AEW TV 2026 discussion

[tiger_rick]

58 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Davis & Doyle vs. The Death Riders seemed like an obvious match to me in the sense that it felt inevitable that the Death Riders would win. Yet they didn't, which shocked me.

Great summary from Twoster. Was a fantastic show. It was tighter for time than usual, probably because of airing on Tuesday so there wasn't too much filler but they did loads inside and around the matches to further stuff. Swerve/Hangman particularly. The chemistry from those two just being ringside is off the charts.

The crowd were amazing. Literally, the only thing about WWE that I'd want in my AEW in any way is some of their awesome crowds when they're outside the US and this was a beauty. Any chance they could film outside the US every other week? I wish.

On the bit I've quoted, I was thinking about how the Callis Family is settling into being this stable of giant blokes, which is fun but, holy fuck, do they lose all the time. Someone obviously felt that too because this was an upset.

It's a tiny thing but I really liked Joe v Jack Perry as a qualifying match because it wasn't just two random guys like we've seen a million times. Jack has been calling out Joe, they were always going to meet and it felt like someone had looked at the match and thought whoever wins that deserves to be in this Clockwork thing. It's subtle but really interesting dynamic. 

Saw someone argue against Mone & Thekla headlining because it's heel v heel but I don't know how anyone is seeing Thekla as a heel right now. She's on fire and people love her. I'll not be deeply upset if it doesn't, particularly if they've any big plans for the men's title match but, this match should headline WrestleDream.

[RedTwoster]

6 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Saw someone argue against Mone & Thekla headlining because it's heel v heel but I don't know how anyone is seeing Thekla as a heel right now. She's on fire and people love her. I'll not be deeply upset if it doesn't, particularly if they've any big plans for the men's title match but, this match should headline WrestleDream.

That was me, but Thekla is definitely more firmly aligned as a babyface character since I made the case against it. I think you could absolutely headline with Mone/Thekla, but I don't feel strongly about it given that they're debuting a new gimmick match that they may well contain a surprise entrant or two. 

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

Bandido/Kofi was a lot of fun, and the New Level continue to kill it since their jump to AEW. I'm still astounded that WWE didn't see fit to do more with them after their heel turn, particularly given the level they are performing at right now. I'd love to see one or both of them in this year's Continental Classic. 

I haven't watched the full show yet, but echoing all of this. New Level feel, in the best possible way, like they're part of the furniture now - not in the sense that they're just there in the background, but in the sense that they just belong, and it's hard to believe they've only been there a few weeks. Kofi's having the kind of matches you want an ex-WWE signing to have; he's not coming in expecting to rest on his laurels, he's wrestling like he has something to prove against the best wrestlers in the company. And AEW are booking him the way you want an ex-WWE signing to be booked; he's important, he's part of a big story, but he's not overshadowing the heart of that story, which is still Hangman and Swerve. Just a perfect set-up and execution.

I saw little bits of their heel run in WWE, and I think the timing of it hurt them - I don't know if WWE expected that Big E would be able to work another match, or if they just never really planned anything beyond them turning on Big E in the first place, but once he was out of the picture there was no heart to it any more. And then soon afterwards they turned John Cena, so New Day didn't stand out as a shocking former babyface turn any more. If there had been any plan whatsoever, they could have threaded those stories together maybe, but New Day just seemed like an afterthought. A mad stat is that Kofi and Austin have both already worked more TV and PPV matches for AEW this year than they did for WWE.

 

@RedTwoster - unless they specifically say there's a wild card entry, I'm not expecting surprises in the Clockwork Carnage match. They're doing qualifiers to earn a spot, and it's not like a Casino Gauntlet where you're not sure how many people are in it; it will be 8 announced wrestlers, I think.

I'm not sure how I feel about Sheamus as a Death Rider. I think sticking him and Claudio together risks rehashing a WWE midcard act, and as good a team as they were, I don't think that's a good look for AEW. I also really don't know what you do with the Death Riders in general now; the PAC news obviously completely shifts the foundations of who and what they are, and adding a new member so soon after it risks feeling like trying to replace him, and I wouldn't want anyone to have to deal with being put in that spot.

[RedTwoster]

9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I'm not sure how I feel about Sheamus as a Death Rider. I think sticking him and Claudio together risks rehashing a WWE midcard act, and as good a team as they were, I don't think that's a good look for AEW. I also really don't know what you do with the Death Riders in general now; the PAC news obviously completely shifts the foundations of who and what they are, and adding a new member so soon after it risks feeling like trying to replace him, and I wouldn't want anyone to have to deal with being put in that spot.

That's true, it's potentially a risky spot to put someone in. I don't mind reforming the Claudio/Sheamus tag team though - as far as I can remember they've not teamed together since early 2019, meaning their team pre-dates AEW as a company. Enough time has passed for it not to feel, to me at least, like a WWE rehash; particularly if they wrestle a physical style of match that they simply would not have been able to in WWE. The prospect of them facing FTR, Brodido, The Bucks, Davis & Doyle, C&C...I really, really like that. 

13 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

unless they specifically say there's a wild card entry, I'm not expecting surprises in the Clockwork Carnage match. They're doing qualifiers to earn a spot, and it's not like a Casino Gauntlet where you're not sure how many people are in it; it will be 8 announced wrestlers, I think.

You may be right - I'm working on the assumption of there being a 'joker' in this match. Wrestledream is so soon that I can't imagine they'll have time to run qualifiers for each spot, but perhaps they will. 

[BomberPat]

as it stands, Clockwork Carnage is Ospreay and Joe, with six more still to be announced. Speedball declared their intention to qualify, so let's guess they're in as well.

Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, Jon Moxley, Hangman Page, Mark Davis and Swerve Strickland are all out of the picture as they have other matches on the PPV. I'm guessing Okada is out, unless he gets a qualifier despite losing to Will already.

Maybe Andrade gets in there, but given he has the title shot contract, I assume they hold off on him challenging for a while. Jericho seems to be consciously staying away from the World Title, and I expect has another match with Nick Wayne at the PPV. I don't think they have Kenny Omega in there; whenever he next faces Will, I think that has to be a singles rematch. 

It's surprisingly tough to come up with five more main event-level wrestlers for those spots. Maybe that is justification enough for this match not headlining. The best I can come up with for the remaining five is Ricochet, Gabe Kidd, Takeshita, then maybe Orange Cassidy and someone from the Don Callis Family - but with Davis, Fletcher and Knight accounted for, and Okada presumably missing out on a spot, that leaves maybe Jake Doyle or Wardlow? Definitely a match that could benefit from a wild card.

[tiger_rick]

Nigel summed it up in the opening when he said he loves AEW because the thought of Kofi vs. Bandido for the ROH Title would have been ridiculous at the start of the year.

[The King of Old School]

I imagine if there is a wild card in the CC match it would probably be MJF?

[TheBurningRed]

1 minute ago, The King of Old School said:

I imagine if there is a wild card in the CC match it would probably be MJF?

I was thinking Ilja Dragunov.

[tiger_rick]

They haven't mentioned a WIldcard and considering they produced a really good video with Renee narrating to explain it all, I'm thinking they surely would have? 

[Statto]

They did of course make a point of placing the current usual AEW emphasis on NO OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE like outside interference isn't illegal basically all the time.

As I've said before, I'd not mind so much if they presented it as an overarching concept that the promotion was very keen to stamp out outside interference full stop, and that anyone caught interfering in any match at any time would be subject to hefty fine/lengthy suspension (even if missed by the assigned match official - if you're caught on camera, you'll get the punishment).

It really rankles me how they lazily throw it out there as a tagline for certain matches.

[tiger_rick]

7 minutes ago, Statto said:

They did of course make a point of placing the current usual AEW emphasis on NO OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE like outside interference isn't illegal basically all the time.

As I've said before, I'd not mind so much if they presented it as an overarching concept that the promotion was very keen to stamp out outside interference full stop, and that anyone caught interfering in any match at any time would be subject to hefty fine/lengthy suspension (even if missed by the assigned match official - if you're caught on camera, you'll get the punishment).

It really rankles me how they lazily throw it out there as a tagline for certain matches.

It makes a lot of sense to clarify it for this match. Otherwise, if a Death Rider or a DCF member makes it in, there's nothing to stop their factions just influencing the match.

I get it's odd wording because it should always be illegal but it's clarifying that it's not an anything goes match and is far from lazy.

[BomberPat]

I always preferred "Everybody Is Barred From Ringside" as the explanation given in the Continental Classic, "No Outside Interference" should just be the baseline for how wrestling works. Outside interference is the exception, not the rule.

I get that it's them realising that it's a No DQ match and having to write something in to justify why a faction wouldn't just have all the other members helping them, but then at some point they need to actually show us what the consequences of outside interference in one of these matches is.

[Statto]

Fair point... but how are we ensuring this? Have we just told everyone to behave this once, please?

If this match isn't anything goes and competitor A hits competitor B with a chair, competitor A gets DQ'd. If it's in the first section, they're eliminated. If it's in the second - does competitor B get awarded a fall? Or does competitor A get docked one (even if that puts them onto -1)? Either is fine, I guess (with my preference being the latter).

But if someone interferes and attacks someone... if they're affiliated to another competitor in the match, do you make the assumption they are working on their behalf? And if they're not associated with anyone...?

I'll concede it's less lazy here - and maybe lazy is too much generally. Incomplete, perhaps? I'm cool with extra emphasis on no outside interference for particular matches, but just tell me how you're enforcing that (i.e. 6 month suspension without pay for anyone who interferes). Otherwise my mind goes straight to "there won't be outside interference in this match because we won't book it to happen". Maybe that's a me problem, though.

 

[RedTwoster]

44 minutes ago, Statto said:

As I've said before, I'd not mind so much if they presented it as an overarching concept that the promotion was very keen to stamp out outside interference full stop, and that anyone caught interfering in any match at any time would be subject to hefty fine/lengthy suspension (even if missed by the assigned match official - if you're caught on camera, you'll get the punishment).

 

I totally agree with this, I'd love to see them eliminate it completely. Aside from anything else, it always makes the referees look like utter dopes. 

[tiger_rick]

17 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I totally agree with this, I'd love to see them eliminate it completely. Aside from anything else, it always makes the referees look like utter dopes. 

Is there much outside interference? I maybe being ultra generous to them, as per but, I can't think of that much going on. There's a bit of distraction, like Bandido/Kofi being aware of five people at ringside and taking their eye of it but, blatant interference seems very minimal.

Also, I wouldn't eliminate it. Some of my favourite finishes ever contain blatant interference. Savage at Royal Rumble 91, LOD at SummerSlam 90, Heenan cheating for Rude at Mania 5. It's something that should be used sparingly and done well but is a great heat-seeking device in an era where they're needed more than ever.