AEW TV 2026 discussion

[RedTwoster]

A fun episode that would have been a fantastic one if it didn't have Collision tacked on to it. 

The Ospreay/Fletcher confrontation was fantastic, although that one guy who kept heckling throughout can fuck off. We're definitely heading towards Ospreay/Copeland, and the build up to that has also been very good; however, I feel like Fletcher has been so good as of late there is real value in putting the World title on him at this stage. He's clearly ready. He's gone from long, meandering promos to compelling, thoughtful ones. He's gone from looking like an indie scrub to looking like a main event talent. He's one of the best in ring performers on the planet. My argument would be why wait any longer? Even if it's a short reign, I'd argue that it would be a valuable one. 

I'm glad that they ran the FTR/MCMG decider on TV rather than at Full Gear. That was the right decision. MCMG aren't as interesting as FTR, though - if they're heading towards a Young Bucks match next, they need to turn heel or at least show a bit of personality. I'm not excited about them in any way and while they've had good matches with FTR, it's not enough in AEW to simply wrestle well. 

The Mixed Tag match was a lot of fun, and was perfect evidence as to why a mixed tag title would be great. While I feel like you could put the World title on Shafir, I don't think they should take the belt off Mercedes right now. She's been excellent as champion. 

The Nick Wayne bit started to feel a bit old this week, at least for me. They need to go somewhere with this before it fizzles out. 

Ciampa/Dragunov is a very exciting prospect. Ciampa feels a world apart from the character he played in main roster WWE, and I'd go as far as to say that feels like a distant memory; it feels like he's always been with AEW. 

Brodido/New Level was great, and I'm probably more excited for the Death Match than I am anything else on Full Gear. It's still so hard to imagine Kofi and Creed in this kind of environment, doing the kind of things they'll presumably do. Or maybe they won't, and that'll be the story. Whatever the case, it's a great idea and I can't wait.

Thekla needs to break away from Skye Blue and Julia Hart. I thought Julia was fairly solid on the mic in their promo, but to go from someone pissing charisma in Thekla to the utter personality drain that is Skye Blue, only highlights just how bad Skye is on the mic. I honestly think she's one of the worst on the mic in wrestling right now. It's a shame too, at times - including in Blood and Guts - it feels like there's something there with her, but if she doesn't up her promo game, there's simply no way she can rise up the card.

[SoloJones]

Unusual for AEW that the first half hour of the show was basically talking, recaps and entrances, I skipped ahead most of that but from the general consensus it sounds like I missed a good segment with Osprey and Fletcher.

Enjoyed the opening tag, it was what it needed to be and a rare count out finish that works because they don't do them all the time. Builds well to Full Gear which should be a really good match. The FTR vs Machine Guns decider was strong as well, was surprised it only had a 20 minute time limit given I'm pretty sure one of their earlier matches went longer than that, but it helped for the finish. Not sure if this is a hot take or not, but I think Stokely Hathaway is shit and needs to be far removed from a potential top act like FTR.

They "brought back" the squash match! 

The mixed tag was really fun, something they should do a bit more of in terms of the women getting to work with the men. I'm sure it did Marina the world of good getting to work with three people that experienced, and I'm looking forward to the title match at Full Gear. The finish sort of dictates that Mercedes will go over at the PPV but they don't always stick to that logic, and whilst Mercedes is great, there might not be a better time to put the belt on Marina either.

Skipped everything after that, didn't seem like I was going to miss a lot.

Edited Thursday at 10:05 AM by SoloJones

[Supremo]

Are we getting an AEW pay per view on Saturday that doesn’t feature Chris Jericho?

[BomberPat]

some really fun stuff on that show.

I was iffy about doing New Level vs Brodido on free TV right before they were in a Trios match on PPV, but it was a brilliant bit of business - it showed that New Level aren't afraid to brawl, but never went far enough to show if they're really prepared to go to the lengths they'll need to do for Texas Death, and a well-utilised and rare for AEW DQ finish worked wonders in saying, "this is too chaotic to control, but we won't be able to do anything about that on Saturday". I also thought it was really smart to leave Hangman and Swerve out of this segment and show how much things have heated up between the other players in this story, and Hangman's promo later on cemented that - when Swerve issued the challenge, I thought the story would be about what horrific things Swerve would have to do to convince Hangman to accept, but actually, Swerve has been even smarter than that and made Hangman accept because his friends want the match. It's Hangman thinking he was past all this, knowing that he didn't need to do it, but going back to that place because he's fighting for something bigger than himself, and that's fantastic stuff.

I thought the Will/Kyle segment was rough starting out, but got better. Ospreay has a tendency, which was at its worst when working with MJF because he does the same thing, to try and tell three stories at once in this kind of angle, rather than staying focused on one or two main points. I hated that Ospreay agreed with Kyle taking credit for breaking his neck, because that makes the entire Moxley storyline - not to mention the promotion itself giving Mox the credit for injuring Will - completely ridiculous in hindsight; there's a way to get there, if it was Fletcher basically saying, "Moxley might have dealt the final blow, but I weakened him up for you", but having Kyle say he was responsible for the injury and Will just agreeing with him was daft. Kyle bringing up Will's kid, given their history, could have meant something, but it didn't because, again, Will has to tell every story at once every time he does one of these, so he's hit that story beat about twelve times now and it doesn't work any more. Everything once Kyle got to admitting that he was jealous of Will, and him ranting about Will being a manipulator - which really sounded like Don Callis speaking through Kyle, which I hope was intentional - I thought was fantastic, though.

I think the FTR/Machine Guns programme has done a really good job of rehabilitating Motor City Machine Guns as a really exciting tag team worth going out of your way to see, after a lacklustre debut, hanging around doing nothing, and the general feeling that AEW was their second choice after an underwhelming WWE run. I agree that they need something more than just being a good tag team coming out of this feud, but it's worked wonders for them so far. I think they suffer for seeming less exceptional than they are, because so many other tag teams in AEW - the Bucks included - essentially work from the blueprints that the Machine Guns wrote, so it's like watching a classic movie after everyone else has already ripped it off.

I thought Ciampa/Speedball was great, and Ciampa/Dragunov should be fantastic, but it did leave me wondering what the point of the United Empire is. Weeks and weeks of Ospreay building to recruiting members of this faction, and then it ends up being Speedball and the Brawling Birds, who haven't interacted with each other at all or with Ospreay (outside of being opponents in Clockwork Carnage) since September. 

 

Adding looksmaxxing influencer speak to Nick Wayne's act is a stroke of genius. He already felt like a 2026 take on a lot of Jericho's greatest hits, which helped to make him the first guy in a long while who feels like he's actually benefited from working with Jericho, but that gives him an extra something to work with that he can hopefully take forward into his next programme. The problem at the moment is that even when Chris Jericho isn't there, Nick Wayne is still talking about Chris Jericho, there's nothing in any of these promos directing him towards his next opponent. That he interrupted Mistico got me excited that we might get a match there, because my other complaint is that I'd love to see Mistico be in actual important featured matches more, but it seems like he and CMLL prefer him winning nothing matches to him losing big ones. So there's a little trepidation there from me about whether this Nick Wayne run actually goes anywhere after the Chris Jericho feud, or if the act is only being given this time and focus in relation to Jericho. I think a feud between Nick Wayne and Andrade could be fun, if it doesn't just get dragged down into a catchphrase-off.

[Doog]

The Fletcher/Ospreay promo to start was brilliant - exactly what the feud needed. I've been a bit frustrated lately as its felt like the build for it hasn't been great and it hasn't felt like the showdown main event that it should, coming out of Wrestledream Ospreay and the AEW title has kinda took a back seat - but they changed that here and saved the best till last, nailed it on the go home. 

Rest was alright but its just too long, these Dynamite/Collision specials are a real slog, theres a really good show in there but in one block its too much.

PPV should be good though and theres some great matches, will watch it Sunday, it being an international break in the football makes the 5 odd hours a lot easier to fit in! If it wasnt for all the Cope stuff I'd be thinking theres a real chance Fletcher wins, and he still could, but it feels like the Ospreay Cope match is coming soon so he wont lose the title yet.

[textonly]

* Kyle Fletcher's progress in the few years I spent away from wrestling is just outrageous. Back in the earlier Aussie Open days, I could never have imagined that guy having a main event singles run, but he looks basically the complete package now. In the months I've been back watching, he's probably been my favourite all-round guy. I don't think he should win the world title on Saturday - I think Will should carry it for a bit longer - but he would be my pick to win the C2 on a kind of revenge/redemption run after missing his shot.

* I'm pretty glad the Best of 5 is over. The time-limit tease made my heart sink and I think the crowd felt as relieved as I did when it ended properly. Not that the matches weren't good - of course they were - but the MCMG must have been on TV for two hours over the past few of weeks and I feel like know nothing about them I hadn't known for ten years ten years ago. There just has to be some character work starting on next week's Dynamite. "They've had success in companies all around the world!" is not enough. If their tag title shot comes and goes without any illustration of discernible personality, it will feel like a terrible waste.

* I love Tomasso Ciampa. On this current run, he reminds me a bit of the Young Bucks, always looking to put on the most fun match of the night, even if they're not in the biggest spot. Maybe it gets a little house show silly sometimes, but that's more than fine with me; I'd argue that's pretty fundamental to AEW's DNA. I'll be a bit gutted if he drops his title to Dragunov. Hopefully we see a finish that lets him escape with the gold and allows Dragunov to wander off to the C2 to build his name/find his level there.

[Supremo]

A fantastic go-home show, my main takeaway was how far Kyle Fletcher has progressed and developed. After delivering such an exposition-heavy opening promo so authentically, it’s the first time I can imagine WWE asking William Regal to start contract tampering and finding out when they can sign him. He’s like if Randy Orton was actually good in the ring, and not boring and shit.

[Infinity Land]

On the FTR/MCMG front. As 3 of the matches took place on a Collision it does make me miss the promos from the featured match(es) they used to start the show with. I'm sure FTR & MCMG have been doing those kind of promos online or in video packages.

But I alway found those Collision opening promos more effective to selling the importance of the show to come, than the standard opening crowd shots with pyro and commentary running through the line-up.

[Merzbow]

If the Machineguns are set on turning back the years, pulling out all the hits of the TNA run then they really need to bring in some of that charismatic goofy shit again, even go full Paparazzi Productions (I know that wasn't Sabin, but still) and get a cameo from that big nobhead Kevin Nash. The matches so far have been fun but not anywhere as impactful as the Beer Money series, that was low key a blueprint for modern tag wrestling.

[The King Of Swing]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

my main takeaway was how far Kyle Fletcher has progressed and . He’s like if Randy Orton was actually good in the ring, and not boring and shit.

Soot on.

Pretty sure I actually mentioned Fletcher possibly being influenced by Orton, ages ago.

Pretty obvious that TK always had high hopes for Fletcher. He was getting big matches, almost as soon as Davies got injured. Didn't he even face Omega on TV, really early into his singles run? 

He's come a long way, but there's no need to rush him to the title, imo.