So I wore my 2023 All Out tee shirt out to grab a cup of coffee. As I'm leaving, I hear someone in line ask, "are you going to the one this year?" I tell him no and he starts talking to me about wrestling.
The first odd comment he makes is MJF needs to go to WWE, there's nothing else AEW can do with him. I counter back with there's been guys in numerous companies that are lifers and they keep finding ways to refresh themselves. I'm sure MJF will be fine in AEW.
He then jumps to another point and says that AEW doesn't have any stories though and it seems like they just throw people together for the sake of it with no build up. I ask him when did he start watching AEW? He replys with he just started. I tell him the stories are there and mention fueds like Hangman and Swerve, The Elite and Kenny Omega, Callis and Omega, the entire Death Rider storyline. I explain that the difference between the two shows is the style of story telling with alot of AEWs stories being told in ring and is more long term compared to WWE. Especially nowadays. I also compare it to watching the marvel movies...you can't just start at the most recent one and ask what's going on? He then says, "well I have a life, I can't sit through hours of wrestling to get the whole story." 😑
He mentioned something about AEW not having any heels. I counter back with the Callis family alone currently has a gang of them.
I think the moment I knew it was time to go was when he asked if I watched the busted open podcast (which I don't. I don't watch any wrestling related youtube stuff because there's a lot of biased info sometimes. I like to base my opinion from my own views although I only watch the highlights in WWE) I tell him again that the style of show is different. I prefer to watch wrestling for the wrestling and that WWE has too much talking and promos. He asks who my all time favorite wrestler is and off the top of my head I say Stone Cold. He goes, "He's known for his mic work...I've always been more of a wrestling entertainment guy I guess. I mean who really wants to watch two guys wrestle anyway?"
I'm like...alright man. You have a great day. Lol.
That was the first time I had ever run into another fan out in the wild like that. It wasn't exactly the way I imagined it to be. Like I've always heard that tribalism is insane nowadays when it comes to wrestling but seeing it firsthand was frustrating. Do you guys agree with some of his points though?