AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[LaGoosh]

8 hours ago, Supremo said:

More importantly, have they ever done Omega vs. Orange Cassidy one-on-one? I mean, I’m more than happy to get another Omega vs Takeshita match, but now the possibility has risen….maybe…perhaps?

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if OC beats Takeshita actually. This weird International title series booking just seems like a convoluted way to book OC vs Takeshita then get to OC vs Omega. Or maybe just tease OC/Omega before running that at Dynasty which I think is only 4 weeks after Revolution. 

Thought that was a decent show, some random thoughts:

- cool venue, though why they had the hard cam facing the stage instead of the crowd I don't know. A production reason I assume but it doesn't look great to have a stage in the background instead of an audience.

- MJF/Hanger was good stuff but perhaps too long for my tastes. 20 minutes of in ring promos isn't my cup of tea. This is a good story and I'm intrigued to see where it goes. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for Hangman to turn back to the light as I love his maniac character - perhaps they could try a double turn where Hanger actually goes more heelish and MJF becomes more babyface? It'd be challenging but an interesting twist and I'm confident they could pull it off.

- great promo from Jericho tonight I thought. For someone who loves to toot their own horn about "reinvention" I really wish he would reinvent himself as a Bobby Heenan type character and hang up the boots. He's still got a lot to offer as a character I think but really anything he does now that's any good still feels like shit because you know it's leading to a terrible fucking match down the line.

- Perhaps the promo of the year from Toni Storm. Incredible! Who else could reference John Cena's Bin Laden promo so naturally and make it work? She's the best. I was beaming ear to ear the whole time.

- Battle of the large William's was pretty fun. Good to see Bill back in jeans, they work so much better for him than trunks. My favourite spot was actually at the start when Bill big booted Hobbs from the ramp over the top rope straight away. I feel like there might be a bit too much blood at the moment (and I usually love a bit of blood). I don't think it really added much here and I think they need to tone back on it.

- I liked the Ricabonni/Excalibur/Taz team and wouldn't be against them making it permanent. 

- The Opps theme fucking sucks. AEW's entrance music can be pretty much seperated into two: 1) songs not written by Mikey Rukus and are really great and 2) songs written by Mikey Ruckus and they are rubbish.

- Gabe Kidd is coming! I don't like Gabe Kidd. Maybe American's find his act charming? I find it annoying.

- Decent Cope/Deathriders segment. I still don't really have any interest in this to be honest but at least they've gone back to traditional wrestling angles that work rather than whatever the fuck Deathriders were doing late last year. My guess is either Jay White or FTR turn on Cope at Revolution. And while I don't care much for it Cope is still getting the loudest pops of the night each week.

- Willow being attacked by the Deathriders again. Can't wait for her to come back, beat them all individually then beat Mox to become AEW World Champion. Willow for World Champ!

- Ricochet. Who knew he had it in him? What a fantastic heel he's turned out to be. A completely snivveling, weasly prick. Decades in the business and only just revealed how good he is in the past two months. Great segment with Nana here. My only slight criticism would be it lacked a punchy sign off. Instead of just saying "no" Ricochet should have said something like "you can have it back if Swerve gets down on his knees and begs me for it, ha ha!" or whatever.

- Max Caster has managed to make his open challenges an absolute must see. Can't wait to see who beats him up on Collision. I hope each week he gets more and more beat up and mangled before Bowens comes back to try to talk some sense into him leading to Caster attacking him and setting up their feud.

- Statlander/Bayne was AWESOME. A great hoss sprint. I liked that they didn't have Bayne be too dominant. They played it as both women are absolute beasts but Bayne is just slightly more than Statlander can handle. Both laid it in and looked great. Rematch please!

- OC coming back from being poisoned by the Deathriders and being back to happy go lucky again (and moving on from that all completely) is a weird pivot. With Willow being attacked by Shafir it seems like setting up OC/Willow vs Mox/Shafir would be the easy and logical choice but I guess not.

- OC/Roddy was your usual great OC/Roddy match but hard to care really. The Undisputed are so lame and O'Reilly is infinitely more interesting with The Conglomeration than he is with them. Does Adam Cole have the worst physique of any wrestler in a mainstream company ever? I think probably, yes.

Edited February 21, 2025 by LaGoosh

[HarmonicGenerator]

Forget about bringing in random Stardom people when they’ve got so many great women already on the AEW roster.

If they’re going to bring in random people from outside, let’s finally have it. Timeless Toni Storm vs Wendi Bloody Richter, please!

[tiger_rick]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- cool venue, though why they had the hard cam facing the stage instead of the crowd I don't know. A production reason I assume but it doesn't look great to have a stage in the background instead of an audience.

I disagree here. In fact, nearly said it recently. I don't want to see it every week but I think occasionally, it brings that great thing of the shows looking different instead of the same set every week and the arena and the town being irrelevant. Always love a ramp and I like this set-up from time to time. Was nice for the camera to be able to pull back and get both sides of the arena too instead of the ring always being well left of centre in all wide shots.

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- Max Caster has managed to make his open challenges an absolute must see. Can't wait to see who beats him up on Collision. I hope each week he gets more and more beat up and mangled before Bowens comes back to try to talk some sense into him leading to Caster attacking him and setting up their feud.

I figured it's Gabe Kidd with him being announced for an appearance and being the sort of person they'd have go over Caster in one of these challenges.

14 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Forget about bringing in random Stardom people when they’ve got so many great women already on the AEW roster.

If they’re going to bring in random people from outside, let’s finally have it. Timeless Toni Storm vs Wendi Bloody Richter, please!

I don't mind it here. I can't think of anyone on the babyface side who should be losing to Mercedes at this point, either for the first time or again. Maybe Thunder Rosa, she's pretty dispensible but is also tied up in something. I'm fine with them using an outsider in this role while they build someone up, preferably Harley continuing to be a pain in her arse until she takes it in the summer. 

[Supremo]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- Perhaps the promo of the year from Toni Storm. Incredible! Who else could reference John Cena's Bin Laden promo so naturally and make it work? She's the best. I was beaming ear to ear the whole time.

Yup. I practically fell off my couch when she broke the fourth wall to plug her movie. The smile on my face was so big, it was weighing my head down. It’s not just that it’s such a fantastic character, it’s that she fucking knows it. Such a joy to watch someone so comfortable and confident in a role. They should start shopping her out to talk shows. She’d nail it.

[RedTwoster]

6 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Yup. I practically fell off my couch when she broke the fourth wall to plug her movie. The smile on my face was so big, it was weighing my head down. It’s not just that it’s such a fantastic character, it’s that she fucking knows it. Such a joy to watch someone so comfortable and confident in a role. They should start shopping her out to talk shows. She’d nail it.

100% this. Whether you’re a wrestling fan or not, unless you’re utterly devoid of joy, you’re going to find her entertaining. For me, she’s the reason to watch AEW right now - she’s just brilliant and I hope she lands herself a Swerve Strickland-style deal in the future to reward her for being as fantastic as she is.

[The King Of Swing]

Momo Watanabe is great and will probably look like a beast kicking lumps out of Mone. Best sneer in wrestling, as well. 

I'd rather Mone go over Momo on PPV, than anyone in AEW, atm. Stardom won't have a problem with it (don't think she's held a singles title since 2019) and it gives Momo some US exposure. 

[tiger_rick]

Pretty average Collision as a standalone show this week after being spoiled recently. 

The big picture is more important and they rounded out plenty of the Revolution card, which was important. Again, standalone, it was messy. Ex telling us about the Mariah/Toni match, then saying Mariah had thrown out a challenge. Coming to the Ospreay cage match challenge out of nowhere. It's harmless but irritates someone who just watches TV shows. 

Knew I wasn't going to love it as soon as I heard the band were back together on commentary. I respect giving JR a job but why is it on comms. Honestly, man.

Pac written off TV? That's a shocker, that guy is there every week!

Liked the crowd. Good promo work again. Harley's a delight. Revolution card looks very solid. Open challenges are still great. Brody is the man.

Main Event was OK for a Jericho match but don't like Bandido losing. Don't tell people guys are a big enough deal to have weeks of vignettes and then beat them for a Mickey Mouse title. Just have Kommander lose again.

[LaGoosh]

"Call us...CRU."

Nah, lads. I don't think I will.

[RedTwoster]

Action Andretti is someone I forget exists even when he’s featured regularly. Lord knows what Jericho saw in him. 

A solid, if unspectacular, show on the whole, although I didn’t bother even fast-forwarding through the main event. The combination of Chris Jericho and the ROH title was enough to know this wasn’t going to be for me. 

I hope they have a plan for Harley Cameron, on how to follow up on the momentum she has. She’s not the finished article in ring, far from it, but I don’t think it matters one bit given her strengths. 

Mortos should be getting pushed harder than Hologram, no one can convince me otherwise. Hologram is fun to watch in ring, but is otherwise very, very bland. Mortos is fun in ring, and has about as unique a look as I’ve seen in AEW. They’re missing a trick with the guy.

I’d forgotten that they’d been linked with Mike Bailey. I guess there’s a bit more room for him with the departures they’ve had, but they could still do with shifting a few more Jerichos, Strongs or Kyle O’Reillys. I hope the fact they’re signing more male wrestlers doesn’t end up eating into the time the women get.

[LaGoosh]

Perfectly ok and mostly forgettable episode but it's fine to have episodes like that sometimes. Gives a bit of a breather from all the big stuff constantly happening. 

My main takeaways:

- forgot how much I missed The Butcher. The biggest casualty of the Rampage cancellation. I love that loveable thug and I think the fans do too. Good little brawl here as well. MORE BUTCHER!

- for all the tribalist bullshit that AEW is just flippy matches with no story I'd say on the whole the promo work the past few weeks has been almost unanimously strong and high level. 

- I like the build up to Murder Machines vs Hurt Syndicate. It's going to be a bit of a shock though when they step into the ring together and the Hurt Syndicate physically dwarf them completely. Brian Cage in particular is going to look like the World's Biggest Midget.

- the women’s stuff is generally better than the men's at the moment. Just seems like they're all fighting with loads of emotion. Toni and Mariah obviously comfortable with just absolutely laying into eachother physically - their stuff is stiff as hell and looks fantastic. 

- no more JR please. Grumpy old twat.

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

- the women’s stuff is generally better than the men's at the moment. Just seems like they're all fighting with loads of emotion. Toni and Mariah obviously comfortable with just absolutely laying into eachother physically - their stuff is stiff as hell and looks fantastic. 

Agreed on this. This weekend we got a good Toni/Mariah segment (though I missed that they'd announced a third match), a good Harley interview, and a good Julia/Aminata match too.

On the men's side, I did enjoy Hologram/Mortos and would be happy to have a Lucha Lads segment on each episode of Collision.

[Doog]

Much prefer Cope now that FTR appear to have fucked off. They were really dragging him down and making me not interested. Hopefully they stay gone.

Revolution card is looking really good. Would take a Cope win if it means Darby isn't getting the belt.

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, Doog said:

Much prefer Cope now that FTR appear to have fucked off. They were really dragging him down and making me not interested. Hopefully they stay gone.

Revolution card is looking really good. Would take a Cope win if it means Darby isn't getting the belt.

About Cope, it was funny that on both shows this week the crowd’s tried to do the singalong for his music but because he’s only done run-ins they haven’t had the chance and it’s just fizzled out both times.

[LaGoosh]

I hope it's not something they try to incorporate going forwards. It was special that one time.

[CDM]

I thought dynamite was good this week. There did seem to be a bit of a mix up with the thunder rosa segment. I actually thought she was going to turn heel. Something went wrong there I think. People use things like that against aew but things like that do happen in all promotions. Anna Jay got hammered for her botched pin a few months ago but I've seen it happen in wwe so it does happen.  Revolution could be very good. Have to see if I can afford it when it's on.