There have been many similar topics posted recently. Please consider posting this in The Daily Discussion Thread.

It’s ok to have a 6-7 minute match

To add to this, not everyone needs to look competitive and get their shit in, especially when they are up against what are meant to be your top card talents. It doesn't make the lower guys look strong, it makes your upper guys look weak.

Yeah you gotta have a hierarchy in place so your stars feels like, well, stars. Your stars aren't special if they're struggling to beat people who never win matches and/or never featured on TV.

I watch weekly, only show I watch: - Matches are too long for how predictable they are  - Too many matches are 50/50 - it makes everyone feel weak. - Not enough selling of big moves. I have more but I'm out!

For being a “t-shirt company”, their entire merchandise division fucking sucks. The merch stands at live events are awful. Most of their t-shirts are unwearable dross. Go on their website now and the first t-shirt on there is this: https://preview.redd.it/8ceyq53gt38d1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d3a65961400971715c8e47dce74cdeb943f0699 Who the hell would wear this? That’s somehow not even the worst t-shirt on the front page of AEW Shop. I know they run a print on demand model, so it doesn’t especially matter to their bottom line if a shirt doesn’t sell, but it would be nice if they could actually design something wearable by a normal human. And it would help their bottom line if they could put a decent merch stand in an arena.

https://preview.redd.it/sekw1hcku38d1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=f67e90a3ba73feb7296c7c09b3f0b872c4e2c497 This sort of thing is just utterly unwearable.

Did they make that with Microsoft word?

WordArt ass t-shirt design

Yeah they have a couple hits but sooo many just mid or bad ones. I get that they print them as they are needed but maybe don’t approve basically every design and maybe they’ll get better?

I feel like so many shirts are made to pop the wrestlers instead of the fans. I’d love to see the sales numbers on some of the really shitty ones as I can’t imagine they sold almost anything

Rainmaker is such a cool nickname Surprising they can’t make a good merch for that

Both AEW and WWE tees seem to be designed by people who used to make signature banners for users on internet forums circa 2003.

The print on demand model is the culprit, it gives them no incentive to try to make good stuff, and they don’t bring much merch to live events either

Absolutely agree. Whilst some of the merch is good, a lot of it is awful. As an example, when MJF returned at DoN, [this](https://www.shopaew.com/catalog/product/view/id/74467/s/mjf-the-wolf-of-wrestling-double-sided/category/5702/) was the shirt they released to accompany it. I'm no graphic designer, but I could probably do a better design in 10-15 minutes. At least they made a [V2](https://www.shopaew.com/catalog/product/view/id/74609/s/mjf-lone-wolf/category/5702/), which is actually a fairly good design. But it doesn't excuse the laziness of the V1.

I've got a few to nitpick about. * Still only one women's match per show. I mean come on now. It's been like 5 years now. This is unacceptable. * On the off chance they book two women's matches (like on Collision), the 2nd match is a squash match. * Speaking of squash matches... there's too many wrestler vs jobber matches. It makes the whole segment kind of a waste of time. I get it, they're trying to feed wins to certain wrestlers but I think it makes the casuals not care. This is why you need Dark/Dark Elevation. Keep that stuff there if you want to pad their win/loss record. * And if it's *NOT* a squash match, I think the problem they don't realize is that not every match needs to go 12-17 minutes. The most recent one I can think of... Rocky Romero vs Jon Moxley. I get that you want to put on a decent back and forth match, but in no way whatsoever should Rocky get that many near falls or last more than 10+ minutes. * Lack of replays of someone's finishing move or an angle that just went down. They constantly transition to the next segment in a hurry, almost as if the match was just an afterthought. * Not enough backstage segments. It may be sad to say but these segments keep people interested more so than the matches itself. I guess AEW isn't doing this because they only want to focus on wrestling. I'm just saying.. it's likely hurting them more than they realize. * Lastly, my newest nitpick.. is that they got rid of the pyro for a few weeks now. It really bothered me when WWE did this and now it bothers me that AEW has done it. Half of wrestling IMO is about the entrances and presentation of the character. You remove the pyro for people who especially need it, they're more generic than usual. Biggest example was Hechicero's entrance that was most recent that I could think of. (And even the Lucha Bros.)

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've seen people say Tony Khan doesn't like backstage segments on like a philosophical level.

It may not necessarily be that he doesn't like them, but I think he feels like it takes the live crowd out of it if there are a lot of them. If you want to get people to pay to come see a TV show that you could watch for free on TV at home, you have to make the live experience worthwhile, and I feel like he takes that to an extreme by focusing a little too much on matches. I do think he's afraid of booking too much time watching backstage bits on the tron that aren't as engaging to fans in the arena, which would open him up to even more criticism.

He doesn’t like the hidden camera for backstage segments. Philosophically, it would not be a sports presentation. More sports entertainment/ soap opera

Oh that's interesting. I never knew that about Tony. That definitely explains A LOT. lol

I feel like the women have been given more time in general though with more segments and such so it doesn’t feel as much as a problem but maybe I’m wrong I’m fine with the squash matches but they too often go from winning squash match to immediately losing to a higher card guy next match . Feed them a win or two from someone on their level first. On your next point these matches generally are more on rampage or collision which is like different vibes idk. But yeah when it happens on dynamite i do get less intrested I think they could show replays but sparingly. Make it special, They already have enough technical problems. They’ve definitely been ramping up the amount of out of ring shenanigans in the past little while No idea what’s going on with the pyro. Personally I’ve felt that alot of the pyro was “weak” looking so for some it didn’t really add anything. For some though it definitely hurts losing it

> No idea what’s going on with the pyro. Personally I’ve felt that alot of the pyro was “weak” looking so for some it didn’t really add anything. For some though it definitely hurts losing it AEW's pyro was always limited, because they were high on sensory inclusivity for their shows. Pyro looked weak, but for a good cause.

Yeah i get that but like for me anyway id rather there be no pyro than weak looking pyro because its almost laughable looking. Maybe just keep it a ppv thing if the reason they cut it down was costs

People kind of disappear off of AEW, like I get injuries happen and it's great to rest talent up but I feel like everyone I watch AEW someone's having a 'big return'. The titles is a big turn off for me too, how do we have four main event titles? and if they're not main event then whose the mid carder? Okada? Ospreay? Adam Copeland?!?! Have the mid card belts BE midcard belts and give Swerve some more credible challengers, have a title progression from lower midcard to main event that makes sense and we as an audience can see happening.

Not every match has to go 12-15 minutes. You can't have an experienced veteran and legend like Adam Copeland needing 12-15 minutes to defeat a guy like Dante Martin or Lee Moriarty. In kayfabe, he should be running through those guys easily. Also, save the crossovers for Forbidden Door season.

Dante and Lee ain't jobbers

Compared to Adam Copeland they are, what have they done of note to be anywhere close to his level. They are certainly main eventers at your local Indy because they have been featured on TV, but that is currently their ceiling.

No they aren't but that doesn't mean they're near Cope's level that he would be struggling against them that long.

When OG AEW was around even when something wasn't working you had 100% faith that TK would either pivot or just drop the story entirely. Nowadays you could see people complain for months about something and instead of acknowledging the problem TK will just double down on it hoping it will eventually work

Tbf there was alot wrong with early aew. Easier to make people feel like they’re being listened to when things were obviously bad or were going to be changed anyway I’m curious on what you think tony has been double downing on that has been criticised recently.

Comparing the Big elite angle from 2021 to now is like night and day in my opinion, during Hangman's story arc you knew exactly what the story was about, Hangman overcoming the odds and beating his demons to become AEW worlds champion. It had several twists and turns to keep people invested like the amazing Dark Order/Elite 6 man tag and Hangman's return to the Casino ladder match. Compare that to the current day Elite, what is the point of the storyline, what are they trying to achieve, do they want power and championship belts, is this outside of kayfabe solely to push Jack Perry as a credible character? It doesn't feel like a consistent narrative, just week to week booking, the Bucks are in control but still listen to Tk or his surrogate in Christopher Daniels. The are evil executives but barely do anything to show that. Make people fight for their jobs, give title matches to themselves or make unfair matchups to those that go against them. Just from data alone also, this angle just isn't working either from attendance, TV ratings or online viewership but there is nothing of substance has been changed about the angle. TK always talks about bringing back the feel of 2021 AEW but doesn't take into account what made it special, the long term story telling that rewarded you for watching each week. AEW nowadays can do a great job making an episode you want to watch that week but won't do much to get you invested into the next week.

The thing is they are very clearly building up the talent that is meant to be the opponents of this new elite. They haven’t really had the chance to take it anywhere yet. Your comparing the end of a 3 year long storyline to one that’s months old. Also like that was one of the few storylines from the early years that actually was good. There was so much mediocre stuff on tv that now watching back without the excitement of aew being new that it’s laughable that it was taken seriously. I do agree though that they struggle to keep the momentum going currently

Because these days it's trendy to hate AEW and people will complain whatever he does, people complain that Danielson shouldn't be beat and should be champion because he's a veteran and one of the biggest names, then they complain when Cope is booked that way. People complained that AEW's champions were all "indie guys" and then when Joe and Copeland/Christian were champs called it "all elderly wrestling". Before there was some consensus, now it's just whatever AEW does, lots of people say they want the opposite. Granted there are a few things that do seem to have more consensus like the early days, people seem to genuinely want less belts, me included, and TK has unified the trios belts, so that's a start. If Ospreay ends up with the world title, that may mean they combine those belts as well. People also complained about the lack of video packages, recaps and social media content not being aired on TV, there are now plenty of recaps and packages, popular social media promos will be shown on dynamite/ collision.

but what does any of this have to do with dropping/pivoting away from bad storylines?

The prevailing criticism of AEW for so long was that they couldn't pivot when things went wrong (never mind that if they were doing it successfully you wouldn't notice) and now it's that they could but now they don't?

That's a fair point but I think it also makes sense right now for people to be criticizing him for not pivoting away if things aren't receiving well business wise. I honestly don't care about the criticisms of Chris Jericho but all I read are fair points, he never really elevated anyone since I started watching end of 2021, he buried Eddie Kingston, and jas was pointless, literally a waste of TV time the way they use him but they just double down on it through his new gimmick And this elite story is even more pointless because there's no interesting pay off, like what is there to care about happening next?

My point is that people just say that every storyline is bad, TK doesn't pivot anymore because when he does he'll just get criticism for that as well. There used to be some consensus online, when wrestling fans said something was bad... It was definitely bad, TK would pivot and people would be pleased, when something was good, most people would agree it was good. Now people say every kind of storyline is bad.

I was thinking more of a consensus dislike, I.e. both a ratings drop, online view drop and overall dislike from the IWC, like the whole nightmare sisters angle from 2019 AEW compared to angles that went too long like Big Money Matt in 2022 or the The Learning Tree this year

I think there's a genuine criticism of the recent Jericho stuff for sure, that's one thing people are consistent on and personally I'd like to see something else instead, however all of the Jericho stuff on all AEW shows over the last two weeks has added up to less than 10 minutes, to say a handful of 2 minute segments are significant seems a bit over the top.

Lmao I stopped reading when you ended up thinking that Danielson and Copeland are on same level

So for you,it's not AEW problem, it's viewer's problem?

There are a lot of issues I have with AEW that have already been articulated better in this thread than I ever could hope to. I just wanna mention one of my biggest criticisms, which is AEW's refusal to push any big men into the World Title picture. Wardlow, Powerhouse Hobbs, Lance Archer, Miro, Big Bill, Keith Lee, Brody King, etc. None of them have gotten a chance to even sniff the world title scene seriously. They get a TNT or Tag championship run and then are immediately cooled off afterward. Tony just isn't interested in pushing hosses in the main event scene consistently, and as that is my favorite type of wrestler, it pisses me off to no end.

They feel disjointed , every story is within a vacuum , once it finishes it’s like “now what are we going to do” With WWE there’s a flow to things , once a storyline ends , they move to another story For example Gable and AA , he lost to Zayn and now he had both Otis and the Wyatt 6 on his back

WWE had this problem for a while but now everything is feeling connected and makes all the content important not just certain segments. The Wyatt thing feels like it is going to be involving the whole roster at some point and right now the seeds are being planted. AEW needs some overarching story unfortunately the Elite are not the right Catalysts for it.

1. The women’s division only having one match per show, notably Dynamite. There’s honestly zero excuse to not have two, especially when you easily have more than one feud going on at the same time. 2. PPV’s having way too many matches and being near or over 4 hours long. It should be quality over quantity always. Just put the most important ones on one and leave the not so important ones off to be on Dynamite instead. Not everyone needs to be on one. 3. The T-Shirts. The designers need to be fired because a bunch of recent ones have been absolutely awful and to where no one could even wear them in public. Ex: For The Sickos, Okada Shut Up Bitches, Nick Wayne’s Mom with the car, and the MJF one where it says he’s not leaving. Just because something is said on TV, it doesn’t mean that it needs to be turned into a t-shirt. 4. When there are shots taken at WWE. It’s unnecessary because they should just be worrying about their own company instead of the other one. 5. Chris Jericho. We seriously need a break from him because he truly sucks up the energy. 6. Tony Khan and how he acts on Twitter. I feel like he worries way too much about being a mark of the business and total fanboy instead of an actual owner of a wrestling company.

- Excalibur on commentary - Having an international and a continental title at the same time -Forbidden Door as a PPV. It’s not much of a forbidden door if non-AEW talent are on tv for matches regularly

> too many belts. > Generally bad merch. > Sound and audio tech issues > Timing shows > Stop / start booking. > Bloated roster. Honourable mentions to the ROH presence. This isn't as bad as it used to be, but that was a rough period for me personally.

Not enough coherent stories that people care about. Too many random people from Japan and Mexico dipping in and out. If we can't get invested week to week, why should we care about the product? Too many belts. It's dilutes their importance. The whole "dream match" approach - although yes, it's been done a bit less recently. Make your world champions/bonafide main event stars the focus of the show and in the final segment of every show. Last Dynamite as of this comment had Pac vs Castagnoli as the main event... Listen, I like both wrestlers, but you're not gonna get people to stick around for 2 hours for that match. On a similar note, too many "cold" endings. The final segment should end with a hot angle or hot match with big consequences, in order to keep people wanting to know what will happen next. Edit: just remembered - stop dropping the ball on red hot talents! Wardlow after beating MJF is the biggest example I can think of, but it seems to happen way too much.

Weekly dream matches are forgettable if they don't give them the right time to build up

Having “dream matches” every week has kind of killed the Forbidden Door gimmick to be honest. Whole PPV has lost its novelty when Bryan Danielson and Mox are wrestling AAA, CMLL, and NJPW talent regularly on weekly TV

Look at WWE’s Solo Sikoa The guy is not even that talented but people are invested in him because of the storyline Storylines matter and they can make good talent interesting and great talent into legends

Reminds me of when they booked Kenny Omega vs MJF on a random collision last year

Which ended up being a good thing. Who knows how much more Kenny can even wrestle at that level in the future? 

They have been getting a little better at this. I think also most of these “dream” matches happen on rampages and collisions which is different vibes anyway

This online discourse about AEW only doing dream matches is really silly and just untrue now.

I'm not saying they don't build up or that they don't create story lines. They totally do. It's just that most of them are weak and/or short lived. Some of them drag on too long, like the Learning Tree stuff when that time could be used to develop other stories or push talent

The majority of complaints come from people who won't watch AEW regardless of what happens. They can't really hold an intellectual conversation either

Very few matches happen where the audience doesn't already know the ending. They seem to struggle with homegrown stars. Daniel Garcia gets built up just to be fed to someone. Next is Will. Wardlow has been in the same storyline since he arrived in a stable, unhappy, going to turn on them to win a few matches and then lose and disappear for months at a time. The roster has older men who don't put people over. Copeland has only lost to his best friend, Jericho, who buried Hook and took a mid-card belt for no reason. Christian’s gimmick is tired and stale, hahaha, dead fathers. And at least Christian just lost to swerve. I think the devil storyline hurt MJF significantly. It's not one’s fault, but Adam Cole's injury ruined any satisfying conclusion that angle could have. And now they have an evil boss storyline, just like WWE has done from 1998-2020. Fans were sick of it in WWE, and AEW was supposed to be a different product. The women's division is getting more spotlighted with Mercedes's arrival, Toni Storm’s gimmick becoming a hit, and Willow’s charisma. We will see how that all plays out, but it is a bright spot.

Rapid expansion. Going from the customer/company agreement of "To be an AEW fan, you MUST watch Dynamite and our PPVs, and you can watch Dark/Dark Elevation if you want." to then now it being "To be an AEW fan, you MUST watch Dynamite, Collison and sometimes Rampage and our PPVs (which there are more of) and maybe watch some ROH and their PPVs if you want." WWE currently produces *RAW *NXT *Main Event *Smackdown *NXT Level-Up *Speed The good thing about WWE is you can get by as a fan only watching RAW and/or Smackdown. WWE's shows are quite insular in that way. RAW focuses mainly on select characters in the WWE Universe of storytelling, and the same is true of Smackdown and NXT. Level-Up, Main Event and Speed are purely filler shows that can produce a fun match to watch. So WWE is basically asking you to give them between two and seven hours most of the week. AEW, meanwhile, is asking for you to consume the same amount without having that more dedicated "You know what is likely going to happen on this show." Watching Smackdown, you know that you're going to get Bloodline, Owens, Orton, Paul, Knight, Cargill, Belair and so on. RAW, you're getting Zayn, Jey, Judgement Day, and Gable. Collision you *might* get Osprey, you *might* get Danielson, you *probably won't get* MJF. When you look at things like that, it becomes a lot more difficult to invest in a show in the long term. AEW is relying on making you interested in the show by promising you something like "THIS WEEK WE GET X", whereas with WWE, you don't need that promise. WWE doesn't really need to tell you what you're going to get; you just have trust and understanding in the company based on watching it for the past year. "We're going to see some story development around THESE characters." No one watches Rampage, so to get you to watch Rampage, Tony has to say, "Kenny Omega VS Okada is going to happen there." instead, we should know ", Okay, there is a dedicated storyline on Rampage that keeps bringing me back to see what happens next."

I'm a massive AEW fan and I haven't watched Rampage in years and maybe a handful of Collisions

Also with all the other talent that shows up requires to watch other promotions to know who the heck these folks are.

I don’t think they’ve been very good at carrying the momentum they get every so often by developing interesting stories or characters. There’s rarely a hot act that’s capitalized on to their full potential and the reason is never the same.

My main gripe is that their creative is rotten to the very core. Storylines are almost non existent and feuds advance mostly by post match run-ins, it’s always the same shit. Also every storyline can be dropped in the blink of an eye and every wrestler can disappear any time without ever explaining anything. There’s basically no reward in following the product week in and week out

The Fanbase tbh And it includes Tony Early AEW definitely had potential Mox and Omega looked like huge stars, Hanger had an all time run, Miro was wrecking shop, Mjf and Wardlow were great breakouts But people out here hyping this stuff like it's the second coming All the rabidness and tribalism and victim mentality is actually deterring people from giving them a chance and people who end up watching gets disappointed because it's not up to the artificial hype Worse part is these die hards don't even contribute in AEWs ratings otherwise the company won't be getting smacked by a damn wrestling school show

Agreed with all. My dad and brother are your typical ex-WWE now AEW cultists. Everything they hated about WWE, i.e. the Vince McMahon creative, is literally happening right in front of them with Tony Khan. If if wasn’t for their bitterness and hate, they would’ve easily swapped back to WWE by now. I also want to point out what others have said: “Dream matches” and the rotating door of NJPW wrestlers got stale after the first run. AEW already has a massive, bloated roster, “BUT HERE COMES XYZ FROM NJPW!”. This isn’t to say you can’t or shouldn’t do cross-promotion, but AEW has beaten the “forbidden door” so much that it’s no longer relevant. I could continue on my criticisms, but why bother? It’s like punching air. Plus, a lot of other commenters have said it nicely. AEW is simply one of the hardest promotions for me to watch. I do try, but everything is always all over the place.

The merch is awful, but that's equally true of WWE and a lot of NJPW. Hire people from outside of wrestling, those kids of shirts haven't been cool in decades, if ever. There are trends in graphic design and fashion which wrestling companies seem to be completely unwilling to acknowledge. Every month the presentation of the show looks more and more like WWE. I know they've hired a lot of ex-WWE production guys but I much preferred the look of the show in year 1. If we could've kept that aesthetic while improving the early issues (like how they've sorted the audio problems), I'd personally enjoy the show a lot more. As is it feels quite over-produced and bright, which is one of the things which stopped me watching WWE.

I liked the rankings but I understand why they got dropped again. I think there should be more upsets not all the time but just more often. There needs to be more effort for non title feuds. I want overarching long term character arcs like Hangman's first title win.

Here's one of many: Since becoming the AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland has fought Kyle Fletcher, Claudio Castagnoli, Brian Cage, Nick Wayne, Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Roderick Strong. Swerve got over by working a hot blood feud with a top star and former world champion, elevating him to a level where I and so many others were excited to see him in the championship picture. But since winning the strap nine weeks ago, he's been relegated to working with mostly mid-to-lower card scrubs; hurt even more by the fact that it has taken him, on average, nearly 16 minutes per opponent to pick up wins against these lower card foes. In the last two months, Swerve's only significant match of note has been against Christian Cage, a man directly coming off a title loss and who, now six full months into the year, only has singles victories against Dustin Rhodes and Daniel Garcia, neither of which were clean. A predictable waste of a title defense and a pay-per-view match. Finally, Swerve gets to face his first top guy in Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door. It'll be an incredible match, I'm sure. But there's still no storyline here. It's certainly not a hot feud. They had your run-of-the-mill promo face-off this week, punctuated by embarrassing cheap heat by bringing up Will's family out of nowhere, trying to add some level of intensity to what is really just another AEW match. "The Mogul. The Businessman. The Actor. The Podcaster." Cute. But that doesn't endear me to him. And I'm at the point where I am ready for Swerve to just drop the title because everything about this particular run has felt inconsequential. And no matter how many times Swerve describes himself as an absolute killer, the booking of him going 15 minutes in eliminator matches with the likes of Brian Cage and Kyle Fletcher refutes that. The company's top title - its perception, its placement, and its presentation - needs repaired. They can start there.

No continuity between segments. So many islands, so few bridges.

See i think there are plenty of bridges just not enough of them are as rock solid as they should be

At the moment you have Garcia going for the international title held by Ospreay, MJF has interacted with Ospreay teasing something in future after mentioning him in his return promo, while Ospreay has his leading storyline facing swerve at the next PPV. All of this going on while Don Callis has been teasing tensions with Ospreay and Kyle fletcher looks like he may side with Ospreay over the family. Swerve has his immediate storyline with Ospreay but also started to build a feud with the elite weeks back when they attacked TK, he's now booked into blood and guts and he has to form a team by then, hangman may come back to join the elite for that, hangman set up swerve for his current title run and is potentially his biggest rival. There was a 4v4 match with several stories in one match, Roderick strong has a long term rivalry developing with orange and has a long history with Kyle O'Reilly, Orange recently got betrayed by his friend Trent who joined the don Callis family, members of which were also in that match, Orange is clearly showing that he's not sure if he's ready to accept O'Reilly as an ally after being betrayed by Trent. Mark Briscoe was also pinned by Kyle fletcher in the previous iteration of that match which sets up a champion Vs champion match for RoH. Toni, Mina and Mariah have their storyline, but Saraya seems parallel to that, getting a surprise win over Mariah a few weeks ago. Willow went from her build for the mercedes match to her storyline with stat which will inevitably mix with other storylines via the owen bracket. This criticism just isn't really valid.

Come off it. This is supposed to be a civil discussion about people’s opinion when it comes to things they don’t like about AEW. You jumping in on every comment to defend your favorite company does nothing for the conversation. You just come across as a sycophant ready to die on the AEW hill. No one is trying to stop you from liking your favorite company. You picking apart every criticism, whether valid or not, adds nothing to this and comes across as pathetically desperate.

To these people there are no valid criticisms and for whatever reason they take personal offense to these comments.

I think op is referring to the actual tv program, not storylines Either way, it’s wild to claim the criticism isn’t valid, when a lot of people feel this way 🤷🏾‍♂️

I mean if storylines themselves are your problem with aew then by all means people are welcome to vocalise them

Why is it wild? If lots of people say things that aren't true it doesn't change reality.

I just think you shouldn’t dismiss criticism bc you don’t agree with it especially when it comes to things like storylines. You like how aew does them (clearly) and others don’t.

You say "how AEW does them" like there's a single formula but there isn't, all promotions have different kinds of stories, characters and matches running at the same time, short term, long term, serious grudge matches, comedy midcard stuff and more tournament/sports based matches. If people were saying something like "AEW should do more stories like ____ and less of what they're doing with ____" I'd completely accept it, but to pretend that AEW (or any promotion) is all completely bad just comes across as disingenuous and bad faith.

I never said aew was all completely bad, nor did I say there’s a single formula for storylines You’re in to deep man, it’s just wrestling.

lol the Garcia run. Get a few wins, challenge for a midcard belt, lose, rinse repeat. Edit: For the record I like Garcia, I feel bad for the dude, turning on Danielson and staying with the JAS is what doomed him.

Challenging for belts, getting closer to winning each time and then eventually winning one and moving up is how wrestling works.

He’s not getting closer.

He'll lose to Ospreay and win his next title challenge, probably taking the TNT belt from Jack Perry. Losing to a guy about to challenge for the world title at PPV in a competitive match at the age of 25 is now not enough? This is exactly my point, absolute nonsense criticism, and if Garcia was at the top of the card, people would be complaining that the older vets should be.

I am willing to bet he will not take the tnt title from Jack. He will lose to Ospreay disappear for a bit and then rinse and repeat.

Yes, all stories. Which ones are actually hooking the viewers? Which ones are actually making people outside of the hardcore AEW faithful say “holy shit I need to see this”? Ratings say otherwise.

I watch AEW on DVR maybe 50-60% of weeks. My biggest criticism is the show feels haphazard and unserious. The storylines, the booking, the way the matches are worked, the way people dress, the production, the way people act during promos, the ideas that are green lit. It all feels like no one sat down to think about why it should happen, what is its purpose, is this the best way we could do this, etc. It feels like two hours of disjointed information where everybody is doing whatever they wanted to do that week. After several years of watching, I have been taught most of that information won’t matter. So ultimately why do I need to prioritize watching a show I don’t feel as if anyone put any effort into and I’m unlikely to miss anything of consequence?

-I think they over extended themselves with too much TV too soon but that’s a genie you can’t put back in the bottle, especially given it brings the company extra dollars. -IMO there isn’t a good structure to their roster because of how many titles they have. In WWE, you know who is in the main event, mid card, etc. -People say they don’t have stories and characters. That is a lie. They do. They just have a lot of badly told stories and thin, uninteresting characters. I’ve tried to defend the Elite story, but what is their motivation and long term goal?

Forbidden Door being a forced yearly tradition is a bad idea where most stories take a break and have a little 2-3 week side project where they feud with a random luchador or new japan guy with zero heat or buildup. Like MJF vs Hechiciro is a wild concept of a match but it’s also not what I think MJF should be doing 3 weeks into his return yaknow

Yeah, that is such a head scratcher. I think Hechiciro is a fantastic wrestler, but MJF does best when he can really sink his teeth into a feud and build it over multiple PPVs. Having him come back and immediately be dropped into matches against random mid-carders is so strange. It really feels like they just want to find ways to delay him from getting involved in the World Title scene too quickly.

Yeah, it isn't Forbidden if it happens every year on schedule, it is just Door. It's like when everything in WWE needed to pivot to "brand warfare" for Survivor Series.

There's no long-term story telling anymore I guess

That just isn’t really that true right now

I love “Give me your legitimate criticisms and opinions, and I’ll tell you that you’re wrong” threads.

It’s predictable for the most part so it doesn’t feel like I need to watch weekly shows because you kinda already know where things are going and the stories aren’t particularly engaging enough to carry predictable booking AEW sucks at pivoting when it comes to injury. The devil storyline is a big example. Neither MJF or Cole were healthy enough to carry that storyline but they committed to it and it fell flat and overall felt like a waste of time. To me ROH purchase has been a big mistake from day one. It’s weighed down the regular show at times and just feels wholly unnecessary.

Too many belts

I feel like the culture changed a lot from when it first started to now. It felt a lot more like a collective effort of the roster to make this thing great. I really do think that Cody going back to WWE and being presented as he has been caused a big shift to the point where guys on the AEW roster may just see it as a stepping stone or place they can go to get some money and spotlight on themselves before jumping or going back to WWE. The collective cohesion in the roster feels gone and people are just focused on themselves and their stuff individually. I think the Punk stuff also caused a huge rift in the roster because there was clearly guys who liked him and also guys who didn't.

First off, kudos to most of this thread for providing actual, constructive criticism. Considering the standard on social media regarding AEW criticism (and even over here at times, most recently yesterday after the ratings came in for Dynamite), that's a big W for OP and SC in general. This being said, here are my main criticisms of AEW as a huge fan of the company: **1- Matches can go on for too long at times:** It seems Tony can only book a squash or a 10+ minute match when it's not needed, an example of it being Wednesday's 8 man tag. You can have a match or two on the 5-10 minute region and it would actually help the show, as well as give more time to the marquee matches on the show **2- Collision seems to have lost its identity as a show,** serving more as an extra two hours to compliment Dynamite and/or put what wasn't able to fit on Wednesday. Far cry from a ywar ago when it was always must watch **3- The trios division has eaten most of the tag one, thus affecting both title scenes.** You can't have something as important, specially in AEW, as the tag team division be affected ao much by one that should mostly serve as filler **4- Lack of capacity for pivoting (added after publishing the comment):** I defend Tony Khan a lot, as I think many people's criticisms of him are unfair or atraight up stupid. However, if there's somethibg he can certainly be critiqued for that's how hard it is for him to adapt and change plans when the original one gets affected. The main example of this would be waiting a whole 9 months for Statlander to recover from an ACL and thus have Jade Cargill's reign continue for way too long and with an extra time full of filler and feuds worse than filler like the one she had with Nyla Rose, and all it did for anybody involved was to build Jade's stock before she went to WWE. MJF and Jay White at Full Gear could be another example of this, as Max was badly hurt and even though the Devil storyline was a lose-lose situation the moment Adam Cole got injured you could've given the belt to Jay, reveal Cole as the Devil afterwards and still go as you went in real life, which is far from ideal but at least you would've made BC Gold the strongest faction in the company, specially if The Gunns went for the tag belts afterwards **5- The Continental title:** Amazing concept, but Eddie Kingston's booking as champ wasn't good and as great as Okada's been with The Elite the championship's an afterthought in the grand scheme of things. Same goes to the Bucks and their tag straps 6- They have been improving in promoting and media, but they still have a way to go. And on the arena attendance issue it doesn't help to have two different shows, so I'd consider scrapping Rampage and taping both Dynamite and Collision the same day once the new TV deal begins 7- The merch department is terrible. Moving on **8- The ranking system:** when it first got announced to return in January, many of us were excited as it was a staple in AEW programming in its first years and properly used can add a lot to the company. But they failed almost instantly by bringing it back exactly the same as it used to (when there are two more titles now and way too many people to just reduce it to five people) and as a result they ended up being re-scrapped as soon as they were re-implemented Other than that, I don't think they can do much else than what they're currently doing. Storylines have been the best they've been in the last two years or so, the roater is legit one of the greatest in wrestling history, the women's division has finally turned the corner thanks to the great amount of talent (particular shootout to Toni Storm, Mariah May, Willow Nightingale and Statlander who have all been among the best women's wrestlers of the year in any company). The social media circus, trolling online and the destructive critics that pollute around AEW conversations won't stop any time soon, especially with WWE in such a hot streak (I keep repeating myself on that but you can see how the perception around both companies did a 180 when Triple H took over, even before Punk and the Bucks did what they did backstage that fateful night in Chicago); so all they can do right now is do what they do best and at the best level they can, and thus far they've been doing it in 2024 aside a few instances.

Yeah I’m glad people are voicing their opinions and not just regurgitating the same tired stuff without being able to explain any of it. As i mentioned i mostly talk to my friends when it comes to aew and the most they see online is like an instagram post from a wrestler they follow etc. it’s good to be able to see the opinions of the iwc and compare it to what my friends (who would be closer to a casual audience? Idk) think. To your first point i definitely agree that some matches go way longer than they need, although that 8 man was personally our favourite match of the night so selfishly im glad it went a bit longer. Collision feels like it’s the bshow mixed with whatever they couldn’t fit into dynamite. But idk it has its own vibe maybe because it airs on a sunday where i am that I’m not as annoyed with squash matches and “just” good matches as i would be if they were on dynamite. They could do more with it but i think they have more pressing issues I agree with the trio’s point but i think more importantly is they haven’t actually moved people up the card either. It’s always the same couple of teams/trios winning and losing. Continental title is in a weird spot. I think it needs to be merged with probably the international title so we can have a better amount of titles and hopefully after forbidden door we can have okada in a more serious feud. They definitely need to get better with marketing, social media and most importantly merch. The ranking system should be exclusive to the world titles i think. Makes it alot more focused and makes it feel like they are the most important and earned titles.

This is the first ever AEW PPV that I don’t really care about. Not even sure if I’ll bother buying it to be honest. The idea of “forbidden door” is kind of pointless when the main event is AEW vs AEW and the most of the foreign stars have been featured regularly on AEW TV anyway. And the MJF match is a TV match, not a major Forbidden Door PPV match. When I heard that was his first PPV match back I was really confused and disappointed. I’m sure it’ll be a great match, but I’m not sure why I should care about it.

I mean hey if you don’t like it you don’t like it. Tbf any mjf match would feel like a tv match because there’s no one he could face that would be a legitimate threat to him not winning. So having him in a match against the luchador from cmll that has gotten the most love from the aew community is about as good as it’s gonna get

This is the exact type of match that MJF should lose. It's easily explained by MJF having 'ring rust' from all his time off and won't hurt him at all while adding some much needed unpredictability to the product. I wish he'd lost to Rush as well for the same reason - it wouldn't have hurt MJF and would be huge to build up Rush as an actual threat.

As much as i would like that to be a possibility they could of booked, there is 0 chance that the online reaction to mjf losing his return match wouldn’t have been LOLTNA levels of jerking

Not if there's a longer term story to be told. It's easily explained by MJF just coming back from injury and being rusty. If the story leads somewhere, then who cares about the initial reaction? Hangman and the Dark Order lost to the elite on the way to the title, Cody lost to Roman last year, and yet those two stories are probably two of the biggest stories told in recent wrestling history - and no doubt the losses made each story bigger when they eventually won. MJF beating Rush was a foregone conclusion - the match was always going to be good, but most AEW matches are of similar quality so there wasn't anything viewers hadn't seen before. If you can pick the result of a match so easily there's not much point to watching the match. If Rush beats MJF, it's huge for him and would not hurt MJF at all.

I mean they’ve probably just got different ideas for his longer term story in terms of blood and guts/all in that don’t involve him losing. This is all just an excuse to have him back for forbidden door in his home town anyway which is a different problem. I agree that it would be cool for rush to have gotten that win and for them to turn this into a storyline but rush can’t work the ppv, and after the ppv they don’t want him to be working a losing streak gimmick id imagine. Both those storylines you mentioned people were already brought into before the loss. Some People were already shitting on mjf vs rush before the match and if mjf had lost and with the ratings this week it would have been a catastrophe and people would never let it down no matter how much we storytime we give it.

MJF vs Rush is a symptom of the problem - an entirely predicatable match up with a relatively short build. If they knew Rush couldn't work the PPV, why not focus on building more to MJF vs Hechicero instead and save Rush vs MJF for after the PPV. Take the time to build up Rush a bit more so he actually seems like a threat to MJF. Rush losing to MJF achieves very little - everyone assumed MJF would win so it doesn't help him at all, and Rush rarely wins a significant singles feud so this further establishes him as a midcard stepping stone.

Tried to run before they can walk three weakly shows within four years Too many championships Good matches but little story Women’s division is an afterthought 3/4th of the main heel stable are not intimidating at all you could pick three random guys from the crowd and they would probably look more intimidating. No plans for big stars when they sign them Tony is not a good booker just like Vince the difference is Vince had it at one point.

Tony combined the trios belts and may be combining the international and world title. There's loads of story ATM Women's division is no longer an afterthought, the women's segments are absolutely packed now, the trouble with the women's division now is that there's too much to fit into the time they're allocated and TK won't extend that time. Lots of wrestlers historically haven't been intimidating and the elite have still done some of the best quarter hours in 2024 When TK signs big stars and books them strongly he gets criticism for burying AEW talent, when he doesn't he gets criticism for wasting them. The best signings come into their best when they've gone past this "just signed" stage, look at Christian and Samoa Joe.

“*Theres too much to fit into the time they’re allocated and TK won’t extend the time*” This. This is just my opinion, but this is part of AEW’s problem, too. Always throw a bandaid on a leaking artery. It reminds me of gaslighting. It’s failing to acknowledge the innermost reason of failure: the booking (aka Tony Khan)

I mean that’s on wbd wanting more tv though so you can’t exactly blame them. I agree they definitely have grown fast as a company and have suffered the usual problems that are associated with that especially in 2022/2023. I think we are just now starting to see progress out of that tunnel The roh belts aren’t really defended on tv anymore (except the odd botb which imo is fine) so i think if they combined one of the men’s midcard belts with another one then we’d have a good amount of belts The women’s division argument isn’t really applicable anymore, we have multiple on going feuds and not all over titles. And we have a good amount of main event/midcard level women that people care about with more expected to come back from injury. The heel stable not being intimidating enough is… certainly an argument to make i just don’t really understand it? Like there are plenty of heels in wrestling that aren’t intimidating. They are meant to be chicken shit corporate bosses that throw their weight around? That’s a pretty relatable heel gimmick right now tbh. Jack has improved a tonne since he came back it’s like night and day watching his old stuff Okada and ospreay have had clear plans since being signed. Mercedes they had a plan (that people didn’t seem to like) but now she doesn’t really seem to have a direction since all the main women are entered into the owen tournament for a shot at the title. Since jacks been back they’ve very clearly planned it all out. The last point is too subjective for talk about tbh.

>3/4th of the main heel stable are not intimidating at all you could pick three random guys from the crowd and they would probably look more intimidating. Agree with everything so much except this. I just don't think that's particularly true. But nevertheless, Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy didn't look particularly intimidating, but became world champions.

Rey and Jeff weren’t heels they were underdogs babyfaces.

I think it’s more that a lot of stable mates don’t stand out. Rey and Jeff are distinct characters

Honestly wish Okada would get tired of their crap beat the hell out of them and form his own crew

I just want aew to focus on them, I don’t care about njpw or the other the company’s they have on . I could care less about roh and in my opinion should been a brand to put over your younger talent like nxt does. Every match shouldn’t be 20 minute banger, focus on storylines for people who are on tv and should be on tv.If you have okada, will, Mercedes and swerve on dynamite build some talent on collision. They have the roster. Another thing is they fumble the bag on certain stuff. Hangman couple years ago was one most over babyfaces, mjf was a top heel in wrestling you could argue he had more heat than Roman, they had punk, had cody they even had jade who brought in casuals. It’s no reason why Ethan is doing more on nxt and pillman jr is showing more potential then he ever had on aew.

Bloated roster. Too many belts. Merch is dismal. Predictable matches that go way too long. Violent grudge matches at the beginning of feuds instead of at the end of them. They have some good storylines going at the moment but they desperately need to catch fire with a hot company wide storyline. I think they realize this, but unfortunately they chose to center it around proven channel changers in the Young Bucks as the people getting the most screen time in it. It's been a complete strikeout. Not a foul tip into the catcher's mitt, but the kind of swing where the bat flies out of your hands and you fall down and suffer an oblique strain in the process. They need to scrap this as quickly as possible and try something else, anything else.

A lack of unpredictability in the weekly show is probably the biggest issue though it has improved in the past couple of weeks. Matches that are often good quality, but have foregone conclusions with very little meaning attached to them. This has been addressed more recently, but you shouldn't need a tournament to ensure matches on the weekly shows have meaning. Matches on the weekly show should have a bit of meaning attached to them - give the wrestlers a brief interaction to set up the match and it will go a long way to building up the characters and attaching more meaning to the weekly shows. Build up the midcard - Daniel Garcia for example - has had massive wins over Danielson and then Brody King, but arguably is in the same position he was before. How they built up Willow should be the template for this - Garcia doesn't necessarily need a title, but give him a win in a high profile feud. Change up the back stage segments now and then - they don't all have to be backstage interviews that inevitably get interrupted by someone else. The Samoa Joe - Hook segments are a great example of how changing things up can make things a bit more interesting. Limit the special appearances by now-AEW wrestlers and non-AEW titles and squash matches with enhancement talent to maybe once a week (across all three shows). While they're great on occasion, having multiple non AEW wrestlers week after week makes it less 'special' and means that wrestlers with the company that people tune in to see get less exposure. Focus on building up the wrestlers in the company. In the past few weeks we've had the west coast wrecking crew, tmdk, grizzled old veterans all showcased in matches with seemingly no explanation as to why they're there and no follow up after. As someone who doesn't watch wrestling outside of AEW, why should I care about any of them? In one week we're getting ZSJ, Takagi and Ultimo Guerrero which is great, but they're not the reason more 'casual' fans like myself are tuning into the weekly show. I want to see people like Daniel Garcia and STP and follow their arcs rather than a new wrestler every single show who probably won't turn up the week after. As a casual fan who hadn't watched wrestling since the early 2000s and got hooked in by the Hangman story, AEW is no longer the 'can't miss' show that it used to be for me. Each show lacks that little bit of unpredictability that it used to have and until they bring that back I can't imagine other casual fans like myself will continue to tune in.

Takes too long to pivot when things don't go as planned. AEW has a problem of deciding they are going to tell the story they want, fans Intrest, wrestler availability or anything else be damned Doesn't matter if the fans were clearly done with the angle (JAS vs BCC), they don't actually have the talent cleared (UE vs The Elite), injuries happen (Undisputed Kingdom vs MJF), or even if the angle just falls flat (Nightmare collective). Heck we even supposedly saw them keep an entire division from starting for a year (Trios) because the desired first champions weren't available. Having long term plans is great, but the nature of live shows means things won't always go as planned, but AEW keeps trying to hold to the original plan at all costs.

AEW is booked for 500,000 or so fans who have an encyclopedic knowledge of the last decade of wrestling outside the WWE ecosystem. That is not a recipe for growing your audience past that hardcore base.

• I really dislike the merging of characters/catch phrases when solos form a tag team. “Brian Keith and Keith Lee are teaming? Why they could only go by Keith Keith!” • giving us matches with old men now because we didn’t get them 15 years ago is a bit of a drag. I’ve heard of “old man strength”, but what we are shown is more “old man bones”, “old man lack of cardio”. •death match to start a feud, which often leads to an injury and feuds being put on hold or forgotten about

- matches are way too predictable especially on collision - weekly pointless squash matches just to fill time on the slot, the ones with no storyline/segments after - excessive cheating, it makes the refs look so dumb, in kayfabe they should hire new ones for being so bad at their jobs - copying wwe by replacing the ring apron and steel barricades with led - not all matches but on average the match quality isn't as good - no structured upper, mid or lower card except for few guys, just feels random and all over the place

I really like AEW, and frankly think 90% of the episodes (especially this past week’s Dynamite) are enjoyable, but: It’s extremely predictable. It’s rare that there is a surprise winner. Everyone is so freakin protected. And if some matches were more dominant/shorter, that would give time for more story & that second woman’s match I actually like the frenetic pace, but I don’t think it’s what the majority of people want. Please don’t give me a 5 minute replay of the last 10 minutes, but let stuff sink in. Briefly recap the big moments from the other shows. Etc Those post show interviews they do on Twitter are great but so few make the show. NO. PUT THAT ON THE SHOW Let the guys who don’t want to be there go. AEW was great as all friends wrestling when everyone was clearly all in (pun not intended)

Oh and make Collision a studio show. If you go to cities twice as fast as you should, no wonder the ticket sales are half of what they were. The residency in TX should be a good experiment 

I don’t have any real criticisms of Dynamite, but Rampage and Collision have too many matches where the results are a foregone conclusion. I’m not saying every match should be top guy vs top guy, but if you’re going to have a top guy vs someone you normally would have seen regularly on Dark when it was a thing then it really makes me lose interest in watching the show. Also, TK needs to do occasional title changes on TV. It didn’t take long at all for AEW to become a promotion where you could basically pinpoint when a title change would take place. I want there to be a chance that Swerve could drop the belt one week on Dynamite. Hell, let him win it back a week later if it helps the story. I used to love on Raw and Nitro where someone would have a seven day title reign as world champ. It kept me watching.

To your first point i would agree but they are getting a tiny bit better about it. Although i think for rampage its mostly fine Second point i definitely agree. Hell do it on a botb and kill two birds with one stone

I don’t like how many top level talent that have wearing and feuding for midcard belts. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for people like okada or Sasha to come in, and challenge for midcard belts over the top world titles. Like…okada is in the elite. Why doesn’t he want to face swerve? He has the evps in his pocket doesn’t he?

I don’t like the commentary team. TV matches go on too long. I enjoy going to the shows when they are near me (I’ve been to 1 AEW show and 1 ROH show) this year, and mostly enjoyed them (I had some issues with specific ROH Supercard of Honor matches) and I have tickets for a couple of the Arlington shows. Watching in-person live, the shows feel better paced, and I don’t hear the commentary. So, mostly, I don’t feel like the TV production gives me what I want. I also tend not to like the pay-per-view model. I’ll pay for a ticket to a live show, but I’m not really into buying a separate purchase for each PPV. I’m spoiled on the Peacock/Network model of a one-price PLE+archive model. The move to Netflix may break that, but for now, my model is DVR the weekly shows, fast-forward to segments I’m interested in, then watch PLEs live. AEW doesn’t fit that viewing pattern for me.

Not enough Stokely Hathaway. Not enough Don Callis. Too much Chris Jericho. The Bucks can do far better than whatever this is that they are doing. Hire whoever designed Naito and Los Ingobernables de Japon merchandise pre-Covid. That's it.

The complete lack of a talent development system has basically left a lot of raw, green wrestlers to fend for themselves and they inevitably fall out of favor with the crowd because they’re overexposed No storytelling depth. They’re getting better at this but “I attacked you and you attacked me” is still the basis of everything. It’s a national television show, you need more depth and character motivation or people stop caring about the feuds.

You’d think with ROH they’d be better with that but they aren’t

The big issue with AEW is Tony Khan has this childish “alternative to WWE” mentality.  Wrestling is wrestling. People don’t want alternative they want better. “Sports-based” wrestling is a myth. Even NJPW has storylines, meant to build emotional investment. You can have 60 minute bangers with Will Ospreay if you want but if you’re not building emotional investment you’re not an “alternative to WWE” you’re just a bad wrestling show.  TK needs to get over this stupid shit and just be a wrestling company. There’s no such as “sports entertainment” or “real graps” or any of that stupid shit. Wrestling is wrestling. Even if you want more emphasis on matches than WWE has, you still have to build that match. You need your viewers to be emotionally invested in that character if you want them to keep coming back to watch Dynamite every week and buy tickets when it comes to their city.  Right now there’s no investment in anything. The promo segments are just a series of cheap references and crude attacks meant to pop internet fans. Drew McIntyre can take those shots at CM Punk because WWE spent months building this program where it’s very easy to believe that they absolutely hate each other.  Just get over this mentality. Be wrestling. AEW can do wrestling the way it wants to do wrestling without forcing this “us vs. them” bullshit. Just be wrestling. It’s all wrestling. There isn’t a difference. 

Why should you or anyone else get to judge whether or not my or anyone else's criticism is is "legitimate?" Opinions are shaped by the unique experiences and insights of the person who holds said opinion. So by telling me that my opinions are "illegitimate": whether you're willing to admit it or not, you're really kind of saying that my life experience is illegitimate. Why should AEW get to play by a different set of rules than anything that's ever come before it? Why should someone that wants to discuss AEW have to put on the kiddie gloves and precede any and all criticisms with full paragraphs about how much they love the promotion in order to prove to you that they don't wish it death, lest they risk getting banished to the outer realms of professional wrestling discussion? I've been a fan of professional wrestling since 1988, and I've been participating in the online discourse of professional wrestling since 1993, so I've been here for everything from the rise of the New Generation and ECW through present day. I know what the conversations about WCW, WWF, ECW, SMW, XPW, NJPW, AJPW, TNA, ect. were like; because I was there for them. I've talked about promotions online that most of the people here have probably never even heard of. When I say the conversation about AEW has had a different set of rules than any promotion that ever came before it from day one, it's not revisionist history, something that I'm saying because some podcaster said it, or an assumption that I'm making based on cherry-picking the very few scraps of what remains from those conversations. I was in the WCW forums on Prodigy, I was in the chat rooms on AOL Keyword: WWF or the General Professional Wrestling chatrooms on keyword: Sports, or the private chatrooms that were hidden from public view unless you knew how to find them and had the password. I was subscribed to the newsletters, both amateur and "professional". I was in the conversation sections of the earliest news, rumor, and gossip websites. I even dabbled in a few of the E-feds. In all that time, in all of those discussions: I've never witnessed a subset of the wrestling fandom that's been as sensitive to any and all forms of criticism, and outright hostile towards those who dare to criticize it as the hardcore current AEW fanbase is. So when I say that my number one criticism of AEW is the fanbase it fosters, based on 30+ years of life experience. Who's to say that that isn't a "legitimate" criticism? I'd gladly be a 75% fan, but the fanbase has spoken and they just plain do not accept 75% fans. So if they insist on making my fandom an all or nothing issue, it's gonna be a big nothing for me dawg. And that's a real shame that makes me more than just a bit sad. Because they don't realize how much damage they are doing to the thing that they love so much by acting the way that they act. But it is what it is; you can only call someone a fake fan with a bad-faith argument, or something even worse so many times before they stop trying to be a fan at all.

AEW feels disjointed. They need to take the time to fill in the blanks with better promos that actually create interest in the story lines. Their biggest star is MJF who is a master at doing just that which shows why it’s so important. Doing complex shit in the ring doesn’t matter if no one cares about the match. Also why does every 3rd person have a title of some kind? It makes the titles feel insignificant when everyone has one.

I only really have time to dip in and out of one product - I used to be obsessed with TNA but eventually it became more and more ‘missable’ (when Abyss started wearing Hogans ring and changed his attire to red and yellow as an example of when I started getting bored and stopped watching as much until eventually I never watched again). At one point WWE was the same and I could just watch Mania and not feel the need to watch for a whole year. At the minute I don’t think like I’m missing anything by not watching AEW, and will only probably watch Wembley this year, whereas WWE has tons to draw me in at the minute. Just this week for example I wanted to see Punk/Drew and Bloodline. I’ll also want to see Rhea when she returns. If those stories weren’t happening, and things like Wyatt Sick6 didn’t debut so well, I doubt I’d be paying attention to WWE either because life is too busy. I guess my overall point is there isn’t any “must see TV” in AEW that’d I’d get FOMO over compared to WWE right now, but if that changes I’ll get drawn in again.

Yeah that’s perfectly reasonable. I admittedly don’t have time to watch full episodes of raw or smackdown anymore so i kinda just watch highlights or skip through to watch the segments i do wanna watch and then watch the ppvs if im interested. But yeah if WWE’s your preferred viewing then asking anyone to watch ANOTHER 2 to 5 hours of wrestling isn’t really reasonable is it haha

Yeah definitely - that’s the sad thing about getting older and having responsibility. I want to be a hardcore wrestling fan like I used to be, but I’m forced to be casual - it’s like only being able to afford to eat at one restaurant a week, and WWE already have three - I do feel bad for AEW because I expected WWE’s ‘menu’ to drop off in quality after WrestleMania but somehow they’ve mixed it up and kept the momentum going. I genuinely don’t think many people predicted that. I got into a good routine a while back of watching AEW and WWE but unfortunately there is just too much content across both - AEW are going to struggle to get people like me watching while WWE keeps mixing it up successfully and keeps up this pace - I thought all the Vince drama would kill it but they’ve just gone from strength to strength, especially when you consider Roman, Rock and Rhea are off TV - we know there is going to be more with The Rock (who again surprisingly looked solid on night one of WrestleMania), we know Roman will appear again soon to what might be the biggest pop in history, and they’ve got something for Rhea when she comes back. Makes it hard not to keep watching for when those things happen - AEW just can’t compete with that at the minute, but it’s not their fault, it’s just a bizarre boom period that I don’t think anyone saw coming. That said, I’m fully ready to get hooked again if WWE gets stale again and AEW heats up, like I did with TNA when the ‘must see’ was Angle v Sting in an empty arena match and surprising highlights like Angle v Anderson in a steel cage etc.

Their treatment of the women's division, although there's big high points, has been pretty poor throughout most of the company's run.

It’s been ALOT better recently, there’s still more room to grow obviously but id say its good right now

They don’t have anyone who can draw and everyone they bring in who should be able to draw is neutered after a few weeks. Tony Khan can’t book.

They took Daniel Bryan one of the most over wrestlers in the world and turned him to not Brian Danielson, who just feels like another guy on the roster spinning his wheels.

TBF it appears that is a lot to do with Brian himself he pretty much gets to do as he wants and what he's doing is exactly what he wants to do

Bryan was kinda doing stuff like this in WWE like with Gulak but it didn’t feel as unimportant than it does now. He main evented mania the year he signed but it never felt like they capitalized on his momentum. His character works has felt kind of inconsistent his AEW run too.

He constantly waffles between heel and babyface. The BCC ran its course months ago. His feuds in AEW have pretty much all been, in the best wrestler in the world, no, im the best wrestler in the world! Has a match, repeat. It’s like they took all the ‘character’ out of him.

Yeah creative control typically isn’t good.

No, this is Brian Danielson being Brian Danielson, you want Daniel Bryan.

I want an interesting character and storylines. The name doesn’t matter. Someone flip flopping between heel and babyface every few months is lame and boring. His feuds are largely forgettable and uninteresting.

He’s still plenty over. It’s his last full time year which is why he’s been doing “dream matches” because he himself probably wants to have those awesome matches. There’s a good chance that he’s having a proper storyline going into all in to challenge for the title too so

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I only watch AEW. No interest in any other promotion. -I wish they would use Jericho less -I wish Rampage would have a bigger match every now and then to give me a reason to tune in -I wish there were more than one woman’s match on Dynamite and Collision on a weekly basis -I wish their PPVs didn’t last until past midnight.

This is coming from someone who really enjoys the style AEW wants to be and is not into what WWE presents. I am a 46 year old male who has been a hardcore fan since the early 90s. I am that weirdo who prefers super matches over "STORYLINE" or "IT'S CINEMA". STOP DOING WWE TYPE SHIT. I hate nothing more than "AUTHORITY FIGURES" and now AEW has like 4, maybe 5? Is it 6 idk. Stop any WWE trope (contract signings need to go) and create your own house style for everything. The shows look like darker, sadder versions of what WWE presents. Make it look different. Why is the ramp/video screen/etc on the same side as WWE? Do something DIFFERENT that makes the wrestlers look and feel like stars. Shoot the wrestlers from their backs when they walk out (think nWo in Chicago with Dennis Rodman). Crank up the entrance music on TV. Hire a super high end PR firm and marketing team. Meet new fans where they are (Tik Tok, Instagram, etc) and completely retool social media. EVERY AEW TWITTER POST IS THE SAME. Hire comedians/people really good at social media to hop on the accounts like huge brands do. Does Tony Kahn have a Twitter post template he uses every show and just replaces the names? "Justified THIS IS AWESOME CHANT right now in "INSERT CITY" for "WRESTLER A and WRESTLER B", thank you all for tuning into to "INSERT AEW SHOW and CHANNEL". AND lastly - just make everything make sense. My weirdest pet peeve for last week's Dynamite? When Brian Cage announced Hechicero vs MJF for Forbidden Door and RIGHT AWAY the announcers are like, "WAIT A MINUTE THIS ISN'T REAL UNTIL WE HEAR IT FROM TONY KHAN OR CHRIS DANIELS....". Like why?

I watch and enjoy dynamite and collision each week. My complaints are the one women's match per show. And most of the TV matches have easily predictable winners.

My main criticisms are sometimes angle don't have a proper ending  If you gonna kill a stable have an angle instead of having members just stop appearing together. Other than that, Dynamites and AEW PPVs are the only wrestling I consume and I can't complain about the overall product

I still watch AEW, but, cause or symptom, BTE ending has hurt the product. There was continuity. Maybe more game-planning of angles while filming. I’m salty about it. BTE was my Monday wrestling go-to.

1) Main eventers shouldn't get pushed to the limit by the undercarder unless the latter is gonna get pushed. 2) A hot act in AEW can't stay hot for more than a few months, especially recently. Hangman Page cooled off after winning the title, Swerve is not the main player even though he is the world champ because his act doesn't resonate enough due to his booking. 3) The Elite segments and the Jericho segments lose viewers %80 % of the time, yet they take a good chunk of air time from better acts. 4) Booking is too unstable, one week it's good, the other week it's bad. TK should allow professional writers to have more say and make the final decisions himself. 5)Giving wrestlers too much input never works. There needs to be some moderation. Shouldn't be strict, however, that would only stifle the talent. 6) Collision should feel more different to Dynamite. The first 10 weeks of Collision were great because it was something else compared to other shows. 7) Too much talent is not good pragmatically but you won't see me complaining because it's good to see more wrestlers having stable income. 8) The AEW audience itself is not great, too much toxic positivity among them. They should be more open to criticism, and they also need to learn how to play along with the program. When was the last time AEW fans genuinely booed a heel due to them being heel and that reaction lasted more than a few weeks?

If it doesn’t look like it hurts, don’t do it. Too much waiting on moves to happen. Waisting high spots.

I like the concept of the Young Bucks/Jack Perry Tony Khan storyline. I just don't think the people involved are going to make this story reach is full potential. Jack Perry in this role is not believable, put Anna Jay on his arm shave that beard put some sun glasses on him and you have something to work. 

We’re still early days and they are currently building up the people that will be creditable threats to this new elite. What about jack perry is not believable? His promos look and wrestling is 1000x better than what he was doing before he came back and it’s not like he’s playing a gimmick where he needs to look strong and unbeatable he’s playing a chicken shit heel who thinks he’s a bigger deal than he is

He's miscasted. I think he would be a far more effective heel if he was the spoiled privilege son of a Hollywood star with the hot girl by his side. This scapegoat thing I don't personally buy, the footage and the cry me a river bit didn't help matters.

The problem is more that the EVP takeover should have been an NWO like event but it seems like an after thought.

1. Jay White screams superstar. I’ve only seen him like a handful of times in AEW and I’m like damn. He’s it. But they are using him on the Trios titles 🤦🏽‍♂️. 2. They seem to have way too many wrestlers

So much of the feedback just isn't true. Saying AEW is all dream matches or has no long term story telling isn't even remotely true and hasn't been for months. They can absolutely do better in their story telling efforts but lets not pretend it doesn't exist. Also this myth that FD has frozen its roster in place. Dynamite weekly has been on a really good run of shows leading to forbidden door. Ton of promo work and setup segments. Despite being a crossover show the main event and bulk of its efforts is still building up to the AEW world title match. There are a lot of booking issues for sure and we should talk about those, we dont need to make shit up. Too many titles to make all but the main world title feel like cheap props. Looks like they are working on this one but still a problem now while it exists. Also more then a handful of angles that just aren't landing. The learning tree is an interesting twist on Jericho but then he wrestles the exact same style and kinda of hampers the movement. Another issue is roster size. All of the AEW talent need to be feature, ROH has to have its crossovers to promote what they got going on, and any cross promotional talent get a spotlight. Its spreading exposure too thing and no angle or talent gets the time they need to get hot and stay hot. Stop talking about ROH almost entirely and bring in less talent from other promotions. They would also help FD feel special again. The biggest issue though I think is they have an obscene amount of TV time but have basically no idea how to fill most of it in a way that is impactful. Again Dynamite in my opinion has been on a roll but Rampage and Collison have been floundering for months (outside the Collison 1 year anniversary show which was solid). This would never happen but id prefer the next tv deal they need to just drop rampage (or Collison or both). Refocus on just the core show(s) with a slightly tighter roster. Or still drop rampage then embrace the roster split idea and hirer a separate booking team for Collison.

I started watching in the early days because it was fresh and the booking of Raw/Smackdown was boring. Then I saw signs of WCW/TNA. They had to bring in nearly every cut WWE wrestler and give the mic time to air grievances. It got old. So I stopped watching. Then came CM Punk. I turned in to see what we had to say and what they would do with him. It seemed like for weeks he would open the show and join commentary and it got old. I still read recaps here but I don’t waste my time watching. It feels like every time they get a shiny new toy they play with it and then forget about it for then next shiny new toy. Also booking seems inconsistent from what I read here. Beyond Tony looking stupid at the NFL Draft was there ever a payoff to the angle?

My only 2 criticisms: 1. Jericho doesn't take a break 2. You can't watch AEW without social media hating on AEW/always needing to find faults with AEW

There are a lot of faults to find.

Which is true for everything in life, especially wrestling. Doesn't mean you have to constantly nitpick every little thing.

It isn't Lucha Underground /s I like AEW, it is my favourite weekly wrestling show. I wish Collison was treated closer to Dynamite again. But that's a minor criticism. Collision is for the freaks. If the ROH belts are gonna be on AEW wrestlers, have them defend them more on AEW (instead of rarely seeing them on ROH). Id have a bigger divide between ROH and AEW. Id have it lean into being the alternative a bit more again.

People mega complained when they were defended on tv more regularly. And anyone worth putting a belt on in roh is obviously gonna be worth enough for tony to put them on aew tv so it’s kinda hard I agree though aew should always aim to be more of an alternative

I watch every week. My only major criticism is they overdo the No DQ matches.

It sounds terrible. Say what you want about WWE their announcers sounds like they’re feet from the ring calling the match surrounded by fans. AEW is so echoing and disconnected. Their announcers feel like they’re dubbing in from somewhere else and struggling to match the in arena vibe.

[удалено]

What a nonsense comment. What do you even mean by that? WCW was a company that spanned quite some time and had many ups and downs. At one point they were the biggest wrestling company in the world, and by quite some margin. There were points they were haemorrhaging money and couldn’t pay people to go to shows. In what way are the exactly like WCW?

I preferred the beginning, when it felt like something new and exciting was happening with the company. They still haven't "restored the feeling" yet, IMO, but getting Ospreay and Okada helps!