@@Wrestleology Merry Christmas. Oh btw still can't figure out why Tony missed the opportunity to sign Ziggler and Matt Riddle and now TNA got them both
One massive problem was that they used WWE’s (at the time) bad quality and practices as a crutch to look like heaven in comparison so once WWE sobered up they got nothing to rely on.
It’s Tony Khan. Everything is is fault. He won’t be a boss. He can’t handle conflict. He lets the guys do what they want. He lets them decide what they will and won’t do. He won’t be a boss or a booker.
@@mattpryokra2245Yes, Cody. He's a founding father of the promotion AND he's the one who said casual fans are not welcome or a concern. You and the original commenter dismissed Tony's idiocy for years. Don't try to act like you only realized now.
@basedfrosti He could have stopped it at anytime but not only did he do nothing, but is partially responsible for the dumpster fire AEW has become. He's the one who chased the casuals away. The fact that you won't hold a freakin' FOUNDING FATHER accountable for his actions with his creation says a lot about you.
cody booked himself into a corner in aew. only an idiot would lose a match saying they could never win the world title. he also refused to go with the flow when he was getting booed..now hes doing the same boring gimmick of hes dustys son in wwe.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but having their wrestlers show up every week in regular street clothes took away from their characters. They looked like random fans arguing with each other
Yeah skinny Wyt boys with beautiful long hair who can do Canadian Dystroyers won't really workout if you're trying to beat the Wwe where their men look like actual straight men.
Right. It loses impact when you see it all the time (which is a recurring theme in AEW.) If it happens once in a blue moon, it has impact. For instance, in 1998 on an episode of Monday Night RAW, the Undertaker (still in his "Deadman" gimmick) came to the ring wearing sweats and cut a "worked-shoot" promo on Vince McMahon. Fans weren't accustomed to seeing the Undertaker out of character like that, so that immediately got everyone's attention and made his worked-shoot sound serious.
The one big thing the video didn’t mention is that AEW expects you to have a certain level of knowledge of pro wrestling, and doesn’t want to spend time getting you up to speed. WWE would have spent weeks building up Okada, and telling you everything about him and why you should want to see him. AEW assumes you already know that and just throws him out there. Same for Jay White, Suzuki, lord knows how many others. You’ll get the sickos, maybe, but at some point you need to appeal to mainstream fans as well
It's genuinely absurd. It's VERY similar to what the incredibly insular (and always wildly UNsuccessful) modern comic industry does in the west where it doesn't tend to bother filling people in on anything. "Every issue is someone's first issue" used to be a rule for writing in comics where you should always assume you need to fill in the reader on what is happening to catch them up...and now that is not done. AEW is exactly the same where they do not treat any episode as a jumping on point to inform people.
That works.... when the indie scene is hot. That's how AEW worked so well when it began. NJPW was hot. The indies were hot. Bullet Club was hot. "All In" was hot. There was hype and momentum for all of these things. And most of the Americans fans were in this strange middleground of knowledge where we all knew a lot about those things, we all had seen some prime matches or badass clips, but we weren't watching any of it weekly. Nothing was overexposed and everything seemed better than it was. Esp since WWE was rough, back then. All AEW had to do was throw two guys together that fans were hyped for into a ring and it would be big. AEW didnt build those guys. NJPW did. GCW did. NWA did. Lucha Underground did. So when new guys debuted and those "day 1" big deals had their shine wear off, AEW had to do their own development + building. And they fail over and over and over.
Forbidden Door is a big offender. Bringing in a bunch of guys I may or may not have ever heard of, and certainly didn't care about at all, ended up being the beginning of the end for me. It was the first AEW PPV I didn't bother to watch since the start of the company. I lost interest in the shows building up to it cause I had no emotional attachment or investment in anybody they were bringing in for Forbidden Door. Sure, maybe it's great for the niche audience that knows all of these wrestlers from Japan, but it does nothing for the casuals or to draw more people in. For somebody like me, it pushed me away for several weeks. By the time the next Forbidden Door came around, I had checked out completely and only listen to recaps on YT and will watch the occasional match if it's an absolute trainwreck or something special like Sting's retirement.
AEW's biggest failure was going from trying to "challenge" WWE to....dive deep into the "we're just an alternative!" branding. 60 minute draws. Matches that nobody can sit and rewatch. Like, I'm not gonna sit and rewatch Bryan vs Omega. I'm not gonna sit and rewatch 1 hour matches or even 30 minute matches. Another thing is momentum. You've got guys like Pentagon kicking out of finishers against top guys. Heck, just 2 hours ago Brodie King kicked out of 2 HIDDEN BLADES from Ospreay. Guess what's gonna happen? Brodie will be in 6 man tag matches next week or put on a banger against Kommander or Beast Mortos. Momentum in wrestling is the most important tool in storytelling. If Dolph Ziggler had that Survivor Series moment where he single-handedly beats The Authority, I expect big thing for him on tbe horizon and i want to see that happen. Brodie King kicking out of 2 Hidden Blades from Ospreay back to back tells me nothing, it's just a thing that happend. The third and final blow, is laziness. AEW had CM Punk and they were making him do 6 man tag matches at Collision. Imagine if they kickstarted a big angle and imitated WWE at their best and put on a great fucking product? No. They insisted on pissing on every opportunities the fans given them. Look where it's gotten them now.
If they stop worrying about the other company and focus on their actual talent then they can succeed. I wish that Tony never brought Ring of Honor cause it went downhill just like AEW did. Ring of Honor needs to be it's own show with a different network not under Tony Khan's wing.
On creative side AEW has already lost their credibility longtime ago. They didn’t have much creative talent to write a make sense storyline, the talent keep working themselves into injury, talent risk their livelihood just tried to be relevant, talent keep working themselves to a shoot to much, no control over roster like a bunch of friends playing to be a real company, and the most important thing is TK as a booker. TK was trash, garbage, poor, and mark.
@@BlahBlah-v1y Um, so we will just forget Chris Jericho (as well as Darby Allin) and the sh*t he's been up to, huh? The cognitive bias is real with you lot. The pendulum swings both ways, friend. Never forget that.
@@ScuffedFI don't agree with nothing others do when it comes to miss treatment of people. The difference in this is talent and owner. Jericho and Darby was hired not signing checks. Just sick how so many wanna just over look what Vince did. Walmart ceo does what Vince did it's look at differently then if walmart hires people that did as he did. That's just rich being untouchable and no accountability. Trump has 34 charges yet here's the president again. Don't mean I have to agree with it!
Yeah that's pretty much every new coming secondary new promotion. From WCW to TNA and now this crap. I truly wish once AEW is belly's up (hopefully soon) we won't see another televised secondary promotion. I'm fine with the indies, and the international promotions but those secondary companies are always a cringe.
And for the first few years, AEW had a less toxic backstage culture. Vince McMahon losing control of WWE, though, exposed that AEW was kinda toxic the whole time too.
They always lie about what AEW was. They pretend as though AEW is doing bad because of a sudden change in quality when really it’s attrition from what they were always doing.
The lack of storytelling and the roster are part of why the jokes about the company being "Tony's Toybox" came about. I'll never knock AEW on their technical talent, because they do have some of the most insanely athletic and gifted people when it comes to that - but the problem is they just keep throwing those people at each other pointlessly. Like, yes it's great watching two high-fliers like Osprey & Ricochet do flips 'n shit at each other for 15mins... but also, who the fuck cares after a certain point? Kinda like Mox/Dustin nearly bleeding to death every week - at a certain point it's just so overdone that it doesn't even matter anymore. "Oh look, Moxley's having a match. He's probably going to get busted open and start bleeding profusely..." Yes it's a wrestling show, and you come for the matches, but the feuds and storylines are just as much a part of "professional wrestling" as an industry. They keep putting on these "Dream Matches" with no build, or "Legends matches" with people way past their primes. There's no build for anything, and through that they managed to make the product boring. It's essentially the IRL version of taking your action figures and just going "Hey you know who I've always wanted to see fight each other...?" and then having them do a bunch of random shit... and then Tony gets bored and shelves them. Part of the other major criticism within the Toybox meme has always been the absolutely stacked roster... and so many big names either sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, or getting jobbed out to the newer, shinier model. ETA: admittedly I went on this rant before watching the full thing and... RIP I ended up accidentally hitting most of the same points lol
I will play Devils Advocate here and say they did have a plan....up until Hangman won the title. After that though, the entire aspect of story fell off a cliff because Khan is an utter amateur when it comes to running a wrestling company. Its not about having so-called 'bangers' every week but more so giving the audience a reason to tune into your program. I doubt the guy cares all that much anyway as he's simply a nepo-baby man-child in his little playground who was given this hobby by his dad to keep him away from important business ventures.
There's nothing more sad than wasted potential. AEW at the moment seems like that. Fans don't want to come to the shows, but that is what happens when every AEW show feels like a fan playing GM Mode on a WWE game. I don't think AEW will ever go bust, TK has more than enough money and I doubt he would pull his investment as he's a genuine wrestling fan. But it is sad, All Out 2021 was when AEW peaked in my view. 2022 was when the cracks appeared, Cody leaving, Brawl Out and the dodgy booking decisions. One example being the mismanagement of Wardlow. Why couldn't they give MJF and Wardlow meteoric rises simultaneously? I do want AEW to turn this around. The more wrestling companies are thriving the better. Unfortunately that won't be happening when you book to keep a small portion of the IWC happy while alienating other AEW fans so much they leave.
agree.. they had the funding, a stacked roster, and a great tv deal...and it is squandered because the owner books for himself and other like minded match only fans want to see
Not really surprising, Triple H is a wrestler with close to 30 years of experience, he's been around many great talents, he's had his share of failures, he was once an egotistical dude with a chip on his shoulder who buried wrestlers when he was an active performer, as his career waned.. he had a change of heart, he ultimately became the light at the end of the tunnel (ran NXT) when Vince became a terrible tyrant of a booker ruining most of the talents on the main rosters.
You have no idea how badly I want AEW to survive. And this is coming from someone who watches primarily WWE. When WWE bought WCW I legit groaned because I knew a lack of competition would mean self-indulgent booking and no need to do better. So AEW needs to survive also because some of my fave wrestlers are still on it and they are getting paid well. With all that being said, AEW diehard fans are awful. WWE diehard fans are awful. Instead of cancelling each other out they drive the main discourse and it’s so annoying. AEW fans acting superior because their love is more “pure”, while WWE fans act superior because the product is hot at the moment. At any point all of this can change, so nobody should feel superior about anything. You all watch men in little pants grapple each other, get over it.
Fortunately when WWE bought WCW, WWE did had competition and it's not TNA. After they bought WCW, they compete against one another that's why after the awful Invasion storyline ended they brought back Ric Flair and made the draft pick so Raw could had its own roster and storylines and SmackDown could have its own roster and storylines with the only exception being that the undisputed world champion could appeared at both shows before that got change later on. It's not the best decision but it did work out okay at first.
nah its all about viewership. wwe never has to worry cause international fans in india keep them well fed. thats why they wont massively improve their product. same with aew. for them 500,000 fans every week is a big deal and more then profitable so they wont change. which leads to a reptitive industry. and both wwe and aew losing viewership over time.
@nadiahassan5307 You sound like my little brother with that last sentence. He used to always say "Why y'all be watching oiled up dudes in booty shorts grabbing each other?" 😂😂. Now, he watches and justifies it with saying he is only watching for the women lmao.
You don't love the Canadian Destroyer off the top rope onto the steps for a 2 count? Or how the refs go check on a guy instead of counting them out. Then they pop up, run back into the ring, and hot more finishers?
Tony cant build stars. They wasted Wardlow. They had a few months when Eddie Kingston was hot and they did nothing with him. He doesn’t know how to take advantage when guys get over. This “Death Rider” storyline is ratings death.
building them isnt the issue..his issue is when they get white hot he doent know what to do after they become stars..see wardlow as mentioned. was white hot then he poured ice cold water on him..doing the same with mariah may she was white hot and has done nothing but face jobbers ever since. she turns on mina at the ppv then two weeks later they are already having a match on dynamite..it does nothing to make money.
Call me old school, but I remember when wrestlers looked and dressed unique and like wrestlers. Now you tune in to aew and everyone is dresses in street cloths, you can't till if your watching a fan or some random guy from the streets.
@@MarekTheHoundthose are some exceptions, but he makes a point. You got the world champion wrestling in sweat pants, or those green/khaki looking pants. You’ve got Jack Perry with his waist slimmer than most women and wrestling in plain jeans. Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta look incredibly out of place as well.
AEW lost the three biggest draws they had to WWE. Jade Cargill, Cody Rhodes, and CM Punk. Even though she can't wrestle her way out of a wet paper bag, AEW booked Jade Cargill like Bill Goldberg, and it WORKED. It brought attention to the Women's division. They tried to replace her with Mercedes Mone' but she hasn't been relevant since she left WWE. Cody Rhodes was one of the founding fathers and cornerstones of AEW. For him to leave AEW, and to have Vince McMahon himself get onto his own plane and fly to Florida to bring a contract to Cody's house, that's a huge blow. CM Punk coming to AEW was "supposed" to be as huge as Hulk Hogan coming to WCW. It started out good, but when you have someone that is used to things making sense in an environment where little to nothing at all makes sense, it's not going to end well, and it didn't. As much as AEW, Tony Khan, and it's fanbase have tried to drag CM Punk, literally everything that he has said has come to pass with pinpoint accuracy. Any halfway decent wrestling promoter would probably have the number one wrestling company with all the assets that AEW has, or at least would be giving WWE a run fro it's money. Tony Khan literally is playing with living action figures and AEW exists for no purpose other than that. It's not that Tony Khan doesn't listen to the advice from vets. It's the fact that these vets are getting paid millions of dollars and AEW has become their pension-plan. They'll keep their fool mouths SHUT until they feel they've made enough money to live off of for the rest of their lives. Then they will right books about how horrible it was in AEW later on to make some extra coin on top of that.
There’s no doubt that the “Honeymoon Period” for AEW is long gone. But I still love the company that gave fans who were tired of WWE in the late years of Vince McMahon an alternative we haven’t had since the days of WCW. Even though I don’t watch the shows on a weekly basis, I’m still rooting for them to be successful because wrestling is at it’s best when all companies are thriving
Nobody needs an alterative to WWE anymore. WWE is doing some pretty great stuff, especially with Vince gone. Vince losing control of WWE is the worst thing that's ever happened to WWE. AEW always sucked, but it was still better than WWE. Now that's not the case anymore.
I think out of all the points on the list, the Okada one hurts me the most. I fucking loved Okada in Japan. The man was regarded as a wrestling hero (or even god) in his home country. Seeing him reduced to a comedic upper-mid card act is really depressing and just makes me want to tune out of AEW at times.
Man, the elite vs aew felt like it was actually going to be a great long term story that shakes things up throughout the entire roster. But aside from all winning belts and taking out TK it all just fizzled out... The continental classic has some "dream matches" and I want to be more invested but there's so little story to really pull me in. It's baffling
he should've aim for the AEW World Champion by now and be treated as a main eventer instead he stuck being the AEW Continental Champion which he barely do anything about it. he should've win the AEW World Champion and be a dominant Champion like his 4th Reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion which he held the title for 720 days.
@@yuhin4694 tbf i think okamura would also be treated badly by wwe. even under triple h. he would have a badass entrace but thats about it. he aint beating any top talent cause he cant cut a promo to save his life. NEW JAPAN. thats the company he should stay with. dont care about the money. presentation and legacy matters the most. find a company that treats you like god. we LOVED him in new japan. he was their roman reigns.
One thing i noticed is that many of the WWE stars who went to AEW shows how much so many wrestlers need the production and character building to help them. Look at Mercedes Money as an example
Ever since Cody & Punk left and Triple H became head of creative in WWE, AEW has been struggling. Not to mention lots of the backstage drama we hear about.
I stopped watching AEW because Tony is obsessed with smaller guys beating bigger guys. I remember Gates of Agony losing to Darby and Nick Wayne which made me crack.
When they aired the CM Punk footage and it was obvious to ANYONE with two functioning brain cells that it did nothing but bury AEW itself for no gain I knew it was unironically over. It showed that TK is genuinely too stupid to run anything resembling a wrestling company. He only has a shadow of a hint of a clue of what he's supposed to be doing.
A videogame is nothing like real life though. In real life booking, you had to book matches but also make sure the storyline doesn't jump all over the place and the wrestlers who you book together must know how to get the job done. You also had to give orders to the guys at the watch tables to also do their jobs and know when to end matches or if to keep the matches going or if someone would interfere in the match. Loud pop from the crowd means the match is getting interesting so the match could be extended a bit longer, close to silent from the crowd means nobody is enjoying the match so you must had them find a way to end the match quickly or had someone interesting come to ringside to interfere to heat up the matches. You had to be able to communicate like this to the people at the table and the referee without ever being at ringside. Also know that in real life, sometimes some wrestlers will not be on the same page as you and they will request a change to the booking, it's up to you to figure out if that booking could be done or not. Long story short booking matches ain't that easy. Sometimes if the booking sucks or the main event wrestlers got injured due to your bad bookings you may even get suspension or fired as well.
AEW is so full of homegrown talent but without good booking and a weak bosse equals chaos. He needs vets to manage these egos, they can still do their thing like they do, we just want it to matter.
He went out with a meaningless win in a tag team match having helped build up no one... That is not doing a wrestler justice...it is badly wanking them. Shawn Michaels did justice to Ric Flair with their match which Ric lost. A wrestler should lose their last match and use it as closing the last page on a career.
He built up Darby. You can say what you want about AEW and critique it all you like but don’t go around lying and fabricating nonsense when there’s real complaints to be had.
I think a big part of the problem is, when Khan actually let's people have creative control and freedom to do their own thing and try something new, he gives it to the wrong people. Mox, Mone, and Jericho have all been terrible handling their own creative. It's at a point where I don't think they can course correct because Khan would have to bring in external help to run creative, and there are too many people embedded in power positions who aren't going to give up their creative control.
Dude seems to have forgotten to mention this but it wasn't all in Tony for how bad AEW is. It's his talent who have creative control over their booking and refuse to put over talent. Guys like the Bucks, Jericho, Moxley, are people who do things their way and keep convincing Tony they're right.
AEW is this luxury mansion, but was not built brick by brick, but created over night by wood and aluminum, however it's still a house that can be reinforced the right way.
The ph level of the concrete laid for the foundation was weak though and over time, it has compromised the entire structure of the building. Im a carpenter, so I should know.
Nowadays in AEW we can see the fights, fights and fights. There is no story telling. Once upon a time they had an OG story line between Kenny and Hangman.
Poor Mercedes. She joined a shut up and wrestle company, all while being produced like she's on a WWE-style program. It's mismatch, but she's still hotter than a $2 pistol and I hope the AEW incel base doesn't chase her off.
Meh, she’s an average worker at best who thought she was a bigger star than she actually is. Also, both AEW and WWE have much hotter women anyway. 🤷♂️
She’s a millionaire who will probably get the Punk treatment when she inevitably returns to WWE. She’ll be alright. You’re right. She is hot though. Only reason I tolerate the cringe mic work.
She appeals to gay ppl. Many of these sassy women's wrestlers go onto a secret ritual where a homosexual demon takes over their body and gets over on TV. Real women do not act like that in real life. See Mercedes Martinez, that's a natural womanly woman.
AEW prime, was when DB and Adam Cole debuted in the same night, after cm punk`s first match and Kenny by God Omega as world champ! This is when i thought they would surpass wwe. but somehow they managed to blow it
Punk used the word quit himself on the Helwani podcast. I think Tony absolutely had to announce he fired Punk with cause because Punk probably had no contact with AEW after All In and was not gonna show up at Collision or All Out in Chicago regardless of being fired or not.
It's somewhat right tho. Punk told TK that he wants to be released from his contract way beforehand, specifically just after the Adam Page-Elite altercation.
@KingofNewark Punk is also someone who , according to him , is NEVER at fault for anything, but here is how you know he was fired,, in that same interview he let slip that he told Nick Khan he didn't have a 90 day no compete,, if he actually had Quit, there's no way in the world that tony wouldn't had exercised a non-compete clause for the remainder of the year. The only way he could have a non compete is if his contract just ran out or if he was fired
@anut8733 except , Brian Danielson has gone on record and said he was one of the people on the disciplinary board who told Tony that punk needed to be fired, and then Tony went on Collision and said under the advice of his lawyers AND the disciplinary board, he chose to fire punk. So is Danielson a liar now too?
AEW is going the same route of WCW. Which is ridiculous because the fans want AEW, not WWE. I might hate modern wrestling but even I can tell that what made AEW profitable and great was AEW was AEW. Now, just like with WCW when Ted Turner bought it, they just want WWE. Which is not gonna work because WWE is already the best at being WWE. But apparently, after so many companies fail trying to emulate WWE, seems no one learned anything. And guys like Jericho, who once lambasted Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and the rest of the main event talents for turning WCW into trash by hogging the spotlight and taking chances away from the home grown talent and undercard talents, are now doing the exact same thing. Guess the Batman movie was right, "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".
I'm gonna disagree about the Women's Tag Team Championship in WWE maybe this is just a personal tag, but I am fully invested in Jade Cargill’s and Bianca Belair’s tag team championship reign and I feel like they’re union kind of puts more eyes on that title to the point where they can actually build it prestige
AEW will survive as long as Tony khan is prepared to run it, that's it. And Swerve v Hangman could have been so much bigger had Tony McKhan not taken the title off Swerve just so he could give Bryan a pointless run with the belt at the end of his "full time" career.
Aew has lots I would like fixed or changed....especially in production, story pacing, and introduction of new characters from other companies. But this is just the cool thing to do for content at this point lmao. Everyone in their mama has a "downfall of AEW doc" dropping this week.....this is like the 4th 45min long one on my timeline this week lol.
AEW biggest problem is that WWE started getting good and they can’t compete with them. They’re gonna end up like ECW and TNA. They tried to compete but couldn’t. ECW went out of business and Impact Wrestling now owns TNA and they had a whole rebrand called TNA Impact
Ever since Punk was fired, they quickly lost their audience to the point where hardly anybody watches AEW anymore. This promotion would have already gone out of business If not for Tony's dad Shad Khan and his money to keep it afloat.
They actually only lost their audience when they started publicly antagonize punk. It made his fans feel alienated from the product. Many people siding with Punk kept watching before then.
@@sjdrifter72 The thing is that many fans didnt see that or saw it as the bucks going into business for themselves. When they aired the punk footage and made bucks and perry the bloodline of the show, that was basically Tony telling a large part of the audience that the show isnt for them anymore. And then wrestlers like Adam Copeland requested promo time the week after to try to salvage the situation.
@@BigmanDogs Whatever the reason. The fact is AEW sucks and nobody watches it except for a VERY small niche of marks that Tony caters to. The near empty venues and abysmal viewership reflects that.
Its crazy, my daughter and i are sitting here saying how long we've been saying EXACTLY all of this, while we no longer can stand to watch the AEW product and have went back to WWE.
The easiest fix for AEW imo would be bringing in Scott Dmore to help with writing and Freddie Prinz Jr to help with writing and storylines. You could add Shane in there as well if you want.
When AEW (Tony Khan) had people such as Cody & Punk behind the scenes they were competition. Now they have Richoshit & Mercedes No Money (people who WWE let go). Plain & Simple.
Perhaps a small example of what's going wrong, but I saw an AEW show recently end with Serena Deeb coming out to confront Britt Baker. Now, I guess the `story' they were telling was that Deeb hoped to avenge her recent defeat to Baker. But it wasn't really framed that way by anyone, and since there was no blood feud, or any title at stake, it fell completely flat. To make matters worse, Britt Baker turns to the camera man, and says audibly (and repeatedly!) "Nobody cares". And she didn't say with a tone of sadness, but with a tone of "Why would anyone book this? I deserve better"
I think the best example of how insufferable AEW has gotten nowadays is their handling of disliked storylines Back in AEW's early days, we had the awfulness that was Brandi Rhodes and her Nightmare Collective stable. It was boring, it latched onto every other women's match and storyline like a parasite, there was nothing entertaining about it. And when Tony and Co were told by the viewers that they didn't like the storyline, they cut it, they pulled the brakes, they moved on. Nowadays, we have Chris Jericho and his Learning Tree Bullshit. A faction that is the third repeat of the exact same "Chris Jericho's Kiss My Ass Club" stable we've been seeing for the past five fucking years. So how does AEW respond to their fans saying they don't want Jericho hogging all the TV time? By giving him a segment literally called "TV Time" just to mock the fans, oh and they also made him ROH world champ purely to spite people. Because that's a great message to send to fans "watch our product, we'll actively insult you if you criticize it"
AEW has a knack for signing wrestlers who were never strong "characters" onscreen but had great in-ring ability. It's not surprising their story telling is hit or miss and the characters are cringe at times.
Tony Khan became what he stood against at the beginning of the promotion. A promoter stuck in his ways, who doesn't listen to the fans, and doesn't change, and doesn't think that there's anything wrong with his company. Unless TK changes, I don't see AEW changing, and I'm not holding my breath.
Honestly, the bloodline enveloping the entire main event has been off-putting for me. I don't find it compelling that the motivation for half the heels is " well you like Roman now amd he was mean to me"
The cm punk Incident showed how undirected backstage the other, how unprofessional an environment could be without proper locker room leadership. That incident to be honest was the beginning of the end for the company.
I don't watch AEW, but I'll admit that I need to give it a chance and watch it for 2 weeks and it stopped because Tony wants to be so bad like Vince McMahon. The horrible storytelling is one of the reasons that didn't catch my attention because I lost interest and it didn't really make sense to me. I don't watch AEW because Tony was obsessed with taking shots at WWE and they seem to stay quiet and focus on their product. Everything that was said in this video is true and I personally think that AEW could use way more less Tony in the mix.
i think the moment cody left AEW is when the cracks started to begin. then came the "worker's rights" promos from hangman to punk and all sorts of shit that came out. as a fan of AEW, 2024 sucked. what the bucks did in revealing that brawl out footage made AEW look bad and ever since losing access to TBS and TNT this past summer/fall. i began to lose interest as i'm also angry with the tribalism as the fans have turned me off. i just want good wrestling.
Tony khan isn’t a good booker. He has random wrestlers on tv every week, skinny wrestlers like jungle boy and wheeler yuta, and there’s not many entertaining storylines. Rampage was basically random matches on a show.
Tony needs to focus on being an owner and bring in someone who understands television and bring casuals to the product. If Vince, Russo or Bischoff was running things...the product wouldn't be sitting on 600k viewership😂
The problem hasn’t changed, AEW fans HATE the casual audience so the company can’t ever grow. At this point it’s not gonna be able to turn it around either, TK lying about what happened with Punk was the last straw for a lot of people and now the story that AEW management was actively conspiring to get rid of Punk is eroding away all but the cornyiest UK sycophant-grifters. The company is doomed, TK lost his golden boy status and is losing his boys back to Japan. Mark my words; AEW isn’t going to be around much longer and Moxley going back to conclude the Bloodline is gonna be the silver bullet.
AEW hasn't changed, it's always been pretty bad, but it was still a lot better than WWE for the first few years. But then WWE changed, it got better, Vince was gone, it was cleansed of it's toxicity. AEW's whole mission was to be an alternative to WWE, now nobody needs an alternate to WWE anymore because it got better, and it got better than AEW. That also exposed that AEW was kinda toxic the whole time, but nobody noticed because WWE was that much worse. AEW got by on not being WWE for a while, but they can't ride that train anymore and have failed to establish their own identity. They're not connecting with the audience because the audience is more interested in the stories that WWE is telling. Tony doesn't know how to write stories that can be told over a long period of time. He can book PPVs, but he can't write weekly television very well. He books to please only 1 fan; Dave Melter. He doesn't care what the wider audience wants to see. CM Punk was right, AEW isn't a real business. It's Tony Khan's real life wrestling playset. What could save AEW? Tony stepping back and letting someone else book TV shows that actually knows how to tell a story. Also, hiring a general manager (a real one, not just on screen) and someone a lot more competent than Christopher Daniels to run talent relations. Do I think Tony will do any of that? Nope. It's cool though, WWE is doing some great stuff, so I'll just watch that.
Merry Christmas yall, its good to be back ❤️🎄
Merry Christmas to you too
Same here
Good video.
Just seems like aew has a weak presentation at times.
@@Wrestleology Merry Christmas. Oh btw still can't figure out why Tony missed the opportunity to sign Ziggler and Matt Riddle and now TNA got them both
One massive problem was that they used WWE’s (at the time) bad quality and practices as a crutch to look like heaven in comparison so once WWE sobered up they got nothing to rely on.
Agreed. Vince’s foibles being discovered was in all actuality the WORST thing to happen to AEW.
It’s Tony Khan. Everything is is fault. He won’t be a boss. He can’t handle conflict. He lets the guys do what they want. He lets them decide what they will and won’t do. He won’t be a boss or a booker.
Blame Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and the Jacksons too, you elitist.
@@Ticketman99Blame Cody? Give over man 😂
@@mattpryokra2245Yes, Cody. He's a founding father of the promotion AND he's the one who said casual fans are not welcome or a concern.
You and the original commenter dismissed Tony's idiocy for years. Don't try to act like you only realized now.
@@Ticketman99Blame Cody when he seen the dumpster fire and checked out before it went completely downhill? lol
@basedfrosti He could have stopped it at anytime but not only did he do nothing, but is partially responsible for the dumpster fire AEW has become. He's the one who chased the casuals away.
The fact that you won't hold a freakin' FOUNDING FATHER accountable for his actions with his creation says a lot about you.
The noment Cody, a founding EVP of AEW, returned to WWE in 2022, we knew there is something wrong in AEW.
Sound stupid that entitled prick left because he let bums influence him
cody booked himself into a corner in aew. only an idiot would lose a match saying they could never win the world title. he also refused to go with the flow when he was getting booed..now hes doing the same boring gimmick of hes dustys son in wwe.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but having their wrestlers show up every week in regular street clothes took away from their characters. They looked like random fans arguing with each other
Facts
Yeah skinny Wyt boys with beautiful long hair who can do Canadian Dystroyers won't really workout if you're trying to beat the Wwe where their men look like actual straight men.
Right. It loses impact when you see it all the time (which is a recurring theme in AEW.) If it happens once in a blue moon, it has impact. For instance, in 1998 on an episode of Monday Night RAW, the Undertaker (still in his "Deadman" gimmick) came to the ring wearing sweats and cut a "worked-shoot" promo on Vince McMahon. Fans weren't accustomed to seeing the Undertaker out of character like that, so that immediately got everyone's attention and made his worked-shoot sound serious.
The one big thing the video didn’t mention is that AEW expects you to have a certain level of knowledge of pro wrestling, and doesn’t want to spend time getting you up to speed. WWE would have spent weeks building up Okada, and telling you everything about him and why you should want to see him. AEW assumes you already know that and just throws him out there. Same for Jay White, Suzuki, lord knows how many others. You’ll get the sickos, maybe, but at some point you need to appeal to mainstream fans as well
Yeah, they'd do better treating fans like the morons they are
It's genuinely absurd. It's VERY similar to what the incredibly insular (and always wildly UNsuccessful) modern comic industry does in the west where it doesn't tend to bother filling people in on anything. "Every issue is someone's first issue" used to be a rule for writing in comics where you should always assume you need to fill in the reader on what is happening to catch them up...and now that is not done. AEW is exactly the same where they do not treat any episode as a jumping on point to inform people.
That works.... when the indie scene is hot.
That's how AEW worked so well when it began. NJPW was hot. The indies were hot. Bullet Club was hot. "All In" was hot. There was hype and momentum for all of these things. And most of the Americans fans were in this strange middleground of knowledge where we all knew a lot about those things, we all had seen some prime matches or badass clips, but we weren't watching any of it weekly. Nothing was overexposed and everything seemed better than it was. Esp since WWE was rough, back then. All AEW had to do was throw two guys together that fans were hyped for into a ring and it would be big.
AEW didnt build those guys. NJPW did. GCW did. NWA did. Lucha Underground did. So when new guys debuted and those "day 1" big deals had their shine wear off, AEW had to do their own development + building. And they fail over and over and over.
Forbidden Door is a big offender. Bringing in a bunch of guys I may or may not have ever heard of, and certainly didn't care about at all, ended up being the beginning of the end for me. It was the first AEW PPV I didn't bother to watch since the start of the company. I lost interest in the shows building up to it cause I had no emotional attachment or investment in anybody they were bringing in for Forbidden Door. Sure, maybe it's great for the niche audience that knows all of these wrestlers from Japan, but it does nothing for the casuals or to draw more people in. For somebody like me, it pushed me away for several weeks. By the time the next Forbidden Door came around, I had checked out completely and only listen to recaps on YT and will watch the occasional match if it's an absolute trainwreck or something special like Sting's retirement.
wwe have great story telling their products now.
AEW's biggest failure was going from trying to "challenge" WWE to....dive deep into the "we're just an alternative!" branding.
60 minute draws. Matches that nobody can sit and rewatch. Like, I'm not gonna sit and rewatch Bryan vs Omega. I'm not gonna sit and rewatch 1 hour matches or even 30 minute matches.
Another thing is momentum. You've got guys like Pentagon kicking out of finishers against top guys. Heck, just 2 hours ago Brodie King kicked out of 2 HIDDEN BLADES from Ospreay. Guess what's gonna happen? Brodie will be in 6 man tag matches next week or put on a banger against Kommander or Beast Mortos. Momentum in wrestling is the most important tool in storytelling. If Dolph Ziggler had that Survivor Series moment where he single-handedly beats The Authority, I expect big thing for him on tbe horizon and i want to see that happen. Brodie King kicking out of 2 Hidden Blades from Ospreay back to back tells me nothing, it's just a thing that happend.
The third and final blow, is laziness. AEW had CM Punk and they were making him do 6 man tag matches at Collision. Imagine if they kickstarted a big angle and imitated WWE at their best and put on a great fucking product? No. They insisted on pissing on every opportunities the fans given them. Look where it's gotten them now.
If they stop worrying about the other company and focus on their actual talent then they can succeed. I wish that Tony never brought Ring of Honor cause it went downhill just like AEW did. Ring of Honor needs to be it's own show with a different network not under Tony Khan's wing.
On creative side AEW has already lost their credibility longtime ago. They didn’t have much creative talent to write a make sense storyline, the talent keep working themselves into injury, talent risk their livelihood just tried to be relevant, talent keep working themselves to a shoot to much, no control over roster like a bunch of friends playing to be a real company, and the most important thing is TK as a booker. TK was trash, garbage, poor, and mark.
AEW entire identity is "WWE bad We good"
Yep and that died out when Vince retired
@@BlahBlah-v1y Um, so we will just forget Chris Jericho (as well as Darby Allin) and the sh*t he's been up to, huh? The cognitive bias is real with you lot. The pendulum swings both ways, friend.
Never forget that.
@@ScuffedFI don't agree with nothing others do when it comes to miss treatment of people. The difference in this is talent and owner. Jericho and Darby was hired not signing checks. Just sick how so many wanna just over look what Vince did. Walmart ceo does what Vince did it's look at differently then if walmart hires people that did as he did. That's just rich being untouchable and no accountability. Trump has 34 charges yet here's the president again. Don't mean I have to agree with it!
Yeah that's pretty much every new coming secondary new promotion. From WCW to TNA and now this crap.
I truly wish once AEW is belly's up (hopefully soon) we won't see another televised secondary promotion. I'm fine with the indies, and the international promotions but those secondary companies are always a cringe.
@SuperWildsnorlax yea once the "bloodline" story ends . What does wwe have that's intriguing . Exactly nothing after that
Storytelling in AEW was always horrible, they just relied on bringing in big free agents early on to create a buzz.
And for the first few years, AEW had a less toxic backstage culture. Vince McMahon losing control of WWE, though, exposed that AEW was kinda toxic the whole time too.
They always lie about what AEW was. They pretend as though AEW is doing bad because of a sudden change in quality when really it’s attrition from what they were always doing.
@@christopheraaron8299True
The lack of storytelling and the roster are part of why the jokes about the company being "Tony's Toybox" came about.
I'll never knock AEW on their technical talent, because they do have some of the most insanely athletic and gifted people when it comes to that - but the problem is they just keep throwing those people at each other pointlessly. Like, yes it's great watching two high-fliers like Osprey & Ricochet do flips 'n shit at each other for 15mins... but also, who the fuck cares after a certain point? Kinda like Mox/Dustin nearly bleeding to death every week - at a certain point it's just so overdone that it doesn't even matter anymore. "Oh look, Moxley's having a match. He's probably going to get busted open and start bleeding profusely..." Yes it's a wrestling show, and you come for the matches, but the feuds and storylines are just as much a part of "professional wrestling" as an industry.
They keep putting on these "Dream Matches" with no build, or "Legends matches" with people way past their primes. There's no build for anything, and through that they managed to make the product boring. It's essentially the IRL version of taking your action figures and just going "Hey you know who I've always wanted to see fight each other...?" and then having them do a bunch of random shit... and then Tony gets bored and shelves them.
Part of the other major criticism within the Toybox meme has always been the absolutely stacked roster... and so many big names either sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, or getting jobbed out to the newer, shinier model.
ETA: admittedly I went on this rant before watching the full thing and... RIP I ended up accidentally hitting most of the same points lol
I will play Devils Advocate here and say they did have a plan....up until Hangman won the title. After that though, the entire aspect of story fell off a cliff because Khan is an utter amateur when it comes to running a wrestling company.
Its not about having so-called 'bangers' every week but more so giving the audience a reason to tune into your program. I doubt the guy cares all that much anyway as he's simply a nepo-baby man-child in his little playground who was given this hobby by his dad to keep him away from important business ventures.
There's nothing more sad than wasted potential. AEW at the moment seems like that. Fans don't want to come to the shows, but that is what happens when every AEW show feels like a fan playing GM Mode on a WWE game. I don't think AEW will ever go bust, TK has more than enough money and I doubt he would pull his investment as he's a genuine wrestling fan. But it is sad, All Out 2021 was when AEW peaked in my view. 2022 was when the cracks appeared, Cody leaving, Brawl Out and the dodgy booking decisions. One example being the mismanagement of Wardlow. Why couldn't they give MJF and Wardlow meteoric rises simultaneously?
I do want AEW to turn this around. The more wrestling companies are thriving the better. Unfortunately that won't be happening when you book to keep a small portion of the IWC happy while alienating other AEW fans so much they leave.
AEW is just Tony Khan's real life wrestling playset.
agree.. they had the funding, a stacked roster, and a great tv deal...and it is squandered because the owner books for himself and other like minded match only fans want to see
Didn't figure Triple H for storyteller of the decade, but when you think about it it makes sense
Not really surprising, Triple H is a wrestler with close to 30 years of experience, he's been around many great talents, he's had his share of failures, he was once an egotistical dude with a chip on his shoulder who buried wrestlers when he was an active performer, as his career waned.. he had a change of heart, he ultimately became the light at the end of the tunnel (ran NXT) when Vince became a terrible tyrant of a booker ruining most of the talents on the main rosters.
hes trash as a booker as well
You have no idea how badly I want AEW to survive. And this is coming from someone who watches primarily WWE. When WWE bought WCW I legit groaned because I knew a lack of competition would mean self-indulgent booking and no need to do better. So AEW needs to survive also because some of my fave wrestlers are still on it and they are getting paid well.
With all that being said, AEW diehard fans are awful. WWE diehard fans are awful. Instead of cancelling each other out they drive the main discourse and it’s so annoying. AEW fans acting superior because their love is more “pure”, while WWE fans act superior because the product is hot at the moment.
At any point all of this can change, so nobody should feel superior about anything. You all watch men in little pants grapple each other, get over it.
Fortunately when WWE bought WCW, WWE did had competition and it's not TNA. After they bought WCW, they compete against one another that's why after the awful Invasion storyline ended they brought back Ric Flair and made the draft pick so Raw could had its own roster and storylines and SmackDown could have its own roster and storylines with the only exception being that the undisputed world champion could appeared at both shows before that got change later on. It's not the best decision but it did work out okay at first.
nah its all about viewership. wwe never has to worry cause international fans in india keep them well fed. thats why they wont massively improve their product. same with aew. for them 500,000 fans every week is a big deal and more then profitable so they wont change. which leads to a reptitive industry. and both wwe and aew losing viewership over time.
@nadiahassan5307 You sound like my little brother with that last sentence. He used to always say "Why y'all be watching oiled up dudes in booty shorts grabbing each other?" 😂😂. Now, he watches and justifies it with saying he is only watching for the women lmao.
how a few ego hungry indy wrestlers helped destroy AEW's chances.
No stars. Everyone looks the same, sounds the same, wrestle the same, speak the same and do the same moves. They’re a borefest man.
All the macho man's are looking like robbers in aew
Wwf was built on action figure looking real life athletes
They need to stop with the constant no-selling
No-selling isn't fundamentally bad. The issue is when non-stars do it. No selling is a tool to present a minority of wrestlers as larger than life.
You don't love the Canadian Destroyer off the top rope onto the steps for a 2 count? Or how the refs go check on a guy instead of counting them out. Then they pop up, run back into the ring, and hot more finishers?
Hands down this company killed my enjoyment for pro wrestling. I can't wait to see it belly's up soon.
And way too many super kicks. Diluting the once powerful looking finishers was a mistake AEW simply can't stop doing.
@HanDaimond but when the uso's do it. It's ok?
Tony cant build stars.
They wasted Wardlow.
They had a few months when Eddie Kingston was hot and they did nothing with him.
He doesn’t know how to take advantage when guys get over.
This “Death Rider” storyline is ratings death.
Wardlow should have been their biggest star. Tony just failed him for no reason at all. Absolute clown of a man.
building them isnt the issue..his issue is when they get white hot he doent know what to do after they become stars..see wardlow as mentioned. was white hot then he poured ice cold water on him..doing the same with mariah may she was white hot and has done nothing but face jobbers ever since. she turns on mina at the ppv then two weeks later they are already having a match on dynamite..it does nothing to make money.
Ever since Cody Rhodes and CM Punk left... AEW went down hill. 📉
Don't forget Jade Cargill. After she left, no Womens Divisions rised up
Brian phill man jr penta Blair Davenport
I always felt when Cody left, the soul left. When Punk left, the money went.
@vigoroushero8623 you're spot on
Cody and CM Prick are complete trash
Call me old school, but I remember when wrestlers looked and dressed unique and like wrestlers. Now you tune in to aew and everyone is dresses in street cloths, you can't till if your watching a fan or some random guy from the streets.
Only cena and roman can pull the street look
Sure, I usually go to the grocery store dressed like Darby Allin, and my accountant has the same look as Malakai Black
@@MarekTheHoundthose are some exceptions, but he makes a point. You got the world champion wrestling in sweat pants, or those green/khaki looking pants. You’ve got Jack Perry with his waist slimmer than most women and wrestling in plain jeans. Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta look incredibly out of place as well.
Jack Petty and the Young Sucks really tarnished AEW popularity
so did cm junk you blind mark
@@NotToBeMessedWid One mark calling another a mark.
Rather ironic, dont you think?
@@ScuffedF Where's the lie tho?
Young is a questionable word now
@@brahmanprabha yes ask ur mom about it. Tell her i said Hi you silly goof 🤣
AEW lost the three biggest draws they had to WWE. Jade Cargill, Cody Rhodes, and CM Punk.
Even though she can't wrestle her way out of a wet paper bag, AEW booked Jade Cargill like Bill Goldberg, and it WORKED. It brought attention to the Women's division. They tried to replace her with Mercedes Mone' but she hasn't been relevant since she left WWE.
Cody Rhodes was one of the founding fathers and cornerstones of AEW. For him to leave AEW, and to have Vince McMahon himself get onto his own plane and fly to Florida to bring a contract to Cody's house, that's a huge blow.
CM Punk coming to AEW was "supposed" to be as huge as Hulk Hogan coming to WCW. It started out good, but when you have someone that is used to things making sense in an environment where little to nothing at all makes sense, it's not going to end well, and it didn't. As much as AEW, Tony Khan, and it's fanbase have tried to drag CM Punk, literally everything that he has said has come to pass with pinpoint accuracy.
Any halfway decent wrestling promoter would probably have the number one wrestling company with all the assets that AEW has, or at least would be giving WWE a run fro it's money. Tony Khan literally is playing with living action figures and AEW exists for no purpose other than that. It's not that Tony Khan doesn't listen to the advice from vets. It's the fact that these vets are getting paid millions of dollars and AEW has become their pension-plan. They'll keep their fool mouths SHUT until they feel they've made enough money to live off of for the rest of their lives. Then they will right books about how horrible it was in AEW later on to make some extra coin on top of that.
Funny, Punk has been back in WWE for over a year and not a single report about him having punch ups backstage.
wwe knows his reputation so they can control things around him. if he went back to wwe first he would be in aew right now.
There’s no doubt that the “Honeymoon Period” for AEW is long gone. But I still love the company that gave fans who were tired of WWE in the late years of Vince McMahon an alternative we haven’t had since the days of WCW. Even though I don’t watch the shows on a weekly basis, I’m still rooting for them to be successful because wrestling is at it’s best when all companies are thriving
Then turned into 2018 WWE 😂. So many stars with inconsistent story telling. Crazy how the roles flipped
Nobody needs an alterative to WWE anymore. WWE is doing some pretty great stuff, especially with Vince gone. Vince losing control of WWE is the worst thing that's ever happened to WWE. AEW always sucked, but it was still better than WWE. Now that's not the case anymore.
their slow clapping gate keeping tribalistic fan base is big reason for aew failure . hey they got their wish aew all to themselves 🤣
@@bb-gc2txTony Khan is the biggest issue with AEW, but the hardcore fans who excuse his terrible booking are also a big part of why it is failing.
@@georgeh4171 and that clown Dave Melzer too
I think out of all the points on the list, the Okada one hurts me the most. I fucking loved Okada in Japan. The man was regarded as a wrestling hero (or even god) in his home country. Seeing him reduced to a comedic upper-mid card act is really depressing and just makes me want to tune out of AEW at times.
Man, the elite vs aew felt like it was actually going to be a great long term story that shakes things up throughout the entire roster. But aside from all winning belts and taking out TK it all just fizzled out...
The continental classic has some "dream matches" and I want to be more invested but there's so little story to really pull me in. It's baffling
He's still getting treated better than how Nakamura has been treated for years in WWE
he should've aim for the AEW World Champion by now and be treated as a main eventer instead he stuck being the AEW Continental Champion which he barely do anything about it. he should've win the AEW World Champion and be a dominant Champion like his 4th Reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion which he held the title for 720 days.
@@yuhin4694 tbf i think okamura would also be treated badly by wwe. even under triple h. he would have a badass entrace but thats about it. he aint beating any top talent cause he cant cut a promo to save his life. NEW JAPAN. thats the company he should stay with. dont care about the money. presentation and legacy matters the most. find a company that treats you like god. we LOVED him in new japan. he was their roman reigns.
One thing i noticed is that many of the WWE stars who went to AEW shows how much so many wrestlers need the production and character building to help them. Look at Mercedes Money as an example
This is eerily reminiscent of WCW. They caught WWE (WWF) at a weak point, but now that it's found its way again, it's just a superior product.
He got injured before the reveal. A huge difference.
Ever since Cody & Punk left and Triple H became head of creative in WWE, AEW has been struggling. Not to mention lots of the backstage drama we hear about.
Can't wait to hear Tony Khan be like "Ha! Ha! You have to watch AEW now since WWE is leaving cable!"
Yeaaah... Real fun. r _r
I stopped watching AEW because Tony is obsessed with smaller guys beating bigger guys. I remember Gates of Agony losing to Darby and Nick Wayne which made me crack.
Same Here I Hate Seeing Big Guys Like Lance Archer Brian Cage And Shane Taylor Taking L's
Lol wardlow and Hobbs are jokes while tiny 5 footers get all the dubs 😂😂......tiny tony can relate more to them I guess😂😂😂😂
Kenny’s injury was losing the heart, Cody’s departure was losing the soul, and Cm punk debacle was AEW losing their mind.
When they aired the CM Punk footage and it was obvious to ANYONE with two functioning brain cells that it did nothing but bury AEW itself for no gain I knew it was unironically over. It showed that TK is genuinely too stupid to run anything resembling a wrestling company. He only has a shadow of a hint of a clue of what he's supposed to be doing.
Even the "oh you're just a wwe shill" comments are gone, for the most part
Honestly I have more passion in wrestling then Tony khan and can book better matches as seen whenever I play gm mode in the wwe 2k games
Dude, if you can actually tell a coherent story......you are already miles ahead of Mr Nepo-Baby himself.
A videogame is nothing like real life though. In real life booking, you had to book matches but also make sure the storyline doesn't jump all over the place and the wrestlers who you book together must know how to get the job done. You also had to give orders to the guys at the watch tables to also do their jobs and know when to end matches or if to keep the matches going or if someone would interfere in the match. Loud pop from the crowd means the match is getting interesting so the match could be extended a bit longer, close to silent from the crowd means nobody is enjoying the match so you must had them find a way to end the match quickly or had someone interesting come to ringside to interfere to heat up the matches. You had to be able to communicate like this to the people at the table and the referee without ever being at ringside. Also know that in real life, sometimes some wrestlers will not be on the same page as you and they will request a change to the booking, it's up to you to figure out if that booking could be done or not. Long story short booking matches ain't that easy. Sometimes if the booking sucks or the main event wrestlers got injured due to your bad bookings you may even get suspension or fired as well.
The crime that mad me stop watching
AEW was the butchering push of Wardlow.
With Omega going back to NJPW, I think Okada should return once his contract expires.
Bro, WWE's product is and has been genuinely far far better than it's 2019-20 version and even the time before that as well as the AEW's.
A dream fued between Punk and MJF that happened already
There is always create a wrestler in wwe 2k it can still happen just in video game form 😶
Lol I remember when every youtuber mark would cope about AEW being good. How the turntables.
Now it's the opposite
Triple H effect. I'm really enjoy watching wwe again now. new era one of best era after attitude era.
The downfall of AEW is the reason why I’m not invested in wrestling like I used to be and moved to watching UFC
Never invest in secondary promotions who go by the "Wwe's bad, we good"
Just a little over a month since his debut, Shelton Benjamin has jobbed 3 times.
AEW is so full of homegrown talent but without good booking and a weak bosse equals chaos. He needs vets to manage these egos, they can still do their thing like they do, we just want it to matter.
At least they did Sting justice
Whoopi doooo yay a has been
Meh
He went out with a meaningless win in a tag team match having helped build up no one...
That is not doing a wrestler justice...it is badly wanking them.
Shawn Michaels did justice to Ric Flair with their match which Ric lost. A wrestler should lose their last match and use it as closing the last page on a career.
He built up Darby. You can say what you want about AEW and critique it all you like but don’t go around lying and fabricating nonsense when there’s real complaints to be had.
@@theflyinyourdrink Built up Darby to what ? Darby is at the same spot on the card having the same matches. Nobody gets "built" in this company
I think a big part of the problem is, when Khan actually let's people have creative control and freedom to do their own thing and try something new, he gives it to the wrong people. Mox, Mone, and Jericho have all been terrible handling their own creative. It's at a point where I don't think they can course correct because Khan would have to bring in external help to run creative, and there are too many people embedded in power positions who aren't going to give up their creative control.
Then he refuses to lesson to others about things. To the point many have given up and are there for the money. I can't blame them.
Words you never said when Vince McMahon was still in charge of WWE.
Stop being a hypocrite.
Now they should compete again NJPW and TNA
You pretty much hit all the points.. great video 👍🏼
AEW diehards will dismiss this as tribalism and ask hard hitting questions like, “why do you hate fun?”
Dude seems to have forgotten to mention this but it wasn't all in Tony for how bad AEW is. It's his talent who have creative control over their booking and refuse to put over talent. Guys like the Bucks, Jericho, Moxley, are people who do things their way and keep convincing Tony they're right.
AEW is this luxury mansion, but was not built brick by brick, but created over night by wood and aluminum, however it's still a house that can be reinforced the right way.
Tofu dreg
Nah, it’s more like a sand castle, about to be washed away by the tide.
The ph level of the concrete laid for the foundation was weak though and over time, it has compromised the entire structure of the building.
Im a carpenter, so I should know.
And Tony is not to blame for this.
He IS to blame for pretty much everything else though.
Welcome back, my broski!! Merry Christmas to you too. 🎄❄️
Nowadays in AEW we can see the fights, fights and fights. There is no story telling. Once upon a time they had an OG story line between Kenny and Hangman.
Poor Mercedes. She joined a shut up and wrestle company, all while being produced like she's on a WWE-style program. It's mismatch, but she's still hotter than a $2 pistol and I hope the AEW incel base doesn't chase her off.
Meh, she’s an average worker at best who thought she was a bigger star than she actually is. Also, both AEW and WWE have much hotter women anyway. 🤷♂️
She’s a millionaire who will probably get the Punk treatment when she inevitably returns to WWE. She’ll be alright.
You’re right. She is hot though. Only reason I tolerate the cringe mic work.
She appeals to gay ppl. Many of these sassy women's wrestlers go onto a secret ritual where a homosexual demon takes over their body and gets over on TV. Real women do not act like that in real life. See Mercedes Martinez, that's a natural womanly woman.
AEW prime, was when DB and Adam Cole debuted in the same night, after cm punk`s first match and Kenny by God Omega as world champ!
This is when i thought they would surpass wwe. but somehow they managed to blow it
NXT Is Whipping AEW Now
I Remember When It Was
The Other Way Around Though 😅
Ive said for a long time Khan has just been playing irl universe mode
He’s too much of a fan of wrestling. He has no leadership qualities whatsoever. He lets people walk all over him
2:59 , so "quit" is the new term for "getting fired on national tv"?
I dont understand why he said that. AEW making the mistake of firing Punk looks way worse for them anyway, and its the truth.
Punk used the word quit himself on the Helwani podcast. I think Tony absolutely had to announce he fired Punk with cause because Punk probably had no contact with AEW after All In and was not gonna show up at Collision or All Out in Chicago regardless of being fired or not.
It's somewhat right tho. Punk told TK that he wants to be released from his contract way beforehand, specifically just after the Adam Page-Elite altercation.
@KingofNewark Punk is also someone who , according to him , is NEVER at fault for anything, but here is how you know he was fired,, in that same interview he let slip that he told Nick Khan he didn't have a 90 day no compete,, if he actually had Quit, there's no way in the world that tony wouldn't had exercised a non-compete clause for the remainder of the year. The only way he could have a non compete is if his contract just ran out or if he was fired
@anut8733 except , Brian Danielson has gone on record and said he was one of the people on the disciplinary board who told Tony that punk needed to be fired, and then Tony went on Collision and said under the advice of his lawyers AND the disciplinary board, he chose to fire punk. So is Danielson a liar now too?
We thought AEW was becoming the new ECW, but now it’s the new Dixie Carter era of TNA.
AEW is going the same route of WCW. Which is ridiculous because the fans want AEW, not WWE. I might hate modern wrestling but even I can tell that what made AEW profitable and great was AEW was AEW.
Now, just like with WCW when Ted Turner bought it, they just want WWE. Which is not gonna work because WWE is already the best at being WWE. But apparently, after so many companies fail trying to emulate WWE, seems no one learned anything.
And guys like Jericho, who once lambasted Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and the rest of the main event talents for turning WCW into trash by hogging the spotlight and taking chances away from the home grown talent and undercard talents, are now doing the exact same thing.
Guess the Batman movie was right, "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".
I'm gonna disagree about the Women's Tag Team Championship in WWE maybe this is just a personal tag, but I am fully invested in Jade Cargill’s and Bianca Belair’s tag team championship reign and I feel like they’re union kind of puts more eyes on that title to the point where they can actually build it prestige
merry Christmas all.
AEW will survive as long as Tony khan is prepared to run it, that's it.
And Swerve v Hangman could have been so much bigger had Tony McKhan not taken the title off Swerve just so he could give Bryan a pointless run with the belt at the end of his "full time" career.
Fragile Mind, Fragile Body, Fragile Ego.
Says the alcoholic who can’t draw with a gold pen.
Tony khan is the answer to all those questions
Aew has lots I would like fixed or changed....especially in production, story pacing, and introduction of new characters from other companies. But this is just the cool thing to do for content at this point lmao. Everyone in their mama has a "downfall of AEW doc" dropping this week.....this is like the 4th 45min long one on my timeline this week lol.
AEW is nothing more than a circus now with Ricochet as their leading clown
AEW biggest problem is that WWE started getting good and they can’t compete with them. They’re gonna end up like ECW and TNA. They tried to compete but couldn’t. ECW went out of business and Impact Wrestling now owns TNA and they had a whole rebrand called TNA Impact
Whatcha gonna do AEW when WWE gets good again over you?
They should just shut it down
100%
Ever since Punk was fired, they quickly lost their audience to the point where hardly anybody watches AEW anymore. This promotion would have already gone out of business If not for Tony's dad Shad Khan and his money to keep it afloat.
They actually only lost their audience when they started publicly antagonize punk. It made his fans feel alienated from the product. Many people siding with Punk kept watching before then.
@@BigmanDogs Firing Punk and then the Bucks doing a victory lap in the ring thinking the company was better off, when in fact it was a death blow.
@@sjdrifter72 The thing is that many fans didnt see that or saw it as the bucks going into business for themselves. When they aired the punk footage and made bucks and perry the bloodline of the show, that was basically Tony telling a large part of the audience that the show isnt for them anymore. And then wrestlers like Adam Copeland requested promo time the week after to try to salvage the situation.
@@BigmanDogs Whatever the reason. The fact is AEW sucks and nobody watches it except for a VERY small niche of marks that Tony caters to. The near empty venues and abysmal viewership reflects that.
@@sjdrifter72 No that's quite overdramatic. They're just severely underperforming given the resources they have at their disposal.
at this point only bums watch AEW
Its crazy, my daughter and i are sitting here saying how long we've been saying EXACTLY all of this, while we no longer can stand to watch the AEW product and have went back to WWE.
And the fans failed AEW
Seeing How They Act Everytime Someone Criticize AEW They Definitely Did
AEW also has a problem with their wrestlers getting on social media and being combative with fans. ESPECIALLY the women wrestlers.
Social Media ruined alot of everything.
AEW needs to go back to the drawing board. Kinda glad it’s gonna be on Max but should have went to peacock instead.
The easiest fix for AEW imo would be bringing in Scott Dmore to help with writing and Freddie Prinz Jr to help with writing and storylines. You could add Shane in there as well if you want.
When AEW (Tony Khan) had people such as Cody & Punk behind the scenes they were competition. Now they have Richoshit & Mercedes No Money (people who WWE let go). Plain & Simple.
Perhaps a small example of what's going wrong, but I saw an AEW show recently end with Serena Deeb coming out to confront Britt Baker.
Now, I guess the `story' they were telling was that Deeb hoped to avenge her recent defeat to Baker.
But it wasn't really framed that way by anyone, and since there was no blood feud, or any title at stake, it fell completely flat.
To make matters worse, Britt Baker turns to the camera man, and says audibly (and repeatedly!) "Nobody cares".
And she didn't say with a tone of sadness, but with a tone of "Why would anyone book this? I deserve better"
Actually Cole was already injured way before the devil reveal so they couldn’t properly follow up the reveal.
It's crazy how WWE is becoming what we thought AEW was going to be.
Also each storyline has to have a faction bring made. After a while having a faction means nothing
I think the best example of how insufferable AEW has gotten nowadays is their handling of disliked storylines
Back in AEW's early days, we had the awfulness that was Brandi Rhodes and her Nightmare Collective stable. It was boring, it latched onto every other women's match and storyline like a parasite, there was nothing entertaining about it. And when Tony and Co were told by the viewers that they didn't like the storyline, they cut it, they pulled the brakes, they moved on.
Nowadays, we have Chris Jericho and his Learning Tree Bullshit. A faction that is the third repeat of the exact same "Chris Jericho's Kiss My Ass Club" stable we've been seeing for the past five fucking years.
So how does AEW respond to their fans saying they don't want Jericho hogging all the TV time? By giving him a segment literally called "TV Time" just to mock the fans, oh and they also made him ROH world champ purely to spite people.
Because that's a great message to send to fans "watch our product, we'll actively insult you if you criticize it"
I was really invested in Wardlow back in 2022. I'm sure most of us did. How the hell you screwed up a momentum
AEW has a knack for signing wrestlers who were never strong "characters" onscreen but had great in-ring ability. It's not surprising their story telling is hit or miss and the characters are cringe at times.
Tony Khan became what he stood against at the beginning of the promotion. A promoter stuck in his ways, who doesn't listen to the fans, and doesn't change, and doesn't think that there's anything wrong with his company. Unless TK changes, I don't see AEW changing, and I'm not holding my breath.
Aew will end up like WCW
They chose Jack Perry over CM Punk. Thats all you need to know about how their EVPs put their own egos before doing whats best for what the fans want.
AEW was never a legitimate contender given what we know now about Tony’s booking skills and the unprofessionalism there.
Merry Christmas Grisha ! Dope video bro
6 minutes in, and this guy wants AEW to be WWE. They may not be as popular but they are giving people the alternative still.
Honestly, the bloodline enveloping the entire main event has been off-putting for me. I don't find it compelling that the motivation for half the heels is " well you like Roman now amd he was mean to me"
The cm punk Incident showed how undirected backstage the other, how unprofessional an environment could be without proper locker room leadership. That incident to be honest was the beginning of the end for the company.
If we had Okada in WWE, I could see him team with Nakamura and/or Aj and become a dominant tag team or epic rivals.
I don't watch AEW, but I'll admit that I need to give it a chance and watch it for 2 weeks and it stopped because Tony wants to be so bad like Vince McMahon. The horrible storytelling is one of the reasons that didn't catch my attention because I lost interest and it didn't really make sense to me. I don't watch AEW because Tony was obsessed with taking shots at WWE and they seem to stay quiet and focus on their product. Everything that was said in this video is true and I personally think that AEW could use way more less Tony in the mix.
i think the moment cody left AEW is when the cracks started to begin. then came the "worker's rights" promos from hangman to punk and all sorts of shit that came out. as a fan of AEW, 2024 sucked. what the bucks did in revealing that brawl out footage made AEW look bad and ever since losing access to TBS and TNT this past summer/fall. i began to lose interest as i'm also angry with the tribalism as the fans have turned me off. i just want good wrestling.
Tony khan isn’t a good booker. He has random wrestlers on tv every week, skinny wrestlers like jungle boy and wheeler yuta, and there’s not many entertaining storylines. Rampage was basically random matches on a show.
Tony khan needs to give his position to someone else and push their original roster before everyone else
Tony needs to focus on being an owner and bring in someone who understands television and bring casuals to the product. If Vince, Russo or Bischoff was running things...the product wouldn't be sitting on 600k viewership😂
The problem hasn’t changed, AEW fans HATE the casual audience so the company can’t ever grow. At this point it’s not gonna be able to turn it around either, TK lying about what happened with Punk was the last straw for a lot of people and now the story that AEW management was actively conspiring to get rid of Punk is eroding away all but the cornyiest UK sycophant-grifters. The company is doomed, TK lost his golden boy status and is losing his boys back to Japan. Mark my words; AEW isn’t going to be around much longer and Moxley going back to conclude the Bloodline is gonna be the silver bullet.
One minor quibble. @ 0:34, “Jon Moxley” is not now, nor ever was, “a household name”. Even under ‘Dean Ambrose’ he wasn’t even a household name.
AEW hasn't changed, it's always been pretty bad, but it was still a lot better than WWE for the first few years. But then WWE changed, it got better, Vince was gone, it was cleansed of it's toxicity. AEW's whole mission was to be an alternative to WWE, now nobody needs an alternate to WWE anymore because it got better, and it got better than AEW. That also exposed that AEW was kinda toxic the whole time, but nobody noticed because WWE was that much worse. AEW got by on not being WWE for a while, but they can't ride that train anymore and have failed to establish their own identity. They're not connecting with the audience because the audience is more interested in the stories that WWE is telling. Tony doesn't know how to write stories that can be told over a long period of time. He can book PPVs, but he can't write weekly television very well. He books to please only 1 fan; Dave Melter. He doesn't care what the wider audience wants to see. CM Punk was right, AEW isn't a real business. It's Tony Khan's real life wrestling playset.
What could save AEW? Tony stepping back and letting someone else book TV shows that actually knows how to tell a story. Also, hiring a general manager (a real one, not just on screen) and someone a lot more competent than Christopher Daniels to run talent relations. Do I think Tony will do any of that? Nope. It's cool though, WWE is doing some great stuff, so I'll just watch that.
MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎅🎄
Merry Christmas to Carlito Carribbbean Cool