AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[Chris B]

40 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

The crowd were great, and really lifted a lot of stuff that I otherwise might not have liked.

The Gunns return was great, but my only criticism of it is that they shouldn't have done it on the same show as Jay White saying that he had to ally with Copeland and FTR because he was otherwise on his own. Where were the Gunns when their mate was getting into a scrap with the Death Riders early on in the show, or talking about how none of his faction were around at the moment?

As ever, AEW could be so good by just doing the work to connect the dots a little more.

Personal head canon for that kind of stuff - they were at the show to get cleared. Having got cleared, they went straight out for the challenge. If they'd been cleared before the show, they'd have been out earlier.

[LaGoosh]

I think Mark Davis was ok. Needs to drop those chops though and do something different - we already have Brody King doing that and better. The Curb Stomp with a knee move was cool and should be his finish. I'm happy with him in the Callis Family, pretty easy to explain it away if they wanted to with a quick "Ospreay forgot all about me and left me behind in the dust, my buddy Kyle talked some sense into me so I sold my soul to Don Callis to get ahead".

[Hannibal Scorch]

17 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think Mark Davis was ok. Needs to drop those chops though and do something different - we already have Brody King doing that and better. The Curb Stomp with a knee move was cool and should be his finish. I'm happy with him in the Callis Family, pretty easy to explain it away if they wanted to with a quick "Ospreay forgot all about me and left me behind in the dust, my buddy Kyle talked some sense into me so I sold my soul to Don Callis to get ahead".

The piledriver was pretty tasty too

https://bsky.app/profile/justinckw.com/post/3lhhwizny4c2o

[Jesse]

I used to like the old piledriver he did, where he would yank them into the air by their ankles and then catch them fror the driver. Always looked sick in-person

[Supremo]

I don’t know if it was the venue size, or that they just mic’d the crowd better than usual, but this was a fantastic show for hearing the crowd pop and laugh at backstage segments. From Christian, to Hangman, to Harley Cameron. Genuinely brilliant when you hear the comedy landing and the crowd laughing along.

Renee holding the microphone to the puppet. Proper graps.

Edited February 6, 2025 by Supremo

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

10 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Man, that Grand Slam card looks like the best episode of Collision ever....

I've been a bit gutted about Grand Slam since the venue change. There's the arguments online about whether it was meant to be a PPV, meant to be TV/a MAX special, whatever... you can't convince me that the original intent at least wasn't to put on a massive show, regardless of the method of broadcast. Suncorp Stadium can hold close to 60K, which is way bigger than any other TV broadcast AEW has done, and about 3X the best attended previous Grand Slam.

Then they barely mentioned the show on AEW TV. Post Worlds End, all the promotional material centers around Revolution. Like TK was pissed that Australia didn't buy enough tickets, so he's taking it out on those of us who did.

This episode turned a lot of that around. Instead of the throwaway mentions of Grand Slam on commentary, we had multiple segments building towards it. A couple of big matches added. Build for the already announced matches (Toni as Mariah was SOMETHING ELSE)

I still wish we were getting the Aussie equivalent of Wembley, but I'm happy enough to make the trip to Brisbane now.

[LaGoosh]

Random thoughts dump:

As much shit as AEW get for their creative/booking (and rightfully so) you have to admit, they've managed to do the impossible - make Ricochet interesting for the first time in his entire career.

In fact, we probably need to stop being so quick to write people off in AEW - loads of us (myself included) over the years have said "they should just bin this off" and quite often they've managed to turn it around. Even just a month or so ago I could think of no decent reason to keep Max Caster on the payroll but he's very quickly managed to turn it around and become a hilarious and entertaining delusional little shit heel.

It's a right pain in the arse that the World title is locked in to the incredibly obvious Mox/Allin thing for probably the next 4 months or so. A World title scene based around Swerve, Hangman, Ricochet, Ospreay and Omega would be very exciting indeed.

I miss Rampage! It's a shame they completely gave up on it because at the moment there's not really much space to give the fun undercard acts any TV time. AEW feel in a tricky spot where they feel like they have both too much TV but also because the roster is so stacked and underutilised that they still don't have enough time to actually showcase them all properly. Where do you find space for MXM Collection these days, for example. Or more than two women's matches per week...

Where is Willow? I demand to see Willow! I'll say it every week, she needs to be front and centre of this company at all times. They should book her like 2007 John Cena and they'll be back in packed arenas before they know it, I swear to God.

I'm liking the Big Bill/Hobbs stuff however it's being held back by one small thing - Big Bill's shitty punches. He's always been absolutely rubbish at throwing punches/strikes, they look weak as piss. He really needs to sort that out because it makes his stuff lack the intensity it should for a man his size. Speaking of punches - Jericho's stuff in the pull apart brawl was pathetic and embarrassing. It really feels like his body has finally given up on him the past 6 months. I wouldn't be adverse to him pulling back to a manager role.

The entrance way and show graphics are awful and low rent. They need a change. Also now that they've shortened the entrance way they perhaps need to make the entrance music intros a bit shorter. Felt like we were waiting ages for Hounds of Hell's music to kick in so they could walk down to the ring.

I know they have their own thing going with RUSH and LFI but I think he would make an perfect addition to the Deathriders. He's tough, scary, violent and unpredictable. But also maybe they don't want to put someone like him in a top spot because you never know when he might do something to get suspended again. Either way, Pac only bothering to turn up every fortnight just feels fucking weird on TV and they need to fill the gap.

I don't think Jay White really works as a babyface but one thing they could lean into is the Bladerunner seems to be over and they could basically push it as the AEW "RKO out of nowhere" equivalent.

I love The Gunns but bringing them straight back and presumably feeding them to the Hurt Syndicate doesn't feel like the right move to me but we shall see. Weird how Private Party have just completely disappeared. I mean, maybe for the best - Marq Quen is really bad. Brother Zay has something but not sure where you'd slot him in.

Mercedes Mone's weird, soulless sports entertainment automoton delivery actually really works when she's in segments with Harley Cameron because Cameron is all passion and personality and it makes Mone come across as the most vapid, materialistic empty evil bitch in comparison. And if they want to make a bunch of money they should start selling Harley Cameron's ventriloquist dummies.

Toni Storm is the best. While it perhaps hasn't hit all the beats it should have the fact that this story veers so wildly between cruel violence and brilliant comedy but still works and doesn't lose any of the tension or the heat is an incredible achievement. And Mariah May doesn't get enough credit for it either. When she turns it on she is truly despicable and that paired with her frustration and annoyance with Toni is pure magic.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I enjoyed the Hounds/Family tag match this week, but the women's segments, minimal though they were, far outshone the men's this week. Harley Cameron is the best, and Toni Storm is the best. They're both the best! Double Aussie title holders in a couple of weeks, please!

Then they both feud with Willow so she can be on TV again.

[tiger_rick]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Mercedes Mone's weird, soulless sports entertainment automoton delivery actually really works when she's in segments with Harley Cameron because Cameron is all passion and personality and it makes Mone come across as the most vapid, materialistic empty evil bitch in comparison. And if they want to make a bunch of money they should start selling Harley Cameron's ventriloquist dummies.

I keep telling you all that Mercedes is perfect at this. I dunno why we want everyone to be the version of wrestling we think is right and then write it off if not but Mercedes has suffered from that. She ain't The Rock. She ain't Becky Lynch. She ain't Willow. She's vapid and her delivery is annoying but it works. She's hateable as fuck.

Man, you're right on Willow. I appreciate there are two heel champs who have other things going on but every single TV format they write should have "What is Willow up to?" as a key question. Even if it's a big blood feud for now, or taking out Marina Shafir every week or building up wins to make her the number one challenger. Their women's division absolutely rocks but Willow does always get lost in it.

[Infinity Land]

24 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Man, you're right on Willow. I appreciate there are two heel champs who have other things going on but every single TV format they write should have "What is Willow up to?" as a key question. Even if it's a big blood feud for now, or taking out Marina Shafir every week or building up wins to make her the number one challenger. Their women's division absolutely rocks but Willow does always get lost in it.

If only that was true. I know you're just talking about the Women's division, but its really just Daniel Garcia out of all the champions. Who isn't exactly having an OC type title reign that fans can get behind.

[Chris B]

I thought that was a really good show, and absolutely flew by. 

The highlight was Toni Storm and Mariah May, obviously. Absolutely hilarious, and both of them did it perfectly. It's fascinating how, when they're clearly much more involved in real life in the storyline, they can comfortably do stuff that would have felt awful otherwise - some of the lines Toni delivers, obviously, but also Mariah making comments about Toni's body. It doesn't feel like shaming or anything like that - it's the two of them, entirely in character, and Mariah clearly flustered and horrified and resorting to cheap insults. And Tony Schiavone's complete inability to know where to look when Mariah said "I think she's missing a couple of things, if you know what I mean" was genuinely hilarious.

Meanwhile, it's clear they're working on what hasn't worked about the Death Riders, to an extent - Mox is more clearly a hypocrite who's dodging people and sneak-attacking, while claiming it's all for a higher cause. I get why it's still carrying a lot of negativity from people. They have screwed it up, but there's only so many ways they can fix it - a really hard pivot wouldn't go great (and I don't think they have a fantastic storyline to pivot to right now), so it feels more like they've been tweaking and moving. It feels now like a lot of the negativity was based on issues from a while back - understandable, but a shame.

Fucking hell, Pac's back and the damage to that entrance-way was something.

One thing that sticks out to me is that it does feel like a whole bunch of people are a bigger deal than they were. The Gunns coming back was nice to see, the Hounds of Hell are working well, The Hurt Syndicate just are the business - it feels like a bunch of the building blocks are in place. I'm really hoping we get something more interesting from MJF soon - it feels like him getting flustered by Hangman is working well, but it's surrounded by his same old shit. When he has his character work down, he can be really good. I'm just hoping we get THAT version again.

And yeah, Ricochet. Who'd have thought? Really good stuff. I'm vaguely hoping he uses the scissors on the robe (which I'm also genuinely hoping is a replica).

 

[tiger_rick]

4 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

If only that was true. I know you're just talking about the Women's division, but its really just Daniel Garcia out of all the champions. Who isn't exactly having an OC type title reign that fans can get behind.

Not to disagree with your point generally but you classing the Hurts as heels? They seem incredibly popular to me.

[Infinity Land]

5 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Not to disagree with your point generally but you classing the Hurts as heels? They seem incredibly popular to me.

At this point kinda. Came in targeting Swerve, then beating up on Mark Briscoe & Private Party. Nothing's really changed about them or their presentation except they are popular. Which can be attributed as much to their history with WWE, than anything they've done in AEW.

[DavidB6937]

The more Harley coverage the better.

 

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

I'm just worried where down the line she goes all Al Snow with it and TK thinks it's hilarious but noone else does...

 

But for now, it's brilliant!