Stakes: The Difference Between WWE and AEW’s Weekly In-Ring

AEW’s new slogan is ‘where the best wrestle’.

It’s a fitting tagline for a company that has MOTY candidates on a near-weekly basis, and with a roster bolstering the likes of Will Ospreay, Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, and Kazuchika Okada among many (MANY) others, its a statement that’s hard to argue.

However, the statement is just as much a jab at WWE as it is one celebrating what AEW offers itself.

Despite its own epic roster, consistently high standard in-ring output isn’t (and has never been) WWE’s forte, which I feel plays to the benefit of both companies. For better or worse, WWE is far more cartoonish and character focused, while AEW tells the majority of its stories inside the ring. Nevertheless, the often lacking match quality has often been used as a stick to beat over WWE’s head.

From exhausting social media discourse comparing match lengths on the respective shows, or even comparing the amount of ads and character profiles on pay-per-views to the actual ring-time on a show (anyone on X around the time of Elimination Chamber wouldn’t have been able to escape this discussion), this kind of debate over WWE’s in-ring has grown commonplace, even in an era where the in-ring standard in the company is far better than its been for decades.

WWE’s in-ring output evolved deeper into the ‘Paul Levesque Era’

It’s not as if we’re in the 80s, where purists would look to Ric Flair over Hulk Hogan for their bell to bell fix. Or the mid 2000’s to 2010’s where the hard hitting styles of ROH and NJPW were preferred to the main event WWE slogs from the likes of Triple H, Randy Orton, and a pre-workrate era John Cena.

The WWE of today bolsters its own stellar roster of in-ring performers. Gunther, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Chad Gable, Cody Rhodes, AJ Styles, Ilja Dragunov, Sheamus, Seth Rollins, and Drew McIntyre are just a few names off the top of my head to illustrate that. The extended freedom awarded to talent in the Paul Levesque era has allowed matches the calibre of Gunther vs Sheamus (+Drew at ‘Mania 39), Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Flair, Gunther vs Chad Gable, and Gunther vs Sami Zayn to take place on main roster WWE TV and PPV’s more and more regularly, providing that in-ring fix that has lacked from WWE’s output over the years.

That being said, though I find this criticism towards WWE’s in-ring to perhaps be sometimes unfair and outdated. The level to which the bar has been raised for the in-ring output of wrestling over the last decade has been so high that it perhaps stands out as especially stark when the market leader lacks behind some of its most ardent competition, especially when that competition (and rightly so) markets itself as a challenger brand with capital W WRESTLING at the forefront each and every week.

More recently though, it seems the tide has turned in WWE’s favour.

The King and Queen of the Ring tournaments have upgraded WWE’s week-to-week match quality

The 2024 WWE Draft was a dull and drab affair, but if it accomplished anything, it freshened up the respective rosters of RAW and SmackDown with new combinations and match-ups just in time for King/Queen Of The Ring, which has been an absolute god-send for the week-to-week WWE programming.

Even before that, we’d very recently seen Sami Zayn vs Gunther, Becky Lynch vs Rhea Ripley, Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre, and Bayley vs IYO SKY tear it up at WrestleMania, while Sami Zayn vs Chad Gable provided us with an excellent out on RAW in Montreal just a week later. Throw in some solid bouts at Backlash, peaking with Cody Rhodes vs AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, and WWE has been firing on all cylinders lately.

Since the beginning of KOTR and QOTR though, we’ve had Ilja Dragunov vs Ricochet, Iyo Sky vs Natalya, Gunther vs Sheamus, AJ Styles vs Randy Orton, Iyo Sky vs Shayna Bazsler, and Gunther vs Kofi Kingston all bang on TV, highlighting big stars like Gunther, AJ, Iyo and Randy Orton, as well as overlooked or new talents in Dragunov, Kofi Kingston, Shayna and Natalya, and a returning star in Sheamus.

Adopting the match-heavy formula seen prominently used in AEW on Dynamite and especially on Collision, WWE has shown it can do exactly what both its competition is doing, and what they’re so often accused of not doing. And to look at this comparison more broadly, WWE have been doing it better for one simple reason: stakes.

A lot of AEW’s TV matches lack any sense of dramatic stakes

I am not trying to conflate two arguments here, or to add to an immensely boring culture war between WWE and AEW, but the comparison is necessary to provide context to the criticism that’s levied at ‘the fed, and also what AEW is lacking. Anyways, stakes.

In AEW’s week-to-week programming, the obvious winner vs obvious loser formula was refreshing back in 2019, when AEW’s inception and clean finish only protocols were in direct contrast to that of WWE’s refusal to let anyone look “weak” in defeat, ever. It always had to be a screwy finish. It always had to be a copout.

Now, AEW face that fear themselves . Less because of screwy finishes, but more because of the over polluted roster size, and the fear to have people lose when they need to on TV. It’s why we’ve had the likes of Bryan Keith, Kommander, Bobby Fish, Tony Nese and Nyla Rose step in to lose so often so over the years, in matches that exist to give stars a victory in a predictable match that gets away with being predictable on the basis of it being a ‘banger’. Even stars like Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs, Konoshke Takeshita, Claudio Castagnoli, and the overcorrection that is Chris Jericho have fallen victim to this issue. Its a company-wide problem.

These types of matches are necessary to build people up, and a lot of them are indeed ‘bangers’ which tell their own unique story using the medium of wrestling to tell a story with, y’know, wrestling. This exact formula has made characters like Daniel Garcia hot as hell on occasion, but the fact these kinds of matches make up so much of AEW’s TV time, with little to no room for elevation for the losers of these matches, it can just make the entire company feel like its running in place at times, and at worst makes the shows feel skippable.

WWE, perhaps in its hesitation to go buck wild on the in-ring (and perhaps in clearing its own historically low bar), has benefitted massively from putting on their ‘bangers’ with stakes that make you invest more in the winners and losers after the fact.

Gunther lost the IC Title at WrestleMania, and is almost certainly set to fail upwards by winning the KOTR. Chad Gable is set to the same by way of a heel turn on Sami Zayn. Ilja Dragunov has been established as one to watch. Sheamus will be back one day for one more shot at Gunther. Ricochet has added another match to his collection of highlight reels. Kofi Kingston got an emotional, weeks long story out of trying to avenge Xavier Woods’ injury. Natalya and Shayna’ stock have been raised by having better matches than they’ve had in years, which only serve’s to elevate Iyo Sky’s reputation as a ring general.

There’s been some duds (especially on the SmackDown side of things), and the great Jey Uso debate also rages on, but almost everybody who has stepped in the ring for the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments have come out of it better, and that has been accomplished through meaningful, impactful in-ring action more than anything else.

So just how WWE have taken a page out of AEW’s book for their most recent tournaments, AEW could take a page of WWE’s book, and learn how to cook steaks like Papa H (sorry).