Well, I just tuned into Raw for the first time in probably about 15 years or so and really all I have to say is: ? what the fuck???
Maybe I'm holding it to too high a standard coming from better days but this is dogshit. I won't even start typing out my grievances because I'm sure you all already know what the problems are. And my friend swears up and down that Smackdown is the only 1 of the 2 WWE main shows worth tuning into, and swears up and down that AEW beats both. I have my doubts but I'm gonna tune in Wednesday to see what they're serving up over there. I really wanted to get back into wrestling by getting into NJPW but fuck me is it confusing when I check their schedule.
Does WWE save their better matches for ppv's or something? And it isn't just the trash, overly-rehearsed/scripted matches themselves... how. many. fucking. promos. need to get cut?
Wrestling has steered hard into having less fans, but having more content to target specific fans.
WWE bizarrely seemingly tries to appeal to both the kind of person who would dress up and go to a comic con and senior citizens at the same time. Most of their TV viewers are 50+ and are just watching because they have always watched it. So all the young wrestlers come out in elaborate costumes, striking cringey poses, and then occasionally a star from 25 years ago like Goldberg will come out and wreck all their shit to make the seniors watching cum.
AEW tries to appeal to workrate marks and people who miss the Monday Night Wars era. It feels like the first hour of Nitro stretched to a two hour show with ridiculous spot fests thrown in. Think WCW with the top third of the card chopped off updated for a modern audience. They have a few stars from the late 90s and early 2000s peppered throughout the card like Jericho, The Hardys and Sting. The big difference from how WWE uses the older stars is in AEW they are regular members of the roster, whereas in WWE they are untouchable supermen.
MLW is similar in structure to early 90s wrestling with lucha thrown in. I haven't watched it in a couple years though.
NWA exists to appeal to fans of 80s NWA shit.
Impact is kind of its own thing. The thing impact resembles most is TNA from 15 years ago, I guess.
I'm not saying these promotions are 1:1 recreations of those eras, that's just what I think they resemble.
So for example, if your idea of the good old days is early 1990s WWF Superstars, you will probably legit like MLW more than AEW.
If what you miss are giant, larger than life characters with broad appeal who ooze charisma like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin, you aren't going to find them anywhere, unfortunately. Nobody has stars like that anymore. The anarchy required in the industry to create them no longer exists.