AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[The King Of Swing]

Agree that was a cracking episode of wrestling. Even MJF being MJF, didn't hurt it too bad.

Christian Cage being a sneaky little shit, was a funny highlight. 

Great crowd. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

I know they don’t have an actual effect on the product, or tangible at best, but they do make some lovely little hype posters for matches sometimes. Like this  https://bsky.app/profile/tsninja.bsky.social/post/3lhogrhhswk2u

 

[DEF]

I quietly hate that everyone has cottened on to how delightful Harley Cameron is. I've been a massive fan since the QTV days. It's going to do havoc with Harley trading card collection when prices go though the roof.

Having said that I'm super happy she's getting on every show. She's wildly entertaining and it's great that they have held off her even getting a TV win until two weeks ago instead of rushing her to a title. 

Whole heartedly agree that Dynamite was great this week. The crowd was popping and everyone was on fine form.

Taz corpsing at Mariah May was the highlight for me. So damn funny.

We can all agree Willow should never under any circumstances be off TV. Its a great position to be in when I can think of many names on the roster I'd say that about.

[Chili]

Saw that Dustin Rhodes might have to get both knees replaced. Which doesn't surprise me. What does is people saying 'Well, that's him done.' 

They're talking about Dustin Rhodes. A man whose had more Indian summers than a mere mortal. He's got about another two runs left.

[The King Of Swing]

Hangman's blunt "no" was wonderful. Hearing laughter from the crowd made it even better.

Quite a few funny moments this week.

Honestly even Jericho didn’t annoy me. Fun brawl with Hobbs and The Outrunners.

The Best Wrestler Alive, has to fluke his way to the TNT Title.

[tiger_rick]

Good little Collision. Most of the negatives are minor, other than the Grand Slam thing.

Action was decent throughout. Someone other than the ring announcer remembered they had trios titles, which is good news. Another great crowd who made the Death Riders feel like it's working better again.

Toni/Mariah angle was nonsensical if you think too hard but very creative so I'll give it a pass. Build to Grand Slam was very good in general. Loved Harley and Mercedes.

Bandido and Bryan Keith. Who knew? Bandido looks great, works great, presentation was great, return vignettes were great. He is ready for the rocket. I wish I had more trust.

Off the back of the negativity thread, a couple of tropes I hate appeared here. The face off in the trios match, a dreadful spot that's part of every bleeding two ring cage match now was shite. Leave that in NXT. Also Nigel using the phrase "Title opportunity" gives me PTSD. I know AEW don't mandate it's use so you still hear "Title shot", etc but it's still a phrase that belongs in the bin.

Let's get on to Grand Slam. We finally seem to know what it is. A big show for the crowd in Oz that's going to air in Collision's slot but was just advertised as Grand Slam Australia. It's pretty much a free PPV on TBS and Max. How on earth have the brain trust running this company allowed that to become a NEGATIVE? Saying nothing for weeks, not advertising a time slot, letting the Collision rumours run,letting Australian fans pay hundreds of dollars without clarifying what the were buying. Just such poor stuff when they could have been building an audience for weeks and weeks with the promise of a mega show that is a free PPV on TV. If this card does a standard Collision number next week, their marketing dept should all be sacked on the spot.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Really enjoyed that show. The opener was moves moves moves, which is exactly what I’d want from a three way trios match. Bandido looked great. The segment with all the luchadores was loads of fun. Harley got her title match. I loved the Mariah and Toni bait and switch. Thunder Rosa might be getting something to do for a while, which is nice. And the main event was really good.

Grand Slam should be fantastic. I hope they get a good crowd for it. 

[The King Of Swing]

15 hours ago, DEF said:

We can all agree Willow should never under any circumstances be off TV. Its a great position to be in when I can think of many names on the roster I'd say that about.

The stop/start stuff with Willow, is very frustrating. Same with Statlander. 

Twice Willow has run in to take on Marina but both times it's amounted to nothing. 

At this point I'm wondering if TK has little or no faith in Marina as a wrestler, but Mox is apparently high on her so no one is willing to actually say anything.

It's like they are actively trying to keep Marina (should be noted that I've seen nothing of her work in ROH or elsewhere) out of the ring in AEW. 

[Chili]

Just want to point out I've never myself been confused by what Grand Slam was meant to be. Even with the original stadium idea, I still assumed because prior Grand Slam's had been Dynamite/Rampage/Collision specials, that this was going to be exactly the same and they'd tape like two shows or something. Anyway just how my brain processed it.

Won't go into everything, though Daddy Magic starting to look a bit John Zandig-esq amused me. Harley Cameron is so great, she drew a better than usual promo out of Mercedes Money. Bandido/Bryan Keith was my highlight. I've had opinion of Bryan Keith until this match which I found delightful. They should have done so much more with the two wrestlers Western themed get-up's in the build, but nevermind. Really good, can't wait to see Bandido lose to Jericho and then feud for 6 months on and off ROH until the story peters out with Jericho losing but not in a satisfying way until he goes off to ruin Big Bill with another feud, and by then also into his fourth stable I assume... No stop it, that's for the negativity thread.

Anyway, crowd was great as well, they sounded so into it. I thought Mark Davis was Cash Wheeler, Megan Bayne snoo-snoo, RUSH is still ace, loved the Toni angle and my favourite spot of the night was easily this. Superb that, brilliant example of something absolutely daft as fuck that because it's wrestling and they put a 100% commitment to the bit and sold it as so, that it really works.

https://x.com/AEW/status/1888404112871448967?t=jfjvw07cg4XgQCQU7_FHGg&s=19

 

 

 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

34 minutes ago, Chili said:

Just want to point out I've never myself been confused by what Grand Slam was meant to be. Even with the original stadium idea, I still assumed because prior Grand Slam's had been Dynamite/Rampage/Collision specials, that this was going to be exactly the same and they'd tape like two shows or something. Anyway just how my brain processed it.

You thought they were doing Collision in a 50 thousand seat stadium when they taped loads of them in a 3000 seat venue in Arlington over the summer because they were struggling for crowds? That kind of processing is certainly different. 

As is often the case though Rick has hit the nail on the head. Allowing what is essentially a free PPV to be viewed as a negative is a remarkable achievement by any standards. I hope the Australian crowd gets their moneys worth because AEW has a lot of great Aussie talent that could really help them do better in Australia and anything that improves AEW is a massive bonus for all fans. 

[Merzbow]

What's with the talk that Aussie viewing figures are under 20,000 for Dynamite? Surely more people than that are watching the weekly shows?

[Chili]

21 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

You thought they were doing Collision in a 50 thousand seat stadium when they taped loads of them in a 3000 seat venue in Arlington over the summer because they were struggling for crowds? That kind of processing is certainly different. 

As is often the case though Rick has hit the nail on the head. Allowing what is essentially a free PPV to be viewed as a negative is a remarkable achievement by any standards. I hope the Australian crowd gets their moneys worth because AEW has a lot of great Aussie talent that could really help them do better in Australia and anything that improves AEW is a massive bonus for all fans. 

No, not really. I just went off the name and prior Grand Slam's and assumed being quite near to Revolution that it wouldn't be a PPV. I'm aware All In/Out (Shake it all about) are near to eachother but they're sort of two part PPV's. I thought Grand Slam Australia was actually going to be Dynamite/Collision taped in one, but it's just a Collision.

[Infinity Land]

18 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

What's with the talk that Aussie viewing figures are under 20,000 for Dynamite? Surely more people than that are watching the weekly shows?

Official numbers like that wouldn't be that surprising. They're on ESPN over there and they aren't the main sports channel. Here with the larger population and easier access on ITV4, numbers can go from over 100k to under 50k.

[Hannibal Scorch]

37 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

What's with the talk that Aussie viewing figures are under 20,000 for Dynamite? Surely more people than that are watching the weekly shows?

I only know a few Australians, but they all watch it on Triller rather than ESPN.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

32 minutes ago, Chili said:

No, not really. I just went off the name and prior Grand Slam's and assumed being quite near to Revolution that it wouldn't be a PPV. I'm aware All In/Out (Shake it all about) are near to eachother but they're sort of two part PPV's. I thought Grand Slam Australia was actually going to be Dynamite/Collision taped in one, but it's just a Collision.

And the 50 thousand capacity stadium had no bearing on your thoughts at all.