What are AEW Gonna Do With Three Shows?

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

So with the new deal, it appears AEW will be getting rid of Rampage, and bringing in a new show; Shockwave (according to rumours anyway). 

Yeah I get technically we have three shows now, but... I can't help but feel this is a good time for AEW to take a step back and go "right... how do we position these shows?"

If we end up with a Dynamite and then two B shows, I just.... just can't.

Should AEW reorg their championship structure? Split the roster? Shared storylines? Unique story lines?

Considering the amount of talent I think you could actually pull of three seperate rosters with their own secondary belts, then one super duper mega AEW Champion that floats. But more important, three seperate bookers too. I feel this will also help elevate talent, and make the product more diverse with a variety of stylings.

 

   

[2Xtreme_lives]

I agree I think each show feeling very distinct is a key and a different booker for each is a good idea but not sure it'll happen unless danielson becomes the booker for one Post in ring career.

Shockwave makes me feel like it would be a metal/heat type show with the overspill content from dynamite like that jay white promo from this week etc and a few smaller matches and clips from dynamite

 

[LaGoosh]

If Shockwave is on Fox they aren't going to want a B show which might get a bit tricky.

I won't stand for any brand split talk. Brand splits are terrible and dumb.

AEW has a big enough roster to manage it ofcourse. The key will be big storylines that get people invested enough to tune in. They don't really need to do anything drastic. Though changes of the surface level production and presentation to give each show a separate feel would help.

[DavidB6937]

Hangman on one.

Hangman on the second.

Hangman on the third.

[RedTwoster]

44 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I won't stand for any brand split talk. Brand splits are terrible and dumb.

It’s pretty much all I’ve known as a wrestling fan when it comes to WWE, so with that in mind, I have a more positive view of the concept.

I think this might be one of the few ways they have a boost attendance, in the sense that if you go see show x, you know you’ll see certain stars. The short term intrigue of who might end up where, may get some lapsed viewers to tune back in and keep them, given that they’re back to telling great stories right now.

But just because it’s a roster split doesn’t mean it has to be a WWE roster split. At its most simple, it’s essentially an organising tool, which I’d argue would help tidy up some of AEW’s messier aspects. The championships can remain stationary, but you could have regular trades or so that wrestlers are not locked to the one show, allowing you to do whatever feud you want. In a perfect world, I’d want them to go back to just having Dynamite, but since that’s not possible, I’d happily take this as an alternative. Although I expect that I’m in the minority in thinking this is an decent option!

[LaGoosh]

19 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I’d want them to go back to just having Dynamite

I can see the appeal!

Personally, I'd rather they didn't have a third show at all. Mainly because 5 hours of wrestling each week is too much for me to keep up with. But also because I think 5 hours is just too much for any company to sustain every week. They have the talent to really pack both Dynamite and Collision with stars and stories and I'd like to see them do that rather than spread things thin.

But if they absolutely have to have a third show I hope they do something radically different and original with it rather than Dynamite 2.0.

Edited October 4, 2024 by LaGoosh

[HarmonicGenerator]

According to Wikipedia, AEW have 180 wrestlers on their active roster. Brand splits haven’t usually worked for long in WWE, but short of a massive talent cull, I don’t know what else you can do with that many people other than spread them out onto separate shows.

180!

Edited October 4, 2024 by HarmonicGenerator
Darts?

[The King of Old School]

I think you can have wrestlers appear on say Collision more than they do the other two shows, but don't make it exclusive that they only appear on there.

With the amount of depth in AEW, and with no doubt more to come they could easily fill 3 shows well and split the talent up accordingly if they think about it properly.

Would love Shockwave for instance to be somewhere like they held all the summer Collision tapings, a small intimate arena with a different feel.

Edited October 4, 2024 by The King of Old School

[Infinity Land]

Until something is signed and the terms are known i'm not going to give it too much thought. Having moved on from WWE i'm not seeing them massively commit to another 2 hour show from the number two brand. It was a bit different when the idea it would be a rebranded Rampage on FS1.

As any show isn't going to start until the traditional mid-season replacement window, and Fox has a number of competition reality shows and game shows. I'll just pitch a Mens/Women's Continental Classic format for a 10 episode type run. A trial balloon to see if there's enough interest for a weekly show.

[abucalves]

Make it a new Lucha Underground, Hangman in that type of environment would be great

[LaGoosh]

A weekly scripted show following the characters in their mad day to day lives...I'm not going to lie it would probably be terrible but I would also absolutely love it.

[tiger_rick]

It's going to be a challenge. As previously said, if it's a show on Fox, they're going to demand an "A" show and it would be a pretty big missed opportunity not to anyway. I think they're either going to have to have a gimmick show, maybe a magazine style show with interviews, exclusive matches, recaps, etc, which would be pretty different or they go with a soft roster split and give Fox it's own roster. I say soft because I don't really want to see another show with a shitload of titles and champions of nothing. That's been the biggest problem with WWE splits down the years, the secondary feeling world champions and lack of clarity on who the stars are.

If I had to, I'd bin ROH at this point and put everything into Dynamite & Collision on one side and this new show on the other. Keep a couple of the titles exclusive to it, maybe the trios and the Continental title with it's 20 minute time limit and run low and midcard stories on one side with people who don't appear on Dynamite and vice versa, with the champions and other big stars floating between them and having issues across both.

I do feel that really, they'd be better off without needing to fill up another show. Having a third show as a clear C show to give people ring time and work on new acts is a great idea but that needs to be a low pressure environment. They need to put everything into Dynamite and Collision to get back some of the good will that has been evaporating ever since late 2022.

Edited October 4, 2024 by tiger_rick

[Merzbow]

An A, B and a kids show.

AEW may rightfully or wrongfully get a bit of flak for being too edgy with it's language and violence so why not just have a one hour Saturday show with all the kid friendly characters? Give the multiple masked guys something proper to get into, Butcher can be your big bad cartoon villain, Orange Cassidy can be your main draw while also working the main shows.

[LaGoosh]

I've posted the same idea before! I'm desperate for it! AEW has loads of family friendly characters you can build a kids show around and a good number of cartoonish villains and monster bad guys who would be perfect for it. Hologram vs Lance Archer, Johnny Hungee vs Brian Cage - stuff like that. Fill it up with fun skits and short exciting matches and you're onto a winner. They could bring in a whole new audience. Willow Nightingale as the kids favorite!

Also agree with @tiger_rick about binning off ROH. Take the best of ROH and use that to can bulk up Collision as the B show (perhaps turning it into a...B+ show) while putting all the top stars on your two main A shows. ROH has loads of great men and women who could really improve Collision. I love Collision but sometimes I look at some of the stuff they put on and have no idea what the fuck it's doing there.

Edited October 4, 2024 by LaGoosh

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Loving the discussion. The idea of a kids show is a good shout.