>>19158371Indeed, like a phoenix.
You've got most of the talent in the industry concentrated in two companies. And I'm not just talking about wrestlers - I mean writers, refs, agents, experienced wrestling staff, all of it. These are people who, if those companies did not exist, would be using their talents to make smaller companies great, smaller companies that wouldn't have the same high expectations that are placed on the big two.
WWE uses them to create a product that gets enough eyes on it so that they can make pitches to their advertisers and partners to sponsor them. That's where WWE gets most of its money, not from the viewers themselves. The product just has to be "good enough". And the ads aren't going away, if anything they'll increase because the point is to squeeze as much money out of that viewer base as they can.
AEW isn't any better. It's aimless, run by a money mark who only owns a big company because his daddy handed him a bunch of money to build it. I'm sure he's learned a thing or two since opening AEW's doors but he doesn't know how to create a product that works. Meanwhile, he siphons talent from other companies that would be using those resources better. He takes workers who might be headlining some indy, throws them in a program for a month or two, then relegates them to catering or the back bench where no one sees them at all. It's a gigantic waste.
Imagine if all these resources were being used in a free market, where no companies dominate and every company embraced that cutthroat "do or die" attitude that leads to greatness. Where creating quality that sparks the interest of people to tune in for the first time really matters.
You can't do that right now. If you create something good the big two will swoop in on the resources you used to build it.
Interestingly enough, it's reflective of the problems that plague American businesses as a whole here in 2025.
