AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[The King Of Swing]

Nice looking Collision.

Anyway my views on Mone and MJF are well known, so I won't bother beating that dead horse, this week. 

Enjoyed both Four Ways, but not a fan of knowing who opens the Gauntlet's.

Like how I hated when WWE did the same shit with the Rumble for numbers 1 and 30. Just feels like lazy booking.

Rough time on the mic for Speedball. Knight sounded much more confident. 

Ibushi looked alright. Clearly not what he used to be, and no one is ever going to give a shit about Trent so their match was never going to be anything other than watchable. 

Solid show. 

7/10.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Did laugh at Briscoe's 'kosher pickle' line and then seeing Bobby Lashley laughing at it in the ring

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

Did laugh at Briscoe's 'kosher pickle' line and then seeing Bobby Lashley laughing at it in the ring

See, I've seen a lot of positive commentary on this, but it completely ruined the whole promo for me. Its got a whiff of antisemitism about it, for a character who has spoken at length about the antisemitic bullying he received at school, but also it feels so out of line with Briscos character. I thought he was just going to give a redneck chicken empathetic "I know this just comes from a place of hurt so I won't get wound up by it" which of course would have pissed MJF off even more and been a cool dynamic, but no, it's just a set up for a lazy "you have a small penis and are therefore less of a man" joke. The sort that needs to be nailed to a board. 

Maybe, probably, just me. 

[The King Of Swing]

I think Dax is still talking. 

[RedTwoster]

Not the strongest Collision there’s ever been, but I enjoyed the Cole/Alexander match more than I expected, alongside Christian’s interaction with MVP.

Adam Cole has been pretty decent as TNT Champion - he comes across as likeable, and his matches have been good. If they’d divorce him from O’Reilly, Strong and co you’d have a much stronger act to work with. Whatever the case, he’s doing well at the moment.

Mercedes wasn’t great in her promo segment - the awkward delivery, the cartoonish evil laugh - she’s not bad when she cuts short, to-the-point promos, but anything above that drags her and the storyline she’s in down. I’m also not a fan of the ‘don’t interfere no matter what’ line from Mina. It heavily telegraphs that something nefarious is going to happen, and it also defies logic slightly. If Mercedes was to gather an army of wrestlers, interfering and ruining your chances, you wouldn’t want assistance to even the odds? Probably a bit pedantic of me, but I’m still not a huge fan of it. 

[tiger_rick]

On 6/27/2025 at 9:25 PM, Kamran said:

I thought it was a little weird how both Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight spoke about how the tag titles have been held hostage when The Hurt Syndicate have been pretty open asking for challengers. 

Yeah, I thought that was odd, although I immediately forgot about it. In the grand scheme of things, it's unimportant, but a lack of quality control when it's absolutely not what's happening with the tag titles, but is happening with the World Title. 

[Supremo]

Super late to the party, but Dynamite was another really good show.

Really liked the Young Bucks moving Swerve and Ospreay’s match to fuck with them, with Will coming out half dressed. Love outside-of-the-box stuff like that. Makes it feel like a real world that they live in. It’s over a year late, but still excellent to see them finally drawing a line under the EVP stuff. It never really worked, always contradicted itself, and The Bucks will work far better in the storyline as normal wrestlers.

Best Ibushi has looked in years but I still think the days of him being an Immortal God are over. Risky putting him in there with Okada next week. This is the same man who coasted through the Arena Mexico show, when everyone else was working their arse off. I don’t trust he’ll carry Ibushi to anything significant. The man is clearly saving up his Signatures and Specials for the Omega match.

Second week in a row The Beast Mortos has been in a Dynamite main event! A cynical observer would mention that his stock and usage in this company seems to have increased massively since he started dating Mercedes Mone. I wouldn’t dream of suggesting politics plays a part in pro-wrestling, but based on this I hope The Shagger Mortos marries her. He rules. I want him as a top guy.

Nice to see them try and square off Okada still being mates with The Young Bucks whilst he’s now part of the Callis Family. The type of detail they wouldn’t have addressed a year ago.

Love Jet Speed. Not enough endearingly dorky babyfaces in pro-wrestling.

MJF winning The Casino Gauntlet and being Hangman’s first feud as Champion is a great direction. I’m all for it. I was convinced the All In match was going to be Mistico vs. MJF in a Mask vs. Hair Plugs match but I’ll happily accept it as a fun Royal Rumble-style spot. MJF clears house. Looks ready to win. Then Mistico’s incredible music hits.

The only problem with MJF winning The Gauntlet is that it undermines my Fantasy Booking where the Countdown starts, “five…four….three…two…one….” The lights go out. One spotlight in the night sky. What’s that? Is that a parachute? Who’s that, still covered in snow? Is he carrying an AEW flag?!

In 2025, the year of the Triple Threat, have Four Ways quietly became the new, cool, fashionable match type? Guaranteed TV bangers in both companies.

Some good old school heat on Hangman at the end. Good promo from Moxley. You can feel he’s fully dialled in now The Death Riders are clicking. Cute to see they’ve now got their own T-Birds jackets, with the logo on the back. I presume that’s one last hurrah and not an indication that Hangman will lose at the pay per view. Don’t you fucking dare, Tony! I have Ofcom’s details! I’m not afraid to contact them!

[The King Of Swing]

I'm assuming that MJF/Mistico, is being built for a CMLL show. 

[Supremo]

Has John Silver been seen on TV since chasing after The Death Riders’ car on foot?

They should turn that into a bit and make out like he’s been running after them the whole time, across country, Like Forrest Gump. Never quite catching up. He turns up to All In absolutely knackered.

Edited June 30, 2025 by Supremo

[Lorne Malvo]

3 hours ago, Supremo said:

Has John Silver been seen on TV since chasing after The Death Riders’ car on foot?

They should turn that into a bit and make out like he’s been running after them the whole time, across country, Like Forrest Gump. Never quite catching up. He turns up to All In absolutely knackered.

He was injured, and only returned on last weeks ROH. But nobody watches that so they absolutely could (and should) do your idea.

[tiger_rick]

Injuries are part and parcel of all sports, and wrestling is no different, but the way it's handled is frustrating. I'll be honest, I'm moaning without having a solution, but the amount of people who just disappear from this promotion is really irritating. It's probably too much to expect all of them to be written off TV, especially if injured and also if not a major character but, I would like to know what's happening with people I like. 

Some sort of vignette or promo segment with people who are long-term injured just to keep them relevant would be nice. I know the wrestling viewpoint is that it dulls the impact of a surprise return but that's as nonsense as the argument against people coming out multiple times in one show. 

This might be  the hundredth time I've said this but, I fucking love John Silver. He's my favourite lowcard act in all of wrestling. The daft bastard can do anything. I want a weekly update on his rise to glory. I want to see him set goals, see vignettes of him pissing about, going about his day, see him training, see him bench pressing daft stuff with those massive arms, see him driving to the shows and talking about his hopes and dreams, see him winning wrestling matches and blowing the roof off when they recreate THAT Hangman entrance for his (successful) shot at the TNT Title or whatever belt. Give us what we want, TK.

[LaGoosh]

John Silver is the modern day Crash Holly and people loved Crash Holly. It blows my mind that no one in AEW sees the huge potential in having Johnny Hungee as a big lower card comedy act. He's great.

[Lorne Malvo]

2 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Injuries are part and parcel of all sports, and wrestling is no different, but the way it's handled is frustrating. I'll be honest, I'm moaning without having a solution, but the amount of people who just disappear from this promotion is really irritating. It's probably too much to expect all of them to be written off TV, especially if injured and also if not a major character but, I would like to know what's happening with people I like. 

One of the biggest issues I have with AEW is that they don't tend to mention when people get injured (or commentary mention it once in passing so it's easy to miss) but then Tony Khan also loses interest in people for months at a time, so I'm never sure if people are hurt or just not being used. I think in the past year alone I've googled why Tony has lost interest in Trent Beretta, Hologram, John Silver, and a few others I'm forgetting only to find out they were injured.

[tiger_rick]

17 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

John Silver is the modern day Crash Holly and people loved Crash Holly. It blows my mind that no one in AEW sees the huge potential in having Johnny Hungee as a big lower card comedy act. He's great.

Is it possible that they do but he's just been in and out with various injuries? I know that's maybe been really generous to them because I'm a big tribal bastard but, given the way the commentators talk about him, I always got the sense that they see some potential there.

Of course, if this was a proper industry, we might get some answers to this stuff but given there are no real journalists, no real interviews and no real answers from carnies like TK, we have to guess.

[BomberPat]

I think AEW have, in some respects, got better at some of these things - Bryan Alvarez still hammers on the "AEW don't do video packages!" talking point when these days they very much do - but they do have a tendency to allow you to forget that wrestlers exist when they're not on-screen. It doesn't need to be full blown WCW talking about Hulk Hogan's angle during every other match, but even for the people who are featured, so much can happen in a single show that you forget some of the bigger angles if they're not replayed or talked about later down the line, never mind the people who just aren't on TV.

There was a segment on Dynamite a couple of weeks ago where Bryan Keith and Big Bill were talking about wanting a challenge, and it was interrupted by the Workhorsemen. A team who hadn't been on TV in forever, and were barely on TV before then, and I don't think anyone in that segment even said their names or explained who they were. There's a middle ground between WWE hitting you over the head with every plot point and assuming that the audience already has all the information they need, and AEW doesn't always find the right spot there - I was always taught, when it comes to wrestling promos, that you have to hit "who, what, when, and why"; who you are, what you plan to do, when the audience can see you do it, and why they should care. A lot of AEW midcard angles can be very rushed and miss one or two of those points, usually when it's someone who's never on TV suddenly getting involved in an angle backstage without being reintroduced. 

I guess wrestling has always kind of acted like people stop existing when they're injured - the Crash Hollys and Scotty 2 Hottys of the world didn't get the full Beautiful Day rehab and triumphant return video packages - but because AEW has a massive roster and cycles people in and out, it can be impossible to tell whether someone's not on TV because they're injured, or because they're having visa issues, or because they've got one foot out the door already, or just because they're not getting booked.