5 Ways AEW Is The Best WWE Alternative (& 5 Ways NJPW Is)
Ever since All Elite Wrestling was announced in 2019, fans have been touting the upstart promotion as not only direct competition to WWE, but an alternative product for fans who have gotten sick of the biggest pro wrestling company in the world. This conversation intensified when AEW debuted their weekly show, AEW Dynamite, on Wednesday nights, going head-to-head with WWE’s third brand, NXT.
RELATED: NXT vs. AEW: Each Show's Most-Watched Episodes Of The Wednesday Night War, So Far
But is AEW the best alternative to WWE? What about New Japan Pro Wrestling, which helped launch some of the talent that’s central to AEW, and has been a popular promotion with die-hard pro wrestling fans for decades? Both promotions are great, but let’s evaluate just why each is a worthy alternative to WWE.
10 AEW: One Weekly Live Show (For Now)
The best way to keep fans engaged in a wrestling product seems to be having a weekly show that develops ongoing storylines, and WWE has two main roster shows in the form of Raw and SmackDown, which amount to about five hours of television every week.
AEW currently has two shows: the live, weekly two-hour Dynamite, and the pretaped YouTube exclusive AEW Dark, which isn’t “necessary” but still offers less time than keeping up with all of WWE’s wrestling shows.
9 NJPW: Has Its Own Streaming Service
The biggest thing WWE has going for it is its streaming service, the WWE Network, which offers a huge video library from multiple wrestling promotions as well as PPVs and original shows. AEW doesn’t have enough shows under its belt to justify a full-fledged streaming service yet, but New Japan has decades of shows in addition to modern stuff available on its service, NJPW World.
It isn’t quite as user friendly or robust as WWE Network but has enough content to force avid fans with a limited amount of money to spend on streaming services to really consider which one to shell out for.
8 AEW: Indie Sensibility
With founders who mostly made their names outside of WWE and a roster composed of lots of talent from all over the indies, AEW’s product ends up having a sensibility and style that sets itself apart from the shockingly corporate WWE.
RELATED: Every AEW PPV So Far, Ranked From Worst To Best
WWE has insisted that fans pay attention to the storytelling of matches and not care about “cool moves,” whereas AEW’s approach to wrestling is that fans actually do care about seeing cool moves.
7 NJPW: Strong Style
It doesn’t take long to notice that New Japan offers a much more hard-hitting product than WWE, with a focus on stiff strikes and a certain amount of technical realism that has been termed by NJPW founder Antonio Inoki as “Strong Style.”
While WWE and AEW have been more influenced by it thanks to wrestlers like Shinsuke Nakamura and Kenny Omega, NJPW remains the premiere promotion to watch tough guys be very rough with one another.
6 AEW: Lighter PPV Schedule
With NJPW, it can be unclear which shows “matter,” whereas with WWE you’re encouraged to tune in to a pay-per-view at least once a month -- but even those don’t always matter. When it comes to PPVs, AEW seems to have adopted a quarterly schedule, which feels a lot less demanding on the viewer.
Moreover, it makes the PPVs feel special. They haven’t always been stellar, but AEW has managed to build anticipation that their PPV will feature quality matches.
5 NJPW: Not Concerned with WWE
New Japan has worked with WWE in the past and hired ex-WWE talent like Jon Moxley, KENTA, Brock Lesnar, and Shelton Benjamin, among many others, but they never seemed too concerned with what WWE is up to.
At the very least, they don’t devote much of their product to lampoon or react to WWE the way that AEW often does. That feels like an ideal in a true alternative -- it doesn't frequently remind fans that they’re not watching something else.
4 AEW: Similar to WWE
For some fans, NJPW is too far afield when it comes to being an alternative to WWE. Besides a language barrier (at times) and maybe a lack of context, it’s maybe not enough like WWE for fans to get into. After all, WWE has done a great job training fans to expect certain things from wrestling shows.
RELATED: 5 Ways AEW Is Just Like TNA (& 5 Ways It's Far Better)
AEW’s product, on the other hand, is fairly similar to WWE’s presentation, albeit with a different aesthetic and not nearly as over-produced. That might be key to AEW’s value as the best alternative -- it’s different, but it’s not that different.
3 NJPW: Sports-Style Presentation
A cool thing about New Japan that sets it apart from its Western equivalents is that its overall presentation feels more like a sport. Obviously, the bout you’re watching is still a predetermined pro wrestling match, but the production never feels “staged” the way
Western wrestling feels with its unnatural camera placements or wacky stunts. Even the promos are subdued, with minimal back-and-forth dialogue in favor of press conference style backstage interviews.
2 AEW: An Upstart Promotion
The thing that makes All Elite Wrestling especially palatable as an alternative to WWE is that it’s only about a year old. That means it can still grow and change and surprise fans in a way that WWE can’t really do anymore aside from a plot twist here and there.
It has been a good long while since a new promotion came out of the gate so strong, so seeing where AEW goes alone makes it a worthy alternative to the same old thing.
1 NJPW: Prestige
New Japan Pro Wrestling, on the other hand, has been around since 1972 and has developed a strong reputation over the years as not only the top promotion in Japan but also a company with a strong in-ring product -- even given its low points in its past.
Its sense of history creates an importance for tournaments like the G1 Climax and gives legitimate prestige to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, making it the top wrestling prize in the world. If you look at NJPW the right way, it can feel way more important than what happens in WWE.
NEXT: NJPW: The 5 Best (& 5 Most Disappointing) IWGP Heavyweight Title Matches
