AEW TV 2026 discussion

[tiger_rick]

49 minutes ago, Chris B said:

The idea that Thekla and Willow haven't earned a main event but Kevin Knight has is nonsense. 

You've made up the bit about Kevin Knight. 

I disagree that it's a mid card belt too. The women also have mid card belts. The women's title is generally in very good spots. It's just not been a headline attraction since Toni v Mariah, and wasn't before that either. 

Willow v Mercedes definitely could/should be.

[Chris B]

2 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

You've made up the bit about Kevin Knight. 

Oh, I thought he was in the main event. My bad.

[BomberPat]

Willow Nightingale is the best babyface in the business, incredible promo. It's not just that she's incredibly likeable, it's that she articulates how she represents the audience without it ever feeling forced or like she's trying to sell you something, she makes her wins and losses feel like they genuinely matter to her, and she makes you believe that your support actually gives her the energy to keep fighting, and she repays that to the audience by telling them never to give up, not in a hokey catchphrase John Cena sense, but as something honest and from the heart. Give her the world.

 

I thought this show was largely fantastic, but with some gripes. A very odd thing about AEW is how they have an enormous roster, but they seem to lock in to just using the same handful of people on the show for weeks at a time. Two title matches on this show featured challengers who, the last time we saw them, lost a match on the PPV for a shot at a different belt - so how does not getting an International Title shot somehow make you eligible to challenge for the National or Continental Title on the very next show? If they just wanted some title matches, there's nobody else they could have put into those spots to at least create some illusion of hierarchy and eligibility for titles? 

My main issue with the show is the Death Riders of it all, though. At least they're presumably just back to being straightforward heels all of the time now, so that mess is sorted (until Moxley decides he's a babyface for a week or two again), but I stand by that there isn't a single thing about this Ospreay/Omega storyline that was improved by Ospreay becoming a Death Rider, and there's plenty about it I think has been actively damaged.

There's been months of storyline building up to Will Ospreay seeing sense and quitting the Death Riders, which would be fine if he was going into a big match with Jon Moxley, but he isn't, he's going into a World Title match with Kenny Omega, and while that story has been bubbling over in the background nicely, and obviously is going to be the focus now, it's just left a weird air over it all where Will has unfinished business with the established heels while Kenny is turning heel on him at the same time. It's an extra wrinkle the story didn't need.

Most of all, I think Will is missing every single opportunity to be an actual sympathetic babyface here. Kenny was doing great work as a heel who feels justified in his actions because of how he read the situation - he thinks Will set the trap for him to get taken out by the Death Riders, and he thinks Will was either contemplating taking out Kenny himself, or wanted the fanfare and the applause of saving him. That's why Kenny's pissed off at him, that's why he jumped Will after the match - and fair enough, doing that was a dick move, and what makes Kenny firmly the heel now is that he will continue believing his perception of what happened and using that to feel justified in whatever he does to Ospreay moving forward, rather than listening to reason. Fine. 

But where that does leave Will? Kenny might not be right that Will purposefully set a trap for him, but he's pretty much correct about everything else - the only reason the Death Riders attacked Kenny is because he's Will's next opponent, and Moxley wanted to take him out for Will. Kenny's right that Will didn't actually save him from the Death Riders at all - Will didn't remove the chair from around Kenny's neck, Kenny did that. All Will did was not suffocate him with a plastic bag. You're not saving someone from something when it's you that has the power to do that thing, it's an arsonist expecting praise for lighting the match in front of you but not actually burning down your house. And yes, Will had a moment of clarity and realised that what the Death Riders were doing was wrong - but, again, Kenny has been telling Will that for months, and I've been saying for months that this whole storyline serves to make Will look like an idiot because the inevitable ending would be that Will feels conflicted and is shocked that the Death Riders are going to do Death Rider things. He was appalled that the people who broke his neck would try to break someone's neck.

And there was an easy, simple way to put all of that behind us and move forward in that storyline. Will, on admitting that he came back too early and had lost his confidence, on admitting that he turned to the Death Riders because he was lost and he believed them when they said they could help him get it back, should have said that at Redemption he realised he never needed them, that what he thought he was getting from the Death Riders was inside him all along - the Secret Stuff was just water, and he's Will Ospreay, he never needed the Death Riders to be as good as he is. But, no, even now he was still putting Jon Moxley over as a mentor, and saying "I liked being a Death Rider". Fucking state of it.

They're going to pull it back, I'm sure, because the dynamic is there and they will make it work, but there was nothing sympathetic in Will's promo at all for me, because his story for the past few months is that he believed the worst person in the company, didn't listen to everyone telling him they were the worst person in the company, was shocked to learn that they were the worst person in the company, and he still has zero regrets or reflection about why he trusted them or who they are, yet he's angry at the guy who's been telling him all along. It smacks of the Swerve Strickland promo, where Swerve was telling Will that he couldn't understand why he would side with the Death Riders after everything, and Will was angrier at Swerve for not saving him from the Death Riders - angrier at Swerve, who was also injured on that show - for not saving him from a broken neck than he was at the man who actually broke it. 

[Liam O'Rourke]

Also, just to add, I think a big point being missed is that this is being looked at in this conversation like it's about Willow/Thekla Vs. Omega/Knight when it really isn't - the most important thing by miles at Redemption was the post-match scene after the main event. It was by far the emotional high-point of the PPV. Had you done that and gone to another match it lessens the impact massively, and since it's the biggest match of the year for the company, it just isn't the move to make. 

Edited July 30 by Liam O'Rourke
Typo

[tiger_rick]

4 minutes ago, Chris B said:

Oh, I thought he was in the main event. My bad.

He was, well done. But the suggestion that he was more important than Willow & Thekla and not Kenny Omega and his AEW World Title, is a point no-one made.

[RedTwoster]

6 minutes ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

Also, just to add, I think a big point being missed is that this being looked at like its about Willow/Thekla Vs. Omega/Knight when it really isn't - the most important thing by miles at Redemption was the post-match scene after the main event. It was by far the emotional high-point of the PPV. Had you done that and gone to another match it lessens the impact massively, and since it's the biggest match of the year for the company, it just is not the move to make. 

I would say that’s subjective - for me, the emotional high point was Willow winning her first World title, and I don’t think you necessarily had to end with that angle. Heck, there might have been some benefit to having Renee speak to Omega, asking why he did what he did, giving him the opportunity to explain that his problem wasn’t that he thought Ospreay had planned to use the bag, it’s that he considered it, or something like that. 

I don’t personally think that angle was strong enough that it had to be show ending. It’ll be forgotten about by the time All In passes, but had they closed with a Willow title win, that would have been remembered for years. 

[Chris B]

13 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

He was, well done. But the suggestion that he was more important than Willow & Thekla and not Kenny Omega and his AEW World Title, is a point no-one made.

But he was actually in the main event. Whether it's about the following angle or not, his challenge for the title is the main event match. Otherwise, 'Kenny Omega is champion' is a PPV-main-event-worthy event in its own right.

At the moment, a women's main event has to be an all-timer AND the men's main event has to be subpar for it to even be considered as the main event. And even when that happened (Storm/May), it didn't. So there's always an argument against the women main eventing. The men's match is always bigger or is building them for another match down the line which should be bigger. 

Look at how we got here - Mercedes won the Owen, but the main event was Will Ospreay winning the men's Owen. Willow finally wins the world title and becomes grandslam champion, but Will Ospreay falls out with the deathriders and Kenny Omega might not make another PPV defence as champion, so that has to main event. And then when Mercedes fights Willow, Omega's fighting Ospreay, so that's going to main event.

Thing is, I'm not arguing that Willow/Mercedes should main event All In. I think that's clearly Omega/Ospreay. But if their biggest woman babyface winning the world title and making their first grand slam isn't bigger than a builder match with Kevin Knight and a storyline angle, then I can't see that anything else ever will be.

[Liam O'Rourke]

37 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I would say that’s subjective - for me, the emotional high point was Willow winning her first World title, and I don’t think you necessarily had to end with that angle.

I don’t personally think that angle was strong enough that it had to be show ending. It’ll be forgotten about by the time All In passes, but had they closed with a Willow title win, that would have been remembered for years. 

You have two options as a booker - you put the men's title match on, a Kenny Omega title match in Canada no less that you know is going to grab the live crowd by the balls and will have them in a frenzy (which it did, even with them knowing Knight wasn't winning), then do a fifteen minute angle that the crowd will go nuts for, to set up the dynamic for your biggest match of the year at Wembley Stadium that you need to move tickets to, with major developments in your top storyline that have been built for months, then put on Willow and Thekla with a far more burned out crowd, risk it not coming off as well as you'd like in Willow's big moment and diminish the big headline angle in the process by making it secondary which, like I said, is more important for business right now.

Or you can do it the other way and have a way higher percentage chance of greater success for both, and judging from Dynamite, Willow is over to a phenomenal degree and the main event is in great shape with the crowd absolutely on board, right where you want them to be, in both cases. 

I appreciate where you are coming from, I really do, and clearly you are more personally invested in Willow's win than the top angle, which is ace, but in this case I wouldn't have taken the risk either. 

Edited July 30 by Liam O'Rourke

[Infinity Land]

29 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

but had they closed with a Willow title win, that would have been remembered for years. 

They promoted the All In match for us at home with the occasional shot of Mercedes and commentary doing the talking. The fans in attendance and those in the ring oblivious to it. If it had been the main event chances are the piped in CEO! CEO! CEO! cuts off Willow's music and we're left with the usual posturing between Champion and challenger instead of Willow celebrating with the Conglomeration. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

He was, well done. But the suggestion that he was more important than Willow & Thekla and not Kenny Omega and his AEW World Title, is a point no-one made.

I'm only a part time passenger in the AEW world, but I agree with Rick I think.

Kevin Knight didn't headline Redemption. Kenny Omega being confirmed as Ospreay's opponent and subsequently 'turning on' Ospreay headlined Redemption. KK was just a prop in that storytelling.

But that was the go-home moment to try and build Wembley. It isn't the same done halfway through the show when everyone has to act surprised for 3 seconds before throwing to an advert for crisps and betting, then coming back for Chris Jericho belly flopping on Ciampa.

Send em home thinking about what's next for Omega/Ospreay. That's the money story they've got.

 

[mim731]

I was a bit confused by one thing in Ospreay's mostly excellent promo. He said he had been wanting to climb the mountain for over 10 years, and I took that to mean beating Kenny Omega, but didn't he beat him at Forbidden Door a couple of years ago? I'm probably missing something obvious. but I couldn't quite figure that one out.

[The King of Old School]

Seen promo from Moxley on Dynamite about "The Continental Cup" that is coming up, is this just a number one contenders thing or something else? Dunno if there were any more details about it that I missed?

[RedTwoster]

49 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Seen promo from Moxley on Dynamite about "The Continental Cup" that is coming up, is this just a number one contenders thing or something else? Dunno if there were any more details about it that I missed?

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that when I made my initial post - unless I missed it, I think this was the first time this has been mentioned, I've no idea what it is. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Loads of good points in this thread. I can’t add anything much but I’ll add some things anyway.

* From a pure match and match perspective, Willow-Thekla would have been my main event over Kenny-Kevin. But the latter had the big angle at the end which they clearly have positioned as a major factor in the All In main event. That had to close the show. So I can see why they did it.

* However, the reaction to Willow this week, and her promo, were both still magic. She is the best. They need to get on the ‘Warrior Princess’ nickname too. I’m sure their parent company owns Xena, get it done, make it happen.

* Kenny and Will were working very hard in their segment to make their match at Wembley be about them and not about Jon Moxley. By the end I think they just about managed it. But when the best you can hope for is “maybe now we can pretend all the Death Riders stuff never happened and it’s all about us two now”… I don’t know. There’s still time for them to make it right, but they didn’t need to make it this difficult for themselves. Stupid Death Riders.

* Add me to those baffled about the Continental Cup. Bet you it results in another belt as well, whatever it is. Sigh.

* Jay White’s injured again?

* Why are the Lethal Twist becoming a featured act in the build up to All In? I’m scared. If they end up on the card at least I know when I can have my wee break.

* Casino Gauntlet though! Sheamus Sheamus Sheamus please.

* Last thing, the DCF six man at the start had some of the most dreadful no-selling I’ve seen in years. I know the old “adrenaline’s pumping so I hop back up and I’ll collapse in three moves’ time” thing is an AEW favourite, and I can usually suspend disbelief, but Jake Doyle got hit with a full on Bandido frog splash, immediately got back up holding Bandido, hit a slam and was completely fine for the remainder of the match. Then Speedball got full on kicked in the face by Kyle Fletcher and didn’t react at all, just carried on with his own moves like it never happened. Rubbish to both of them!

Edited July 30 by HarmonicGenerator
Collision is on Thursday this week

[BomberPat]

the Continental Cup mention was weird; Moxley talked about is as something that was generating gossip backstage, so I guess the idea is that the talent are starting to hear about it before it's announced to the public. There's two problems with that - 1) they filed the trademark for "Continental Cup" in March, so with no announcement it's weird to start gossiping about it now, and 2) so the Death Riders are just hanging out listening to locker room gossip, then? Just in the changing rooms? Not in the backstage area that they and only they train in, and enter through the crowd because they're not in the locker room?

When the trademark was first filed, I wondered if they had plans to unify the Continental Title with another belt again, and to make the Continental Cup a new standalone tournament prize for the C2. If they're bringing in the Continental Cup as a tournament separate to the Continental Classic, but still with the Continental Title on the line, then I'm fully on team "Tony Khan has lost the plot".

 

I keep thinking about that Ospreay promo, and what a massive misstep "I loved being a Death Rider" and all that was. It would be like Sting singing the praises of the Horsemen and telling everyone how great Ric Flair is after the Horsemen turned on him, but to set up a match with Terry Funk or The Great Muta. Just mental.

There's just no world in which I think this route, via Death Rider Will Ospreay, was the best way to get to Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega at All In. I wonder if some of it has been juggled around because of the card for Redemption obviously having been majorly altered. But there's just no element of this story that would have been better than just having Will Ospreay, the babyface returning from career-threatening injuries, winning matches, getting revenge, and winning the title. Unless they do it on TV between now and All In, Ospreay still hasn't beaten Moxley in a match. 

It should have been so easy. They could have still done the "came back too soon from injury" and crisis of confidence stuff, even still have the Death Riders try to recruit Ospreay, but have him turn them down. Will's route to getting his confidence back should have been winning the Owen Hart Cup, and becoming number one contender to the World Title, not having midcard Daniel Garcia teach him how to do an armbar. With his newfound confidence in himself after the Owen, then he could beat Moxley and get revenge, and then have a clear run at Kenny Omega. Maybe have him and Kenny team a few times, and build up some tension between them at the same time, knowing that they're going to face each other at All In.

Then, at Redemption, you don't even need the Death Riders to get to "Will saves Kenny from a beatdown, but Will sees Kenny standing over him with the belt and gets the wrong idea". Kenny's opponent at Redemption was in a heel faction, and one that both Will and Kenny have history with. Will could have made the save for Kenny against the Don Callis Family, sent them packing, but still got to the point of Kenny turning around and seeing Will standing over him with the World Title, and still make the snap decision to hit him with the One Winged Angel. In that scenario, Kenny is a better heel because we know he's being irrational and paranoid, and Will's the better face because he's found it in himself to conquer his insecurities, while Kenny clearly hasn't, and he's just a guy trying to do the right thing and getting punished for it, rather than an idiot who joined a murder cult and was shocked to find them murdering.

Alternatively, if you're going to do a "Will Ospreay's confidence in himself was so low that he had to lower himself to total surrender to the man who almost ended his career", maybe don't have him still putting that man over in promos after the point of the story where he's meant to have seen the light, and, if the story is meant to be that Will Ospreay has lost his confidence, he probably shouldn't still be coming out every other week to cut "WA-HEY, BEST WRESTLER IN THE WORLD BRUV, GONNA WIN THE WRESTLING THEN BANG MY MISSUS" promos.