AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[tiger_rick]

5 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

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. 

They advertised Eddie & Hook vs. Bill & Bry for Collission. Agree, they could have done more but they obviously will on Saturday.

7 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

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

This and Twoster's post about Mina have made me gutted that Mina & Mariah aren't able to carry the titles off the bat. That would be so good.

[Infinity Land]

21 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

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. 

It was that Dasha.

Lil Swole is someone you may have heard of, Nicole Savoy. Regular with Shimmer, Mae Young Classic participant. She'd just started working for ROH before things shutdown. There were rumours of AEW, ROH, WWE having interest in signing her to a proper deal but nothing ever came of it. 

[RedTwoster]

I’ve been wanting to see women’s tag titles for some time, and I’d be even happier if it led to AEW abandoning their trios titles, which have become a bit of a hindrance. 

58 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

This and Twoster's post about Mina have made me gutted that Mina & Mariah aren't able to carry the titles off the bat. That would be so good.

They’d have been a fantastic choice. I really hope that AEW continue to bolster their women’s division, allowing them to make the tag division feel special. They have the best women’s division in wrestling, and theres serious potential here. They’ve already established a mentor/mentor relationship between Emi Sakura and Riho, and I’d love to see them as a full-time team. Similarly, Nyla Rose is one of their better female wrestlers on the mic - teaming her up with someone smaller and faster could be a lot of fun, or, alternatively, teaming her up with another killer - Serena Deeb or Deonna, maybe? 
 

 

47 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

It was that Dasha.

Lil Swole is someone you may have heard of, Nicole Savoy. Regular with Shimmer, Mae Young Classic participant. She'd just started working for ROH before things shutdown. There were rumours of AEW, ROH, WWE having interest in signing her to a proper deal but nothing ever came of it. 

The name rings a bell for sure, and after googling her the face does too. I can’t remember much more about her though including, crucially, if she’s actually any good.

[LaGoosh]

Was the flamethrower stupid? Definitely yes.

But my favourite time as a wrestling fan is when I was 11. And 11 year old LaGoosh would have thought it was the coolest shit ever.

So it gets a pass from me.

[BrodyGraham]

This was the first Dynamite in a few weeks that I watched without being distracted by my phone or whatever else was around. And then Darby Allin comes shambling out waving a fucking flamethrower about and makes me feel like I've wasted 2 hours when I could have been sleeping or doing any number of things.

That's a real shame because before that I'd really enjoyed the show, but Jesus they don't half know how to pull their own pants down, do they?

[Lorne Malvo]

Thought it was a good show this week but still some issues.

Was happy to see Lee Moriarty get a bit of a showcase in his hometown, he's become one of my favourite AEW/ROH guys to watch in-ring over the last year.

Willow's line of 'women like Beth is the reason women like me don't have to take shit from men like you' was tremendous. I still don't think they know what they've got with Willow. She's so good.

Orange Cassidy is back! I'm not too mad at him not really doing that much here, I'm just happy to see him again. Him coming out of the painting was a little too cute for me but I loved all of the blatant hints in the Conglomeration promo and am strongly considering making Hologram in shades my new avatar.

The thing I disliked most about this episode was Hangman coming to the aid of The Opps. Really can't be arsed with Hangman vs Death Riders/Moxley again so soon after they wrapped it up last time.

Wasn't there a backstage segment a few weeks back where Hangman said he would give Mark Briscoe a shot if he beat MJF, or something along those lines? Please Tony, don't do that thing of making your babyfaces look like massive liars. I'd had enough of that with Ospreays 'I'm going to fight the Death Riders... in about 5 months after I've feuded with everyone else'.

Womens tag titles are a good idea. Let's hope they get an actual division and treated with some respect before they go the way of the Trios belts.

I'm all in on Stone Cold Kris Statlander. A proper feel-good moment with her taking out Wheeler then giving Mox the finger.

Don't know why the flamethrower is getting such a negative reaction in all honesty. People in AEW having mad signature weapons is awesome. Mox with his fork, Darby with his flamethrower, Eddie with the petrol can. I really hope the I Quit match either wraps the Death Riders story up or moves it into a different direction.

Also hyped to see my boy Komander is back on Collision too!

Edited September 25, 2025 by Lorne Malvo

[LaGoosh]

I enjoyed that Dynamite although I'm in a bit of a weird place with AEW currently. They've got an incredible roster and the vast majority of the stuff they are putting on is fun to watch but at the same time it feels like there's no long term direction for almost anyone right now and you've got this roster packed to the gills with huge potential but just nothing is happening and no one is really doing that much. It's weird.

Something I love about AEW is with the roster being so stacked that there's matches you never considered for whatever reason but then AEW puts them on screen together and you're like "oh that'd be cool!". I never considered a Samoa Joe vs Pac match but seeing them interact this week I instantly wanted to see that match!

My favorite parts this week was the Kris Statlander/Deathriders stuff. Gave her a huge momentum boost and really established her as a top act. And Willow coming out to interrupt FTR. I love stuff like that because it makes it feel like a real world where every act on the roster is connected rather than in their own immediate story bubbles. Of course Willow would come out to talk FTR down when they were acting like vile heels and of course Jet Speed would come out to help her out, they are good guys who aren't just going to sit back and let FTR do some devious shit even if they have no prior link to either them or Willow. It's just natural story telling for good guys and bad guys. Now book Willow vs Big Stoke!

[Lorne Malvo]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

I enjoyed that Dynamite although I'm in a bit of a weird place with AEW currently. They've got an incredible roster and the vast majority of the stuff they are putting on is fun to watch but at the same time it feels like there's no long term direction for almost anyone right now and you've got this roster packed to the gills with huge potential but just nothing is happening and no one is really doing that much. It's weird.

 

This is exactly where I am too. 

I think part of the issue is that AEW used to be really good at long-term storytelling. The first few years of the world title, from Jericho to Moxley to Omega to Hangman was pretty much perfectly booked. But even further down the card, you had Orange Cassidy winning the International Championship by beating Pac, a rivalry which had started two years prior and was always bubbling under the surface.

They used to be really good at planting seeds and calling back, revisiting things then paying them off at the best moment. And it just seems that that long-term planning has gone. 

Edited September 26, 2025 by Lorne Malvo

[tiger_rick]

55 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I enjoyed that Dynamite although I'm in a bit of a weird place with AEW currently. They've got an incredible roster and the vast majority of the stuff they are putting on is fun to watch but at the same time it feels like there's no long term direction for almost anyone right now and you've got this roster packed to the gills with huge potential but just nothing is happening and no one is really doing that much. It's weird.

I think that's impossible to argue. In some ways, I think there's always a natural lull after you build to something completely overarching like Hangman winning the belt but, the job they've done building heels for Hangman again is really poor. There are 100 posts a week complaining about MJF but he's still the only top-line heel in the company right now other than Moxley. Everyone else feels like such a come down. I've proposed Okada but even he's not on the level I'd like.

Elsewhere, there's no obvious end goal for anything at the moment that seems obvious. Not that I want Hangman's reign to end, I'd have him carry the belt for a good year but there needs to be a seed set of a next big story or match. If not for injury, you'd imagine it'd be Ospreay so maybe they hold off until that's possible but they'll lose all momentum if there's nothing else in the meantime.  

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

And Willow coming out to interrupt FTR. I love stuff like that because it makes it feel like a real world where every act on the roster is connected rather than in their own immediate story bubbles. Of course Willow would come out to talk FTR down when they were acting like vile heels and of course Jet Speed would come out to help her out, they are good guys who aren't just going to sit back and let FTR do some devious shit even if they have no prior link to either them or Willow. It's just natural story telling for good guys and bad guys. Now book Willow vs Big Stoke!

I thought Willow did a great job, but I still have issues with that segment - one is what is it building towards? If Willow isn't going to wrestle FTR, what purpose does it serve? And I love Jet Speed, but why Jet Speed? Willow knows that FTR are dickheads who would have no problem laying hands on her - which also brings up the weirdness around intergender wrestling where if Willow, or Beth Copeland, or any woman takes a move from a man it's a diabolical act, despite the fact that they are also trained pro-wrestlers - so, gender aside, why not have back-up in the first place? We saw Willow earlier in the night hanging out with the Conglomeration, why not have Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong backing her up? 

I agree that it makes things connected, but it makes them connected in a way that feels about early '90s, where all the babyfaces are friends just by virtue of all being babyfaces, rather than leaning on pre-existing relationships. But then Jet Speed are a very '90s Saturday Night-coded tag team (I mean this as a compliment) anyway.

I hoped this week's show would roll with some of the developments from All Out and really feel like a launchpad for some new stories, and it wasn't that at all. But given next week is the big anniversary episode, it feels like they were more focused on using this week to set up matches for next week, and maybe there we will get a better indication of what's next. It's a match I've been predicting all year, but I do think maybe at Wrestledream they should go with either Hangman & Omega vs. the Young Bucks (w/Don Callis) or Hangman & Omega vs. Takeshita & Okada, and pull the trigger on the Takeshita babyface turn, there. Both could be built up as big enough matches that they would take precedent over Hangman defending against a tin can challenger, and would allow time to build someone up as a credible challenger in time for Full Gear rather than rushing somebody into that spot. 

[LaGoosh]

57 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

There are 100 posts a week complaining about MJF but he's still the only top-line heel in the company right now other than Moxley. Everyone else feels like such a come down. I've proposed Okada but even he's not on the level I'd like.

I think this is the result of the stop start booking AEW is so fond of. They get things hot then do nothing and then months down the line you're kind of fucked for options because you haven't got the next things lined up.

For a few examples, Ricochet beat Mark Briscoe in a brutal Stretcher match months ago but has done little since. Okada beat Kenny Omega in the semi-main event of All In but has done nothing of note since. Takeshita is a guy the fans have been desperate to get behind for over two years now but they've never really got behind him. All three of those guys should be very credible World Championship challengers by now.

It's all well and good and important to book your top acts as top acts and to be dominant but if you're not preparing for the future at the same time you very quickly end up in the "well, now what?" situation that AEW are in at the moment.

Edited September 26, 2025 by LaGoosh

[tiger_rick]

12 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think this is the result of the stop start booking AEW is so fond of. They get things hot then do nothing and then months down the line you're kind of fucked for options because you haven't got the next things lined up.

For a few examples, Ricochet beat Mark Briscoe in a brutal Stretcher match months ago but has done little since. Okada beat Kenny Omega in the semi-main event of All In but has done nothing of note since. Takeshita is a guy the fans have been desperate to get behind for over two years now but they've never really got behind him. All three of those guys should be very credible World Championship challengers by now.

It's all well and good and important to book your top acts as top acts and to be dominant but if you're not preparing for the future at the same time you very quickly end up in the "well, now what?" situation that AEW are in at the moment.

I dunno if it's just the stop-start stuff as much as a combination of them being more of a babyface territory and not wanting to run through their babyfaces and also the focus being so much on the D-Riders that all the babyfaces are tied up with them.

Your examples are great. The thing with Ricochet is that he didn't have to run through any babyfaces. They established him as a brilliant little shit bag. They established that he could compete. All he's needed to do for the last few months is hang around with top acts and call out the top babyface. Months of him being a twat to Hangman without getting commupence would have put him in a great position.

Okada being just another guy in the Callis family hurts him, I think. It's hard to argue with his record in the company but as much as the commentary hammers that home, the rest of his presentation doesn't help inform the viewers that he's a top star. He should probably have had his own manager and not been in a group, either a fresh face or by having Callis go all in on him, which I think would have been better. The fact that Callis reached for Fletcher to face Hangman rather than him doesn't help. 

Takeshita's time will come, I'm sure but, he's so good and has everything that it should have been long before now. He should have been a major heel threat and challenger already so that now, when he looks ready for a big face turn and run, they'd have got the value out of him as both. Like The Rock in 1998 going into 1999.

Is there a big face who could turn on Hangman? I wondered about Joe during this week's show. He has some credibility as one of the few former World Champs. Maybe Eddie if he can find some form. I wouldn't ever turn the likes of OC, Briscoe or Darby, they should be lifelong faces.

Edited September 26, 2025 by tiger_rick

[BomberPat]

It might just be the stop-starting booking, as you say, but it definitely feels like some big plans got shifted around this year. One of the most unforgivably shit bits of booking in any promotion was MJF being pressured into cashing in his contract for a title match, and then next week saying "nu uh, I didn't", yet still having the match. Inexcusable. That on top of that he completely wasted his time with the Hurt Syndicate, only to have that whole story blown off with no resolution, that could be typical MJF and AEW weirdness, but it feels like much more of an abrupt pivot. Ricochet suddenly being brought back into the orbit of the Hurt Syndicate feels like a side-effect of that, when really they should have been establishing him and GOA as credible Trios Champions almost as soon as they started teaming. 

You mention Ricochet beating Briscoe, and it's early days, but what about Briscoe beating MJF? MJF is a former World Champion, one of the major players of the promotion that they always make sure is doing something, and he loses the blow-off match to Briscoe, who is then straight back to doing comedy Conglomeration promos on Dynamite, and being the fourth or fifth most important wrestler in a six-man tag. MJF, meanwhile, is the one who gets the promo to explain his character and where he's at. While it's not nearly as egregious, it puts me in mind of MJF finally losing to Wardlow, but ensuring that all of the conversation was around him and his contract, not around the fact that he'd just lost the big match. 


I think Okada is a victim of a couple of things - one is that they clearly want the Unified Title to stand up as almost an equivalent to the World Title in terms of prestige, but they haven't done enough groundwork to make it that yet. The other is that Okada being with Don Callis was, as a standalone decision, a great move to add heat to the match with Omega, to make it clear that it was going to be a very different match to the ones they had in New Japan, and to continue exploiting Callis' history with Omega. And early on, it felt like Okada was a separate business deal Callis had made, not a member of the Don Callis Family, but now he's just working tags with the rest of them, there's a lot less focus on him, particularly as Callis keeps recruiting more people, when the story between Callis, Okada and Takeshita is that Callis doesn't care about Takeshita now he has a new golden goose. That water gets muddied when there's a bunch of other people in that faction.

Now, all of that might work if the point of the Callis Family getting so big is to create a heel factory for Takeshita to work through when he turns face. Takeshita is almost certainly winning the IWGP Title next month, and I assume the big match is Okada vs. Takeshita Champion vs. Champion, it's just a matter of when we get there; Wrestledream is maybe too soon, but I could see the Takeshita face turn happening there. They could potentially do it at Full Gear or World's End, with a rematch at the Tokyo Dome in January, assuming Okada isn't doing something with Tanahashi for that show. 

 

One of AEW's strengths is that their roster are very young - MJF still isn't even 30, Jay White, Ospreay and Darby are only 32, Hangman and Swerve are 34, Bandido's 30, Takeshita's 30, Jack Perry's 28, Kyle Fletcher is 26 and just credibly main evented a PPV. Even guys that have been around the block aren't as old as you'd think - Nick Jackson and Ricochet are 36, Okada is 37. There are outliers in your Copelands and Hurt Syndicates, but for the most part, it's probably the youngest the core or upper echelon of a major promotion's roster has been in the last twenty years. That's great in that they all hopefully have long careers ahead of them, but I also think it makes AEW sometimes feel a bit complacent about not being in any hurry to pull the trigger.

Edited September 26, 2025 by BomberPat

[Lorne Malvo]

Okada is his own worst enemy, for me. If you want to be taken seriously as a top star who could be a convincing world champion, or even a legitimate world champ challenger, you should probably get your arse out of second gear every once in a while. 

[tiger_rick]

4 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

That on top of that he completely wasted his time with the Hurt Syndicate, only to have that whole story blown off with no resolution, that could be typical MJF and AEW weirdness, but it feels like much more of an abrupt pivot.

Yeah, that crosses my mind every time I see either of them on screen. As one of the people who actually liked it, it's annoying that it ended so abruptly and then, when you could still forgive that if it was followed up, was never mentioned again. 

As with lots of things in AEW, it's hard to know if TK just didn't like it or if outside forces dictated it.