WWE vs. AEW: Who has the better roster?

While WWE has been around in one form or fashion for decades, its newest competition, All Elite Wrestling, literally started this year. Although they haven't aired a TV show yet, they have already fired shots at WWE in their pay-per-view event.

They have just as much or even more money to play with whether they use it to secure talent, sets, presentation or various other things. Vince McMahon and Shad Khan are both billionaires so they each have loads of cash to use in order to spruce up their products.

AEW also offers wrestlers, in general, another platform in which they can hone their crafts. For the better part of 15 years, it was WWE and everyone else. Getting to WWE was seen as the be all end all for a lot of wrestlers.

Now that there are promotions all over the world - and ones in which pro wrestlers can make a living outside of WWE - it has changed the business. Since AEW technically ran the first show under its banner in Double or Nothing, they have close to a full roster. They may add another few members to their roster before their television debut, but for the most part, they are basically set.

Since both promotions have healthy rosters, which one is better? Who boasts the better division for women and which company has the better tag team division? The slides will explore all three divisions and compare the top five superstars from each promotion.

Note: Superstars not currently around aren't considered, so John Cena, Sasha Banks or Ronda Rousey aren't included. Also, this is obviously based on my opinions, but they are educated ones.

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Women's Division

Becky Lynch was a double champ but lost one at Money in the Bank.

AEW Top 5 Women: Britt Baker, Bea Priestly, Allie, Sadie Gibbs, Awesome Kong

WWE Top 5 Women: Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Asuka, Alexa Bliss

All Elite Wrestling has a smaller roster and will likely rely on the name recognition that both Allie and Awesome Kong bring. Britt Baker and Allie are both good enough in the ring, but the true wildcard is Sadie Gibbs. She's barely into her 20s but is already much more exciting to me than the other two women.

Allie and Baker are both perfectly fine, they just don't stand out to me as much as Kong and Gibbs. Baker won the first women's match for the promotion, so she might be the initial face and champion of the division.

WWE obviously has a deeper roster in all divisions, but this is one where it shows. Lynch and Bayley are the current champions of Raw and SmackDown respectively, but the other women in the top five have all held gold.

Bliss is perhaps among the best at character work whereas Flair is already a 9-time champion. Asuka is better than most of her compatriots but doesn't get booked that way. Any number of Ember Moon, Kairi Sane or Lacey Evans could eventually be in the top five women in WWE.

Better Roster Verdict: WWE Wins

It was rumoured to happen, but we are still waiting for a feud between both groups of horsewomen.

This photo is proof that even though AEW might offer some women more of a chance to advance, WWE still has a deeper and fuller roster. Not pictured are Banks - who would be a top performer but has been AWOL since WrestleMania - and the best pro wrestler of the MMA Horsewomen, Shayna Baszler.

Rousey is good but still didn't feel comfortable in her role atop the women's division in WWE. She often rushed through her promos, which is something she, hopefully, will work on. WWE just has more diverse and familiar stars to most fans. She's not currently around, so I can't count her among the top five women in WWE right now.

Priestly, Gibbs and Baker are likely known to fans of all of pro wrestling, but the two most visible names are Allie and Awesome Kong. Both have done character work in Impact and honed their craft there. If AEW's top 5 all set the world on fire right away, they could give the WWE women a run for their money, but right now, WWE's division is better.

Men's Division

There's a reason why Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho main-evented Double or Nothing.

WWE Top 5 Men: Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles, Kofi Kingston

AEW Top 5 Men: Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, John Moxley, Cody, Hangman Page

WWE usually boasts the biggest stars in the world. With Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles and Roman Reigns, they arguably have three of the biggest wrestlers of the last five years. Rollins is currently the Universal Champion and will get to carry Raw as a face rather than play a cowardly heel like when he was WWE Champion.

Kofi Kingston is currently the WWE Champion, but anyone from Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Daniel Bryan, Braun Strowman or Drew McIntyre could easily be next if they were holding the gold. It's just a matter of who WWE decided to pull the trigger with regarding the title.

AEW has obviously built its roster around the members of the Elite, but the nepotism will only hurt the promotion if they don't push wrestlers who aren't members of the Elite. There's a reason why Omega and Jericho were in the main event of Double or Nothing - they are the only two male stars in AEW that could rival any of WWE's top five wrestlers.

That was, of course, before Jon Moxley showed up and shocked the world. He's instantly a bigger star than Page or Cody. Page is still young but is going to be pushed as the first champion.

Cody is a big star, but he's not as big a star as he thinks he is. He's had some good matches, but WWE's top ten are all practically better than he is in my humble opinion. MJF would be five or six for AEW, but since Page is in the inaugural match for the AEW World Title, he gets the spot.

Better Roster Verdict: WWE Wins

Right now, WWE boasts a better roster of male Superstars.

On paper at the moment, WWE has a better men's division. Their five biggest stars are already made men in the business and would instantly claim top spots if they went to any other promotion.

And if they booked some of the other stars better, like Cesaro, Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, they would have created even more stars to rival Reigns, Lesnar and Styles. That might be part of the reason why some Superstars could be looking outside of the company for better opportunities.

One area that AEW will most likely do better than WWE is not constantly booking legends and part-time stars over the full-time roster members. The guys who are there every day putting in the work should get the most spotlight, and it seems like AEW might follow that model.

They have several talented young grapplers like Sammy Guevara, Kip Sabian, Darby Allin, MJF and Jungle Boy. Any one of those men could become a big star in AEW whereas if they were in WWE, they likely wouldn't be afforded the same opportunities. Like with the women, having a deeper roster puts WWE ahead of AEW but booking could push AEW closer once we witness how they will actually run their show on a weekly basis.

Tag Team Division

They faced off while gaming, but not in the ring.

WWE Top 5 Teams: The Usos, the Revival, New Day, Viking Raiders, the Planet's Champions

AEW Top 5 Teams: Lucha Brothers, Young Bucks, Angelico & Jack Evans, SCU, Best Friends

Both rosters are full of many teams with unique gimmicks. The Young Bucks redefined what it meant to be a tag team and how to do it on your own terms. Their use of tandem offence is the best in the business and they were so successful that they were able to start their own promotion rather than join a different one.

The Lucha Brothers rival the Bucks in terms of in-ring ability but are just as devastating as singles' wrestlers. Were the Young Bucks broken up, I don't know how they would fare as singles' stars.

Best Friends and SCU are great teams with gimmicks, but when the feet hit the mats, they are among the ten best teams in the world. And if you haven't seen Angelico and Jack Evans, you have missed some of the most talented young stars in the business.

The Usos and the Revival have been feuding since the WWE Superstar Shake-Up, and it's easy to see why - they are two of the best teams on Raw. The Viking Raiders debuted with a bang but haven't been around since post-WrestleMania.

If you watched NXT or Ring of Honor, then you know that they too are among the best teams in the world. New Day's accomplishments speak for themselves. And due to having Daniel Bryan on the team, the Planet's Champions are easily the fifth-best team in WWE.

Best Roster Verdict: AEW Wins

It is already apparent that AEW will likely have a better tag team division.

Personally, although the Usos have had some good matches, I think that both the Lucha Brothers and the Young Bucks are better teams. Perhaps it is because they aren't restricted by WWE's booking, but I've just been more impressed with their matches over the years than the Usos.

You can usually predict every spot in an Usos' match as there will likely be suicide dives, superkicks, Samoan drops and top-rope splashes. Sure the Young Bucks do some similar moves, but they are much more innovative with their offence.

A lot of people would probably say that WWE's division is better, but have you watched wrestling outside of WWE? Angelico and Jack Evans were amazing in Lucha Underground and were a great signing for AEW. Angelico is literally a daredevil, having jumped off of several platforms above the ring while in LU.

Best Friends are New Day Light, but they have their own tendencies that are just as endearing. And SCU does the scummy bad guy thing better than anyone, but they can also be the good guy team that you want to root for.

It was no surprise that AEW said they would feature tag team wrestling because WWE hasn't featured tag team wrestling in the best light. It doesn't hurt that two of AEW's Executive VPs are tag team wrestlers either.

Conclusion

Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan have torn the house down in every meeting they've had this year.

It's hard to ignore that WWE has just both been around much longer than AEW and that they have a much deeper and diverse roster. AEW is just starting out but has a clear vision in mind as to what type of product they want to put forth.

They want to be different than WWE and being PG-14 is a way to do that. WWE has usually stuck with what worked for a decade at a time, but each decade, it was apparent that they needed to alter their practices. That time is here once again.

Changing how they handled women's wrestling was a big step five years or so ago, but they might have been a little behind the curve with that. WWE should be on top at the moment because they've been doing it longer and with much success.

With the ratings dropping, however, things will change in some regards. With another mainstream alternative coming to cable, will casual fans follow the hardcore ones to watching AEW's weekly show?

Competition should bring out the best in both companies, but it's been such a long time since someone challenged WWE. Both Double or Nothing and All Out were sold out in under an hour. If that's not a sign of a serious threat, then I don't know what is.

While AEW hasn't even had a television show yet, they've already proven that they are not going away easily and that they will give the big kid on the playground a run for their money. It might still be WWE's yard, but someone is barking loudly at its gates.