AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[RedTwoster]

7 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Weirdly, having said that, just as an interesting concept I wouldn't be averse to a Hangman/Young Bucks triple threat. The downside is that I don't think anyone's buying either Buck as a singles champion, but it could be a good match, and they could use the current situation of Nick pissing away all of their money as just enough impetus to make them both go for the big money of the World Title, and with enough dissension between them to make you think they might not work together the whole time. Feels like a TV special main event more than a PPV, though, and I very much doubt they'd ever do it.

One thing AEW has been good at is making you think ‘…but maybe they would do that’. Fletcher winning was unlikely, but I totally bought that he might - especially after the Statlander result, but maybe even before that. Hangman losing his first title defence seemed unlikely, but he was facing MJF so it suddenly became plausible. They’ve done this time and time again; although they very occasionally miss the mark (Danielson/Perry being the example that comes to mind here)

I could absolutely see a build in which a Jackson winning the World title feels plausible; and in addition to that, if it were a triple threat, there would be real intrigue in the prospect of the Bucks fighting one another. 

And even if the build ended up missing the mark, it almost doesn’t matter. Let’s say you have Okada/Takeshita on the card, or a Statlander/Storm rematch (or both). Maybe you have E&C vs FTR II, or a big Mercedes Mone match (maybe Mone/Storm for the TBS title?). Perhaps you have Danielson’s return to the ring as part of a multi-person match to face the Death Riders.

It almost doesn’t matter if Hangman’s title match feels secondary - it’s so easy to fill up a stellar card for AEW.

They could do Hologram vs Hologram, for Christ’s sake!

[The King Of Swing]

Maybe I'm over thinking again, but considering commentary actually mentioned Mone matching/beating Ultimo Dragon's title record. I quickly found myself wondering if they put the title on Statlander to get it onto Mone, without sacrificing Storm.

[Supremo]

Title vs. Streak? As an away game, on Dynamite rather than Collision? Against a competitor like Kyle Fletcher? When he’s got an evil clone knocking about?!

I think this might be the end, my fellow Hologrammers!

Edited September 25, 2025 by Supremo

[Chili]

Good grief I've missed Orange Cassidy.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

Good grief I've missed Orange Cassidy.

Callis yelling over his entrance was a massive annoyance. I like Don's work generally but that was shit.

Lots of good stuff on the show. Still struggling with what the major direction is but Statlander turning down the D-Riders and the prospect of Moxley quitting suggests it's coming to an end. Maybe.

Loved the promo work from Hanger, Willow, Briscoe and MJF. Easily my favourite bit of AEW.

Been expecting Women's tag titles ever since they started naming duos like Tara and Deonna so surprised it's taken this long. The belts were beautiful.

A flamethrower is fucking ludicrous.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Good episode, until that flamethrower. Its never been any good as a wrestling weapon, even when Darby did actually use it on one of The Bucks it looked bad.

[Supremo]

Ricochet slowly emerging as a potential pay per view contender for Hangman. He was a spectacular knobhead on commentary during the opener.

[BomberPat]

honestly, I thought that was almost a complete dud of an episode. Maybe I just set my expectations too high, but coming out of All Out it felt that while that show had been flawed, it pointed in some interesting directions:

• Jon Moxley told the Death Riders to leave him and Darby Allin alone, only for it to directly lead to Darby setting him on fire. Does that put Mox out of the picture for a while? Do the Death Riders start to question his leadership or his judgement? No, he's still in charge, and doesn't even miss a week to sell being set on fire. I figured maybe we would get some variation of an Inferno match once Darby showed up with a flamethrower, but no, it's an I Quit match. Is that an escalation from a Coffin match and someone being burned alive? Who knows. Is it finally the end of the Death Riders, or will Moxley just show back up on Dynamite again afterwards? I'm losing faith in this one.
   
• The resolution to "is Kris Statlander with the Death Riders" turned out to be "no, actually, she isn't, and she never really gave any indication that she might be". I suppose there's an outside chance that she does the Crow Sting thing and remains angry that other babyfaces didn't trust her, and that eventually plays into a reunion with Willow Nightingale, but they already fucked that by having them on the same team in a random pre-show multi-woman tag before this angle had even played out.
   
• No Eddie Kingston. He should have been there with a live mic the moment it became clear that he was back.
   
• The big return for Orange Cassidy, and it's in a match that he didn't even win, to set up Hologram vs. Kyle Fletcher for next week with no indication of any forward momentum or plans for OC, no indication as to what he's doing next.
   
• A complete dud of an FTR promo that added nothing to the angle, and only served to spend ten minutes telling us how important Beth Copeland is. For what? If she's coming in to wrestle, who? Stoke? The C&C reunion can't thread the needle between feelgood reunion story and blood feud, and this isn't helping, when all the focus is on Adam Copeland's family and giving him chances to do his Capital A Acting all the time, rather than on a great tag team being back together. I don't want the sodding Grit Couple 2.0, I want Edge & Christian.
   
• MJF spent so long in his promo telling you what he's going to do when he comes back that he forgot to actually say that he's leaving.
   
• No Young Bucks. No Mercedes Mone, Riho, or Toni Storm (at least Mina acknowledged that she hasn't heard from Toni, though I hope they're not just doing another go-around of "Toni disappears after losing the belt" and have something new for her). No Jamie Hayter. No Thekla. 
   
• The announcement for Women's Tag Titles was expected, and kind of cool, if they can stick with it and actually have a division worth having belts for, and have enough women's matches to justify them. They have been gradually building up some women's tag teams over the last few months, so it's clear that this was coming. So why not end that segment with one of those teams, maybe Triangle of Madness, making an appearance to at least give a hint as to what matches we might see, rather than just, "new belts, eh?". 

[RedTwoster]

AEW is so weird right now in the sense that there’s a lot of stuff I wish they hadn’t done, but I enjoyed it all anyway so I can’t really say ‘I didn’t like this, because…’

I do wish that Statlander had turned heel. Stat winning the belt, turning heel and eventually ousting Moxley as leader after he ‘quits’ and the stable lose respect for him would absolutely work for me. It also felt like a bit of an anti-climax given how long the build to this has been; but we’ll see where it goes.

It could be a key ingredient in Moxley being ousted - they pursued Statlander for months, and failed to recruit her. If Moxley quits, that’s another reason for his team to ditch him. I’m absolutely up for Moxley having to slay the monster he created, particularly if it involves a brief reunion with Danielson and perhaps also Eddie Kingston. 

Moxley, Danielson, Kingston, Darby and Statlander vs Yuta, Garcia, PAC, Castagnoli and Shafir? I’m up for that, although the Death Riders possibly need another ‘name’ to keep them credible. 

I liked the MJF promo, with him outright acknowledging how bad he’s been recently. It’s almost like he’s lurking on this forum, given what he said. If you are Max, I hope this works out for you. When MJF is getting things right, there are few better.

Was Stokely’s ‘I forgive you’ and reference to church supposed to be some kind of reference to Erika Kirk? If so that was horrendous judgment and quite a crass thing to do. 

I did like the interaction between Copeland and Christian though, it was well acted. 

Ricochet continues to be amazing. I’d love to see him challenge Hangman at some point, although he probably does need a few more big wins under his belt to feel credible. Having him become the first person to pin Lashley would have gone some way to give him the boost he needs, and I hope they do something like that.

I feel like Mina Shirikawa is rather underrated. She’s always fun to watch and seems over, but she’s being positioned as the person wrestlers best before they get on to the meaningful stuff. I’m wondering if they’re planning to have her and Storm challenge for the tag titles, though. 

 

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

• Jon Moxley told the Death Riders to leave him and Darby Allin alone, only for it to directly lead to Darby setting him on fire. Does that put Mox out of the picture for a while? Do the Death Riders start to question his leadership or his judgement? No, he's still in charge, and doesn't even miss a week to sell being set on fire. I figured maybe we would get some variation of an Inferno match once Darby showed up with a flamethrower, but no, it's an I Quit match. Is that an escalation from a Coffin match and someone being burned alive? Who knows. Is it finally the end of the Death Riders, or will Moxley just show back up on Dynamite again afterwards? I'm losing faith in this one.

With the way they've told this story, I think it absolutely is. Moxley going down in battle, getting pushed off something, getting burned, etc is all more violent but him giving up in a fight is ultimate humiliation. It definitely feels like the lead to a complete change of direction.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

• The big return for Orange Cassidy, and it's in a match that he didn't even win, to set up Hologram vs. Kyle Fletcher for next week with no indication of any forward momentum or plans for OC, no indication as to what he's doing next.

I don't think it needed to be anything more. He came back, looked great, contributed to a big win and the rest will come. Most people seem to come back from long lay-offs and find their feet a bit. I think they'll do it again here. Given they didn't put him in a position more important as a comeback, it's not a come down either. 

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

• A complete dud of an FTR promo that added nothing to the angle, and only served to spend ten minutes telling us how important Beth Copeland is. For what? If she's coming in to wrestle, who? Stoke? The C&C reunion can't thread the needle between feelgood reunion story and blood feud, and this isn't helping, when all the focus is on Adam Copeland's family and giving him chances to do his Capital A Acting all the time, rather than on a great tag team being back together. I don't want the sodding Grit Couple 2.0, I want Edge & Christian.

Didn't love the FTR promo. Was a bit naff. Supermo posted a tweet in the Raw thread about Becky Lynch pretending she was swatting away a bee when she tapped out last week, which is dogshit primary school stuff, and FTR were only about a school year or two better. Poor work. Willow was really good. I don't get any sense that we're going to see Copeland and Beth in this feud, I don't even know how that would work. Maybe Beth v Stoke on TV somewhere, which I can live with, but the backstage stuff was very much about the E&C relationship.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

• MJF spent so long in his promo telling you what he's going to do when he comes back that he forgot to actually say that he's leaving.

That seems a pretty big nitpick. He made it very clear that he was leaving. I don't think it was open to interpretation. 

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

• No Young Bucks. No Mercedes Mone, Riho, or Toni Storm 

Prior to AEW, every show having the same people on it going round in circles and sometimes dominating 4 or 5 segments was a huge frustration of mine. I like that not everyone is on every show. Same for Eddie. 

There's a line they often cross where people miss several shows, or months, with no explanation but as long as that doesn't happen, I do like that they spread appearances out, they cycle some people in and out. If I was going to criticise, I'd use Swerve, who I haven't got a clue of whose whereabouts or why. They've done a poor job with that one.

[King Mal the Glorious]

Swerve is out with a legit injury, they wrote him out by having Okada batter his leg with a chair after their PPV match last month.

[Merzbow]

Ordinarily I wouldn't be so against how OC came back but seeing as there are so many top faces out at the moment I'd have thought they'd instantly push him up there to take on some of the slack. It's starting to feel like a company without a main event scene at all, even bigger stars like Mox and MJF feel very much less than.

Edited September 25, 2025 by Merzbow

[Infinity Land]

Complaints about the depth of the division will always be there, but the right set of champions and challengers can make it work. So i'm glad they've finally pulled the trigger on the Women's Tag Titles. Hopefully it doesn't take as long as the ROH Women's Pure Title to crown a winner  

I looked back on the first/last tournament they did. I know it was in the middle of lockdown, but the Women's roster is certainly in a far better position than this:

Diamante & Ivelisse
Allie & Brandi Rhodes
Anna Jay & Tay Conti
Ariane Andrew & Nyla Rose
Big Swole & Lil Swole
Dasha & Rachael Ellering
Leva Bates & Rache Chanel
Mel & Penelope Ford

[RedTwoster]

9 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Complaints about the depth of the division will always be there, but the right set of champions and challengers can make it work. So i'm glad they've finally pulled the trigger on the Women's Tag Titles. Hopefully it doesn't take as long as the ROH Women's Pure Title to crown a winner  

I looked back on the first/last tournament they did. I know it was in the middle of lockdown, but the Women's roster is certainly in a far better position than this:

Diamante & Ivelisse
Allie & Brandi Rhodes
Anna Jay & Tay Conti
Ariane Andrew & Nyla Rose
Big Swole & Lil Swole
Dasha & Rachael Ellering
Leva Bates & Rache Chanel
Mel & Penelope Ford

There was a ‘Lil Swole’?! Although to be fair, I had no idea there was a Rache Chanel either. And was that Dasha the announcer or someone else?

I’d completely forgotten that Ariane Andrew dropped by AEW for a very short stint, even back then it felt like a strange cameo. 

Edited September 25, 2025 by RedTwoster

[BomberPat]

15 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Prior to AEW, every show having the same people on it going round in circles and sometimes dominating 4 or 5 segments was a huge frustration of mine. I like that not everyone is on every show. Same for Eddie. 

There's a line they often cross where people miss several shows, or months, with no explanation but as long as that doesn't happen, I do like that they spread appearances out, they cycle some people in and out. If I was going to criticise, I'd use Swerve, who I haven't got a clue of whose whereabouts or why. They've done a poor job with that one.

I think there's a line between not having everyone on every show, and at least having some kind of acknowledgement that they exist - I would have expected Jurassic Express to appear on this show, but they at least got a video package to say that they will be on Dynamite next week, and that's fine.

Unless I missed something on commentary, if you hadn't seen the PPV, you wouldn't even know that Eddie Kingston was back, and you certainly wouldn't know that he has an alliance with Hook now. After the sales job he did after that PPV pre-show match against Jun Akiyama way back when, Eddie should be given a live mic whenever the opportunity arises, and it seems mad to be to have not followed up his return with even a pre-taped promo, or someone else calling him out in a promo. If nothing else, they said on this show that Shibata hadn't been cleared to compete - the last time one of the Opps wasn't cleared, it was Hook, and they replaced him with Hobbs, and that was Hook's motivation for leaving the group when he returned; there could have been some acknowledgement that they weren't so quick to get shot of Shibata. And maybe that's coming later, maybe it's not, but I think they missed a trick in not having Eddie and Hook on this show at all. 

In terms of potential women's tag teams now, there's a few that have been teaming together fairly regularly already:
Kris Statlander & Harley Cameron
Julia Hart & Skye Blue
Anna Jay & Tay Melo
Toni Storm & Mina Shirakawa/Alex Windsor/Thunder Rosa
Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford
Athena & Billie Starkz

Jamie Hayter & Alex Windsor could be a fun team if they stick Toni with Mina, and then there's plenty of wrestlers listed on their roster that they're just not using and could be thrown together into a team, and I wonder if maybe the Statlander/Death Riders stuff was a bait and switch and a different woman joins the Death Riders instead, in which case Shafir & Whoever could be a team. Throw in some women from ROH, and guests from STARDOM and CMLL, and there could be a decent little tournament to get the ball rolling.