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The issue with early AEW was their booking system. Having the EVPs each book a division sounded okay in theory but then they each had a completely different idea as to what wrestling should be and what makes enjoyable wrestling.
Cody booked the Men's division like late 80s/early 90s WCW, The Young Bucks booked the Tag division like an indie show given a TV spotlight, and Kenny booked the Women's division like a Joshi promotion with a Japanese indie flair and stacked the roster full of Joshis.
They each booked their favorite type of wrestling basically:
>Cody - Old School WCW
>Young Bucks - Indieslop
>Kenny - Japanese Wrestling but more specifically the cartoony style that the indies do rather than the "strong style" the Japanese majors do
So on an AEW 2019 show you'd have a really serious wrestling promo about wins and losses and how wins and losses matter followed by a more down to earth wrestling match with a "sports based presentation" where a submission seems devastating but then it'd be followed by a tag match full of flip spots and no selling massive finishing moves, followed by a women's match full of colorful characters who are superheroesque and there's supernatural goings on like Abandon and the Nightmare Factory and Yuka Sazaki is a magical girl! and it's just like my Japanese anime, followed by another Men's match which is super serious and gritty etc.
And it was all just really jarring to watch, the booking styles countered each other and made the other sections seem worse. It didn't help that Cody seemed to be into serious booking while the others liked their comedy segments and funny moments, especially ones that popped the internet.
When Tony fully seized control with the booking it got more consistant, but not better as he books frantically, overstuffing shows with 20+ matches, hiring people left right and center, pushing people then suddenly not, featuring people then forgetting about them for months then randomly resuming etc.
