Brian Cage, Sonny Kiss, Joey Janela, TH2, Brock Anderson, Fuego Del Sol, Lee Johnson, Lee Moriarty, The Factory, and Peter Avalon. What do these wrestlers have in common? They are barely featured on AEW’s signature shows Dynamite and Rampage.
However, these wrestlers do appear on Dark Elevation and Dark. Both shows are on YouTube every Monday and Tuesday. Luckily for them, their contracts, for most of them, allow them to wrestle for other companies when they are not used or needed in AEW.
These wrestlers compete during Dark Elevation and Dark against up-and-coming wrestlers from the Nightmare Factory, a training school for future wrestlers. The coaches at the Nightmare Factory are QT Marshall, Cody Rhodes, Glacier, and Carolyn Cuellari. Every once in a while, you will see some major stars from AEW like Adam Page, MJF, Jon Moxley, Matt Hardy, and Orange Cassidy make appearances to take on the newcomers.
The only problem with these shows is that AEW has many wrestlers who don’t get enough television time. Some are there one week and not seen again for months. What if AEW did what WWE has now, and that’s to start a development league?
Currently, AEW Dark is taped at Universal Studios Sound Stage 19 in Orlando, Florida. AEW started taping Dark shows in Orlando in August of last year. Since the move, the show has a different feel to it compared to filming at larger arenas.
It’s a small arena that might hold no less than 1,000 people, which is good when introducing new wrestlers to the audience. These new wrestlers have performed at high school gyms or any other venue with no less than 100 people in attendance.
AEW has the right location to set up its development league. First, they need to move Dark back to filming with Dynamite and Rampage. Dark should be used to enhance storylines featured on Dynamite and Rampage.
Next, they need to rebrand Elevation as the show title to go along with a new name similar to NXT. They could call it OCW (Orlando Championship Wrestling) Elevation, UEW (Universal Elite Wrestling) Elevation, or NEW (New Elite Wrestling) Elevation.
This new development league would feature up-and-coming wrestlers from the Nightmare Factory and veteran wrestlers like those mentioned at the top of this article. Adding those veterans to the show gives the audience recognition of the brand while introducing them to new wrestlers. Plus, the veterans can showcase their talent while working with the new wrestlers.
As for championships, the new development league needs a heavyweight, mid-card, tag team, and women’s titles. Adding these belts would help create stars and great storylines.
AEW has all the ingredients in place to make this happen. Now, they need to mix those ingredients to create a true development league.
