Thanks, FTR Bald.

 

😂

 

I’m grateful for it too. It’s not perfect, but I enjoy it and I like Tony

 

I got to say despite the ups and downs (and there have been ALOT of downs in the company’s history) I’m glad we have another national size company as a legit #2 to be an alternative to the WWE. Both companies have benefited from this as the WWE have as a whole stepped their shit up from the dark ages of 2017-2019

No, they haven't. From 2022-2024 you could say that, but since 2025 started and it only goes more and more downhill, this is absolutely the laziest the WWE product has ever been. I've seen worse, I've seen more cringeworthy, I've never seen lazier. The Netflix, Saudi, USA, CW, sponsorship deals, the Vegas residency, etc, all combined into one, have made them basically completely give up any pretense that they have to tell a story whatsoever. It's the same show every week.

 

Was just speaking as a whole, I do agree that 2025 has been really bad for the WWE and they’ve undone a lot of goodwill they built up. Just seem like they had no plan after the Bloodline story is over.

I have a theory that wrestling is at its peak when it has a centralized story that the product and tv revolves around.

80s - Rise of Hulkamania (Hogan vs Andre, Mega Powers Imploding, Hulk vs Warrior)

90s - Rise of Austin/Attitude, WCW vs NWO (Bret vs USA, WCW & Sting vs NWO, Austin vs McMahon, Austin vs Rock)

00s - (No real over arching story which kind of contributed to the end of the 90s boom. Closest is probably Evolution implosion)

10s - (Bryan vs Authority which saved a rather dreadful decade of the WWE creatively)

20s - (Bloodline/Bloodline vs Cody which legit put WWE back on track after losing a lot of fanwill to AEW, without Reigns heel turn , Cody coming back, and Punk leaving AEW for WWE I doubt the E gets as much momentum as it did.)

In short I believe every wrestling promotion should have a main protagonist and a main antagonist with strong supporting characters and an overarching story to truly be successful.

 

While it currently isn't the greatest, anyone who is a wrestling fan wants alternatives. If you prefer a Monopoly, you've probably only have seen WWE and think Miz is one of the GOAT's.

 

20

25 the entire industry is a monopoly no matter what promotion you watch. Every promotion is projecting the same shit.

 

 

I wouldnt go grateful cause thats too emotional and like a relationship but its existence is a good thing for better or worse.

 

Didn’t mean it like that, meant just more appreciative and happy

 

AEW opened my third eye and my third leg.

 

Nice to see some positivity in this section for a change, i'm sure the usual suspects will be along shortly to shit on it

 

Heard mans got a banned hopefully permanently

 

AEW being around has been tremendous for the wrestling business and its literally the only reason why I bother with wrestling anymore. AEW being around has guaranteed for me a top tier PPV every 4-5 weeks at minimum, incredible promos, phenomenal wrestling, hyped feuds, and an air of hunger in the talent that strives to put on the best show they can. What else can you ask for? Revolution, Double or Nothing, Dynasty, ALL IN, & Forbidden Door have all been knockout shows. And most Dynamites I enjoy. The storytelling has been great primarily with the Hangman/Mox, Toni/Mariah, and Hangman/Swerve stuff. So as a wrestling fan I'm also grateful that they're around, because its not easy to generate genuine raw emotion & hype when everything has already been done in wrestling, and most AEW fans are always in a state of hype and joy when engaging with the show. Give me more of that. I just want to be entertained. Tony Khan literally gives us what we want almost all the time, and pushes the right guys 90% of the time.

As far as WWE stepping up, they won't change as a result of anything AEW does, not at this point. It's too late now, the streaming deals are already in place. The only reason why they even had the hot streak you speak of is because AEW existed and gifted them Cody and Punk consecutively. Then The Rock returned. But nothing changed at its foundational level. So when Cody finished his story everything once again died and reverted back to 2019 like I knew it would, because outside of Drew/Punk and Cody finishing the story I struggle to find anything else that WWE fans have praised. John Cena's heel turn was probably the biggest failure of the last 20 years.

The revenue that they're raking in is astronomical, but the trade-off to that is and has been creative death, and AEW can't do anything to change that even if they were drawing 10k per show or putting on what wrestling fans think is top tier booking, because the reality is the shareholders are not clamoring for anything to change.

 

AEW being around has been tremendous for the wrestling business and its literally the only reason why I bother with wrestling anymore. AEW being around has guaranteed for me a top tier PPV every 4-5 weeks at minimum, incredible promos, phenomenal wrestling, hyped feuds, and an air of hunger in the talent that strives to put on the best show they can. What else can you ask for? Revolution, Double or Nothing, Dynasty, ALL IN, & Forbidden Door have all been knockout shows. And most Dynamites I enjoy. The storytelling has been great primarily with the Hangman/Mox, Toni/Mariah, and Hangman/Swerve stuff. So as a wrestling fan I'm also grateful that they're around, because its not easy to generate genuine raw emotion & hype when everything has already been done in wrestling, and most AEW fans are always in a state of hype and joy when engaging with the show. Give me more of that. I just want to be entertained. Tony Khan literally gives us what we want almost all the time, and pushes the right guys 90% of the time.

As far as WWE stepping up, they won't change as a result of anything AEW does, not at this point. It's too late now, the streaming deals are already in place. The only reason why they even had the hot streak you speak of is because AEW existed and gifted them Cody and Punk consecutively. Then The Rock returned. But nothing changed at its foundational level. So when Cody finished his story everything once again died and reverted back to 2019 like I knew it would, because outside of Drew/Punk and Cody finishing the story I struggle to find anything else that WWE fans have praised. John Cena's heel turn was probably the biggest failure of the last 20 years.

The revenue that they're raking in is astronomical, but the trade-off to that is and has been creative death, and AEW can't do anything to change that even if they were drawing 10k per show or putting on what wrestling fans think is top tier booking, because the reality is the shareholders are not clamoring for anything to change.

I just had a gripe with the stop start pushes of guys back in 2023/2024 and the disorganization that was post Brawl Out, seems like everything went in shambles and the randomness really started to kick in. This year has been much much more better with the linear booking that was apparent from 2019 - Full Gear 2021. I just need bigger crowds, they can still do the intimate crowds from time to time just to switch it up but the goal should be to get crowds back to that 5k range give or take 1k. I feel like a 4-6k TV crowd along with a consistent 10k PPV crowd would be super ideal for the company and optically look better. Also bring back unique ideas. The Dynamite on the Cruise Ship was awesome, they should do a Dynamite in the middle of Times Square, one on the Beach ala Road Wild, shit like that along with the occasional intimate Dynamite would give it a really cool perception.

 

This man is speaking from the future.

Can I have your time machine?

Lmao good eye, was typing fast as hell at work

 

Very good for the business, but the product has fallen off a cliff from 2019-2021. Hopefully, they can change and start booking Dynamite better at minimum.

 

I think it fell out around Brawl In and didn’t really start to recover until All In 24, do you think the product has made improvements this year compared to last year?

 

If WWE has its way this is the last content deal that AEW will ever have, and that road bump on the way to complete monopolization will be renewed.

And then WWE’s talent costs can be lowered.

 

Bobby Lashley should win the AEW world title.

 

I probably would have completely stopped watching or rarely checking out for NJPW/indies and wwe PLEs here and there if it wasn't for AEW.

Watching Dynamite weekly is a perfect fix for me. If I need more wrestling some weeks I do check out other stuff on yt clips. But watching the show start to finish without skipping anything, Dynamite exclusively for me.

 

Another thing is it introduced me to a whole bunch of wrestlers I never would have checked on my own time especially with a concept like Forbidden Door

 

I'm very thankful they are doing an afternoon PPV again

being able to watch live is my jam!

 

Given the interruptions from kids and a puppy, starting it early in the afternoon would permit my wife and I to finish it by 10pm.

 

Let's face facts, this woman has been one of the few bright spots of not only AEW but wrestling since she was 'born'.

In most other ways I can't escape the feeling AEW simply used to be better and I'm drifting further away. I'm dumbfounded they STILL have not properly coronated Ospreay with the world title after all this time.

I mean how much better was it when they had even this lot for a start

Lucha Bros / Death Triangle
The Acclaimed (they may as well be gone now)
House of Black
Britt Baker

The 'replacements' for wrestlers like these in the likes of Skidmark Mark Barley and other lamewads are severley underwhelming.

 

I like Speedball but you’ve identified AEW’s biggest problem. They have no mechanism to create new stars. In year one they were able to make us care about Darby Allin, Ricky Starks, Sammy Guevara, and others. It feels like they became so used to WWE stars becoming available that they lost the ability to create their own, homogenous characters.

 

After the ESPN incident, my die-hard fed fan friend told me he gave up watching the E. He will try to sneak into AEW.

 

I am grateful that it came to a point where I can't even find myself to care about my boy Darby Allin, so I am now completely free. Low-key hoping the other company will screw up Bron Breakker so I can be completely free when it comes to that one as well 😂

 

To me Bron Breakker is just Scott Norton.

 

Can't unsee it now lmao



Thank you. I feel I am now over Bron Breakker as well and I am free.

 

AEW has better wrestling.

 

Yes, I'm thankful for AEW too, this period we had from 2022 to 2024 was the best period wrestling has had since the TNA apex, in like 2006/10, we will always need competition even if we just stick to the WWE.

 

We should all wake up every morning and thank the universe for Tony Khan existing.

I know I do.

 

Wrestling is better with AEW around.

 

Adam Page looks more like a champion than the cucks WWE is pushing, Tony should take advantage of that and build some momentum with Page being featured as the face of AEW.

 

This is just my opinion but I think for the most part, in the past several years, AEW has done more things right than they do wrong but the negative stuff got fully exaggerated and on blast due to WWE's fanbase desperately wanting to demonize the company because for awhile it's been the competition.

 

Kris Statlander is the new AEW women's champion 🥵

She is better than the cringe dumb bitches WWE has been pushing recently.

Just have be a badass champion that beats the shit out of everyone!