AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[Chris B]

2 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Slightly? 

If it was the first time, I think they'd have held off. It was used in NJPW last week, though, so I don't think anyone involved thought of it as a debut in the way it actually was for most people. In the same way, didn't occur to me during Hangman's entrance, because it isn't new. 

[Mr.Showtime]

Sorry if it has been mentioned (here or on TV), but Kyle O' Reilly is in two stables at the same time and nobody has seemed to notice! Undisputed Kingdom t-shirt last week, Conglomeration intro this week. I wonder how long he'll be able to drag that out for...

[DavidB6937]

3 minutes ago, Mr.Showtime said:

Sorry if it has been mentioned (here or on TV), but Kyle O' Reilly is in two stables at the same time and nobody has seemed to notice! Undisputed Kingdom t-shirt last week, Conglomeration intro this week. I wonder how long he'll be able to drag that out for...

He should just turn up in a different one each week and no one gives a shit.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

13 minutes ago, Chris B said:

If it was the first time, I think they'd have held off. It was used in NJPW last week, though, so I don't think anyone involved thought of it as a debut in the way it actually was for most people. In the same way, didn't occur to me during Hangman's entrance, because it isn't new. 

Tokyo isn't on fire though and the current conflagrations had not really started last week. You'd have thought someone might have thought about it but there haven't been loads of pearl clutching bad faith fans claiming its an outrage so no real harm done. 

[BomberPat]

44 minutes ago, Mr.Showtime said:

Sorry if it has been mentioned (here or on TV), but Kyle O' Reilly is in two stables at the same time and nobody has seemed to notice! Undisputed Kingdom t-shirt last week, Conglomeration intro this week. I wonder how long he'll be able to drag that out for...

I don't think the Conglomeration exist any more, I think it was just a fuck-up/oversight that the video they have cued for Kyle has their name in it, rather than having him come out to the Undisputed Kingdom video.

The Conglomeration just completely vanished after Full Gear. I complain about this a lot, but I think it's indicative of some of the bigger problems in AEW right now - Orange Cassidy, prior to his match with Jon Moxley, said he wanted to go it alone, and didn't want the Conglomeration getting involved. But when the Death Riders interfered, the Conglomeration interfered to fight them off - they never went after Mox, so they technically never helped Cassidy in the match itself, they just levelled the playing field.

But then there was nothing. The Death Riders tried to poison Orange Cassidy after the match, and have done it again on TV since, and his mates in the Conglomeration never took any issue with it. Willow Nightingale returned to take out Marina Shafir in a pay-per-view main event, and then wasn't on TV for two weeks, never mentioned it again, and the next time we saw her she was just happily wrestling in a tournament. Ishii and Rocky Romero sodded off back to Japan and Mexico without a word. Kyle O'Reilly started getting involved in MJF and Adam Cole's business rather than having anything to do with the Conglomeration. Mark Briscoe - the only member of the Conglomeration who didn't interfere in Cassidy's match with Moxley, which left an open question and potential storyline as to whether he was the only one honouring Orange's wishes or if there was something else going on there - just entered the Continental Classic and got on with his life, never caring that Jon Moxley and his mates tried to murder one of his friends. No combination of members of The Conglomeration have teamed together, or appeared on-screen together, since November. Last week, when Hangman Page beat up Orange Cassidy, Orange had no friends to rush out from the back and save him, because the story now calls for him to be a babyface who fights alone, not because of anything that's actually happened in that story to make it so. 

I know some people disliked the Conglomeration, but even if you did, the answer isn't to just abandon it off-screen and never refer to them again, to abandon every story and potential story that they had open to you. Every AEW complaint I make seems to come down to "does this company ever remember it's got Trios Titles?", but why weren't some combination of the Conglomeration challenging the Death Riders for the Trios belts coming out of Full Gear?

[Guest]

Your point is absolutely valid, and I thought of you when the big "The conglomeration" sign came on the screen, but I feel like Willow got involved against Marina again a couple of weeks ago, so there's at least something with their friendship. 

But yes, the conglomeration seems to have been quietly dropped. Gone are the days of Team Taz imploding and Taz taking a minute on commentary to explain that the team is over.

[DavidB6937]

I mean it's funnier to think that they've split and just not told Kyle.

[King Mal the Glorious]

Edit: Chris B already made exactly the same point on the previous page, I should read further before commenting...

Edited January 10, 2025 by King Mal the Glorious
Hands faster than brain

[Supremo]

Really enjoyable Dynamite this week. Easily the best wrestling show of the week. Left me in a great mood. No Dwaynes. Corporate dick sucking kept to a minimum.

The opener was like my AEW nirvana. Action-packed ripper, competed deep within the Ricca-Bone-Zone, with a clean, decisive finish, where the loser still gets over. With the added bonus of Will essentially announcing Malakai had to go back to his home planet. Bosh! Everyone’s a winner baby, that’s the truth!

I’m sure I half heard Excalibur mention the win-loss records had reset for the New Year, too! Yes! I know it won’t matter and they’ll be forgotten about in three weeks, but still. Promising all the same. It’s as if every year Tony starts with the best intentions of using wins, losses and rankings, before inevitably getting distracted when CM Punk does something that upsets him. I bet Tony Khan stalks all his old exes on Instagram. This entire promotion hinging on whether he accidentally likes a photo on Punk’s profile from six years ago.

Hurt Syndicate continue to impress. Look the absolute business. Constantly banging on about winning championships and making money. Fuck yeah. Proper wrestling! The complete opposite to Moxley’s cartoon nonsense.

Lashley singles matches are still the weakest link of the act, and they work a million times better as a Tag Team, but if you must do a Lashley one-on-one match then you can’t do much better than Mark Briscoe bumping like Prime Mick Foley. Super effective. Lashley and Shelton winning the belts at Revolution seems the move to make.

Casino Gauntlet has became a victim of its own success. That Wembley one was so incredible (honestly, it might be my match of the year), that even a solid, enjoyable one like this feels like a disappointment. Still good though. Great action. Fun moments. Double J getting the big pop. Ricochet being a little dickhead stealing Swerve’s entrance. Will Hobbs was a surprising winner, but he’s a Mox guy, isn’t he? So maybe Mox can put him over strong in defeat. Before whatever daft crime he commits on him afterwards. Maybe drop an anvil on his head?

MJF vs. Double J is inspired. The type of pairing you never imagine, but the moment you see it, it makes all the sense in the world. Hopefully they save this for the pay per view. Given MJF’s ability to wrestle any style, and knowing what a little geek he is for all the history, I bet they’ll have an amazing match. Probably already scouting Double J vs. HBK from the Netflix exclusive event, In Your House 2.

I guess they’re saving Cope vs. Mox for Revolution. It’s the most frustrating match of all time. It’s a match I do want to see. It’s a match that should be a gift to any promoter, and super easy to sell. These two huge stars that have somehow just missed each other. A real Icon vs. Icon match. A booker with any type of spine could tell a simple, coherent story that builds it up perfectly. Unfortunately though, Tony Khan is a cowardly shithouse who lets his top guys do whatever the fuck they want, so Mox and Cope are finding  their own special, individual ways to be shit.

Moxley thinks he’s doing a Netflix crime drama, when he’s actually doing goofy Disney Plus hijinks. And I don’t know what happened to Cope, whether he attended one too many Performance Center promo classes when getting ready for his original comeback, but this SHOUTY GROWLY GRIT stuff is the absolute pits. The actual material Cope had was really good, and it would have worked great delivered calmly in a backstage interview with Renee or something, but as it was, every time he goes into GROWL MODE, I just think of this.

Back to the positives. Harley Cameron is the most talented person in this company. I love her so much.

I thought they did a good job with Kenny Omega. Did everything they could to make him seem big time. Last segment on the show. Showed all the clips of him being a GOD in the Tokyo Dome. Cool, dorky music. I don’t even mind the direction with Don Callis.

The problem with Kenny and Callis previously was that it kept stopping and starting, fizzling out, playing second fiddle to Jericho’s bollocks. Now though, if Omega remains the singular focus, and with the Callis Family the best it’s ever been, Omega’s got a great run ahead of him. TV matches with Cage and Archer. Pay per view matches with Fletcher and Takeshita. All mixed with tags including Ospreay, leading to what you assume is an Omega/Ospreay vs. Young Bucks feud. No complaints from me. The worry was that Omega vs. Okada was so obviously the All In Texas match, leaving Omega directionless until then. In one segment they set out a solid few months of stuff for him to do, ideally picking up some belts along the way before he can Unify with Okada.

Obviously the dream scenario would have been for them to just pivot everything and have Omega put an immediate stop to Jon Moxley’s Looney Toon Adventures (maybe painting a big black hole on the ground for all The Death Riders to fall into?), but that was never going to happen. Looking at this realistically, and what could have been, I’m a satisfied Omega fanboy for now.

However, as always, I reserve the right to dropkick my TV if I see a single glimpse of Chris Jericho involved in any of this. Actually, his contract was due in 2025, wasn’t it? And he was nowhere to be seen on this show….

IS IT?

COULD IT BE?!

[The King Of Swing]

Not a lot to say really. Just a solid two hours of wrestling, which is all I really want.

[RedTwoster]

9 hours ago, Supremo said:

However, as always, I reserve the right to dropkick my TV if I see a single glimpse of Chris Jericho involved in any of this. Actually, his contract was due in 2025, wasn’t it? And he was nowhere to be seen on this show….

IS IT?

COULD IT BE?!

Given what he meant to the company in its early days, it’s mad that he’s at a point that if he leaves, it’ll be under a cloud this dark. When Cody left, the prospect of him in WWE felt interesting, same with Punk. I don’t know if there’s any coming back from the level of stale Jericho is. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

Given what he meant to the company in its early days, it’s mad that he’s at a point that if he leaves, it’ll be under a cloud this dark. When Cody left, the prospect of him in WWE felt interesting, same with Punk. I don’t know if there’s any coming back from the level of stale Jericho is. 

I think there is. I think a new playground will allow him to try new things, it feels like that’s been his AEW run to a tee, but being back in WWE he’ll change again and I’m sure the fans would lamp him up.

[Supremo]

The change of scenery would help Jericho massively. The Royal Rumble countdown suddenly morphing into the Jericho Countdown Titan Tron? It’d get a huge pop.

Half the problem with Jericho is that he’s done everything possible and is just lingering around like a bad smell. He desperately needs to jump.

I don’t think going back to WWE would be anywhere near as successful as Cody, but then who could have even imagined Cody’s success before it happened? He was a complete joke by the time he left AEW. He’s now the biggest thing going.

It’s the best thing about having two mainstream companies; fortunes can completely change depending on where guys go. Just listen to this pop for Penta on last week’s Raw!

Can you even imagine how insufferable the inevitable podcast with Jericho, Cody and Punk would be though? All licking each other’s bum?

“We’re kind of the three last guys to jump back to WWE….”

[DavidB6937]

As long as he doesn't bring the fucking Learning Tree shit with him.

[RedTwoster]

31 minutes ago, Supremo said:

The change of scenery would help Jericho massively. The Royal Rumble countdown suddenly morphing into the Jericho Countdown Titan Tron? It’d get a huge pop.

Probably, but then reality would set in. Even with a change of scenery, his ring work is sub-par, and for someone who prides himself at reinvention, he’s not been particularly good at it in recent years.

I’m not sure he has it in him to be interesting anymore, and there’s always going to be the bad taste that lingers surrounding whatever it was that happened with Kylie Rae. But even ignoring that, I think he’s past it. Maybe I’m wrong, and it’ll be the spark he needs. I do think he’ll end up there, though.