AEW - what needs to change?

[Cannibal Man]

I think first and foremost they need to hide the negatives and accentuate the positives.

Edited May 24, 2022 by Cannibal Man

[Loki]

Lots of good discussion here, and a lot I agree with so I'll sidestep the whole "WWE signings" thing and say that for me, the no 1 problem AEW has at the moment is its Heavyweight Champ.

I'm an old school viewer - I like the champ to be the top guy, the biggest draw and I expect the champ to be the centre of attention for the fed.  That doesn't mean getting more tv time than anyone else but it means that his stories, those that revolve around the big belt, are presented as the top story.

And for me, that's not happened pretty much the whole time Adam Page has been champ.  Now, that may be because his getting the belt sort of coincided with this goldrush of shiny new toys from WWE - he won the belt off Omega when Omega was THE top act in the company, and his faction was the centre of tv programming.

Now though you've got Punk, MJF, Danielson and Moxley, all of whom are in many respects presented as more important. Page and therefore the belt have almost become an afterthought - "I'll beat this guy and then deal with you, Champ".

I'll be honest - as much fun as Hangman's chase of the title was, since then he's just not been that interesting.  So for me, what needs to change is that they need to put the belt on someone who they figure they want to start and end every show.  And though I don't really like him, right now I guess that's probably Punk.  Personally I'd rather see Joe (who already looks set for the midcard churn, alas) but Punk is incredibly hot and motivated, so put the belt on him.

Oh, and get rid of the Undisputed Era, even FFD through their bits I'm sick of them

 

[DavidB6937]

After how much I loved the journey to the belt for Page, I always knew his run on top was going to be tough to keep at that high level.. but yeah they've really struggled with getting distracted by other shiny new toys and doing a better job of focusing on them.

I hate that a solution to that is taking the belt off him though. That feels like such a waste. I wish they could just do right by him rather than switching it. I guess we'll see what happens.

[Infinity Land]

I don't tend to have a problem with what gets booked. It's more how it's booked. Sammy v. Scorpio could have been decent but it's had a couple of different end points. Same with Death Triangle v. House of Black.

Battle of the Belts not being PPVlite events has hurt. It's maybe just my perception but they've not done as many special event type Dynamites that helped break up the calendar between PPVs. Battle of the Belts was supposed to be that on paper but hasn't been in execution. With Forbidden Door maybe they'll think about expanding to 6-8 PPVs on an annual basis. That might help give some things more focus.

Doesn't even have to be full scale PPVs but the streaming specials they did in the run up to Dynamite debuting. That's always how I thought they'd treat the first UK show.

[Daddymagic]

I feeling completely 'Meh' about AEW at the moment, even with a PPV this weekend! 
 

Here are some scattered thoughts as to why- 

- Hangman as champ. Doesn't work, and was clear two shows after winning the belt that he wasn't a right fit for it. His feuds have been very lacklustre too. Time to move on. 
- The Owen cup. I think I'm just burnt out from tournaments in general, there seems to be one every couple of months and as someone rightly said there needed to be a goal or a prize for the winner at the end of this to mean something. it's dominated so much TV time the last few months. 
- Feuds never ending. Scorpio and Sammy, the HoB / Death Triangle should have been done months ago. I honestly thought Jericho / Kingston was blown off months ago but here we still are. 
- Pot shots at WWE. There was quite a few on the last dynamite I watched and it came across terribly. Concentrate on your own shit. 
- The need to establish the main event players - Punk, Moxley, Omega, Danielson and MJF should be the Main event players embroiled in top tier programmes for the next couple Of years. I never want to see Danielson or Punk taken to the limit by Davey Bluepants the jobber ever again either. 
- Too many titles. Much like when WWE introduced all the WCW belts; the introduction of all The ROH belts has watered things down considerably. 

[Jazzy G]

It feels like a cross between 2000s TNA with all the ex WWE guys, and Russo era WCW with all the beat downs to end shows. 

I feel like there are a good few people on the roster that I think have been signed with an eye on using them in Ring Of Honor. What's stopping him from taping a weekly show using those wrestkers to stream on the ROH website/YouTube channel? That'll make the roster feel less crowded already. 

He's got Arn Anderson, Dustin Rhodes, Sting, DDP, Jericho and Jake Roberts there that could help with creative, and I'm almost surprised he didn't try and call upon the services of the likes of Delirious and Gabe Sapolsky to help with his booking when he bought RoH. I know Vince has final say over everything in WWE, but he also has his crew of bookers/writers to get the shows into some semblance of shape as well. It's too much for one person, especially with a roster that size. Some people have been given free reign to book their own feuds, but that's not necessarily going to be the best thing either. 

Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, the tag team champions, have been inserted into another two teams' feud just so the tag titles are defended on PPV. When was the last time they had a feud where you thought they might be in danger of losing the belts? I've not checked in a while, but where are these other two teams in the rankings? 

I've not watched for a few weeks, and I can't say I've missed it. I've not watched any wrestling for a couple of weeks, but I'm certainly more concerned right now with catching up on what's been occurring in Impact than what's been going on in AEW.

Impact has a relatively small roster and pretty straightforward booking, demonstrating that not everything has to feel like it was written by Rian Johnson and full of twists and turns. He definitely needs to trim a lot of fat with the numbers.

I also think it might help having a 5-10 minute recap of Dark/Elevation on Dynamite. Have Taz and/or Big Show run through the results, and maybe highlights of one or two matches featuring somebody to watch out for in coming weeks.  It'd also people see how the rankings are changing and lend them more legitimacy. At the very least have Excalibur throw to something "in case you missed it: this happened on Dark/Elevation this week." Highlight. "Dark/Elevation are available to watch here from this time." job done. 

It'd certainly make it feel more important than when they stick that little feed on that scrolls the results as if you're going to tear your eyes away from a ladder match. If they're showing those results, show them during a backstage interview segment where you don't need the viewers' eyes on what's happening. 

[Factotum]

Another add would be to push Bryan higher up the card in main event singles matches now. The guys the best and as much as I like the BCC, I really don't care about its placing on the card. Bryan needs to be your main man with Punk up that top end.

I think Omega coming back will help, but the horrible thing is he'll be stuck with Adam Cole rather than what we should be getting

[Infinity Land]

12 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

I feel like there are a good few people on the roster that I think have been signed with an eye on using them in Ring Of Honor. What's stopping him from taping a weekly show using those wrestkers to stream on the ROH website/YouTube channel? That'll make the roster feel less crowded already.

Probably because he's angling for a proper TV/Streaming deal but want's to do so as part of AEW's deal so there's no conflict.

 

[Jazzy G]

Meanwhile AEW's product suffers. 

[Infinity Land]

Not so sure on that. The bloated roster was there long before the idea they'd split people off into a second company. Some of the ROH storylines taking up space on AEW TV seems somewhat overblown.

Samoa Joe/Jay Lethal is as much about getting Satnam Singh on TV than anything to do with RoH. With Joe in the Owen Hart Cup and wanting him on TV he would have had random matches along the way.

FTR were trapsing about with those AAA tag titles long before they picked up the ROH tag titles.

Wheeler Yuta TV wise has been more about getting into the BCC than anything to do with the Pure Title.

Only thing that would have been avoided would be Mercedes Martinez v. Deonna Purrazzo.

 

[Supremo]

And there was me thinking the most worrying thing about this company was the ongoing Sammy vs. Scorpio feud. Just imagine! As if the stink of NXT Black and Yellow wasn’t bad enough!

[Infinity Land]

18 minutes ago, Supremo said:

And there was me thinking the most worrying thing about this company was the ongoing Sammy vs. Scorpio feud. Just imagine! As if the stink of NXT Black and Yellow wasn’t bad enough!

It was meant to be for the W. Morrissey spot against Wardlow.

[The Gaffer]

I hope this all inspires a full on 'Can I Borrow a Feeling?' version of Hunter to show up in the background of BTE videos and AEW media scrums trying to blend in with a five o'clock shadow and Final Fantasy t-shirt he got off Redbubble. The curtain calls again, like. 

[JimmyAnderson]

Tonight marks the 3 year anniversary of their first event Double Or Nothing.

And the 21 entrants in that events Casino Battle Royale makes you think if they've got the right idea signing up some of the WWE cast offs instead of relying on people like Glacier and Tommy Dreamer for name value. 

Clubs - Dustin Thomas, MJF, Sunny Daze, Brandon Cutler, Michael Nakazawa

Diamonds - Isiah Kassidy, Jimmy Havoc, Joey Janela, Brian Pillman Jr, Shawn Spears

Hearts - Billy Gunn, Glacier, Jungle Boy, Marc Quen, Ace Romero

Spades - Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt, Sonny Kiss, Tommy Dreamer, Orange Cassidy

Joker - Adam Page

[Merzbow]

Isn't Glacier a trainer with QT?