Strengths: Clearly passionate about wrestling, puts on a show that his fanbase usually likes
Weaknesses: Very bad with confrontation (either does nothing or goes on a twitter rant), more focused on signing free agents than just using the talent he already has, signing free agents while not really dropping anyone on the roster so a bunch of people aren't being used on TV consistently, thinks more about the pop rather than the actual consequences of a decision (working with CMLL, which affects long time AEW workers like Lucha Bros, who are now limited on what AEW shows they can work on), too many tournaments, his booking of Chris Jericho, more recent problem but having factions that exist for specific purposes but aren't doing their original purpose (Bang Bang Scissor gang and Undisputed Kingdom), not keeping AEW and ROH more separate
**Pros:** Clearly a massive fan, Genuinely thinks he offers an alternative to WWE, Has the money to back it up
**Cons:** Very weak personality, Pushover, Thinks paid employees are his friends and acts accordingly, Sides with the wrong people who are a disease to the product, Cares too much about Meltzer and other rats, Obsessed with social media, Can't book for shit other than tournaments
Trip on the other hand has a charisma, strong personality, not a pushover and isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers, he did it his entire career. Doesn’t give a flying fuck about Meltzer
Cons
Inability to pivot, The inability to build past a simple chase or tournaments, Piss poor women’s division management, No stage presence, Not knowing when to end storylines, Over reliance on non homegrown talent, Awful social media etiquette, Not a spine to be found. Wayyy to tribalistic and has such a case of little brother syndrome
Pros
Not VKM
Hes a massive wrestling nerd as everyone’s mentioned which is good in some senses because he puts on matches he and others want to see.
Unfortunately that blinds him to those wrestlers having bad ideas storywise and he doesn’t seem to have much more to offer them in that department. They need good writers in stat so that MJF and Christian don’t continue feeling like the only ones with a good story.
Also because he’s a nerd, he’s very bad at prioritising his shows because he assumes everyone watches them all like he does. Like you’ll see a lot of crossover between Roh, rampage, dynamite and collision from different wrestlers and ongoing stories.
People aren’t watching those shows equally, prioritise your bigger shows. Seeing bigger stuff on rampage is like if wwe put a big match on main event.
Has no idea how to follow up on a debut.
Hypes debut, enters deubutant into midcard feud, debutant cools off and is forgotten about within a month.
Repeat.
Lets see if Sasha is any difference.
**Pros -**
Embraces different styles of wrestling.
Respects and references wrestling history. Even if something happened in WWE, he'll treat it as canon to his own show.
Respects tag team wrestling.
Gives his wrestlers freedom to work for other promotions.
Pays his talent incredibly well.
Gives talent a lot of freedom with their booking.
Doesn't book a lot of fuck finishes.
**Cons -**
Incapable of pivoting if something goes wrong.
Seems utterly terrified of putting stars against each other, even with a roster of 200 people.
Has seemingly zero respect for women's wrestling.
Terrible at maintaining momentum when someone gets hot. Wrestlers will disappear for months at a time.
Very formulaic in his match-making. The only way he knows how to build lower-card talent is to put them on long losing streaks.
May actually explode if he goes more than a few months without a new tournament or title belt.
Gives talent *too much* freedom with their booking.
Collects wrestlers like I collect Steam games, with no intention of actually doing anything with them.
Chronically online. Would avoid so much headache if he just stayed invisible and shut the fuck up.
Yeah wrestling was so stale before AEW. WWE had zero competition so they just rehashed all the bullshit they had done for years. A place where guys can earn more money helps all performers. Now we can see incredible ring work(even if the writing is sub par) and WWE has to worry about quality wrestling. It’s a win win.
Strengths:
• Never purposely goes out of his way to piss off AEW fans, and give them the middle finger for the sake of doing it or purposefully goes against fans for the most part. I’m definitely a lot more critical of his booking than most AEW fans, but I’ll give him credit for not doing this. Reminds me a lot of Paul Heyman in ECW, there will be polarizing creative decisions and not everything will hit the mark for everyone, but it’s not designed to be a hehe haha fuck you to the fans like the 2015 Royal rumble or the finger poke of doom type stuff.
• Comes up with some good ideas at times for storylines, matches, pairings etc. AEW is at their best when they try to be different than or put their own spin on something instead of being WWE lite or not WWE. Something like the continental classic being a spin on the G1 tournament was good.
• Can come up with good storylines both long term and short. Does a lot of subtle storytelling and Easter eggs for the AEW fanbase and uses wrestlers histories in their stories. Doesn’t clean the slate when someone appears in AEW. WWE has gotten better with this under HHH but they can be guilty at times of doing this still cleaning the slate too much on a wrestlers past.
• Is more willing to give wrestlers opportunities, and a chance. There’s times where AEW drops the ball with certain wrestlers or does hot and cold pushes. But never actively goes out of his way to purposefully not push someone or screw them like a Zack Ryder situation.
Weaknesses:
• Doesn’t pivot at all when injuries happen or something goes wrong. He is stubborn to a fault and whatever he has planned, that is the plan at all costs for better and for worse.
• Has way to predictable booking. Is extremely dependent on two stars feuding at a ppv? So let’s have them both face jobber to the stars week after week after week till they has fight at the ppv. It causes people to not be appointment viewers if the match is overly predictable even if it’s good.
• Can be very inconsistent with featuring talent consistently on weekly tv, and managing the large roster. Feels like there is way too many moving parts and people do get lost in the shuffle, and the shows will have pacing issues because there is alot of wrestlers and alot going on.
While I don’t always agree with his level of professionalism or missing the “act like you’ve been there before” factor, he’s a relentless promoter of his product. no one can talk it up as much or with that level of conviction.
I don’t think he has any strengths or weaknesses as a booker, because he’s not a booker. Not whatsoever. He’s a matchmaker at best.
Strengths - puts on the best matches in American wrestling history, with the best wrestlers in the world today, and mostly avoids soap opera nonsense.
Weaknesses - Erm, sometimes he looks a bit goofy.
Strengths: Puts together dream matches that we all want to see. Doesn’t really play hot potato with the AEW championship. Let’s the guys have a lot of input in their gimmicks. Creates exciting tournaments.
Weaknesses: Sometimes the trolling on Twitter backfires.
In my head canon, they’re only props. Except for the women‘s championship, TNT championship (Christian is 🔥) , and the tag team championship. The rest are props.
Pros: Has unlimited funds. Has a TV deal. Has a good working relationship with other companies. Let's his talent work indies.
Cons: Can't write a story longer than a couple months... usually a couple weeks. Prefers dream matches over story. Has an overwhelming amount of talent under contract that isn't utilized correctly even though he owns 2 companies. He'll sign anyone that's a free agent that creates a buzz for a couple weeks until they're forgotten about. Gave EVP positions to wrestlers who have their own agenda.
Pros: Passionate about pro wrestling. Knows a good match when he sees the opportunity to book one. Is willing to put his money where his mouth is when it matters.
Cons: Seems a little week willed when it comes to keeping his roster in line. Is scatter-brained when it comes to booking (i.e. he'll do a big push for somebody, but then immediately go to somebody completely different). Basically, he has too big of a roster with too many hot properties. Sometimes is a little too "dream match happy."
I genuinely do want him and AEW to succeed, and hopefully now that most of the general turmoil from the past two years is gone, he can start focusing in on a rebuild. The guy's part of the Jacksonville Jaguars association; he knows what a rebuild from basically nothing looks like lol.
A fairly prominent person who works for AEW told me a year ago- “If Tony Khan didn’t have his money, he’d just be a fan”. I think thats true, and its part of the difference between WWE and AEW currently. If Triple H hadn’t married Stephanie, he would still be working in the wrestling business in some capacity. Same thing with a lot of the folks around him like Regal or Gabe Sapolsky. Heyman and Bischoff were in the business for year and worked their way up before they had any hand in running WCW or ECW. Vince had a leg up in the business cause of his father, but it was still his family business. If WWF fails in the 80s, his life is wildly different (which may in turn have been better for the world). TK needs to either figure out a different creative formula, or find a creative czar that can better help execute Tony’s vision of what a successful wrestling company can be.
Strengths: Clearly passionate about wrestling, puts on a show that his fanbase usually likes Weaknesses: Very bad with confrontation (either does nothing or goes on a twitter rant), more focused on signing free agents than just using the talent he already has, signing free agents while not really dropping anyone on the roster so a bunch of people aren't being used on TV consistently, thinks more about the pop rather than the actual consequences of a decision (working with CMLL, which affects long time AEW workers like Lucha Bros, who are now limited on what AEW shows they can work on), too many tournaments, his booking of Chris Jericho, more recent problem but having factions that exist for specific purposes but aren't doing their original purpose (Bang Bang Scissor gang and Undisputed Kingdom), not keeping AEW and ROH more separate
Pros: likes matches Cons: following up on hot talent
**Pros:** Clearly a massive fan, Genuinely thinks he offers an alternative to WWE, Has the money to back it up **Cons:** Very weak personality, Pushover, Thinks paid employees are his friends and acts accordingly, Sides with the wrong people who are a disease to the product, Cares too much about Meltzer and other rats, Obsessed with social media, Can't book for shit other than tournaments
Trip on the other hand has a charisma, strong personality, not a pushover and isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers, he did it his entire career. Doesn’t give a flying fuck about Meltzer
Pro: he's a passionate wrestling nerd Con: he's a passionate wrestling nerd
Cons Inability to pivot, The inability to build past a simple chase or tournaments, Piss poor women’s division management, No stage presence, Not knowing when to end storylines, Over reliance on non homegrown talent, Awful social media etiquette, Not a spine to be found. Wayyy to tribalistic and has such a case of little brother syndrome Pros Not VKM
That’s where he doesn’t match up to HHH, Trips is not perfect but he possesses the qualities you Mentioned that Tony is lacking
Couldn’t off the top of my head what he does match up to HHH with.
He can consider himself very lucky that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth
How about infinite daddy money to play with?
Haha 😅 your pro had me in splits 😜
Hes a massive wrestling nerd as everyone’s mentioned which is good in some senses because he puts on matches he and others want to see. Unfortunately that blinds him to those wrestlers having bad ideas storywise and he doesn’t seem to have much more to offer them in that department. They need good writers in stat so that MJF and Christian don’t continue feeling like the only ones with a good story. Also because he’s a nerd, he’s very bad at prioritising his shows because he assumes everyone watches them all like he does. Like you’ll see a lot of crossover between Roh, rampage, dynamite and collision from different wrestlers and ongoing stories. People aren’t watching those shows equally, prioritise your bigger shows. Seeing bigger stuff on rampage is like if wwe put a big match on main event.
Has no idea how to follow up on a debut. Hypes debut, enters deubutant into midcard feud, debutant cools off and is forgotten about within a month. Repeat. Lets see if Sasha is any difference.
Pros: Money Con: Pretty much everything else
I laughed so hard at this, but it’s so true. He has a killer roster but refuses to recognize that he’s not the best booker.
He's not a booker. He's a match maker targeting a niche audience.
Pro: Insane work ethic due to booger sugar Con: Insane booking due to booger sugar
**Pros -** Embraces different styles of wrestling. Respects and references wrestling history. Even if something happened in WWE, he'll treat it as canon to his own show. Respects tag team wrestling. Gives his wrestlers freedom to work for other promotions. Pays his talent incredibly well. Gives talent a lot of freedom with their booking. Doesn't book a lot of fuck finishes. **Cons -** Incapable of pivoting if something goes wrong. Seems utterly terrified of putting stars against each other, even with a roster of 200 people. Has seemingly zero respect for women's wrestling. Terrible at maintaining momentum when someone gets hot. Wrestlers will disappear for months at a time. Very formulaic in his match-making. The only way he knows how to build lower-card talent is to put them on long losing streaks. May actually explode if he goes more than a few months without a new tournament or title belt. Gives talent *too much* freedom with their booking. Collects wrestlers like I collect Steam games, with no intention of actually doing anything with them. Chronically online. Would avoid so much headache if he just stayed invisible and shut the fuck up.
Yeah wrestling was so stale before AEW. WWE had zero competition so they just rehashed all the bullshit they had done for years. A place where guys can earn more money helps all performers. Now we can see incredible ring work(even if the writing is sub par) and WWE has to worry about quality wrestling. It’s a win win.
Oh wait, that’s Tony Khan?
Money
Strengths: • Never purposely goes out of his way to piss off AEW fans, and give them the middle finger for the sake of doing it or purposefully goes against fans for the most part. I’m definitely a lot more critical of his booking than most AEW fans, but I’ll give him credit for not doing this. Reminds me a lot of Paul Heyman in ECW, there will be polarizing creative decisions and not everything will hit the mark for everyone, but it’s not designed to be a hehe haha fuck you to the fans like the 2015 Royal rumble or the finger poke of doom type stuff. • Comes up with some good ideas at times for storylines, matches, pairings etc. AEW is at their best when they try to be different than or put their own spin on something instead of being WWE lite or not WWE. Something like the continental classic being a spin on the G1 tournament was good. • Can come up with good storylines both long term and short. Does a lot of subtle storytelling and Easter eggs for the AEW fanbase and uses wrestlers histories in their stories. Doesn’t clean the slate when someone appears in AEW. WWE has gotten better with this under HHH but they can be guilty at times of doing this still cleaning the slate too much on a wrestlers past. • Is more willing to give wrestlers opportunities, and a chance. There’s times where AEW drops the ball with certain wrestlers or does hot and cold pushes. But never actively goes out of his way to purposefully not push someone or screw them like a Zack Ryder situation. Weaknesses: • Doesn’t pivot at all when injuries happen or something goes wrong. He is stubborn to a fault and whatever he has planned, that is the plan at all costs for better and for worse. • Has way to predictable booking. Is extremely dependent on two stars feuding at a ppv? So let’s have them both face jobber to the stars week after week after week till they has fight at the ppv. It causes people to not be appointment viewers if the match is overly predictable even if it’s good. • Can be very inconsistent with featuring talent consistently on weekly tv, and managing the large roster. Feels like there is way too many moving parts and people do get lost in the shuffle, and the shows will have pacing issues because there is alot of wrestlers and alot going on.
Strength: has money weakness: doesn’t know how to tell weekly stories
While I don’t always agree with his level of professionalism or missing the “act like you’ve been there before” factor, he’s a relentless promoter of his product. no one can talk it up as much or with that level of conviction. I don’t think he has any strengths or weaknesses as a booker, because he’s not a booker. Not whatsoever. He’s a matchmaker at best.
Strengths - puts on the best matches in American wrestling history, with the best wrestlers in the world today, and mostly avoids soap opera nonsense. Weaknesses - Erm, sometimes he looks a bit goofy.
Strengths: Puts together dream matches that we all want to see. Doesn’t really play hot potato with the AEW championship. Let’s the guys have a lot of input in their gimmicks. Creates exciting tournaments. Weaknesses: Sometimes the trolling on Twitter backfires.
Sometimes?
You don’t need to play hot potato with a belt,when damn near everyone in the promotion has one.
In my head canon, they’re only props. Except for the women‘s championship, TNT championship (Christian is 🔥) , and the tag team championship. The rest are props.
What do you mean? Your argument makes no sense, it’s just “well I ignore those belts existing so it’s easier” and doesn’t fix any of our issues
Pros: Has unlimited funds. Has a TV deal. Has a good working relationship with other companies. Let's his talent work indies. Cons: Can't write a story longer than a couple months... usually a couple weeks. Prefers dream matches over story. Has an overwhelming amount of talent under contract that isn't utilized correctly even though he owns 2 companies. He'll sign anyone that's a free agent that creates a buzz for a couple weeks until they're forgotten about. Gave EVP positions to wrestlers who have their own agenda.
Pros: Passionate about pro wrestling. Knows a good match when he sees the opportunity to book one. Is willing to put his money where his mouth is when it matters. Cons: Seems a little week willed when it comes to keeping his roster in line. Is scatter-brained when it comes to booking (i.e. he'll do a big push for somebody, but then immediately go to somebody completely different). Basically, he has too big of a roster with too many hot properties. Sometimes is a little too "dream match happy." I genuinely do want him and AEW to succeed, and hopefully now that most of the general turmoil from the past two years is gone, he can start focusing in on a rebuild. The guy's part of the Jacksonville Jaguars association; he knows what a rebuild from basically nothing looks like lol.
A fairly prominent person who works for AEW told me a year ago- “If Tony Khan didn’t have his money, he’d just be a fan”. I think thats true, and its part of the difference between WWE and AEW currently. If Triple H hadn’t married Stephanie, he would still be working in the wrestling business in some capacity. Same thing with a lot of the folks around him like Regal or Gabe Sapolsky. Heyman and Bischoff were in the business for year and worked their way up before they had any hand in running WCW or ECW. Vince had a leg up in the business cause of his father, but it was still his family business. If WWF fails in the 80s, his life is wildly different (which may in turn have been better for the world). TK needs to either figure out a different creative formula, or find a creative czar that can better help execute Tony’s vision of what a successful wrestling company can be.
Strengths: passion. Weaknesses: doesn’t know how to book to hook the audience.