AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[tiger_rick]

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Another decent show this week although feels a bit like they're spinning their wheels at the moment.

I don't quite agree but I can see why it feels like that because Hangman is spinning his wheels. It was nice to actually see him wrestle a singles and hear him on last night's show and the match should be good but it isn't that exciting. I think they should probably have gone straight back to MJF, via the contract, and had Mark Briscoe fuck him up to set up their program afterwards.

In all, a really good show. Mox/Darby, FTR/C&C and MJF/Briscoe have had build I really like, the trios match is a very solid build with Ricochet being a blast every week and Mercedes/Riho is OK too.

Agree with the consensus on Toni. They need to line-up some challengers who feel on her level. Hayter, Statlander and Willow all could. Marina too, if she could work. They do all need some consistent booking though. As fun as they are, they're not challengers right now.

Post PPV, I want to see Swerve, Eddie and the Bucks having something to really get their teeth into. That's the biggest problem for the promotion. Too many people who are just great. You could never book a period where all the great people I've mentioned already, plus Brody, Bandido, Hobbs, Joe, Harley, Max Caster, Takeshita, Julia, Kevin Knight and John Silver are all in a position to be brilliant every week. That's without those currently injured or absent like Kenny, Ospreay, OC, Jay White, Pac and Shida.

Let's just fast forward to Mox & Eddie as tag champs, Harley as TBS Champ and John Silver as TNT Champ. No one will care about anything else at that point. Booking? Completed it, mate.

[Merzbow]

46 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Pretty sure that Omega is completely fucked and on the injury list long term. I doubt we'll ever see a Revolution rematch. I think it's unlikely he's ever a full time wrestler ever again.

Ah I thought he was just taking time off sporadically for hospital work etc? Pretty much being a part-timer to work around his long term health issues.

[BomberPat]

I'm not a fan of Kyle Fletcher challenging Hangman at the PPV. Fletcher's stated goal was becoming the greatest TNT Champion of all time, so he should be working on elevating that belt, not undermining it by challenging for a separate title. I hate champions fighting for other belts without a significant storyline justification, because it always makes one title look less-than - it also undermines someone like Mercedes Moné doing a belt collector gimmick when there are other people either holding or trying to hold multiple belts at once.

I don't know who else you have challenge Hangman at this point, though. I'd have gone with a gimmicked up MJF rematch, and that says a lot, considering how much I've talked about disliking MJF lately. That, or rather than having the Women's Title in a four-way and the men's title in a singles, I'd have flipped it and done a four-way to cover for the fact that there isn't one stand-out challenger right now; Hangman vs. MJF vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Mistico would be fun - nobody's buying that Mistico or Briscoe is winning, but there would be a fun dynamic of MJF having beef with everyone in the match, but also having the magic contract so that, if he didn't win, he could force a singles match right after.

I do wonder, given the set-up was the Callis Family going after Hangman, if the original plan was maybe for him to face Wardlow? It still wouldn't be a big match, but there's a couple of extra notes there in it being Wardlow's return, and Hangman by proxy fighting for the honour of Swerve Strickland.

[Infinity Land]

19 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Ah I thought he was just taking time off sporadically for hospital work etc? Pretty much being a part-timer to work around his long term health issues.

From what he's said this current absence has been planned for about a year as he's seeing a specialist. Meltzer also added Omega's due in Japan to renew his visa. At the very least it's not a new injury. 

[The King of Old School]

5 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I don't know who else you have challenge Hangman at this point, though. I'd have gone with a gimmicked up MJF rematch, and that says a lot, considering how much I've talked about disliking MJF lately. That, or rather than having the Women's Title in a four-way and the men's title in a singles, I'd have flipped it and done a four-way to cover for the fact that there isn't one stand-out challenger right now; Hangman vs. MJF vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Mistico would be fun - nobody's buying that Mistico or Briscoe is winning, but there would be a fun dynamic of MJF having beef with everyone in the match, but also having the magic contract so that, if he didn't win, he could force a singles match right after.

 

Yeah I like the idea of flipping and having a 4 way for the Mens and a singles for the Womens, only thing is the part in bold couldn't happen as they have to give 1 week notice to the champ now rather than a MITB style cash in at anytime.

[BomberPat]

8 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

only thing is the part in bold couldn't happen as they have to give 1 week notice to the champ now rather than a MITB style cash in at anytime.

Ah yes, I had forgotten that part, never mind! I just think it's a shame that, given MJF has been juggling four or five programmes at once, they haven't really booked him in a situation where all his chickens would come home to roost at once. The Briscoe feud feels like something they're having to reheat, because Max spent too much time dicking around with the Hurt Syndicate, feuding with Mistico, and challenging for the World Title to be properly focused on Briscoe, and they had Briscoe pivot to a brief programme with Kyle Fletcher, with the fairly ridiculous justification that he was challenging for the TNT belt to prove MJF wrong for saying he "couldn't win the big one", as if anyone thinks of the TNT Title as "the big one".

Just got to the end of Dynamite, and thought it was mostly great. If I could change two things, I'd have either had Luther back for the streetfight if he's in a position to be back, or had Sandman in his place. I'd just get a kick out of Hollywood Hak, that one's just for me. The other is that I didn't like the Daniel Garcia turn; I get that it adds stakes to Darby vs. Mox, but it feels way too late for Garcia to have been won over by the Death Riders, and too late in general to be adding people to that group. My hope is that it turns out to backfire on Moxley, and a breakaway group of Garcia, Yuta and Marina Shafir take control away from him after he loses to Darby.

[HarmonicGenerator]

50 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Ah yes, I had forgotten that part, never mind! I just think it's a shame that, given MJF has been juggling four or five programmes at once, they haven't really booked him in a situation where all his chickens would come home to roost at once. The Briscoe feud feels like something they're having to reheat, because Max spent too much time dicking around with the Hurt Syndicate, feuding with Mistico, and challenging for the World Title to be properly focused on Briscoe, and they had Briscoe pivot to a brief programme with Kyle Fletcher, with the fairly ridiculous justification that he was challenging for the TNT belt to prove MJF wrong for saying he "couldn't win the big one", as if anyone thinks of the TNT Title as "the big one".

Just got to the end of Dynamite, and thought it was mostly great. If I could change two things, I'd have either had Luther back for the streetfight if he's in a position to be back, or had Sandman in his place. I'd just get a kick out of Hollywood Hak, that one's just for me. The other is that I didn't like the Daniel Garcia turn; I get that it adds stakes to Darby vs. Mox, but it feels way too late for Garcia to have been won over by the Death Riders, and too late in general to be adding people to that group. My hope is that it turns out to backfire on Moxley, and a breakaway group of Garcia, Yuta and Marina Shafir take control away from him after he loses to Darby.

I think it being too late to be won over by the Death Riders is partly why it works for me. Reading too much into it: even though the group are on a comedown and flailing now, and Moxley's losing his power and his influence, he's still got just enough to convince a desperate can't-get-a-break Garcia that he is the solution.

Edited September 11, 2025 by HarmonicGenerator

[LaGoosh]

I wonder if they are going for a Deathriders civil war type thing with Mox recruiting Garcia and Statlander to replace Yuta and Shafir.

[BomberPat]

I do think we're ending up in a Death Riders Wolfpac situation, but I suspect it happens once Mox is out of the picture - I think he loses the coffin match to Darby, and takes a break for a while, and we end up with the civil war once he leaves a power vacuum. I'd go with Yuta/Garcia/Marina and Claudio/Gabe Kidd/PAC (if PAC is due back any time soon; the original estimate was 4 months, and we're beyond that), with Statlander as a red herring - Marina can take her out when she turns Yuta down, and Willow Nightingale make the save, do some will they/won't they about whether that was because Willow dislikes Marina more than she dislikes Statlander. Real fantasy booking, I'd get from there to Willow & Stat vs. Marina & Shayna Baszler.

The whole Willow/Stat story would work a lot better if they hadn't just randomly tagged together on the Forbidden Door pre-show, though.

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

The whole Willow/Stat story would work a lot better if they hadn't just randomly tagged together on the Forbidden Door pre-show, though.

You say that but Willow reminded Harley who Stat is, in her eyes

[JGPuk84]

I really liked the show, I think they have been really fun. One thing I really liked this week was the first 30 mins of commentary. I think it really added to the show and helped me feel more into the Callis vs Hangman feud.

It does feel like they were ready for a Jay White vs Hangman program after All In, but him not recovering led them to having to re-organise everything and jump the gun on the MJF feud and kinda throw everything out. 

I also assume they are going with Fletcher as Takeshita probably isn't doing any jobs before the Dome show. So having a banger while (hopefully) getting Ricochet ready for a Hangman match would be great.

I also miss these random Shelton matches, we haven't seen to many recently after the continental classic.  

It also feels like the Moxley reminding everyone who they are is to set up Eddie doing the same thing for him, which feels exciting as a post Darby feud. 

[Infinity Land]

Just now, JGPuk84 said:

I also assume they are going with Fletcher as Takeshita probably isn't doing any jobs before the Dome show. So having a banger while (hopefully) getting Ricochet ready for a Hangman match would be great.

Takeshita is using his G1 title shot next month. There's a short tour just before. Expecting him to be written off at All Out or the tv following. Then it depends on how the IWGP title match goes. 

[LaGoosh]

18 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I do wonder, given the set-up was the Callis Family going after Hangman, if the original plan was maybe for him to face Wardlow?

The usual sites are now reporting that apparently the original plan was indeed Hangman vs Wardlow at All Out. 

[Supremo]

How stiff Hangman sometimes works, combined with how unlucky/injury prone Wardlow is, they’d have had to clean up Wardlow with a dustpan and brush.

[Infinity Land]

48 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

The usual sites are now reporting that apparently the original plan was indeed Hangman vs Wardlow at All Out. 

Main reason why I hate it, is that you just know it would have been a way for MJF to hang around the World Title scene. I'm dreading the contract situation being dragged out to Full Gear in Newark in a rehash of the poker chip cash-in. It has already felt done for quite some time and ultimately undercuts both MJF & Hangman by the feeling they're just treading water.