AEW and the art of kayfabe in the year 2022

[Deleted]

I've been a bit out of the loop where I was on vacation, and one of the things I picked up on was Regal very carefully working around piledrivers getting a 2 count by nature of a head turned sideways.

Now, obviously, that's just Regal improvising - he could probably make even intentionally silly things like Danhausen's curses make sense in wrestling, but it did point out something that AEW does that I don't even think prime NXT did all that well, and that's create a kayfabe that works in 2022.

For starters, AEW is very good about drawing on their own history, albeit a short history, but on top of that, they have zero problem with co-opting old feuds or rivalries from other promotions to drive storyline narratives. On top of that, AEW commentators do their best to explain why doing things in ring they way some wrestlers do them matters. I hate the Panama Sunrise and think it's stupid looking, but Excalibur will do his damndest to explain why that flip makes it capable of killing a cockroach.

It's a very self-contained kind of kayfabe, in the sense that once the credits roll, Tony Khan has no problem in talking about it like it's a show within a fictionalized environment, but it doesn't diminish the stories being told within the show.

I just think it's interesting that Tony's taking a different path than Vince when it comes to kayfabe and the like, and I wonder if Hunter will do something similar now.

[TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out]

It's the absolute bare minimum that needs to be done to build suspension of disbelief in any fictional content, but for some reason it's been lost in mainstream wrestling for 25 years at this point. The highlights of the Attitude Era did it perfectly: Vince wanted to make sure Bret didn't leave as champ so he screwed him, Undertaker was so engrossed by living as his character that he BECAME his character and started a cult to get the championship and acclaim that he was denied for years, ect. It's what made the rises of CM Punk and Bryan work so well: everything played out in kayfabe and you got something extra out of it as a "smart" fan.

Why the hell would anyone care if everyone involved acts like they're not really their characters? Meta comedy works well when only one person is breaking the 4th wall and everyone else has no idea what they're doing.

[Kalmia]

The commentary team (especially Regal, Taz, and to a lesser extent Excalibur) are excellent at explaining why moves work, but also sometimes why they don't. They give a real sense of logic to why wrestlers do what they do. I think they've really helped with someone like OC. The crowd has always been willing to go with OC's gimmick and play along with the kicks and hands in the pockets, but the commentators have given a reason why it works against his opponents, too.

There are other little things too, such as AEW acknowledging it's a TV show and wrestlers have spoken about watching the shows back to discover things they weren't physically present for. There's an internal logic that is usually consistent and believable.

[Lizuka #BLM]

There are some times AEW extends stuff offscreen and it gets weird and stupid, but I do definitely like the general approach they take. Take the show seriously during it and don't put up the pretense it's anything but a TV show once it's over, that's my ideal approach.

[Cyno]

I certainly like this incarnation of The New Kayfabe compared to a few years ago when WWE's concept was working the sheets hard with fake info.

[Deleted]

I liked when Excalibur talked about the effect Claudio's Swing had on Takeshita's back at Battle of the Belts.

[sportatorium]

They do a nice job with stuff like Jericho's Lionheart character being some kind of pit fighter. They sold me completely on the idea that Jericho could go into a "fight" like that.