AEW not changing the game?

That's interesting! I only think about US ratings, I'm interested to see how Dynamite does in the rest of the world in comparison to other wrestling shows.

I honestly thought 1 mil would be on the table pre-pandemic. I think it's still possible (I think Blood and Guts would get their best number) and honestly WWE isn't doing itself any favors their numbers have plummeted too.

It'll be interesting to see who returns to which shows post-pandemic.

I wanted something like ECW. AEW is obviously not ECW, but it was passing my sniff test. It was giving me more of what I wanted to see than WWE was. And certainly NOT giving me all the poop I don't want to see, like WWE does.

And then they did that Stampede Brawl at All or Nothing 2.......... I had poop all over WWE for those movie produced looking Boneyard and Ladder matches. I want AEW to succeed, but I'm not giving them a pass on that garbage. I can't believe they gave us THAT after promoting themselves the way they have.

That Stampede match was full blown WWE. Vince may as well been in the room while they were booking it. I don't need to see an over-produced and ridiculously edited skit that they were passing off as a match. Just have a match. If I want to watch a drawn out comedy skit I don't want it to come from a wrestling program.

Some of AEW I like and some I don't. When its good its really good and when its bad its really bad.

They really should dedicate just one segment to comedy (if that). Having your number one contender match for your world title featuring Orange Cassidy who was "too lazy" to try to win is just ridiculous. The Stampede Brawl was just silly comedy just like the MITB was that WWE just had.

Also they need to feature a recurring cast of characters. MJF should be on every weekly TV show either wrestling or cutting a promo. Obviously the pandemic made that difficult but that's been a problem since before it began.


AEW does a lot well. Cody has been gold, MJF has been gold and they have a good number of guys who will be future stars.

Yes. Yes. & Yes. I want ROH mid-2000s matches between AEW people, let some of these huge personalities shine (Cody, MJF, Darby, Sammy, Ortiz/Santa, Jungleboy) and give us good wrestling. If you want comedy, stick it in one meaningless spot, not the main event, regardless whether a championship is on the line or not.

I really wish after the show was "written" or "laid out" they'd have Arn, Dean & Jr sit down, those 3, and take out the WWE shit, and leave us with awesome actions and GOOD storylines.

I've been liking AEW a lot but the issues I've found are these

Records - They just make no sense you're right how is Brodie Lee next in line when he's 5-0 against jobbers and also the wins and losses do nothing for me, some of my favorite guys don't have good records and I'd much rather see Moxley vs Guevara then Lee.

Too scared to put titles on themselves or in top storylines - I know they're waiting but when these PPV's are £50 in USA you need something like Moxley vs Omega or Moxley vs Cody not Moxley vs Lee.

Marko Stunt - Now I don't have an issue with Marko Stunt other than they keep making him interfere for Luchasauras in these matches, like the ladder match it just becomes pointless when there's no need. Would've been better if there was a ref spot and he interfered in the MJF match.

Personally I wasn't a big fan of Double or Nothing, I mean it wasn't terrible but this is why PPV's can't be $50 in America. I also feel like it's a bit like my figure fed where I get a new figure and I push him to the title then after 6 months he's a jobber because 5 more have come along, I'm not sure what's going to happen with Lee now Cage has arrived, maybe Cody?

I think they've largely delivered on my expectations and the initial hype of the product. We're literally a year into the product's existence and 7 months into Dynamite, 3 of which were heavily impacted by COVID. But in terms of longterm story telling, consistent and coherent booking, and building and elevating talent, they have far exceeded my expectations. To me a sport-based presentation has more to do with just in ring product. They've done a good job of building serious, realistic characters that don't talk like scripted cartoon caricatures. And integrating more variety to finishes, so that not every match ends with finishers.

It's not a perfect product. I'm never going to love spamming finishers and false finishes. I can't take Marko Stunt seriously in any way, shape, or form. If he's on the screen, it's a bathroom break or channel change for me. Sometimes the comedy is a little too heavy handed for my taste. I continue to have issues with the depth and presentation of the women's division, despite some progress recently. But, for lack of a better description, it's an easy watch each and every week. Two hours flies by, and the PPV's have delivered across the card. I can't say that with any other current wrestling product. More often than not I end up turning WWE PPV's off in anger, and the weekly tv is unbearably redundant. I love Impact, but constantly find myself skipping at least 1/3 of the content. ROH, MLW, and NJPW are "watch hyped matches" products for me. AEW is the first time wrestling has been appointment viewing for me in 20 years, and while I don't agree with every single thing they've done, I don't expect to either. Wrestling always has been and always will be a variety show.

I don't know why everybody gets so fixated on ratings. Maybe it's conditioning from Monday Night Wars documentaries. I think the product has exceeded all (realistic) expectations given the current media environment. It's not about "beating" WWE. They're running a business, and the goal is to produce a profit. The fact that they've been able to do that less than a year in starting from scratch is incredibly impressive. There are definitely valid points about growing their audience and what the realistic ceiling is for AEW or any other wrestling show in today's culture. But I think you'd need to cherry pick facts to make an argument that they haven't been an incredibly successful business a year in. That doesn't mean everybody has to like or love the product. You can't please everybody. But it definitely seems like what they've been doing has struck a chord with a pretty sizable audience.

this thread is brutal and should’ve just been kept locked. it would be nice if as AEW mod you could deal with those who come on the AEW section just to crap on the product and do so repeatedly instead of letting it develop into full blown arguments. there’s 4-5 of them, they add nothing, and it leads to threads like this.

Ignore them. It's pretty easy.