Referee Bryce Remsburg Calls AEW 'Wrestling For Nerds'

AEW has enveloped itself in the more online aspects of wrestling culture since its very start. From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards to Cagematch ratings, Tony Khan's wrestling promotion pays very close attention to the internet.

"AEW is wrestling for nerds," AEW referee Bryce Remsburg told the "Should I Keep This?" podcast jubilantly this week, saying he believes that WWE tends to eschew the nerdier side of wrestling fandom. That has allowed AEW to make inroads into that community, of which AEW President Tony Khan is a proud member. "AEW has embraced the nerd culture of wrestling. It's about star-ratings and matches because our owner and CEO and boss is a self-admitted wrestling nerd."

Remsburg shared that AEW's willingness to go to places WWE won't allows the promotion a chance to tell sillier stories, while still affording it the space to engage in lengthier, more detailed stories — like Hangman Page's complicated rivalry with Kenny Omega in 2021. Remsburg said that coming from the comic-influenced CHIKARA promotion makes him fonder of the varied storytelling style AEW has adopted.

"WWE has arguably very much improved in that regard," Remsburg admitted, as WWE now finds itself in the third year of the Bloodline Civil War that began between Roman Reigns and his cousins The Usos in 2020, "but AEW is doing it harder and more prevalently." Remsburg expressed his belief that the difference in tone and method is simply good for branding, helping AEW stand out from the oft-bombastic, straight-faced presentation of WWE.

"If the Pepsi label looked like the Coke label," Remsburg explained, "that would be confusing. So AEW has to be the things that WWE wasn't."