AEW TV 2026 discussion

[abucalves]

Hoping for a Josh Alexander upset here, and maybe Ace Austin as well. The others I could see going the obvious way.

[jm29195]

5 minutes ago, Supremo said:

A real mystery who could possibly win these qualifying matches in order to participate in the Clockwork Carnage match. Impossible to call any of them.

*So that’s them confirmed, then. Samoa Joe, Will Ospreay, Takeshita, Ricochet, Copeland and Darby.

I wonder if they'll do one upset then, just because it looks so obvious. 

[RedTwoster]

It’s been a while since AEW rammed a Dynamite full of predictable matches, and I hope Tony Khan doesn’t fall back into that dull pattern. 

I’m not even sure I want an upset. While it would be fun in the moment, there’s not really anyone in those matches who would make them more interesting than the obvious choices, as much as I like Hechicero. 

[The King Of Swing]

No kink shaming here in AEW. 

Bloody love Excalibur.

Overall a predictable but fun double header that managed to keep the crowd hot, throughout both shows.

AEW have got a good routine nailed down with these mixed tag matches.

Could get some mileage out of Divine Dominion, getting in on some of the action, now they are out of the tag title picture for the time being.

[BomberPat]

Fuck's sake, so that's the TNT Champion, a Tag Team Champion, and the International Champion all most likely in the World Title match, with the World Champion having already beaten the Continental and International Champions, and the National Champion waiting in the wings for a title shot. Why should I care about all these belts when the people who hold them apparently don't?

[RedTwoster]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Fuck's sake, so that's the TNT Champion, a Tag Team Champion, and the International Champion all most likely in the World Title match, with the World Champion having already beaten the Continental and International Champions, and the National Champion waiting in the wings for a title shot. Why should I care about all these belts when the people who hold them apparently don't?

Who is the tag team champion that’s potentially in the match?

 

[BrodyGraham]

4 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Who is the tag team champion that’s potentially in the match?

 

I think he forgot that Cope and Cage dropped them. I did for a second to be honest. 

[RedTwoster]

2 minutes ago, BrodyGraham said:

I think he forgot that Cope and Cage dropped them. I did for a second to be honest. 

Ahhh right, I thought it might be an ROH tag champ or something like that. I think you’re probably right, though. Easily done.

[LaGoosh]

Predictable or not - Darby vs Hechicero is going to be a beautiful piece of work.

[BomberPat]

Yeah, I forgot Cope and Cage had dropped the belts.

We're still going to be in a situation where the World Champion has beaten every other singles champion, which is a really odd situation.

[RedTwoster]

28 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Yeah, I forgot Cope and Cage had dropped the belts.

We're still going to be in a situation where the World Champion has beaten every other singles champion, which is a really odd situation.

The fact there are so many champions in these qualifiers does leave me thinking there surely will be a few upsets. I can't imagine we won't have any of the men's singles titles defended on that card outside of the National title, otherwise it'll be an extremely light card. I guess you could have someone pull double duty, but that doesn't seem likely either. 

EDIT: I forgot about the Continental title. Still, I could see either Darby losing by interference to set up a match at the PPV. Not a chance in hell Okada is losing to Myron Reed, though. 

Edited Monday at 08:14 AM by RedTwoster

[tiger_rick]

13 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Fuck's sake, so that's the TNT Champion, a Tag Team Champion, and the International Champion all most likely in the World Title match, with the World Champion having already beaten the Continental and International Champions, and the National Champion waiting in the wings for a title shot. Why should I care about all these belts when the people who hold them apparently don't?

Because the people who hold them are fucking awesome and have excellent matches for the belts with other fucking awesome people. 

I do get your point. There are an array of belts without tons of identity and champions who are a little bit interchangeable but, it's such a fantastic roster with so many people who make a fun dynamic in matches and when they're the champion that it hides any weakness in the booking. 

Also, I think Tony subscribes to the thinking that holding these titles should make you a contender for the World Title. We've heard that enough over the years as a criticism of the IC and US titles that they used to be a stepping stone to the World Title. Despite most people's ultimate example of an IC Champion being Mr Perfect who lost to Hogan & Warrior all the time when he was at that level. 

I'm really fed up with the fact there are qualifying matches. That's such a lazy trope that I hate. And the fact that they are so fucking one-sided makes me hate them and the concept even more. I'd respect this more if they just announced these guys, ran down their credentials and gave some time to why each guy is in and why he wants to win. 

If you must have qualifying matches to fill TV, and you really don't have to, then they have to be like Okada vs. Swerve. I don't want either of those guys taking an L on TV so I wouldn't do that but that's what you have to do rather than pretend Myron Reed or Ace Austin deserve a shot at this thing. Okada and Darby do, they are Champions in this promotion. Copland does, Takeshita does, he's a former Champion and G1 Winner. Josh Alexander wins less than Spurs. FFS.

Edit: I'm not fixing that typo. Copland is Adam's new movie coming to Prime Video.

Edited Monday at 09:26 AM by tiger_rick

[RedTwoster]

59 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

If you must have qualifying matches to fill TV, and you really don't have to, then they have to be like Okada vs. Swerve.

Totally this - going from a ranking system to Myron Reed, Lee Moriarty and Ace Austin in contention for a World Title match is quite something. The death of PAC has presumably affected planning, but they have an enormous roster and could still have gone with better qualifiers. 

Everyone is rooting for Daniel Garcia right now - give him a qualifier against Okada or Copeland and have him take them to the limit. Claudio Castagnoli is a perfectly feasible World Title challenger - put him in there. Maybe you do Darby vs. Nick Wayne, given that Wayne just defeated Jericho. Maybe you continue the friction between Fletcher and Knight by having one of them enter a qualifier, with the other accusing them of prioritising their singles career over their tag title opportunity. You have Orange Cassidy and Eddie Kingston - both credible options. I can't stand him, but Kyle O'Reilly has been presented as a credible force, what about him? Heck, Juice Robinson is a more interesting option than Ace Austin - put him in a qualifier. 

It's a very underwhelming line-up for Dynamite. 

Edited Monday at 10:23 AM by RedTwoster

[LaGoosh]

Nick Wayne's reaction to beating Jericho was a masterclass. One of the best things I've seen in ages. This cocky loser who has spent years jobbing beats a bonafide legend and he genuinely can't believe it. He has this perfect beaming look on his face of "oh my God! Did I actually just do it?". 

They may have something with this kid.

[BomberPat]

It's a perfect storm of stuff for me. It's the qualifying matches against no-hopers - I'd love it if there's an upset, even if it means that the person winning is eliminated in the first phase of Clockwork Carnage, just because it makes every one of those matches feel less predictable. You can't put someone like Claudio Castagnoli or Jake Doyle in there instead of Myron Reed or Ace Austin, to create the slightest shred of doubt? There isn't a top guy who could weather a loss in one of these?

I get the logic of "winning a secondary title puts you in line for a title shot", but it again comes back to the lack of distinction between the two titles - so far Ospreay has already beaten the Continental and International champions, and now the TNT Champion is getting a shot. I'll leave out Andrade as National Champion just because he's got the contract gimmick so the set-up is slightly different. They can't all be the "secondary" title. And why do I care about those titles, and those champions, if they're more concerned about fighting for a different belt than with defending their own? Why should I care about them defending their titles at the next PPV when the last time I saw them they were getting pinned?

I think the fact that it's such a dynamic and fun roster makes it more frustrating to me that they keep falling back on the trope of champions challenging for other belts. They could be doing a thousand other things. They could be setting these matches up in different ways. But no, it's qualifying matches and champions. A Champion vs. Champion match should feel massive, it should be as big as a match can get, yet AEW does them constantly. Ospreay vs. Moxley was a newly minted World Champion against a Continental Champion who had been undefeated for almost a year, and had come through two gruelling tournaments to get and keep that belt, and yet that was maybe the tenth most significant part of the story of that match, barely an afterthought.

A guy like Darby Allin who wants to be a fighting champion defending the TNT Title and making it mean something - why is he then ignoring his own title to challenge for a different one? The last time we saw Okada he was losing a World Title match, and the last time we saw Adam Copeland he was losing the Tag Team Titles, what puts them ahead of other wrestlers to earn a shot at the World Title, and why does Okada (and Darby, and Mox before them) get out of defending their own title while being rewarded with a shot at another, more prestigious one? If the argument is that Okada and Copeland have won their way into the qualifiers because of their overall win/loss records rather than their most recent match, then how do Josh Alexander, Brian Cage, and Myron Reed get the same opportunity as them?

The thing is, it's not inherently bad booking. Asking those questions isn't saying "that's bad", it's honestly wanting an answer to them. Because the most frustrating thing about lazy booking is that generally doing the work to answer those questions makes it better. Have Darby cut a promo telling me why he's entering this match. Have Don Callis talk about the deals he's had to finagle to get to Okada another shot so soon, and the strings he's pulled to get Brian Cage and Josh Alexander in the tournament to try and stack the odds for the Family (but also explaining why he went with those two rather than Fletcher, Knight, Davis, or Doyle). Do promos or video packages for the obvious losers explaining why they're in the mix, and at least giving us some reason to believe they have a chance, or to care that they're there in the first place. Have Will Ospreay say that he asked Tony Khan to put other singles champions in the running for Clockwork Carnage because he wanted to test himself against them and show that the World Title is the standard of excellence, even above the other great champions in AEW.