AEW. Not Good. GREAT.
Ok, ok, ok - I got something to say. You ready? It might upset you so brace yourself. Ok, here goes…I really like AEW. Like more than any other wrestling company. Way more. Still there? Hello? Ok.
Here’s the thing. I’ve watched pro wrestling since I was a child. I am no longer a child. In fact, I have been a non-child longer than I was a child. I’m an adult plus. So that means I’ve watched wrestling for a long time. 35 years to be exact…ish. I stopped in 2005 when “Reign of Terror” Raw was basically unwatchable and Divas Search was taking up more time than most of the matches and came back in 2012. It still wasn’t that good but I had reached the threshold of my non-fandom and wanted back in.
I’ve watched a metric fuck ton of pro wrestling. WWE. WWF. WCW. ECW. TNA. ROH. I support indies when I can. I am the dork that still has Peacock and watches the old territory stuff (WHERE IS THE CLASSIC AWA STUFF YOU BASTARDS). I love pro wrestling of all stripes.
I’ve seen many promotions at their peak and many on the brink of creative death.
…And then there’s AEW.
I’ve never in my life seen a more polarized, schizophrenic perception of a wrestling company ever. Yes, I’m a huge AEW fan. Yes, I’ve been baited into stupid arguments with people simply trying to piss me off for engagement. I’m not unbiased in this discussion.
But what started off as a Twitter phenomenon spurred by obvious bad-faith grifters like Jim Cornette has metastasized into a wrestling media shitshow that should be an embarrassment to all who have participated and profited.
British wrestling YouTubers should all quit in shame. Except Simon Miller. He can stay. The rest? Out.
The cottage industry of AEW-hating podcasters ala Eric Bischoff, Bully Ray (who ruined whatever fun I had listening to “Busted Open”) have found a foothold in the toxic wrestling discourse space by making highly questionable but-nontheless-audacious statements about what they believe is AEW’s gloomy outlook.
The company airing on TNT, TBS and MAX. Backed by one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. The company that set the all-time record for tickets sold to a pro wrestling event in 2023. That one. That’s the one they say is falling apart and going to die soon.
It’s obviously untrue so it’s really not worth getting all that worked up about (guys, seriously, you’re gonna end up with heart issues if you let these idiots get you too worked up).
No, what bothers me is this idea that AEW isn’t…good.
That it’s creatively bankrupt. That it’s descended into WCW 2000 territory (hi Eric).
AEW isn’t “good”. It’s great. Fantastic. Dope. Neat. A good time. Sick. AEW is on fire creatively.
They’re telling one of wrestling’s greatest-ever stories with “Timeless” Toni Storm and Mariah May. They’ve built a men’s world title scene that includes Swerve Strickland, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, MJF, Jay White, Adam Copeland, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe…at once. That’s the CURRENT men’s main event scene. All of these wrestlers are healthy and on the weekly television shows.
Mercedes Moné is carrying titles from AEW, Rev Pro, and New Japan Pro-Westling simultaneously. Konosuke Takeshita is wearing titles from AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. AEW and New Japan put on what may end up being the best show of the year with Wrestle Dynasty in January.
They have rising stars like Harley Cameron, who shot to stardom so quickly and so organically that she regularly appears on both “Dynamite” and “Collision” in multiple segments each week. Ricochet left WWE in 2024 to come to AEW and has shown a side of himself wrestling fans had never even seen hinted at before. His descent into madness has been one of AEW’s most compelling developments on their weekly television.
Speaking of descents into madness, Hangman Adam Page has continued to fascinate the AEW audience with a year-plus rivalry with Swerve Strickland. Hangman’s heartbreak at the fans choosing Strickland over him, his rage at Strickland for invading his home and threatening his son, his self-hatred for not being able to protect his family, has transformed him from an “aw shucks” babyface to a rage-fueled arsonist intent on destroying any who get in his way.
The stories are layered. The matches are the highest quality televised wrestling has ever presented (watch Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe from this past week’s Collision for proof). The characters, the video packages, hell, the fucking GRAPHIC DESIGN are incredible.
Yet…there is a cottage industry of haters whose entire identity is molded around their unflinching belief that AEW is a dead product that cannot “recover” and could go out of business at almost any moment.
Why?
Because people want to hear that. People will listen to it. People will read it. People will click on it. Ticket sales are down. Ratings have declined (cable television ratings, lemme know how many people under 40 you know that have cable). Interestingly enough, ratings have declined for nearly everything else on cable too.
It’s important to acknowledge some realities. AEW is not the hot ticket it was 2-3 years ago. It is not the hotbed of wrestling attention that it was. It has leveled off in a tangible way. Cord cutting probably can’t explain the entire decline in viewership. Ticket sales declined steadily enough that AEW has begun booking more intimate venues.
And in their attempt to establish their “expertise”, the wrestling punditocracy (with notable exceptions like Fightful) have poked and prodded at the shows to explain the decline in business.
The end result is a never-ending wave of opinions about AEW that seem to have nothing to do with the show I am watching each week. It’s like watching a show from a different planet when I hear these takes. the inability of so-called “experts” to grasp basic storytelling is beyond me. It’s like they’re watching the show with drunk goggles. These drunkards will then lecture their audience about storytelling and how it works.
Do I want AEW to succeed? Of course. But I’m not going to watch a show I don’t like in order for it to succeed. My time isn’t charity, no matter how much I’ve liked something in the past. If it’s bad, I won’t watch it.
What I’ve concluded is that even the “serious” wrestling media has realized that critical AEW headlines will draw clicks and views. And the potential to monetize that hunger for criticism is too much to pass up.
Which begs the question…if AEW is so unpopular and in a state of persistent decline on a pathway to obsolescence any moment…why are people making so much content to shit on them? Shouldn’t their name be a drag on views? Listens? Clicks? Shouldn’t the mere thought of AEW elicit yawns and boredom?
Isn’t that what uninspired, uninteresting things do?
Instead AEW generates frenzied discussion. There is a very loyal base of AEW fans that love the product and love talking about it. We just don’t love doing it on X or in forums because we’ve largely been trolled out of those spaces. It’s one thing to discuss a difference in opinion, it’s quite another to engage with bad faith trolls who relish the opportunity to ruin someone’s day.
But we’ve found our places. Discord. Threads. Bluesky. I’ve met many people because of AEW, people who love it like I do. People who are just as tired of being bogged down with useless drama and negativity toward a product that we look forward to watching every week.
And believe it or not, I can and do criticize AEW in these spaces and have relatively adult conversations, even with people who disagree with me.
I didn’t know that was allowed on the internet but apparently it is.
At the end of the day, wrestling is an escape. It is not homework. It is not a job duty. It is supposed to be fun.
As someone who once had 4-5 go-to dirt sheet websites that I checked out every day, I can tell you I’ve stopped that. I check one and I do it when something especially notable happens and no other time. And you know what? It’s made wrestling a lot more fun.
Like AEW. Hate AEW. It makes no difference to me. Do you, Babe. But listening to people tie themselves in knots trying to explain why it’s bad and dying is both boring and something I’m unwilling to do anymore.
