RedTwoster Posted January 21 Posted January 21 The consensus on here at the moment seems to be that AEW is on a bit of a creative slump. I don’t disagree, although I do think their shows are generally enjoyable in isolation. It’s just that it’s not particularly exciting, and they’ve missed a few very open goals, such as Hangman/Swerve for the title. That said, what would you do to heat things up? I don’t necessarily mean angles or feuds (though by all means suggest that), but what drastic steps would you take to make things more must-see? Would you ditch titles? Close ROH? Change the booking team? Have a mass roster refresh, ditching some of the old guard? How would you turn things round and get back to the glory that was last summer? Quote
Merzbow Posted January 21 Posted January 21 Do an Emmerdale, have a huge natural disaster (RIP Tenta) or a plane crashing in to the venue killing off 15 characters. One for me would be realising that the MJF experiment has drastically failed, let him fuck off to WWE and be their one trick pony with his best pal Cody. I honestly think it'd be a net positive at this point if he's just gone for good. Quote
FUM Posted January 21 Posted January 21 I’m not just trying to be a prick here but bar a month here or there every now again I feel like the consensus is always that AEW is on a creative slump. I say that from a view that is totally from reading and not watching to be fair. Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 21 Paid Members Posted January 21 (edited) Fuck ROH off. It's no coincidence that AEW's best years were 2019-2022 and the booking hit a slump as soon as ROH started getting featured more on the shows. Tony Khan is just spread too thin trying to run two promotions (although you can hardly call ROH a promotion at this point). End the CMLL/NJPW/other feds love-in. Sure, have a talent swap every now and again and run a Forbidden Door-type show every other year if you must, but the focus in AEW should always be on AEW. 90% of the audience really don't care about Roderick Strong vs Claudio for the CMLL belt because they don't watch CMLL. Oh, and bring back Dark! Edited January 21 by Lorne Malvo Quote
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 22 Paid Members Posted January 22 (edited) 4 hours ago, RedTwoster said: The consensus on here at the moment seems to be that AEW is on a bit of a creative slump. In a world where Tommy Dreamer and Delirious are booking a wrestling show on national US cable, stop moaning. Edited January 22 by garynysmon Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 22 Paid Members Posted January 22 (edited) 10 hours ago, FUM said: I’m not just trying to be a prick here but bar a month here or there every now again I feel like the consensus is always that AEW is on a creative slump. I say that from a view that is totally from reading and not watching to be fair. I think it's because while AEW consistently has good stuff going on it's very rare that they get all their ducks in a row. There's this constant sense of "Why isn’t this the best thing ever?" because it clearly has the potential to be just that but the sheer number of mistakes they repeat, weird booking, and massive open goals they miss for no clear reason is very frustrating. Watching AEW sometimes feels like someone is making you the nicest Michelin star steak dinner ever. They've got the best ingredients, they are preparing everything perfectly and you can't wait. Then halfway they just decide abruptly to make a pizza instead. And it's like pizza is fine I guess but where the fuck did my steak dinner go? Edited January 22 by LaGoosh Quote
organizedkaos Posted January 22 Posted January 22 (edited) 8 hours ago, garynysmon said: In a world where Tommy Dreamer and Delirious are booking a wrestling show on national US cable, stop moaning. Nah. We live in a world overburdened with new content. We also have access to huge digital archives of old. Also time is precious and fleeting I don't need to watch wrestling. I want ro watch good wrestling. I cant bring myself to watch WWE and as you pointed out TNA sounds like trash. AEW doesn't win by default though If AEW loses my interest I stop watching it. I will then watch no wrestling. I do like wrestling, im passionate about stuff I like. Ill probably always be passionate about the idea of wrestling but to watch it weekly and more importantly to spend money on it I need it to be good AEW still has enough I like that ive watched most of the recent dynamites. Collision is out. Last ppv was out (although partly due to timing). I can't help but want to discuss its flaws and how it could do better because i remember how exciting it was to be invested in AEW and id like that again. However, AEW as the provider of the entertainment has to earn that investment back. Im not one of those football fans standing in the rain complaining about how my team hasnt been good for decades. Life's too short On the plus side ive been able to watch more films. Splitsville is great fun, most ive laughed at a comedy in ages Edited January 22 by organizedkaos Quote
Paid Members Statto Posted January 22 Paid Members Posted January 22 I'm generally not that big on wrestling tournaments and I know in the past TK's been accused of using tournaments as a crutch for his booking, but... I think they could make more of the Owen Hart Cup tournaments, and it could lead to some fun TV. The prize for winning them is a main event title shot at the year's big stadium show, so the tournaments should befit that. They did a cracking job making the men's final seem like a massive deal once it boiled down to Hangman vs Ospreay, but you could get way more of that kinda feel with some patented AEW "real sports presentation". - Not all wrestling tournaments need to have 8 entrants and start at the quarter-final stage. Make them bigger & longer. Something like 32 on the men's side, 16 on the women's (I realise that would invite the criticisms around AEW not caring about women's wrestling etc but it's befitting the relative roster sizes) - Make it feel like a big deal to get into the tournament in the first place, given the magnitude of the prize. Start talking about it now - each win for a lower card guy is a step closer to getting invited to the dance. - Put it all into a seeded bracket. Maybe an uneven one so you give your top seeds some byes, so your early rounds are full of fun unique match combos, and your latter rounds are that but with real stakes. All sorts of fun stories you could tell throughout. Major upsets, unexpected runs to the later rounds from unheralded entrants etc. etc. All that plus the fact you'd be kicking it off right around the time America is gripped with bracket fever with the NCAA basketball tournaments. So yeah... March Madness for wrestling is what I'm proposing. Quote
NeverYield Posted January 22 Posted January 22 (edited) Ditch silly things like 'the Trios' titles I watched a fair bit of AEW a few years ago and then got out of it because it just didn't hold my interest but ive been watching it more lately as personally ive found it pretty decent again lately but when Hangman and co one the Trios belts its like oh fuck off, you've got tag team, what even is the need for a Trios title its ridiculous its like these absolutely nonsensical titles in boxing that no one gives a shit about. Edited January 22 by NeverYield Quote
JGPuk84 Posted January 22 Posted January 22 37 minutes ago, Statto said: - Not all wrestling tournaments need to have 8 entrants and start at the quarter-final stage. Make them bigger & longer. Something like 32 on the men's side, 16 on the women's (I realise that would invite the criticisms around AEW not caring about women's wrestling etc but it's befitting the relative roster sizes) - Make it feel like a big deal to get into the tournament in the first place, given the magnitude of the prize. Start talking about it now - each win for a lower card guy is a step closer to getting invited to the dance. - Put it all into a seeded bracket. Maybe an uneven one so you give your top seeds some byes, so your early rounds are full of fun unique match combos, and your latter rounds are that but with real stakes. All sorts of fun stories you could tell throughout. Major upsets, unexpected runs to the later rounds from unheralded entrants etc. etc. I’ve thought they should do sometHing like this with ROH while watching the darts. Run 4 tournaments a year with - Pure, Normal and Hardcore rules, leading to a “World” Champs. No defending of titles, just champs for a year. It would give a good framework, allow for a core of seeds and the ability for some short term surprises. I don’t think you could do this in AEW, but feels perfect for ROH. Quote
Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Posted January 23 Posted January 23 (edited) Or just go whole hog and do an FA Cup style draw with say 24 wrestlers in it and each round has a new draw with all the previous winners in. Once round 1 is over 4 of the title holders join so you'd have National, Continental, International and TNT champs join at the 16 wrestler round. All the balls are clearly numbered and shown to camera so its not argued as being 'fixed' like other tournaments/drafts have been. Round 1 24 wrestlers Round 2 12 winners and 4 champions join Round 3 8 wrestlers Round 4 4 wrestlers compete in the semi and final on a PPV with the winner getting a title shot within the next 6 months at a time of their choosing but the little caveat is that whoever holds the big title gets to choose the stipulation for the title match Edited January 23 by Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Quote
RedTwoster Posted January 25 Author Posted January 25 I haven’t even answered my own question, so here goes… I wouldn’t bin ROH, but I would separate it from AEW in a significant way, in the sense that I would give it a distinct booking team, with no Tony Khan involvement other than to make signings - signings who would be getting built up as stars of the future for AEW. There would be no Chris Jericho title runs or anything more than the lightest touch of main roster involvement. It’s developmental, nothing more, nothing less. I’d probably also employ more writers from outside wrestling. Tony Khan has deep pockets, and he could afford to bring in experienced writers who are familiar with the product, but are fresh voices with fresh ideas. Their vision would have to fit the tone of AEW, but new ideas are never a bad thing. I’d also ditch almost every title - keeping the World title, a unifying all the other belts on the men’s side. Make a story out of it, perhaps - a bitter Okada seeking to remove all other opportunities at gold, or something. I’d also ditch the trios titles. To keep Tony Khan’s thirst for new titles quenched, I’d introduce a mixed tag title belt and a super heavyweight/meat/brawler’s division on the men’s side. These larger wrestlers would of course still compete for the world title, but it at least offers something different. I’d also want to work towards 50/50 gender balance on programming - not rigidly, but AEW has a tremendous women’s roster, and one way they can set themselves apart from WWE is to treat both genders equally, making it clear that Toni Storm is just as significant as Hangman Page and MJF etc. Quote
Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Posted January 25 Posted January 25 Interesting about a 'Meat' division and would be interested to see who would be classified as that division Quote
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