Renee Paquette Explains What Makes AEW And WWE Vastly Different From Each Other

“Explain to me this: How do two AEW guys wrestle for the IWGP United States Championship? Does Lance go back to Japan? Does Jon Moxley go back to Japan?”
Emilio Sparks (Cohost of Oral Sessions) asked. “Do we get a third match? Because there’s history there. Jon couldn’t get into the country the last time, and they had to take the title off of him. And then, Jon gets the championship back. And then, Jon goes on this lengthy run with the IWGP United States Championship. And then, last week, Lance dethrones Jon. It’s like, whoa, where do we go with this?”

Renee Paquette responded to Smarks’ comments stating, “It’s so layered and so intriguing. There’s really so much to sink your teeth into as a wrestling fan. There are so many deep roots that make the storytelling fun and engaging to watch. That’s something you don’t get to see in WWE.”

With that said, Paquette then compared AEW to WWE and how they describe their storylines to fans. From her perspective, Paquette believes AEW teaches fans early on how to connect the dots when it comes to how these rivalries are constructed. When a storyline sparks a fan’s interest, it allows them time to look up and research how these stories came to be and whether or to get invested in them.

Whereas in WWE, she deems a lot of disconnect and reiteration on what’s supposed to be important – leaving fans confused and unable to comprehend these feuds and how their matchups came to be, thus, causing fans to not take a profound interest in these main caliber contests.

“They [AEW] don’t treat their fans stupid, in terms of not knowing what this is and we’re going to beat you over the head to make sure you understand it,”

Paquette mentioned on how AEW and WWE have built two distinctly different and diverse structures. “I understand the reasoning of why they do that obviously, but I think with smart fans, and the way that people have access to looking into information that they might not know and being able to connect the dots themselves, I think that there’s something really cool about that that people like to have that sense of discovery, rather than being talked to like they don’t understand.”