The Second First Time

I've been watching Professional Wrestling since I was old enough to understand what was on the screen. I've always been fascinated by the stories, the people, the moves... The dedication and friendships, and the feuds. It's truly captivating, the things these people can do. I am constantly amazed. Every match, every promo, every video... It's truly remarkable, I honestly believe it's something I will always be a fan of.

For the longest time, the main Wrestling company was WWE, formerly known as WWF, they changed their name because of people getting them confused with the World Wildlife Federation, and thus became World Wrestling Entertainment. There were other companies, of course, but WWE was the one everyone flocked to.

Fast forward to 2019, and a new company comes to the forefront: All Elite Wrestling: AEW; they quickly became competition for the wrestling giant, because this was a company created by wrestlers, for the people, and for the best wrestlers in the world to flock to. They've partnered with CMLL, NJPW, ROH (buying out this promotion to keep the competitors from being jobless), and the women's promotions from each; and when competitors from the other main company are released, AEW reaches out.

A couple of my favorite wrestlers that used to compete for the other company, and are now under contract for AEW are Adam Copeland, formerly known as "Edge", and "Timeless" Toni Storm. Cope hasn't changed much, maybe he's a little more unhinged than he was able to show back then. Toni though, her current run has been nothing short of a masterclass in perfection! I truly believe they were both being held back, especially Toni. Honestly, so many of them were...

Being able to watch the two of them re-debut, as new versions of themselves (and in Toni's case, as her Rookie self, when she was pretending to have amnesia) has been a wild ride. Honestly, the journey of being an AEW fan has been a wild, emotional, intense, amazing ride... I will be forever grateful to Kenny, Matt, Nick, Cody, and Adam (and their respective wives) for deciding to take the leap they took when they did, that lead to this amazing company.

Another Second First Time I've watched someone debut was my favorite tag team, The Hardy Boyz. Technically, this was the third time, but the second time, they debuted separately. I've watched them wrestle as long I've been watching wrestling, and I've always loved them, so seeing them debut together in AEW was amazing. And to see them once again feuding with my second favorite brother tag team, who started the company, The Bucks, was even better. They've feuded before, but I wasn't able to see that feud live, so this was great to be able to see.

All in all, AEW has given a lot of wrestlers a second chance, and in some cases, a third chance, in their careers. Some of them needed it, because whatever company they worked for before misused them, others, because they couldn't get it off the ground before. They look in places most companies don't for talent; they give chances to people who have been told they would never have a chance in the business.

They've gotten a lot of hate for "poaching" people from the other big company, but the talent goes where the talent feels needed, and they feel needed at AEW. They didn't feel needed where they were before, because in some cases they spent the last few months of their contract sitting in the back, not wrestling. At AEW, they're wrestling, they're in feuds, in teams, on shows, PPVs. AEW makes talent feel needed, wanted, and seen; and they make the fans feel noticed and happy. They're selling out arenas for normal shows, that feel like PPVs, because of the high caliber matches they feature on regular scheduled shows, and the actual PPVs are even better than those. The other big competitor should take notes, and control some of their talent, since a couple of them like to actually injure people.

Thank you All Elite Wrestling, for being the place Where the Best Wrestle.