invested more in spotlight interviews, and they are trying to find the balance point they are comfortable with.
Ex-WWE Stars who joined AEW
Many wrestlers are signed with AEW right now, including some old names, new ones, and independent talents.
The first big name signed to AEW from WWE is Chris Jericho, who many of you might know. Sting was a big WCW name, who did a brief stint in WWE back in 2014 but was injured in a match with Seth Rollins. He joined AEW in 2020, and even though he is 62 years old, he still has what it takes to fight.
Paul Wight, also known as the “Big Show” left WWE in 2021 and joined AEW mainly as a commentator, but who knows what the future holds. Mark Henry also followed in the same footsteps and is now a semi-retired commentator.
Christian Cage also jumped from WWE to AEW, but we still haven't seen him win a championship match. If his concussion injuries from before aren't a problem, he is a favorite for any future matches. Other big names include Dustin Rhodes (Goldust), Paige (Saraya), Matt Hardy, Pac, CM Punk, and Miro (Rusev).
Zack is an avid MMA/WWE fan. With his 7+ years of experience in the field of analyzing and predicting fights, he provides our team with valuable insight and sharp picks. While he couldn't realize his dream to see his name in lights one day, we at least see his name often under the articles on NY Fights.
