{"id":142702,"date":"2025-09-27T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=142702"},"modified":"2025-09-26T22:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:29:30","slug":"aew-for-beginners-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/09\/27\/aew-for-beginners-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"AEW For Beginners: Everything You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fed up, bored, or let down by WWE? Maybe you\u2019re a lapsed wrestling fan or a complete newbie to the art of pro wrestling. You\u2019ve heard about All Elite Wrestling (AEW)- perhaps good, bad, and ugly sentiments. You\u2019re unsure where to start.<\/p>\n

Consider your expectations, preconceptions, and wants first before you invest time, effort, and maybe money into a new and unfamiliar product.<\/p>\n

What do you want from your wrestling?<\/p>\n

\"Image
Photo by zuko1312, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although AEW is the biggest alternative to WWE, spoilers: it doesn\u2019t suit everyone, and that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not elitist, but realistic. Not everyone\u2019s taste and preferences are fulfilled by AEW. Acknowledging and knowing your wants will make your journey easier to navigate.<\/p>\n

If AEW is for you, you\u2019ll find this company unashamed of being a wrestling promotion. One that celebrates all of wrestling\u2019s history. The best stories are treated with care, contain subtlety, nuance, deep psychology, and reality that embody the elements of prestige TV and cinema without telling you they deserve an Emmy nomination.<\/p>\n

As an AEW fan, I\u2019m critical of the company\u2019s genuine issues that much criticism fails to discuss or analyze in context. AEW is a company of paradoxes and extremes. I\u2019ll signpost (optional) further reading if you want more nuance.<\/p>\n

Expect this to be a warts-and-all guide to discovering if becoming a sicko is right for you.<\/p>\n

Jump In Cold<\/h2>\n

You don\u2019t need to know anything about AEW, its roster, or history to start watching. When I got into wrestling, I knew it was \u201cfake\u201d, but the Smackdown Six made it real.<\/p>\n

Watch Dynamite cold on a Wednesday night. Let AEW sell itself to you. The cleanest place to begin is after a PPV cycle. New storylines and feuds will emerge.<\/p>\n

Dynamite is AEW\u2019s flagship show where the biggest angles, storyline developments, and matches happen. If you are\/were a WWE fan, you will notice a striking difference in pace and action. Unlike Raw or SmackDown, Dynamite is a two-hour sugar rush blitz. It\u2019s not a show about the booking of a wrestling promotion, nor a movie about the sport. Wrestling isn\u2019t the background; it\u2019s the primary storytelling framework.<\/p>\n

Dynamite\u2019s pace varies with no set formula. Sometimes, a breathless pace doesn\u2019t give you enough time to process the significance of what\u2019s happened during and after matches or important moments. Some events are rushed through. Catharsis, shock, and emotion poured aside, not allowed to brew. Paradoxically, functional booking with obvious match outcomes and too many minutes can drag.<\/p>\n

If you buy an AEW PPV, you will get your money\u2019s worth. The cost is time. My partner, who possibly has ADHD, remarked after attending our third AEW PPV that six hours had blinked by. Inversely, I watch PPVs at home in chunks, making viewing more of a treat than a chore.<\/p>\n

As a fan, you can enjoy watching or engaging with AEW your way.<\/p>\n

Once you have favorites, then dive into their back catalogue. The AEW\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a> has plenty of classic matches and moments to make you understand \u201cThe Feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Wrestling<\/h2>\n

AEW serves a global buffet of wrestling styles. Styles make fights. Plenty of wrestlers work a character-driven style, from the comic and surprising with The Young Bucks to Orange Cassidy to the violence and realism of Darby Allin and Jon Moxley. Plenty of matches and moves are purposeful and defy traditional wisdom.<\/p>\n

The problem with the broad-church approach is that offering a little bit of everything leaves some unsatisfied and underfed. It also creates a different type of homogeneity to WWE.<\/p>\n

AEW exhilarates, pushing the envelope of possibility. The stories told physically speak louder than a promo\u2019s verbiage. AEW isn\u2019t concerned with preservation. Detrimentally, this means the spectacular can\/is normalized. Some, like The Lucha Brothers,<\/a> became cogs in the machine rather than standouts.<\/p>\n

At its best, the action is emotionally gripping. At times, the disparity between the quality of action and storytelling leaves the physicality emotionless, but never soulless. Even when matches feel functionary or more art for art\u2019s sake, the wrestlers\u2019 love for their craft is unquestionable and infectious.<\/p>\n

Storytelling<\/h2>\n

To suggest AEW doesn\u2019t tell stories feels as smooth-brained and conspiratorial as saying the Earth is flat. Often, AEW has too many stories. The quality ranges from groundbreaking and fresh to formulaic and clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Unlike WWE\u2019s commentary team, AEW\u2019s won\u2019t continuously remind you what\u2019s happened. AEW treats fans as intelligent and trusts our memories, sometimes too much. It’s like an expert professor who forgets that their students lack prior knowledge and the capacity to understand. That can be alienating.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, knowing that the image created by joining the dots is correct is reassuring. Differently, like a good book, this over-reliance on show over tell encourages analysis and fun speculation.<\/p>\n

Hangman Adam Page has had two contrasting arcs battling imposter syndrome<\/a> and self-destruction. Page\u2019s rivalry with MJF has been repeatedly built upon since day one. However, Page is AEW\u2019s main character.<\/p>\n

Some wrestlers\u2019 personal arcs seem to receive less thought and effort. See the AEW World Tag Team Championship reign of fellow day-oners, Private Party.<\/a> Other times, storylines run too long or ignore the fans’ displeasure, like AEW\u2019s refusal to let the devil storyline die. However, the wrestlers have more autonomy and responsibility for maximising their minutes.<\/p>\n

Consistency is frustrating. The AEW women\u2019s division has seen incredible genre-pushing storylines and matches involving violence and sapphic love through the female gaze,<\/a> while simultaneously having a spotlight issue<\/a> where those female wrestlers not called Mercedes Mone or Toni Storm experienced marginalised and bitty booking.<\/p>\n

Knowing and seeing the bar rise time after time makes us expect and want more consistency. It\u2019s the price of creating perfection. Replication isn\u2019t easily sustainable.<\/p>\n

Philosophy<\/h2>\n

What drives the duality of AEW is its philosophy. As best described by MJF, AEW\u2019s \u201cno floaties\u201d policy<\/a> it\u2019s a double-edged sword. Wrestlers have no safety net. No scripts, no micromanagement, and sometimes, too much freedom. It demands the best from wrestlers.<\/p>\n

It has pushed the company\u2019s best to be more than superstars or superheroes. Instead, we have authentic, relatable human beings who are extraordinary athletes. For male fans, it’s created a modern and unapologetic representation of masculinity<\/a>. Characters like Storm and Cassidy might be exaggerated, but they reflect reality beyond bland, superficial, stereotypical gimmicks.<\/p>\n

Yet less protection and more autonomy mean failure isn\u2019t hidden with production gloss. There\u2019s more meritocracy and sometimes more mediocrity. Conversely, failure can lead to greatness and reinvention. Storm went from generic punk and \u201cnot cool\u201d to \u201cTimeless\u201d after trial and error.<\/a> Those who\u2019ve gone from AEW to WWE often keep the presentation and characterisation that got them over.<\/a><\/p>\n

Irrespective, the creative potholes created hellish roads that still lead to nirvana-like payoffs.<\/a> Excess and desensitization can be re-adjusted; the magic can be repeated or new sources found. AEW\u2019s violence ranges from comic to Shakespearean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In many ways, it’s not a bug but a feature that AEW is an imperfect company and always has been,<\/a> despite older, disenfranchised fans’ claims. At its heart, AEW cares about wrestling and repeatedly tries to please and reward its fanbase. It doesn\u2019t always succeed, but it\u2019s six years old and growing.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, see you on Wednesday nights. You know what that means.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Header photo \u2013 Wikimedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tun<\/em>ed to the\u00a0Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more AEW and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.\u00a0 You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8 pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content is available on their\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0channel.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fed up, bored, or let down by WWE? Maybe you\u2019re a lapsed wrestling fan or a complete newbie to the art of pro wrestling. You\u2019ve heard about All Elite Wrestling (AEW)- perhaps good, bad, and ugly sentiments. You\u2019re unsure where to start. Consider your expectations, preconceptions, and wants first before you invest time, effort, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4960,"featured_media":142777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,6,2192,1],"tags":[3911],"class_list":["post-142702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-north-america","category-wrestling","category-uncategorized","tag-all-elite-wrestling"],"modified_by":"Laci Schlatz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4960"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142781,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142702\/revisions\/142781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}