AEW TV 2026 discussion

[BomberPat]

this Ospreay angle is just bollocks, isn't it? He loses two matches, and that's enough of a crisis of confidence for him to start training under the bloke who broke his neck and kidnapped him? And the super-secret hardcore training that the Death Riders gave him was enough for him to beat Ace Austin, after wrestling exactly the same as he always does, only winning with a submission hold. If he'd come out and absolutely destroyed his opponent, or wrestled a completely different kind of match, it might begin to add up, but it's a whole lot of telling and not showing right now.

And then The Opps coming out so Samoa Joe can remind us that he randomly started talking about recruiting Will Ospreay as well, but only after the Death Riders already had him training with them, and only in backstage promos and never actually sharing a segment with Ospreay, just making them look like an absolute second-rate Death Riders knock-off. A complete Million Dollar Corporation of a stable. Anthony Bowens knocking about their as the prized new recruit, who hasn't even wrestled since joining. Shibata who hasn't wrestled since March. Interim leader Hook nowhere to be seen. 

[LaGoosh]

The Deathriders brutal fight training regiment including Pat Ball, a game I played every lunchtime at high school for about 4 years straight made me piss myself laughing. 

[Chili]

I really did like that MJF bit at the start where he encountered every slap head, heel or face on the payroll and they all took the piss. I enjoy the MJF is just generally thought off a shithead by all sides.

[The King Of Swing]

Sareee AND Hazuki in the Owen. 

Fuck yeah. 

Though Sareee recently announced that she is taking a break due to a neck injury. Guessing her match will have to wait a while.

[LaGoosh]

Takeshita vs Darby was BONKERS! I wasn't that bothered when Darby initially won the title but it's turning into an all timer story for the company. The guy who lives in the moment, willing to do anything, to crash and burn at every single moment, putting it all on the line every week. Every title defence has been a spectacle. The Darby Allin Suicide Run. I don't even know how he'll have a working skeleton by the time he loses the title. All credit to them, the World title scene has been booked really well for ages and I'm fully invested in this story and the MJF angle. I wanna' see MJF lose his hair in New York City!

Sadly apart from the cracking main story it feels like there is pretty much nothing else of any interest going on in this company at the moment. Just people doing stuff. Holding pattern booking. Good thing the matches are so consistently excellent - the card for Double or Nothing is looking pretty amazing.

The Ospreay/Deathriders stuff is something that probably sounds good on paper (Ospreay has to change and to learn the ways of his hated enemies to regain his former position and get to the top)  but in reality is ludicrous and very silly. Him playing Pat Ball and gay porn with the Deathriders then doing a normal match against Ace Austin with no change to his wrestling style or character whatsoever...what's the point of it all? I don't even think that's a storyline the fans want to see Ospreay do. He's at his best when he's a dumb happy guy doing mad flips - this super serious stuff doesn't fit him.

Edited May 15 by LaGoosh

[Supremo]

Reports coming out of Mick Foley potentially coming into AEW soon, so I can see Mick being factored into Darby’s current run of being a crash test dummy. Who better to guide him than Foley? The ghost of broken body future.

Wasn’t Foley planning on having one more match with MJF? I wonder if they’ll do whatever they had planned, but with Darby as Mick’s surrogate. They should do a rip off version of the Hell in a Cell for the third MJF vs. Darby match, after Darby shaves him bald. The Mount Everest Cage.

I’m very aware of the late-nineties-tinted glasses by which I view Mick. In my head, he’s still a genius with loads of clever, interesting ideas to offer, even as a non-wrestler. In a perfect world he and MJF could create a masterpiece.

However, I’m also realistic. 98% of Mick’s motivation to come in is probably to sniff around Willow Nightingale and Thekla. The other 2% is the free lunches.

[LaGoosh]

I liked Foley on commentary - wouldn't mind if they put him on Collision to liven things up. However I imagine his brain is mostly scrambled eggs these days and he wouldn't have it in him.

[BomberPat]

I think AEW would be daft not to want to work with Foley in some capacity - as far removed as we should be from Attitude Era nostalgia, he's still a big name from that era who represents a lot of goodwill to a decent amount of fans and lapsed fans. I don't know what capacity would be worth actually using him in - as much as he's moving better than he has in years, he surely has no business being anywhere near actually working a match, and I think using him as a mentor for Darby Allin feels like a backwards step after Sting purposefully distanced himself from Darby before the title match because he felt Darby was more than good enough to go it alone now; it would be reminiscent of TNA deciding that AJ Styles and Samoa Joe needed ex-WWE guys as managers and mentors in Flair and Taz, even though they were both multiple time World Champions already. It risks making someone still look like an up-and-comer when they should be a star of the present.

I can see Foley getting involved in Cage & Cope's retirement, for sure. I don't think there's a spot on commentary for him unless any of the current crop step away, and I'd rather they didn't, and AEW should try and avoid having authority figures as much as possible, so no re-run of Commissioner Foley either. What Mick is very good at is big emotive promos about the toll that wrestling takes you on, and really they just need to find excuses to have him do that, or a big babyface speech rallying the troops, every now and then. If their action figure and video game investments weren't completely fucked I would say the main selling point is in getting some legacy Foley content in there, and in merchandising in general.

[DavidB6937]

Fair play to Foley. He's seen the growing women's division and got in there quick.

Melina for AEW champ by December.

[Supremo]

I suspect AEW will treat and pay tribute to Mick better than WWE ever has. Always wound me up that they never recognised how fucking great he was, how vital he was to the Attitude Era and how many guys owe so much of their career to him. Triple H especially. Mick had to make that prick twice and yet you’d think the DX tank was more important than Mick for how much each is referenced in historical pieces.

Ultimately though, Mick’s only got himself to blame. He’s displayed more than enough of his deep-rooted Fed Stockholm Syndrome to understand why they never really respected him. On that, I wonder if he’s managed to get a hold of Vince’s home address yet. He’ll probably send him an apology card the moment he signs the AEW contract.

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I suspect AEW will treat and pay tribute to Mick better than WWE ever has. Always wound me up that they never recognised how fucking great he was, how vital he was to the Attitude Era and how many guys owe so much of their career to him. Triple H especially. Mick had to make that prick twice and yet you’d think the DX tank was more important than Mick for how much each is referenced in historical pieces.

Ultimately though, Mick’s only got himself to blame. He’s displayed more than enough of his deep-rooted Fed Stockholm Syndrome to understand why they never really respected him. On that, I wonder if he’s managed to get a hold of Vince’s home address yet. He’ll probably send him an apology card the moment he signs the AEW contract.

I think you mean Mr McMahon.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I cant make up my mind if the Mox/Osprey stuff was incredibly crap, or deliberately incredibly crap.

[Kamran]

Looks like it's AEW vs ROH tonight on Collision:

[HarmonicGenerator]

That lineup … ROH got a big show coming up soon, by any chance? Bunch of nobodies against the stars there, and I include Sammy Guevara in that first category. 

[LaGoosh]

3 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

That lineup … ROH got a big show coming up soon, by any chance? Bunch of nobodies against the stars there, and I include Sammy Guevara in that first category. 

ROH was last night and in the same venue so guessing they're just using the ROH guys already in town.