AEW...What Went Wrong?

 


I have watched wrestling through the Monday Night Wars, Attitude era, Ruthless Aggression era, the PG era and the post Vince McMahon. My favourite wrestlers have been Bret Hart, Triple H and Stone Cold. And since my family, my friends and colleagues refuse to understand wrestling and give it a chance, there are a number of opinions that I am unable to communicate to anyone. Therefore, decided to put these in writing.

Let me start by saying that I am a WWE fan through and through. I was siding with WWE in spite of the fact that I could only access WCW on TNT in Pakistan at the time. However, I will not deny that there have been multiple times where WWE had become complacent; being the only game in town. So, I was pleasantly surprised when a certain Tony Khan came out of the blue and decided to start a wrestling company.

And suddenly, everything was changing for the better. Things became exciting. Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho joined the company. This obviously showed that Tony Khan meant business. Then, we had Kenny Omega and the Bucks. Although I had never seen them except in You Tube clips; I had heard enough of them to feel optimistic. So, we had main stream stars, indie stars with a sizeable fan following, a wrestling fan calling the shots with more or less unlimited funds; what could go wrong?

Well, for the first year – Nothing! Legends were being signed left and right. They had the nostalgia act. They had the young upstarts. They had disgruntled former WWE stars. It was great. Just what the doctor of wrestling ordered. They beat NXT on Wednesday nights. AEW had everything going for them. So what happened?

Honestly, I think nothing changed. Nothing happened. And that is the point. I have always felt that the only reason why AEW was so successful in the first couple of years was because it was the ‘new kid on the block’. That always garners attention. Add in the former WWE stars who were ‘unfairly’ treated in WWE or who just needed a second wind in their careers along with legends, the numbers automatically go up. Unfortunately, this gets old really fast. And for some reason, Tony Khan does not seem to understand this.

I listen to Jim Cornette’s podcast on a daily basis. It is convenient during my an hour and a half commute to and from my work in Abu Dhabi from Dubai. While I may disagree with him on a number of things especially on his opinions on women’s wrestling; I do agree that AEW shows feel like big budget indie shows; basically a three hour long spot fest with no real distinctions between the different matches. If you have seen one, you might have seen them all. I have seen a pay per view (I think it was one of the Forbidden Door shows) where the first three matches had the same two and fro elbow/punches spot. Every match has furniture involved. Every match has colour. This prevents these spots from being ‘special’. Just consider the piledriver spot involving Kevin Owens, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. WWE has done a remarkable job in making a piledriver look devastating and one of the deadliest moves in the world. Similar to the punt kick used by Orton some time back. AEW had started doing that with the Tiger Driver with Ospreay but they seemed to have forgotten about it.

Another major issue I have had with the storylines is that there is no real cowardly, sleazy heel in the company. The company should realise that not every heel needs to be a bad ass. Not every babyface needs to be a bad ass. Yes, every inspiring wrestler wants to be the hero or knight in shining armour or Darth Vader; but in reality that is not the case. Dominik Mysterio is one of the best heels in the business. And it is not because he laughs in the face of the baby face when faced with the possibility of being set on fire; its because he is a sleazy heel who is afraid of being beaten up by Rhea Ripley.

And lets not dive too much in the backstage issues within the company. AEW lost big stars in CM Punk and Cody Rhodes within a year and is in the danger of losing more. Not something to be proud of especially when your numbers are dwindling.

I would love it if AEW is successful. It was the inception of the company which made WWE raise its game. But the company seems to be going the same direction as WCW or even Dixie Carter led TNA. The only reason they are not losing sponsors or are not losing on big deals is probably because of their status as established business men and team owners in the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham. The company requires good leadership and good advisors. However, if things continue in the same manner, it is only a matter of time when Shahid Khan looks at the financials and say ‘No More!’. 

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