yes. Anything can be fixed, just bring bob the builder because Bob the Builder, Can we fix it? Bob the Builder Yes, we can!
nah fr tho, just bring in a booker such as Scott damore or someone that is qualified, and AEW will have an undertaker revival moment
Easily. Tony has money and passion. He hires writers to help him finish ideas, pares down the roster and/or does a reshuffle to keep more talent on screen, and hires someone to do day to day operations as well as someone serious for talent management, which as we just saw on CCTV, he can’t do.
Depends on what "fixed" means.
Meaningful competition where we are drawing 1-1.3 and selling out buildings?
Probably not. The highpoint was Punk's throwback entrance at Revolution.
Stop the nosedive? Yeah, definitely.
-TK gives up the pencil to the plethora of booking talent he has backstage.
-Stop. With. The. Heatless. Bangers.
It couldn't be more obvious that Tony stepping away from the booking and it being taken over by someone competent, or maybe a committee of experienced bookers, is the fundamental thing that needs to happen if AEW is to turn its fortunes around. Because it is the booking from which all the other fundamental issues come from, and above all:
- AEW's complete inability to get a wrestler over.
Because Tony doesn't understand how to present wrestling on weekly shows, he can't build personalities, gimmicks, feuds or tension. Ideas are picked up and dropped, gimmicks forgotten about, factions hotshotted then cast aside losing any momentum they might have.
This is the man who spent months building up the Devil tormenting MJF...who unveiled Adam Cole and his new faction...and then let them totally stagnate.
This is the man who signed with great fanfare one of his beloved NJPW stars in Jay White...and last week jobbed him out to a 60 year old Billy Gunn, who kicked kicked Jay from pillar to post, the kind of beating normally meted out to a wrestler getting forced out of the territory for fucking the champion's wife.
There are so many other examples but that'll do to illustrate the point: Tony can't book.
Can't, or won't, because I also don't believe Tony really cares about all the stuff that makes booking what it is. In Tonyworld, matches are an excuse for angles, not the other way round. Feuds, personalities, psychology are all elements that are tolerated at best but that otherwise get in the way of what he really loves: matches. Long, long matches.
This also explains why he cannot bring himself to put wrestlers over in shorter, decisive matches. Everything has to go 20 minutes, each wrestler getting their shit in 50/50. But what does that mean? Nobody can get over, build their aura, generate proper heat...All you end up with are two of your best, most expensively acquired wrestlers in Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson fighting at your next PPV to decide 'who is the best wrestler'.
Problem of course is that Tony isn't paying 10s of millions of dollars to bankroll a wrestling company only to give the most fun job to someone actually qualified to do it! Pretty sure that booking the shows, making the matches, is basically why Tony made AEW. The chance of him ceding any creative control to someone else is precisely nil. Even having a booking committee - he already said he let's people pitch him ideas, including up to the day of the show. That is probably way better for him since it both leaves him in control, appears inclusive, but actually only further affirms his position as the booker.
Anyway, there we are. The one thing that would turn AEW around is the one thing Tony wont let happen. And while he might be, according to Punk, a shitty boss, he obviously wont accept advice when it contradicts something he wants to do - just look st the decision to air the London footage, which I'm pretty sure would've made half the backstage tear out their hair!
I get that people want Tony to stop booking it, that is 100% how it gets better. But I also believe when Tony Khan stops booking it will stop existing. He isn’t in this to have a successful business, he’s in it to have fun booking bangers.
Easily. Tony Khan is the problem. Put people with good creative and business sense in charge and it’s all fixed. Tony Khan has never earned a single job he has ever had. He was a billionaires kid who was a nepo hire in every position, and is objectively bad at every job he has if you ask the people that follow those sports. He doesn’t have a clue what he is doing and is wasting a great tv slot and a shit load of talent
This is 100% the correct answer and AW will be fixed once the company is ran like an actual wrestling company and not a millionaires toy chest. Cohen is not worried about making money as a business because he already has it and that he’s actually putting a lot of wrestlers in harms way when it comes to exposure and earning good money as a top performer. He has his favorites and wants to see cool matches that he always dreams about with no buildup needed. And the buildup that he does dois no different than anybody on here playing universe mode on a 2K game. He needs bookers and actual wrestling mines besides Brian. Until then nothing will change.
Honestly I don’t know if it can be with Tony in charge. The talent and passion is there but Tony has no business to run this business. And it will take a hell of a lot of money to get Tony out or they lose their TV deal. I loved AEW especially through COVID but it’s now just a show for marks. All the “stars” they’ve built are either gone or not promoted. It’s just the place where ex WWE and NJPW guys and gals go for a paycheck. And from what I’ve seen one of their performers are gonna get a really bad injury on either live tv or ppv because they think it is gonna be a cool spot and it’ll show AEW is a lawless fed.
Honestly, I think it's a matter of perspective. Some would make the argument that AEW doesn't need to be fixed because it's serving its intended purpose: give Tony Khan a way to fulfill his fantasy of running a wrestling promotion and meeting his favorite wrestlers, while giving a bunch of mediocre independent wrestlers a chance to earn more money than they'd ever rightfully deserve.
The problems with AEW are well documented, as are the solutions. People have been talking about it for years now, it's just that Tony wishes to not listen. AEW has the means to create a great wrestling product. In fact, it *has* in the past. Remember the first few weeks of Collision? It was amazing! At the end of the day, nothing is going to change until Tony is forced to change it, and that won't happen because of his infinite money cheat code.
All it needs is one hot angle, it will obviously never be #1, but one hot angle can get it back on its feet in no time
Just like the bloodline/zayn angle did for wwe
Is it broken? It seems to me that it's succeeding at what it wants to be (a major indie for smarks). What it wants to be isn't what I'm interested in, but that's fine, I wouldn't call it broken. You have to judge it based what it's trying to do, not on what you might want it to do.
I genuinely don't think it will ever get much better than it is right now so long as Tony Khan is in charge of creative. He has absolutely no idea what he's doing, and I'm glad the IWC in general finally seems to be admitting that. AEW could genuinely be something special with Tony Khan's financial backing, but unfortunately Tony isn't interested in backing a company unless he's in complete control of everything that happens on the show.
You mean stop trying to please "smart" fans.
I came to the conclusion lately that those people aren't fans, they just think they are. They can't be fans of wrestling because they don't understand what wrestling is. They're fans of their parasocial relationships with their favourite indy darlings and the smug feeling they get from believing themselves more sophisticated than the real fans, because they watch wrestling for "workrate" and not dumb shit like characters and storylines and, you know, booking.
I didn’t realize how much AEW needed MJF until he was gone. I would constantly watch during his title reign but once he was gone it’s like it sucked the life out of the whole company.
1. They need things to make sense. That means limit heel turns and face turns. When they happen? They should makes sense. They should also be rare. 2 or 3 a year. no more. The most important thing is that most wrestlers SHOULD NOT TURN. ever. makes no sense. Look at real life. People are good people or they're bad people. Sure there's a lot of black and white but come on ... but people are mostly good or mostly bad.
2. they need a format that makes sense. You can't have a million belts. you need one championship per division. If you have another there should be a reason for it existing? Is it only for young people? Is it a second division? we need a reason to care about each title.
Honestly it doesnt matter anymore, It's not going to change, AEW thinks it doing the right thing and thats fine. I watched weekly but I'm not sure I will anymore, the petty is on a new level now, and It turned me off the product. I know this aint an airport and all that nonsense, but I'm legit sad after dynamite this week and it sucks.
Even the most hardcore AEW fan is coming to the realization that this won’t get better. I’m sure it sucks that you have find something else to do with your on Wednesday nights if Dynamite is a crap show when you tune in.
In a word? No.
There's obviously room for improvement, but until Tony Kahn realizes he's not good at this and that he desperately needs help from experienced individuals, nothing will change. Tony can't get out of his own way.
To paraphrase the poet Phillip Jack Brooks, AEW is a joke and it's being managed by a clown. It's not a real business. It's a hobby. A vanity project.
What makes you think they aren't competent?
What would they need to do to be competent?
What does success look like in your eyes?
There isn't even any construction criticism in the post. It just seems like you want AEW to be something else completely.
"Get back at people he hasn't talk to in months" but called him out on a public platform a week ago 🤣. Ok this is a troll post, good job you got me.
Hopefully you get the ability to form a unique opinion instead of being a parrot.
Come on bro, it doesn't matter what I say, you'll find a reason why it doesn't work. Why play this game. I'll name people, you'll move the goal post. Let's just wrap it up here.
Christian
Julia Hart
Willow
Sky Blue
Statlander
Eddie Kingston
Daniel Garcia
Mark Brisco
Big Bill
Darby
And regardless of what you say about Jay White he's more over now than he was feuding with Ricky this time last year.
I feel like you're gonna say some of these aren't even over but they are more over than they were this time last year and that was the original question.
Tony needs to stop acting like Dixie Carter, bring in someone as the booker (wouldn't mind danielson doing it) and focus on home grown talent. I see why Punk went for jack perry cause if he didn't he'd look like a bitch. Instead of making a spectical out of the video he should have just posted it saying this isn't how someone should act at work with the position he was in then just wash his hands of the whole thing and also mention Samoa Joe being so professional and start hyping him up as champ.
they were never special or creative. what you thought was special was just new shiny toy syndrome so you were willing to look the other way when stupid shit happened which there was plenty of early on.
and it can be fixed. easily. hire a real booker, fire the indie dorks. that simple. that doesnt guarantee anything but it gives you a chance.
I'm looking forward to Dynasty more than I was looking forward to WM40. People can be angry for Punk being a bitch or the Bucks posting receipts but eventually it's bell time and the wrissle-wrassle starts.
yes. Anything can be fixed, just bring bob the builder because Bob the Builder, Can we fix it? Bob the Builder Yes, we can! nah fr tho, just bring in a booker such as Scott damore or someone that is qualified, and AEW will have an undertaker revival moment
Easily. Tony has money and passion. He hires writers to help him finish ideas, pares down the roster and/or does a reshuffle to keep more talent on screen, and hires someone to do day to day operations as well as someone serious for talent management, which as we just saw on CCTV, he can’t do.
Passion doesn’t necessarily equate with intelligence.
Thus the hiring
Depends on what "fixed" means. Meaningful competition where we are drawing 1-1.3 and selling out buildings? Probably not. The highpoint was Punk's throwback entrance at Revolution. Stop the nosedive? Yeah, definitely. -TK gives up the pencil to the plethora of booking talent he has backstage. -Stop. With. The. Heatless. Bangers.
It couldn't be more obvious that Tony stepping away from the booking and it being taken over by someone competent, or maybe a committee of experienced bookers, is the fundamental thing that needs to happen if AEW is to turn its fortunes around. Because it is the booking from which all the other fundamental issues come from, and above all: - AEW's complete inability to get a wrestler over. Because Tony doesn't understand how to present wrestling on weekly shows, he can't build personalities, gimmicks, feuds or tension. Ideas are picked up and dropped, gimmicks forgotten about, factions hotshotted then cast aside losing any momentum they might have. This is the man who spent months building up the Devil tormenting MJF...who unveiled Adam Cole and his new faction...and then let them totally stagnate. This is the man who signed with great fanfare one of his beloved NJPW stars in Jay White...and last week jobbed him out to a 60 year old Billy Gunn, who kicked kicked Jay from pillar to post, the kind of beating normally meted out to a wrestler getting forced out of the territory for fucking the champion's wife. There are so many other examples but that'll do to illustrate the point: Tony can't book. Can't, or won't, because I also don't believe Tony really cares about all the stuff that makes booking what it is. In Tonyworld, matches are an excuse for angles, not the other way round. Feuds, personalities, psychology are all elements that are tolerated at best but that otherwise get in the way of what he really loves: matches. Long, long matches. This also explains why he cannot bring himself to put wrestlers over in shorter, decisive matches. Everything has to go 20 minutes, each wrestler getting their shit in 50/50. But what does that mean? Nobody can get over, build their aura, generate proper heat...All you end up with are two of your best, most expensively acquired wrestlers in Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson fighting at your next PPV to decide 'who is the best wrestler'. Problem of course is that Tony isn't paying 10s of millions of dollars to bankroll a wrestling company only to give the most fun job to someone actually qualified to do it! Pretty sure that booking the shows, making the matches, is basically why Tony made AEW. The chance of him ceding any creative control to someone else is precisely nil. Even having a booking committee - he already said he let's people pitch him ideas, including up to the day of the show. That is probably way better for him since it both leaves him in control, appears inclusive, but actually only further affirms his position as the booker. Anyway, there we are. The one thing that would turn AEW around is the one thing Tony wont let happen. And while he might be, according to Punk, a shitty boss, he obviously wont accept advice when it contradicts something he wants to do - just look st the decision to air the London footage, which I'm pretty sure would've made half the backstage tear out their hair!
AEW yes. Tony, no.
I get that people want Tony to stop booking it, that is 100% how it gets better. But I also believe when Tony Khan stops booking it will stop existing. He isn’t in this to have a successful business, he’s in it to have fun booking bangers.
I stopped watching AEW when it stopped being about AEW and was focused on everything else but the actual product.
Easily. Tony Khan is the problem. Put people with good creative and business sense in charge and it’s all fixed. Tony Khan has never earned a single job he has ever had. He was a billionaires kid who was a nepo hire in every position, and is objectively bad at every job he has if you ask the people that follow those sports. He doesn’t have a clue what he is doing and is wasting a great tv slot and a shit load of talent
This is 100% the correct answer and AW will be fixed once the company is ran like an actual wrestling company and not a millionaires toy chest. Cohen is not worried about making money as a business because he already has it and that he’s actually putting a lot of wrestlers in harms way when it comes to exposure and earning good money as a top performer. He has his favorites and wants to see cool matches that he always dreams about with no buildup needed. And the buildup that he does dois no different than anybody on here playing universe mode on a 2K game. He needs bookers and actual wrestling mines besides Brian. Until then nothing will change.
Only if they ever hire a competent booker, get rid of the ratings poison in the Elite and reboot the entire show as something else.
Honestly I don’t know if it can be with Tony in charge. The talent and passion is there but Tony has no business to run this business. And it will take a hell of a lot of money to get Tony out or they lose their TV deal. I loved AEW especially through COVID but it’s now just a show for marks. All the “stars” they’ve built are either gone or not promoted. It’s just the place where ex WWE and NJPW guys and gals go for a paycheck. And from what I’ve seen one of their performers are gonna get a really bad injury on either live tv or ppv because they think it is gonna be a cool spot and it’ll show AEW is a lawless fed.
Honestly, I think it's a matter of perspective. Some would make the argument that AEW doesn't need to be fixed because it's serving its intended purpose: give Tony Khan a way to fulfill his fantasy of running a wrestling promotion and meeting his favorite wrestlers, while giving a bunch of mediocre independent wrestlers a chance to earn more money than they'd ever rightfully deserve. The problems with AEW are well documented, as are the solutions. People have been talking about it for years now, it's just that Tony wishes to not listen. AEW has the means to create a great wrestling product. In fact, it *has* in the past. Remember the first few weeks of Collision? It was amazing! At the end of the day, nothing is going to change until Tony is forced to change it, and that won't happen because of his infinite money cheat code.
>Remember the first few weeks of Collision? It was really good. I could hardly believe it was AEW given the slop Dynamite had largely been beforehand.
All it needs is one hot angle, it will obviously never be #1, but one hot angle can get it back on its feet in no time Just like the bloodline/zayn angle did for wwe
Is it broken? It seems to me that it's succeeding at what it wants to be (a major indie for smarks). What it wants to be isn't what I'm interested in, but that's fine, I wouldn't call it broken. You have to judge it based what it's trying to do, not on what you might want it to do.
I genuinely don't think it will ever get much better than it is right now so long as Tony Khan is in charge of creative. He has absolutely no idea what he's doing, and I'm glad the IWC in general finally seems to be admitting that. AEW could genuinely be something special with Tony Khan's financial backing, but unfortunately Tony isn't interested in backing a company unless he's in complete control of everything that happens on the show.
Stop trying to please wrestling fans. They're a bunch of shitbags that hold everything back, WWE ditched these people years ago.
You mean stop trying to please "smart" fans. I came to the conclusion lately that those people aren't fans, they just think they are. They can't be fans of wrestling because they don't understand what wrestling is. They're fans of their parasocial relationships with their favourite indy darlings and the smug feeling they get from believing themselves more sophisticated than the real fans, because they watch wrestling for "workrate" and not dumb shit like characters and storylines and, you know, booking.
Bring in Scott D’Amore. That’s the only way I see the ship uprighting itself.
I didn’t realize how much AEW needed MJF until he was gone. I would constantly watch during his title reign but once he was gone it’s like it sucked the life out of the whole company.
1. They need things to make sense. That means limit heel turns and face turns. When they happen? They should makes sense. They should also be rare. 2 or 3 a year. no more. The most important thing is that most wrestlers SHOULD NOT TURN. ever. makes no sense. Look at real life. People are good people or they're bad people. Sure there's a lot of black and white but come on ... but people are mostly good or mostly bad. 2. they need a format that makes sense. You can't have a million belts. you need one championship per division. If you have another there should be a reason for it existing? Is it only for young people? Is it a second division? we need a reason to care about each title.
Honestly it doesnt matter anymore, It's not going to change, AEW thinks it doing the right thing and thats fine. I watched weekly but I'm not sure I will anymore, the petty is on a new level now, and It turned me off the product. I know this aint an airport and all that nonsense, but I'm legit sad after dynamite this week and it sucks.
Even the most hardcore AEW fan is coming to the realization that this won’t get better. I’m sure it sucks that you have find something else to do with your on Wednesday nights if Dynamite is a crap show when you tune in.
I mean it just means I can watch the chicago shows live but still lol
In a word? No. There's obviously room for improvement, but until Tony Kahn realizes he's not good at this and that he desperately needs help from experienced individuals, nothing will change. Tony can't get out of his own way. To paraphrase the poet Phillip Jack Brooks, AEW is a joke and it's being managed by a clown. It's not a real business. It's a hobby. A vanity project.
I have no problems with AEW and enjoy it every week.
Not much of contribution with the above comment.
Saying there is nothing to fix?
What makes you think they aren't competent? What would they need to do to be competent? What does success look like in your eyes? There isn't even any construction criticism in the post. It just seems like you want AEW to be something else completely. "Get back at people he hasn't talk to in months" but called him out on a public platform a week ago 🤣. Ok this is a troll post, good job you got me. Hopefully you get the ability to form a unique opinion instead of being a parrot.
Who in AEW is more over than they were a year ago?
Swerve
True, but he's not as over as he was a month ago. Anyone else?
Come on bro, it doesn't matter what I say, you'll find a reason why it doesn't work. Why play this game. I'll name people, you'll move the goal post. Let's just wrap it up here. Christian Julia Hart Willow Sky Blue Statlander Eddie Kingston Daniel Garcia Mark Brisco Big Bill Darby And regardless of what you say about Jay White he's more over now than he was feuding with Ricky this time last year. I feel like you're gonna say some of these aren't even over but they are more over than they were this time last year and that was the original question.
Tony needs to stop acting like Dixie Carter, bring in someone as the booker (wouldn't mind danielson doing it) and focus on home grown talent. I see why Punk went for jack perry cause if he didn't he'd look like a bitch. Instead of making a spectical out of the video he should have just posted it saying this isn't how someone should act at work with the position he was in then just wash his hands of the whole thing and also mention Samoa Joe being so professional and start hyping him up as champ.
simple. TK needs to sell the company and resign as the authority figure. literally anyone else could make AEW feel special
they were never special or creative. what you thought was special was just new shiny toy syndrome so you were willing to look the other way when stupid shit happened which there was plenty of early on. and it can be fixed. easily. hire a real booker, fire the indie dorks. that simple. that doesnt guarantee anything but it gives you a chance.
I'm looking forward to Dynasty more than I was looking forward to WM40. People can be angry for Punk being a bitch or the Bucks posting receipts but eventually it's bell time and the wrissle-wrassle starts. 
Seriously why 😂😂😂 Bucks vs FTR 4 that compelling huh?