In just four years since its inception in 2019, All Elite Wrestling has emerged as the biggest competitor of WWE, becoming the second biggest wrestling promotion in the United States. The Tony Khan-owned company has certainly brought a new era in professional wrestling that fans had been missing in WWE after the product turned PG.
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In four years, AEW has built a big roster. AEW is often applauded by fans and critics for its compelling storytelling, better-quality matches, and different style of wrestling. Even though AEW's shows are quite creative and unique, there have been numerous ideas they have copied from WWE.
9 Relying On Legends
In the past decade, WWE has relied on legends and part-timers more than at any time in history. Even during Monday Night Wars when WWE kept losing legendary names to WCW, they kept producing their own stars, unlike in recent years.
AEW has also seemed to have adopted the same formula. The first ever AEW World Champion was Chris Jericho, who enjoyed a lengthy run. After the company signed CM Punk, he didn't take long to enter the world title picture and win it twice, ending things miserably backstage. Similarly, Bryan Danielson has been a main event-level star since his signing, and Sting is still trying to go toe-to-toe with a young Darby Allin.
8 Two Mid-Card Titles
WWE has one of the most prestigious mid-card divisions in the world with two notable titles, the United States Championship and the Intercontinental Championship. Throughout the years, many big names have held the two belts before attaining main event status.
Likewise, AEW has currently two major mid-card titles in All-Atlanric Championship and TNT Championship. While there is also FTW Championship, Taz owns the rights to it.
7 Two Weekly Shows
The tradition of live weekly wrestling shows was started by WWE in 1993 when Monday Night RAW embarked on its journey and still running strong thirty years later, making it one of the longest-running TV shows. Six years later, SmackDown, another weekly show, was launched by WWE. Both shows still dominate the wrestling world every week.
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Similarly, AEW first launched its weekly flagship TV show Dynamite in its debut year. Besides Dynamite, the company launched a second weekly show called Rampage.
6 Jade Cargill Is AEW's Chyna
Chyna was called the 'ninth wonder of the world' for her muscle strength, look, and aura. She was certainly one of the most popular women on the roster in the Attitude Era of WWE, who was booked strongly.
AEW's Jade Cargill has striking similarities with Chyna's character in WWE. In terms of physique and strength, they are similar, and Jade also dominates other women on the roster just like Chyna did once. It won't be surprising if Jade wins a title in the men's division sooner or later.
5 Two Women's Titles
With the women's revolution in WWE, the company started giving more TV time and storyline depth to women. As a result, the women's division of WWE started having two separate titles in 2016. While one is the RAW Women's Championship, another one is the SmackDown Women's Championship.
AEW doesn't have brand-based women's titles, but there are two women's titles, AEW TBS Championship and AEW Women's Championship. Two singles titles certainly make the women's division competitive.
4 House Of Black's Similarity With Ministry Of Darkness
Ministry of Darkness was one of the popular stables of the Attitude Era. Living up to its name, it was a stable with a dark character led by The Undertaker.
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AEW has House of Black, and it wouldn't be wrong to call the group a rip-off of The Ministry of Darkness from WWE. Besides their identical dark characters and black gears, House of Black is led by a dark leader like Malakai Black.
3 Bringing Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson's most notable WWE appearance was at WrestleMania 14 main event, where he was the special guest referee of the WWE Championship bout between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Iron Mike's appearance certainly gathered mainstream attention as he was in his prime at that time.
AEW emulated the same thing two decades later by making the legendary boxer appear on the show. He made a number of appearances in AEW, including as a guest referee on an episode of Dynamite.
2 Casino Battle Royale
Royal Rumble starts the road to WrestleMania in WWE. And the Royal Rumble winner gets the opportunity to headline the Grandest Stage of Them All, challenging the world title or women's title.
AEW has stolen the idea to create a 'Casino Battle Royale' match. But instead of one by one, five wrestlers enter a match every three minutes until the last wrestler enters the match alone. Like Royal Rumble, the Casino Battle Royale winner gets a future title shot.
1 Casino Ladder Match
Similar to the battle royal match, AEW has stolen a ladder match version match from WWE. The Casino Ladder match of AEW is too similar to WWE's Money in the Bank ladder match.
Like the Money in the Bank briefcase, a poker chip hangs in the middle of the ring, and the first man to grab the poker chip is declared a winner.
