As a fan of All Elite Wrestling since day one, this was tough to write. I grew up on WWE, and I am very happy with the direction Triple H is going in, so I want to make it clear right here that this is is not intended as a hate piece for either company, just an honest reflection of my opinion. When AEW began in 2019 it had so much good will from wrestling fans like me who wanted an alternative product on a bigger scale than we had seen before. Ring of Honor and TNA had made it to a certain level but it was clear they were never going to be considered competitive to WWE. AEW however felt kind of special. They managed to maintain a lot of that good will through their first two years, though going into 2022 there were cracks beginning to show.
By this point they had won the Wednesday night war against NXT, which if you go back and look at the numbers week by week is an objective fact, but despite being head of NXT at the time, Triple H was technically correct when he pointed out that they had only beaten the developmental brand. Good for them.
As we got into 2022 the roster was already too big, and countless stars had received pushes into prominent roles only for them to disappear for a few weeks and their momentum to slowly cool off, and we saw a lot of this in 2022. In Spring AEW embarked on a major push for Wardlow, following his separation from MJF. The two had worked well together since 2019, but it was time for Warlow to go off on his own. The build up to the blow off match was brilliant, but was sadly overshadowed by MJF seemingly throwing a tantrum and no showing a signing. Following the entirely one sided blow off match at Double or Nothing Max would disappear for months, and Wardlow would feud with 20 security guards. Wardlow correctly said afterwards that his big moment had been spoiled by the antics of MJF, who was rewarded by becoming World champion for his disobedience. Wardlow would win the TNT title from Scorpio Sky who also received a push only to be put on the back burner, but his reign was fairly lacklustre, ending when Samoa Joe beat him recently. The problem of AEW having too many wrestlers signed continues today with the company signing a new wrestler pretty much every week of this year.
Then we get to the backstage stuff, which... No, not going there...
I don't want to be all doom and gloom here though, because overall I had a blast watching Full Gear. That show had its low points for sure, but it's highs were fantastic. The Jungle Boy vs Luchasaurus cage match, the return of the Elite, and the shocking main event turn of William Regal and MJF winning were things that gripped me. It was a show that mostly felt like AEW of old, the one I fell in love with. I left that show feeling like things were looking up after a grim year to be an All Elite Wrestling fan. The following Dynamite carried on this success in some ways. I generally hate best of seven series', but give me the Elite vs Death Triangle seven times and I'm sure with the minds for wrestling involved I'll still be engaged by the end. Give me a new challenger like Ricky Starks who the live crowds clearly love, and put him against MJF, and I'll enjoy seeing a fresh face in a main event title match. Give me the fact that there are finally no interim champions at the moment. I supported the idea initially given how it reflected real combat sports, but it just hasn't worked in practice. I came out of the PPV and the following Dynamite feeling optimistic, even this weeks Dynamite kept my spirits up, but then I saw the rating.
To be clear, I don't obsess over ratings or care about them that much, but Dynamite used to float around the 700-800 thousand mark when it had a live competitor, it went up when NXT went away and crucially maybe, when CM Punk was around, but now we are back to those levels with no competition. I've massively oversimplifying the numbers here, but at face value the show just isn't growing.
You might notice that I haven't once mentioned Rampage yet, and with good reason. When it first started Tony Khan told us infinitum that it would be another A show, just with more wrestling time and less angles. With the exception of CM Punks debut it has always been clearly the B show. As a UK viewer I'm a little salty towards Rampage because it airs live at 3am here, and there is rarely a reason for me to stay up or catch it later. Rampage is Thunder at this point, and I expect years from now we'll hear about how nobody wanted to have to do it, just like we hear about WCW Thunder today.
It's worth pointing out that a good show doesn't directly relate to a high rating, but consistently good shows will in theory lead to more viewers watching. Look at whats happening with WWE right now. Their product is objectively better since Vince McMahon left, and the ratings and general feeling toward the company have reflected that, but it takes time. Have AEW's best days been and gone? Not necessarily. There are clear and obvious problems still to fix, but there are things to be optimistic about. At the end of the day, wrestling as a whole does best when there is healthy competition, and rather than the demise of one company or another, competition is what we should be hoping for.
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