Both. AEW I feel is leaning too much into just wrestling matches, its promos and stories are really lacking (crowds being gone from the product doesn't help either) and its hindering it for me. Kinda bored of the show now.
Yeah, IMO NOTHING has been more damaging to pro-wrestling as an institution as not having crowds during the pandemic.
Not saying it isn't the right thing to do- it had to be done- but quite frankly a have complete apathy to the product right now.
The fun comes from the crowd interaction and reactions, the cheers and the boos. Wrestlers firing them up, or getting their hate.
Its weird, because all we have essentially gotten for a year is the product WWE/NXT/AWE WANTS to portray, which isn't always so hot. I find myself wondering- would Drew Mcintyre get good pops as a champion (I think he would, but we don't really know, his entire championship run has been during the pandemic).
Would Roman be getting good heat or Xpac heat?
On the flip end- bad segments (theres been a ton) would be met with silence or ridicule. Right now, whatever they do, there is pretty much no feedback- its just bad television unchecked. The only metric out there are the ratings, which again, have mostly sucked, but again- Pandemic (which always gives a layer of excuse to fall back on).
But yeah, can't wait for the crowds to come back, which will bring "real" wrestling back in my eyes, because IMO its been mostly putrid for a year now (no matter if we are talking wwe, nxt, or aew).