5 Changes AEW Must Make in 2022 to Stay Competitive with WWE

All Elite Wrestling recently celebrated its three-year anniversary, which means for many fans, the honeymoon period is over. Now, management has to think about how to create longevity.

AEW launched with more momentum than anyone could have expected. The initial All In event that led to AEW's creation gave fans hope that another big promotion could exist alongside WWE and remain competitive again.

When Tony Khan created All Elite Wrestling, many fans and wrestlers immediately got on board with the idea. With big names like Chris Jericho, Sting and Jon Moxley involved, it was easy to go along for the ride.

Even though the company was affected by the pandemic just like every other promotion, AEW managed to keep itself afloat by taking up residence at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, FL. At a time when people were stuck in their homes with nothing to do, we still had AEW and WWE putting out regular content.

AEW looks very different than it did three years ago. Sure, some of the same faces are there, but a lot of the presentation has changed. Production quality has risen, new stars have been created, some AEW originals are no longer there and some big names have joined the company in various roles both on and off screen.

Even with some positive changes, AEW has a lot of things it can do to remain competitive in the years to come.

By far, one of the biggest criticisms levied against AEW has been the handling of its women's division.

It's rare to see more than one women's match on a weekly show, and some episodes have gone without a single bout featuring the women on the roster.

Wrestling is still a male-dominated field, but AEW has more than enough incredibly gifted women to justify putting them on TV and trusting them to pull in viewers.

Some stars like Jade Cargill, Nyla Rose, Britt Baker and Tay Melo have received a lot of screen time, but there are plenty of other performers to showcase.

Giving people more of an incentive to tune into Dark and Dark: Elevation may help the problem since AEW only has three hours of TV time every week, but those shows need to have a bigger impact on the rest of the product for more fans to seek them out.

In just three years, championships from Impact, NWA, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Ring of Honor, AAA and RevPro have appeared on AEW television, and many of those belts have even been defended on Dynamite and Rampage.

Having a major promotion using talents and titles from other companies makes AEW feel like the nexus of all pro wrestling outside of WWE, but it also makes it feel way too crowded.

Not only have we seen titles from all of those companies featured and/or defended at AEW events, but the promotion has added more belts of its own. The All-Atlantic and Trios Championships were just added this year.

If we count the unofficial FTW Championship as a title, and we should since it gets defended by Hook, then that gives AEW eight different titles. That would be a lot for any company to handle with only three hours of TV time every week and a couple of YouTube shows, so it's even more difficult to highlight those belts when so many others are floating around.

As great as it is to see the Forbidden Door propped open on a semi-permanent basis, AEW needs to spend some time reestablishing its own championships as the greatest prizes.

AEW only has three hours of weekly television between Dynamite and Rampage, but the company also has two weekly YouTube shows that can be as long or short as the company wants. The problem is that a lot of fans do not watch those shows.

Dark and Dark: Elevation are positioned more as AEW's developmental shows, so you often see talents who are either unsigned or lower on the card instead of seeing the top champions regularly defending their titles.

Both shows can be a lot of fun because we get to see people who might end up being big for the company down the line, but many fans feel less incentivized to watch when they know most of what we see on the shows will not impact the majority of the bigger storylines.

If AEW wants to give itself more time to tell stories across multiple shows, giving us a reason to watch Dark and Elevation is a good first step. Featuring more top stars and having titles both defended and changing hands on those programs would change things quite a bit.

AEW could still use them for developing future talent while allowing some of the names who sell the most tickets to show up more often. It would be hard to balance at first, but once a pattern is established, it would give AEW a lot more time to play with.

One of the great things about AEW is the wide variety of stars that are featured every single week. The company employs dozens of men and women who all make the landscape feel competitive, but that can lead to another issue.

AEW has had several instances where it feels like someone has a great push and then just disappears for a little while because the company needs to push someone else. It's even happened to people holding titles.

Other than a handful of stars at the top who seem to always be around, like Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, Jade Cargill and Britt Baker, it often feels like most of the roster has to go through periods of downtime.

It makes sense to cycle talents in and out, especially in keeping them healthy, but if someone is hot with the crowd and coming out of a big feud, then AEW should continue to feature them heavily so they can continue to grow in popularity.

Unfortunately, the only solution to this problem other than adding more TV time would be to reduce the roster to a more manageable size. Between the people who are signed to deals, the unsigned indie talents and those who come through the Forbidden Door, there just isn't enough room to feature everyone the way they deserve.

This is the definition of a first-world problem for a wrestling promoter. Having too many talented employees doesn't sound like it should be an issue, but it can become one quickly.

For the first couple of years, AEW was thriving. Even in the face of a pandemic less than a year after its initial launch, Tony Khan and the stars of All Elite Wrestling pushed forward to create a fun and competitive product. However, a few incidents have garnered more headlines than the action in the ring.

Sammy Guevara had separate backstage incidents with Andrade El Idolo and Eddie Kingston this year, but the biggest story was the All Out press scrum and the physical altercation that followed in the locker room.

This kind of drama can create a certain level of intrigue, but once it becomes bigger than the product itself, it turns into a problem. Management wants people talking about AEW, but only for the right reasons.

It's possible these incidents were isolated and being grouped so closely together in 2022 was a coincidence, but that is something we will only know as more time passes.

AEW has an amazing roster and devoted fans. If it can work out a couple of kinks, 2023 could be the year when it reaches its greatest heights yet.