AEW TV 2026 discussion

[AshC]

Jarrett to interrupt Copeland next week to set up a glorious TV match? 

It'd be logical as well as good. 

[The King of Old School]

15 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

The build to Clockwork Carnage means Ospreay is suffering from a similar problem to Hangman as babyface champion, where the World Champion isn't the focal point of the show, just a guy who shows up for a couple of segments. He's not feuding with anyone in particular, and has no lasting beef with the people in the title match, so he just sort of pops up now and then but isn't carrying the storyline. The show ended with a big schmozz of the entrants in Clockwork Carnage fighting each other, but Will didn't stand out any more than anyone else in that mix, he was just another guy there to take a move while everyone took it in turns getting their shit in. 

Yeah I thought this.

Who is going to be the Challenger going into Full Gear which is one of there oldest and biggest shows?

There are plenty of fun matches out there for Ospreay but who is a legitimate challenger and a threat for them for the main event of Full Gear?

Out of the lads in the CC match I could only see Okada (which we have already seen on free TV) or Copeland (which feels far too early in his retirement run) that could be seen as marquee matches for the champ.

[tiger_rick]

3 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

There are plenty of fun matches out there for Ospreay but who is a legitimate challenger and a threat for them for the main event of Full Gear?

Andrade and MJF are both on the horizon. Got to imagine it's one of them and although they're completely different dynamics, I'm quite excited by both. 

I've really liked the Trios stuff for the last few months but I'd like to see Swerve back in the mix opposite Ospreay. And I feel like Takeshita and Fletcher would both serve as good opponents to push them further up the ladder. Only thing with Fletcher is that brings a UE v DCF feud into the mix and I've had enough of that fucker.

[LaGoosh]

Presumably they're running Andrade/Ospreay at Winter Is Coming in Mexico.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Lots of stuff on social media strongly hinting that Dragunov is coming in, even videos on the AEW socials suggesting sooner rather than later. Perhaps Ospreay gets a close win and then he's like 'I've beaten them all now...' then Dragunov comes out and then they fued to Full Gear. Could be a way to get him in and into the title picture whilst they work out a longer plan with the title pictures. 

[Chili]

I know Nick Wayne has a way to go, but I loved his absurdly silly celebration. Exactly what a very talented but naive and cocky 21 year old would do. The big picture on the screen of his victory. I enjoy him, I know people struggle to take him seriously, but I'm not really affected by that with him. Unlike say Hook, he's actually going to keep getting better and better. He's gonna be the Sammy Guevera that Sammy Guevera wishes he could be (as in that smug prick faced heel, not having people smack him about). I laughed that one of his reasons for wanting Jericho to say sorry post on match on Saturday is "for saying I wasn't good looking".

Ugh, forgive me for this one, I've genuinely not minded Jericho since he came back this year. It's nowhere near the omnipresent misery of him in 2023/24.

Edited Thursday at 05:34 PM by Chili

[Supremo]

This Nick Wayne thing is by far the best thing Jericho has done in years. The bit where he kept shooting fireworks off every time he said he beat Chris Jericho was brilliant. Funny you mention Wayne potentially being a good Sammy Guevara because coming off this segment I wouldn’t be against Jericho and Wayne eventually forming a Tag Team. There’s similar chemistry there to Le Sex Gods.

You assume Jericho himself has clocked how well this is going, how good their chemistry is, and how much potential Wayne has. I think they’d make for a great team.

Has Chris Jericho ever worked with Alex Shelley? In his early years Shelley always reminded me of Jericho. I’m sure I read somewhere that Shelley took tonnes of inspiration from Jericho. It’d be cool for them to do something together, and Motor City Machine Guns fighting Chris Jericho and Nick Wayne could be the way in.

Fantasy booking Chris Jericho in 2026. What the fuck is going on?!

Tony Khan remains the funniest booker of all time, putting all the best stuff for this show in the final hour, when most people had likely switched off. Saving the fantastic Moxley promo, the Ilja Dragunov vignette and Nick Wayne’s bonfire night extravaganza, all for Collision? You’re a nutcase, Tone!

Edited 18 hours ago by Supremo

[LaGoosh]

Yeah Jericho hasn't been too bad since his return. They've kept him away from all the top acts/stories, hes not on every week or PPV and he's been mostly doing short snappy feuds rather than dragging everything out painfully for months and months.

[BomberPat]

yeah, Jericho is basically doing a midcard Cody-verse. His stuff never intersects with what anyone else is doing, outside of something like the Casino Gauntlet at All In, and after his feud with Ciampa, Ciampa basically moved on and never mentioned it again. They're just weird little self-contained stories, and I don't think anyone is particularly suffering or gaining anything from working with him at this stage, though Nick Wayne might actually benefit - what remains to be seen is what the direction for him is when the feud's over, and whether we just look back on it as another "Chris Jericho loses to Action Andretti" deal.

[RedTwoster]

I'm surprised at just how far-removed Jericho has been from the World title scene since dropping the belt. I vaguely remember him facing Moxley for the interim belt at one point, but outside of that I'm surprised that they've not even dipped into that well for a TV match. 

For all his faults, it seems like an obvious thing to do at some point. Maybe his next World title match will come in his retirement run, who knows?

[BomberPat]

Speaking of retirement runs, it's hard to muster much enthusiasm for Adam Copeland's. There's nobody in AEW I'm crying out to see him in a singles match with, and dreading that it's going to be lots of super-serious hard man RESPECT THIS BUSINESS stuff, which is the absolute worst version of Cope. I assume the intention was for it to be a Cope & Cage joint retirement run, and Christian's injury has forced their hand, but a reunion with Christian and matches with FTR and the Young Bucks were the big dream matches for Cope in AEW, and we've already done all that. It's not like there's a litany of people from his past to bring in for him to work with either, with them all either retired, working elsewhere, or not really relevant on a major stage like AEW.

[Infinity Land]

4 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Speaking of retirement runs, it's hard to muster much enthusiasm for Adam Copeland's. There's nobody in AEW I'm crying out to see him in a singles match with, and dreading that it's going to be lots of super-serious hard man RESPECT THIS BUSINESS stuff, which is the absolute worst version of Cope. I assume the intention was for it to be a Cope & Cage joint retirement run, and Christian's injury has forced their hand, but a reunion with Christian and matches with FTR and the Young Bucks were the big dream matches for Cope in AEW, and we've already done all that. It's not like there's a litany of people from his past to bring in for him to work with either, with them all either retired, working elsewhere, or not really relevant on a major stage like AEW.

If there had to be a singles match finale for Adam Copeland, for me the two possibilities would be Omega or Okada. Those are two guys the crowd would absolutely respect and also have that experience of the pageantry required while working with physical limitations to send people home happy. 

[tiger_rick]

I really wish Copeland would cut his hair. It's horrible and makes him look even older and more knackered than he is. A trim would do him the world of good.

[RedTwoster]

3 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

If there had to be a singles match finale for Adam Copeland, for me the two possibilities would be Omega or Okada. Those are two guys the crowd would absolutely respect and also have that experience of the pageantry required while working with physical limitations to send people home happy. 

Ideally I'd like to see him face Christian in his final match, but giving MJF the accolade of ending Copeland's career with a loss would give him something to brag about going forward, same goes for Swerve assuming he remains heel. 

I'd like to see Copeland wrestle a lot of the names he's yet to interact with during his final run - that would include MJF and Swerve, but also the likes of Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Okada and Will Ospreay. 

Edge is still one of my all-time favourites, so watching him hang up his boots on his own terms is something that'll mean a lot to me as a fan. 

[Supremo]

I feel bad for Copeland because despite delivering some solid work in AEW (fun run with the TNT Title, good feud with Christian,  great I Quit match with Christian against FTR), there’s still an overall feeling that he shouldn’t have bothered coming back from retirement and this second half of his career  has done more to harm his legacy than add to it. It doesn’t come anywhere close to guys like Shawn Michaels and Bryan Danielson coming back from career-ending injury and somehow being even better.

I do hope he can go out on some type of high. I was a huge Edge guy back in the day, but everything since he came back has felt like the business has moved on and left him behind. Maybe they can chuck him into the Continental Classic to do some of those fun TV matches where the graphic alone melts your brain. Do the Okada and Omega matches that way. Both would make excellent TV main events.

Cope’s spoken about wanting to work the Tokyo Dome before retiring, but who the fuck is even left in New Japan, if he wants to work next year’s January 4th?

 

Edited 16 hours ago by Supremo