Reason for AEW Revamping Presentation on Live Television

AEW continues to captivate audiences with its dynamic and innovative approach to professional wrestling. The March 6th edition of AEW Dynamite marked the beginning of a new season, showcasing a revamped presentation that breathed new life into the show.

One of the most noticeable changes was the debut of a brand-new set, featuring vibrant colors and updated graphics that added a fresh aesthetic to Dynamite. The show also unveiled a new opening video set to the song “POP” by Mikey Rukus, further enhancing the energetic atmosphere.

AEW’s Executive Vice President & Head of Global Production, Michael Mansury, who left WWE to join th promotion, played a key role in revamping AEW’s presentation on live television and spoke about the evident changes seen in recent memory, while also revealing his initial reaction on seeing the old AEW set, in a recent interview on AEW Restricted podcast.

“I joined in December of ’22. I joined I believe Winter is Coming ’22 was my first show, so in Texas, right? I learned that in January when we were kicking off the year with Dynamite in Seattle, Washington that we were going to roll out a brand new Dynamite look, a brand new Dynamite set and I was like, alright, cool. That’s great. Something to look forward to. I can’t wait to see it. I didn’t really know what was going on. When we arrived in Seattle that day and I saw the set, it was cool, but it wasn’t my favorite thing, just speaking honestly here. I saw the new graphics, and I’m not gonna lie to you, and this has nothing to do with the fact that I spent the bulk of my career there, but I remember walking in that day when they were starting to run through elements and stuff I looked, and I was like, ‘Oh, that looks like Survivor Series, sort of look.’ At this point, I’m maybe three weeks into the job at AEW. I’ve been out of wrestling for a couple of years at this point doing MMA and working with Pat McAfee and his group in Indianapolis, but that was the first thing that hit me was man, that red and blue.”

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Moreover, he also shed light on his initial conversations with AEW President Tony Khan regarding the changes and also brought his innovative approach to revamping the entire look and feel of AEW’s televised programming.

“I started to have preliminary conversations with Tony in terms of the new look for next year and also we began talking about the set. That theme was there, that restoring the feeling, but me personally, I didn’t want to do a full reversion back to what was. For me, I was of the mindset of let’s pay homage to day one, but let’s also show that AEW is continuing to grow, continuing to evolve. So when I got together with our internal team, both on the inner arena and the post production side, and then we also involved the team from WBD as they’re phenomenal collaborators to work with, you know, case in point are those what we’re calling the ready to fight from those that have been airing across the WBD networks that have just been so awesome and a fresh coat of paint and a different way to kind of attack promotion for a wrestling organization. We wanted to kind of tip our cap and acknowledge what brought AEW to the dance, but also show you like, hey, we’re also thinking about growth and moving towards the future. So that was the idea behind it. That’s why even with that colorful presentation and vibe of the new Dynamite package, it’s a throwback to the color splash in terms of just that vibrance and that eye-catching, eye grabbing sort of color palette, but it’s an evolution of it. It’s not a direct, just sort of quote unquote rip off of it. It’s just more like, hey, we acknowledge you.“

Mansury concluded his statement on AEW’s new presentation by beefing up AEW’s signature tunnels, paying homage to their past and giving it an evolutionary look.

“When we were coming into designs and when I was talking to our team, I said, in terms of the LED aesthetic or whatever, that’s kind of last on priority. For me, what I’d like to do is, let’s take the tunnels, because we still had those tunnels, they were in one of our warehouses in Orlando, but let’s beef them up. Let’s figure out a way that we can take these tunnels and again, homage to the past, but at the same time, evolution to the future.”

As AEW enters a new era, fans can look forward to exciting developments and innovations as the company continues to push the boundaries of professional wrestling.

What are your thoughts on AEW revamping its entire presentation for live television? Sound off in the comments!