This came across though I've been thinking it for a while now. It really hit for me last Tues when he was malfunctioning what do y'all think
I don't think that should be any sort of surprise to anyone.
People just want wrestling on TV that matches their tastes - NXT Black/Gold was already entertaining a lot of the fans that eventually became AEW regulars, but WWE couldn't resist noticing its success and pushing it to the point it lost some of its "hidden gem" magic.
AEW arriving at a similar time as NXT's shark-jumping and eventual rebrand gave AEW a massive early image boost - it was like one door opening as another closed - now with NXT coming back into its own (just with an awful colour scheme) fans are split - both brands offer high quality, indie-adjacent pro-wrestling and production that make the fan feel more "hardcore" than Raw or Smackdown.
The factional stuff is massively overblown; most wrestling fans have never "hated" WWE, they just got frustrated at the lack of choice... now there is choice, people will go wherever there's a show that feels like it's targeted at "them" and AEW and NXT are both pretty good options.
The only fans who truly confuse me are the ones who actively want WWE competition to fail despite not being shareholders or anything. But I have a feeling they're actually a very small minority.
