AEW TV 2026 discussion

[LaGoosh]

5 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

don’t disagree, but Cole was never treated like a step down or, I suspect, viewed as such by Tony Khan. I think that’s was a sincere attempt at a significant first challenger

That somehow makes it even worse. Cole was awful at this time. The MJF story is the only time he's ever been good.

[gmoney]

Yeah, you're only getting invested in an Adam Cole match if there's a great story going on. No one's salivating at the idea of a match with him because he's number one contender or whatever. 

[Supremo]

Bryan Danielson was Hangman’s first Title Challenger. Adam Cole came afterwards.

Don’t let this get in the way of insulting Adam Cole as a Title Challenger though. Look at the state of his entrance gear for that match! Absolute geek.

Off the back of the suggestion that the Three Way Ladder match should main event Saturday’s show, I was wondering which is more likely to main event an upcoming pay pay per view; a Tag Match, a Trios Match or a Women’s match?

It goes without saying the women deserve it, this Ladder match at All Out feels as big a Tag as they’re ever going to do, but equally I wonder if they view The Elite vs. The New Level as worthy of headlining. It feels like one of the last true dream matches.

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

Bryan Danielson was Hangman’s first Title Challenger. Adam Cole came afterwards.

Ah yes, surprised I forgot about that. Probably because they never ran it on PPV and both matches were on TV, I think? The 1 hour draw and then the bloodbath rematch were both absolutely excellent. 

[The King of Old School]

16 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

 My guess is that it'll be the Death Riders finally turning on Mox, or at least walking out on him. I don't think the year ends with Moxley as their leader. 

Which year though?!

I know it's not you, but feel like I have been reading for ages that the Death Riders will turn on Moxley, feel like it just needs to come to an end soon, and Mox failing to win the World Title against the guy they "helped build back up" should just be the catalyst to do it.

[HarmonicGenerator]

25 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Which year though?!

I know it's not you, but feel like I have been reading for ages that the Death Riders will turn on Moxley, feel like it just needs to come to an end soon, and Mox failing to win the World Title against the guy they "helped build back up" should just be the catalyst to do it.

The feud is carrying on at least until Blood & Guts (that’s surely the point of AEW setting up its own United Empire). I can’t see them ever turning on him, they’re such a grey area that the idea of a ‘turn’ barely makes sense. They try and kill top babyfaces, but the same top babyfaces are either fine to carry on as normal afterwards, or in Ospreay’s case, thank them for it. It’s so weird.

[BomberPat]

I gave up predicting a Death Riders split a long time ago. They didn't split when Moxley lost the title, they didn't split when Moxley kept tapping out, they didn't split when Moxley lost to Darby Allin, they didn't split over Ospreay, and I'm sure I'm missing half a dozen other potential catalysts in there too.

I don't know what to expect from Ospreay/Moxley. The other week, Will told Mox that he had the advantage because he had him for 60 minutes, not 20. That makes me dread that they're at least considering having it go the distance. Everybody knows I've found the whole Ospreay/Death Riders storyline a complete waste of time, so I would hope that All Out is the end of it, but how slow and lacklustre the build has been makes it feel like they're holding something back for a rematch, and that they're going to gimmick that up as a Lights Out or a Street Fight or something.

The schedule of big shows for the next couple of months is bonkers, so they could easily burn through a Death Riders/Ospreay multi-match series before the end of the year. Grand Slam France is in a couple of weeks; I can see them running Ospreay vs. Gabe Kidd there. I'm not sure why else Gabe Kidd would have been such a ridiculously big part of the build for a match he isn't in. Less than two weeks after that is Wrestledream - a year on from Moxley losing to Darby Allin - and maybe they do Ospreay vs. Moxley in a rematch there, or a United Empire/Death Riders tag. Start of November is Blood & Guts, and I can't see that being anything but Death Riders vs. United Empire, and I think AEW and Ospreay in particular are really into symmetry and repetition in how they present wrestling, so I think they will have a callback there to Ospreay being trapped in a cage with the Death Riders and having his neck broken - either they try and do it again but Will is able to fight back, or Will has the opportunity to do the same to Moxley. 10 days after that is Full Gear, and by then they could be up to the third Ospreay/Moxley match in this series, so maybe blow it off there with the big gimmick match. That leaves World's End for a fresh start, challenger-wise, and then build up a big match for Ospreay in Liverpool in February. The Continental Classic starts on the Dynamite after Full Gear, so having Moxley/Ospreay all wrapped up before that starts gives Moxley a clean run at the tournament.

The only wrinkle in all of this is that, when writing it out, I pictured Steve Borden getting the last babyface spot in Blood & Guts, coming in and doing a mad vertical leap from one ring into the other, and now I say sod Will Ospreay and the Death Riders and book whatever gets us to that.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

The feud is carrying on at least until Blood & Guts (that’s surely the point of AEW setting up its own United Empire). I can’t see them ever turning on him, they’re such a grey area that the idea of a ‘turn’ barely makes sense. They try and kill top babyfaces, but the same top babyfaces are either fine to carry on as normal afterwards, or in Ospreay’s case, thank them for it. It’s so weird.

Moxley, Shafir, Claudio and Garcia are in a grey area, but PAC, Kidd and Yuta generally are not. I think the direction of travel is - at the very least - part of the Death Riders splintering off to be led by Kidd, eventually leading up to a match between him and Ospreay; possibly in Liverpool next year. I can't see Moxley being able to resist the symbolic moment of at least some of his team attacking him and putting a bag over his head. 

[tiger_rick]

I like the Death Riders. I don't even think about them splitting up anymore. The Mox and Shafir dynamic is one I really like. If they do ever turn on Mox, Shafir should lead the group. Incredibly different dynamic that I don't think we've ever seen before with a woman leading a faction of men and because she's fucking bad-ass, not because they think they've got a chance of seeing some tits.

[BomberPat]

the problem with the idea of Kidd leading the Death Riders is that - and I hate this - he's also still in The Dogs. I think there is a story to be told of Gabe Kidd being willing to go further than the Death Riders, though I don't believe Gabe Kidd has the ability to tell that story well.

Any splintering of the Death Riders I think has to come down to their weird dual identity; on one hand, Moxley is all about the sanctity of professional wrestling as a sport, and forcing everyone else to take it seriously and up their game, while on the other hand they're breaking people's necks, suffocating people with plastic bags, and generally being horrible cunts. One thing I've always disliked about them is how AEW can't make their mind up whether we're supposed to believe Mox when he's talking about the former, if he keeps doing the latter - they could almost manage to resolve all of that if it becomes the sticking point they break up over. 

I think the Death Riders should splinter into two groups; one loosely aligned, where the focus is on serious wrestling, and another that is chiefly made up of horrible shits who far more interested in just having an excuse to hurt people. I'd say have Yuta as the centrepiece of the second group, but he seems to have taken way more of a backseat since Gabe Kidd was in the mix, which is a shame, as he's the perfect little creep to step up into a kind of Kylo Ren role of trying to act up to his hero worship of the old big bad, and learning all the wrong lessons from it. 

[RedTwoster]

7 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

the problem with the idea of Kidd leading the Death Riders is that - and I hate this - he's also still in The Dogs. I think there is a story to be told of Gabe Kidd being willing to go further than the Death Riders, though I don't believe Gabe Kidd has the ability to tell that story well.

 

I don't think he does either - but I can't imagine the fact he's in two stables hasn't been done with an eventual direction in mind. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Can I ask if Ive missed something in the Okada/Ciampa build? Last I paid attention Ciampa was an outright heel, as was Okada, though he was getting cheers. Okada is still getting cheers while acting like a twat (because hes funny as fuck), but Ciampa is talking like hes the face despite acting even more heeling than the guy in the heel stable who has been a dick even to other heels.

 

I know I must have missed something while having it on in the background. 

 

Still, should be a good match. Which is far too often the entire AEW booking philosophy 

[BomberPat]

I don't think you've missed anything. AEW is generally pretty fluid with the heel/face dynamics, but taking Ciampa from violent unhinged heel to de facto babyface is one of the odder moves.

[Chili]

I see it as Okada is the bigger more accomplished star BUT he's a fucking arsehole, so by proxy because Ciampa is a heel but not as decorated and with something to prove, he takes the more tweener underdog role in it. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

The thing that was confused me was Ciampa (and maybe the commentators) repeatedly mentioning that in 2018, him vs Okada was the dream match everyone was talking about. Was it? That was when we were all neck deep in Ciampa vs Gargano matches. I guess someone might have said “if this was Okada instead of Johnny it would probably be much less melodramatic” but were we all begging for Ciampa-Okada and I just missed it?