Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: tony khan, wrestling

Opinion: AEW Is Having The Worst Identity Crisis Ever

AEW and Tony Khan have slowly been morphing into a modern day WCW, with all the red flags to match. A change that needs to be reversed.

All Elite Wrestling is currently promoting the first of a new set of PPV events happening in 2024, as AEW Dynasty will be taking place on April 21. The event is going to have a number of key matches that will crown new Tag Team Champions, showcase two titles in the women's division, give us a dream match, and hopefully see the rise of a few faces into more prominent positions in the company. But you probably wouldn't know that if you were watching AEW Dynamite on April 10, 2024. The company spent several days hyping one major fight for the show featuring a former WWE talent and a young star on the rise above anything else, dedicating about 15 minutes of time to one fight.

And that fight was between CM Punk and Jack Perry.

AEW, and to an equal degree, Tony Khan, do not feel like the professional wrestling organization and owner we knew just three years prior. The more frequent cheap shots at WWE, the abundance of talent not being used, the array of matches featuring the same faces multiple times that feel like they don't serve a significant purpose, Ring Of Honor champs being added as filler, and about another dozen complaints that have crept up over the past year or so make watching the five hours of TV they produce a week a difficult watch. Now, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy AEW; this isn't a commentary from The Chadster or a comparison of them to WWE. But lately, I feel like I'm watching the management mistakes, bad storytelling, and poor planning that I remember watching on WCW between 1998-2001. Which is a pretty low f#@king bar to hit.

The booking as of late has felt lackadaisical. A couple of years ago, fans were heaping praise on Khan for having accidentally leaked the card for Full Gear 2021, showing he had a solid plan for a major PPV that people were looking forward to well in advance of events being set in motion. A far cry from what we were seeing from WWE, where scripts were being changed mere minutes before the show went on the air. Two and a half years later, it feels like most of AEW's TV shows were barely written the night before. As if Khan was up late at a Denny's scribbling out a plan on a stained napkin at 3 am before flying to TV and only using a quarter of the talent who were paid to show up. Sometimes, using that same talent across two or all three shows that week.

Incidentally, we did a percentage check of the roster before the most recent cuts. If you don't count the injured talent, roughly 43% of the men's roster and 48% of the women's roster haven't been on TV or wrestled a match since the start of 2024. About 46% of the talent signed to this company is basically being paid to host an afternoon book club in catering.

There have been multiple moments in the past few years, stemming from the on-air incident with Adam Page and CM Punk, where this company seems to take two steps forward and one step back. Whenever it looks like the company is headed in a cool new direction, reaches a new milestone, or has a story skyrocket, something comes along to ruin it. The MJF contract situation that killed Wardlow's story, playing hot potato with the International Championship, the infamous Brawl-Out that no one can talk about because of NDAs, the multitude of "Special Announcements" that have little impact, or just watching Khan himself vent on social media like he's anonymously posting on a wrestling forum. For every great moment the company has, it feels like it's been chained to a negative one that will leave you screaming, "why this?"

It all feels like the way WCW was handled before its demise. Contracts that allow wrestlers like Miro to basically tell the owner of the company "no" feel like the guaranteed contracts of old where people sat around and collected money doing little to nothing. The Young Bucks refusing to work with CM Punk after Brawl-Out feels like Hogan stroking a mustache, saying, "That doesn't work for me, brother." Having high-caliber PPV-quality matches like MJF vs. Kenny Omega on AEW Collision to pop a rating rather than trying to get them on a PPV feels like seeing Hogan vs. Goldberg for free on WCW Nitro. Making Win/Loss rankings, then not following them, then not using them, and then coming up with random tournaments and stipulation matches feels no different than sticking Judy Bagwell or a bottle of Viagra on a pole at this point.

The biggest example of turning into WCW of the late '90s came this week with the Punk/Perry footage from Wembley and Will Ospreay taking a shot at Paul "Triple H" Levesque. It reminded me of when Eric Bischoff went on TV and challenged Vince McMahon to a real fight at Slamboree '98. As if that was ever going to happen or accomplish anything. We're not going to see Ospreay fight Hunter. We're not going to see Perry fight Punk. Khan and the Bucks can defend the company and tie that drama to their own match as much as they'd like; it doesn't help them or FTR at all. Airing that footage served about as much functionality as a third wheel on a bicycle, and made watching Slamboree '98 more interesting than watching either team win the tag titles. Khan did more to kill interest in the tag team division in one week than he did to build it over the past calendar year.

AEW as a whole needs to start making smarter decisions. As much as people love to, you can't put all the blame on Khan, the Bucks, or any single individual who helps run the show. This is a collective failure, so it has to be a collective effort to fix it, starting with one simple goal: Focus on YOU. If you're #1, you never talk about #2. If you're #2 and all you can do is talk about #1, you'll always be #2. And while I'm sure Khan and those in charge will probably never take this seriously, it's an opinion piece, so I'm speaking my opinion whether they take notes or not.

First off, we don't need to see every ROH champion every week when ROH literally has its own show for that very purpose. If it can't survive on its own without weekly life support, then it might as well be a dead brand. If you really need to aid ROH, do a two-minute video package on Dynamite the night before Honor Club airs. Give people a reason to watch with highlights and major storyline developments instead of a reminder that it also happens to exist. And you know what? As of when this is being written, Scott D'Amore is still free after being let go from TNA. Hire him and give him the Ring Of Honor to take it off your plate so you don't have to think about it. Let him run it how he sees fit and watch it grow. …One final thing: next time someone offers you a TV deal to air ROH, just TAKE IT! That show will never grow behind an online paywall, and WBD clearly doesn't want it. "All things good should flow through the boulevard." Find a boulevard and get it out there!

Next, we don't need to see the same talent appear across all three shows. I'm very happy you got Adam Copeland signed to your roster. I don't need to see him on Dynamite, followed by a recap on Rampage, followed by another appearance on Collision. You have FIVE hours of television! Spread the wealth and open the doors for other talent to be utilized. You have the ability to pepper the talent throughout the week however you see fit, coupled with video packages. Speaking of peppering out the talent, YES, we actually DO want more women's matches on television. If everything the women ever do only revolves around who has the two championships on the show, then all we're ever waiting for is to see who you decide to give a championship to. You hired Jennifer Pepperman to help with making women's wrestling content; let her run with it.

While we're talking about championships, most of these belts don't feel like anything special. The TNT and TBS titles feel exactly like what they represent: TV championships. They should be defended on TV once a week so people have a guaranteed title match to look forward to and see new faces fight current champs. The International title has more value than the TNT belt at this point, so treat it like its the next in line behind the World title like the Intercontinental title is in WWE. I have no idea what the purpose of the Trios or Continental title are for at this point other than to be some kind of gold to be on camera. If you're going to keep them, you might actually want to define a reason for their existence, or they're just useless props. Might as well send Kazuchika Okada out there with a top hat, a guitar, and a pair of hedge clippers.

Ultimately, the writing and booking overall have clearly taken a back seat, with the exception of two or three specific programs, while the rest are being put together with popsicle sticks and glue in the hopes that you'll be interested in them for a couple of weeks before they fall apart. Making any suggestions to stories is not what this is for; we simply want better quality than what we've been getting. If that means getting more people involved, less people involved, a specific person hired, a couple of talents told to get their act together and get to work—whatever it takes! Do it already! Focus on what YOU'RE doing, and stop focusing on what everyone else is doing. Otherwise, that will end up being the biggest comparison to WCW of all.

Bischoff spent too much time trying to spoil the WWF results for their audience. Until the day came when he gave away Mick Foley winning a world championship, and people were more than happy to change the channel to see that happen. If Tony Kahn is spending all day trolling social media and wrestling forums and podcasts to take a dig at the competition, that means he's not putting time and effort into his own product to be better than theirs. If you're not going to pay attention to your own shows, why the f#@k should we? Because much like the fans did to WCW 25 years ago, we'll happily change the channel if you can't be bothered to make it worth watching.

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