It's so funny watching the AEW asylum slowly start to realize that "we do a bunch of moves in a match that's booked by a randomizer in Excel, and has 100 false finishes, it's not good TV?" Like, this is theater. Storytelling. Doing cosplay N64 wrestling is not good TV, and even the stannest stans in the IWC realize the call is coming from inside the house.
Thr problem is that the stories need to be spread throughout the show and need to be show cased at least on Dynamite or Collision. MJF having multiple people after his title makes sense. He has enemies and people want the big belt. Don Callus family is heavily featured, Christian and his group against Adam, Sting and Darby, Hangman and Swerve, now House of Black running rough shot in collision and Eddie Kingston and Jay Lethal. The stories are there and they make sense. The issue is if they have 7 stories to tell dedicate a few months to a few then do the others later. People are going to hate when I say this but WWE doesn't have alot of stories either. It is usually Bloodline or Judgement Day related, but they keep up with it and make it like a soap opera so you want to tune in next episode. While in AEW you might not get the next instalment of Hangman and Swerve for 2 weeks and feel the feud you were invested in cooled down. So the problem is not that AEW doesn't have stories or good stories, the issue is pacing them.
I agree and have full shows dedicated to 1 or 2 storylines so we can get some proper progression and a reason to keep watching the show. E.g. If the show revoles around MJF then have him in the opening segment, have him in multiple segments throughout the night and then have him in the main event and progress the story throughout the show instead of wasting time with no build matches
There are not many stories. There are feuds without story. Swerve and Page have a story going. MJF and Wardlow had a story. It needs to fleshed out wheb ready. Mjf and omega really don't have a story. Other than mjf mentioned 13 and most viewers will not know what that means. Mjf has a story wirh BC Gold. Callis family could be great. Horsmenesque. But the story is just them vs omega and jericho. Needs more to it. What else is there? Tony storms intro was interesting I guess. Not much story there
@@willejones1918 The commentators literally told everyone right after the segment that it was 13 days until MJF surpassed Omegas title reign so every viewer knew what that meant. Toni's been going a little crazy since losing the title and then falling out with her stable mates and losing a shot at regaining the title pushed her over the edge, now she will only feel vindicated if she regains the title. I mean. AEW's pacing issues are definitely there but you cant pretend there are no stories because you aren't paying attention. MJF also has a story with Samoa Joe, Sky blue/willow/julia hart. Miro/Cj Perry. All the stuff involving the BCC and starks, OC, moguls etc. There's plenty of stories.
@@FailureByDesignMusic commentators telling a story is not the same as wrestlers showing it. That's not good story telling and audience does not know what he is referring too.
Hook and Jungle Boy are two great examples of young guys that at the start I said "wow, they're really going to be something" and today they are just there. In Hook's case its not really his fault. They should have done so much more with him when he got hot. With JB, I just don't think he's got it yet. JB seems to like the activity of wrestling matches but he has no facials, no promo skills, no skill at telling a story with anything other than doing a move. That mentality belongs in backyard feds and small indys. Not on cable TV.
Jungle Boy was great when he was with the Jurassic Express. After he left, he turned into a generic face followed with a generic cowardly heel run. Nothing about him stood out.
I remember when people said hook was 10x better than Dom Fast forward Dom has multiple stories and a new character Hook is still the same exact character and doing the same exact thing he was doing 1.5 years ago
@@christophernear6990 Yeah AEW is falling into the same trap TNA fell in. Yeah they have MJF but their home grown talent is taking a back seat to every 50 year old former WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestler that becomes available.
Been saying this since 2019. Not me, the majority of wrestling fans I feel. Excellent matches. Dream matches. Unless the story is 'you were my friend' it ain't happening. From the Elite to Edge and Christian.
I was a big AEW fan from day 1 but gradually came to realise that for as long as TK was booker it would never ever come close to its potential, I finally gave up watching it a couple of months ago
I mean do you watch AEW for the in-ring action or story? Sure you want both but after watching WWE all these years, I want to see solid in-ring action. If you want all stories, watch a soap opera LOL. A true fan keeps watching through the thick and thin...you aren't a true AEW if you stop watching. Dynamite is the best wrestling show on TV...bar none. You never know what surprises there will be...unlike WWE which never has a great surprise appearance.
AEW does make me sad nowadays. So much talent, and all of it just flailing around in six-man tags. I actually had to check my ears for wax when Kenny and MJF got set for Saturday, thirty seconds after the crowd chanted Holy Shit just to see them standing face-to-face. Top work. Could have had a two-month program there.
I sometimes forget Malakai Black is in AEW, he's just not treated like a big deal, and they keep signing more guys instead of putting their existing star power to use.
I think Tony realized that MJF is the only guy on his roster that is capable of drawing money right now, so Tony just decided to have him feud with the entire roster. lol
Them finally acknowledging that lack of/poor storyline planning in AEW is a problem is funny. Coming from the guys who kept saying that the “dream matches” were practically all the company needed.
MJF goes and so does the audience. NXT proved the other week, present some stars and people will tune in. Blame the storytelling all you want, the fact is MJF is the only talent AEW have who’s over in any meaningful way.
The Hikaru Shida point is very interesting, and sad. She's a great person and her being a multi-time women's champion is cool, but it feels like that's her whole story and nothing else. The women around her have more character. I'm just waiting for Timeless Toni Storm to win back the belt because that seems to be where this is heading.
The problem is AEW has never wanted Shida to be the one. Each time she won the title it was due to circumstances beyond TK’s control. The first time, they wanted Riho to win it back but with the Covid Quarantine, all the Japanese talent were stuck in Japan except for Shida. The second time, Hayter got injured and that “book the women better” sign spooked TK big time. The third time was cause they screwed up giving Saraya the title and had to fix it by giving it back to Shida to please the fans.
I can totally see what bryan is on about and lot of people sewm to be freaking out about his opinion. All he wants is aew to do better. Im glad non of the people i seen in the comments are like tbis at the actual shows.
Any complaint about AEW, no matter how minor, will piss off the hardcores. This is why the show doesn’t expand their audience because they can’t handle criticism
Storylines are EVERYTHING in wrestling. I've been fast forwarding through 80% of the shows every week for months now. The only matches that ever mean anything are on PPV. A "good" wrestling match doesn't mean anything to me if there are no real stakes.
AEW has loads of stories! Uh, didn't you see the one about _"I thought you were my friend! I remember when you were MY friend, but now you're HIS friend! Why aren't you still my friend?"_
As much as I don’t want to agree with Brian he definitely has a point, the match quality is still high week to week but I do wish they did a better job of telling stories for the non featured acts, hopefully the house of black bcc stuff will get expanded apon on Saturday
I'm my opinion it's a wrestling show. Unlike WWE witch just caters to mostly the sports entertainment high drama storyline crowd. AEW Caters to less storylines and more high quality wrestling matches.
@@michaeltodd3738 that’s not true because when aew was at its hottest it had great matches AND great storylines throughout the card, saying it’s a wrestling show doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to tell stories wrestling has always been about storytelling whether you do that in a match or a segment. To me that’s just a lazy categorization of both companies, especially when there’s plenty of high quality wrestling on wwe just look at Gunther’s ic title run
@@SleepyGrapes but when it boils down to not every wrestler needs to be in these long drawn out storylines that a lot of times don't go anywhere. For example AEW is more of a innerpromotional company. They have a lot of partnerships with other wrestling organizations NJPW, CMLL and it's more so of a true strong style wrestling show. We're WWE on the other hand focuses more on dramatic storylines. While there is a lot of great wrestling talent in WWE Gunter, Roman, Seth, etc. The fact is that a lot of people who aren't that into wrestling just watch the show for intense storylines.
@@michaeltodd3738 that’s not what Brian is asking for he’s just asking for the stories that are being told to be advanced in some way every week, not every wrestler is featured on the show but what’s the story for shida who’s literally the women’s champion? She’s been on the show but she’s just having matches with no character development that’s what he’s talking about
I have no idea who the tag champs are anymore… That being said there are more stories, they just don’t show them. Hangman and Swerve, blackpool combat club and best friends. Julia hart infecting the women’s division. Don Callis and the family. The stories are there, they just aren’t telling them.
Yep. I even said out loud that I was very happily sports entertained with the beginning of that episode... then it fell off a cliff by the time of The Hardys and Brother Zay match. I literally fast forwarded through the Shida/Ruby Soho match because it felt so inconsequential. AEW has gotten better with the stories, but they are not consistent enough for you to be able to count on them. There is a constant feeling that at any moment a story could be dropped never to be heard of again. As an example, I loved AR Fox's heel turn... then he did a babyface turn... then he disappeared. I keep waiting for some resolution for a wrestler I started to get invested in, and there is none. I realize there were Visa issues, but you make the story work around that like they did with Adam Cole's injury. You don't just drop it cold. That leaves a bad feeling with fans, but more importantly it trains them to not expect too much even when you do a big story line. This and the fact that too many matches still have no stories attached to them is why ratings have been so bad even though AEW has gotten better with pushing stories. If fans tune in, they have little expectation they'll get story progression, so there is little incentive to stick around.
The other thing that they just bury their head in the sand on. Every single time they promote a main event with somebody from New Japan, the rating absolutely tanks.
Yeah for all promotions, I'm one of those "watch if there's something I want to see" viewers, and lately in AEW that mostly just means MJF and Jay White. I was also curious about the Sting segment this week, personally. - Shida is one of the best wrestlers in the world; I'm sick to death of the Outcasts. - Okada is one of the best wrestlers in the world; it was hard to care about his nothing match. - I like Swerve; that he's still feuding with Hangman fills me with dread. - I like Hook; 52-year-old Rob Van Dam does nothing for me.
I don't agree the okada March was a nothing match. He got his arm broke by Danielson and OC is feuding with the BCC? And I generally am not really into the old wrestlers coming back but rvd looks pretty good out there. But I do wish that time was used on a young person.
@@BulletClub444Life Well you're entitled to your opinion, but I would at least remind you not to confuse uninspired booking for uninspired wrestling. For what it's worth, her community rating on Cagematch is about 9.1, which does in fact place her as one of the highest-rated full-time women in the world today, as well as one of the highest-rated members of the AEW roster (of either gender).
@@MarkieDood I didn't. She's IMO genuinely massively overrated. She's a passable to decent wrestler who can have good matches with the right opponent. That's about it. Her strikes are mostly very weak, her transitions from one more to an other look clunky and in general she can only work one type of match: move, kick out, move kick out until the end. If you honestly watch joshi wrestling and still call her one of the best in the world, you're just deluded.
AEW has basically been "I'll check out the MJF segment on UA-cam, also Collision was great for about a month" for forever now. But now I don't even care about MJF, and that's utter insanity to me. Him and Punk made me start following again, but these days I just listen to Cornette tell me about what happened in AEW, because it's way more entertaining than AEW's actual TV shows. Plumbers getting dropped on their head by Felix the cat has way more staying power than I ever could have imagined.
It's nice of Bryan to finally admit what some of us have been saying for years. Don't even get me started on all the former wwe guys. Nothing about the company seems new or different. Just the same old shit I could have watched on Mondays.
A lot of us have been saying this for a while... the stories generally ren't intriguing or are non-existent. Bryan finally reached a point where AEW is indefensible.
Well at least the people that should have stories have them. MJF, Christian and Edge are doing great with their storylines. Maybe Ricky and Big Bill? Tony is dropping the ball on everything else.
Unrelated but Dave saying that a Memphis crowd chanting "Whoop That Trick" must mean Trick Williams is breaking through is one of the single funniest wrestling bubble things I've ever seen in my life. Also I think the stories are fine and everyone complains about everything anyways so you'll never, ever be fuckin happy.
The MJF stories are terrible. The stuff with Castor, the other story with Cole and Roddy, it’s all so dumb. It’s wild that it’s the relatively good part of the show but that’s simply down to MJF being such a great performer. He was so much better as a heel though.
Ruby Soho has matches. She wins matches. The problem is she NEVER wins BIG matches. They book her as a total choke artist, so who cares? We know she ain’t winning.
I don't get the hype for ruby,to me she's just like jade cargill good look,great promo,sloppy wrestler her match with shida was trash,don't get me wrong she can put on a good match once a blue moon than the rest in terrible she failed in wwe now she's failing in aew i believe the problem is her to be honest
@@donzellmccalipp8510that was also Shida's fault. That match was absolute garbage but Shida is awful. Ruby can work but you can't put two bad or mediocre wrestlers in a match and expect anything good. Shida is only first ever three time champion because Tony had to promise her a record and another title run to keep her and I don't understand why he even wants to keep her. Toni Storm is the only entertaining character in that division and they don't have anyone who can wrestle in their women's division anymore. At least not on the levels of Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton (if you haven't seen her matches, you should).
@captain-brickhead8317 The story was Orange was growing increasingly desperate to defend his title, while feeling like it was a burden on his shoulders to keep defending it. He went from winning with his Orange Punch, to winning with roll-ups, trying to cheat a bit, to taking advantage in multi-man matches.
This is what happens when the observer tells people something is great and it never was. Now you guys have to admit there’s nothing but matches going on.
The exact thing bryan is complaining about with stories supposedly not advancing week by week happened here idk what he's talking about.Everything around MJF advanced as it should since he's the world champion,The Sting/Darby vs Christians crew story advanced,The BCC and Orange story advanced,Hangman and swerve advanced,etc.Some matches didn't have stories and that's fine because not everything needs weeks and weeks of build.As far as people tuning out it there was HEAVY NBA competition on which was the obvious drop between last week and this week.The only"problem"AEW has with stories is just pacing them across the show better with MJF and not doing all of them right at the beginning.All of the main stories advanced and we're starting to see build for the PPV outside of just the main event start to take form.
This is what happens when you care more about Dave Meltzer star ratings than putting a good show keep booking your show for Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez and all of the UA-cam marks that parrot everything they said instead of booking the show for people that want to see good stories and good matches cause i don't care how good a match is if the booking behind the match makes no sense i wont care about the match specially when every match and every wrestler looks the same
When AEW first formed, I said they had the wrong people in charge. From the beginning, AEW has been a television wrestling company run by people with no experience on tv. Tony never worked in wrestling before AEW. The EVPs are all career indie guys (or their wives). Head of Talent Relations is a career indie guy. The head Trainer is a career indie guy. They have no one with television experience in any position of power. You have a tv show written, produced, and booked by people that have never been on tv. All they know is indie wrestling, and indie wrestling is completely different from tv wrestling. These guys are doing what they know, and the indie stuff doesn't work on tv. QT Marshall is training their performers to wrestle on tv, when he has never done it himself. What is the end result going to be?
TV viewers get sick of watching matches week in week out with no build.. you need to invest in the characters .. they don’t call pro wrestling ‘soap opera for men’ for no reason..
@@PowerPackers90agree! But I think wwe is acting towards the entertainment side that has a larger audience to draw from. While aew wants to draw towards the sport side which has a more limited audience
Kenny-MJF was booked 3 days in advance with Kenny cutting a promo about wanting a belt somebody else has already stolen from MJF. Says everything about the horrible booking.
Certain fans seem to not realize that we need a reason to care about these matche besides here's a match. Sure it's going to be sometimes good but guess what I can find that in other companies too.
Bryan totally leaves out how the bucks,shida,omega,page and so on have had 4 Years to build a fan base and the only one they've gotten is the one they already had. 700,000 is the sealing. Time to focus on newer homegrown talent to really break through the sealing. Until then the numbers will always fluctuate the same.
MJF is the Bill Goldberg of AEW. And by that I mean he was the only star AEW built in their entire hot period. Right now MJF in AEW 2023 is like Goldberg in WCW 1999. Not quite the floor, but feeling like it's getting there.
Did the breaking news of the mass shooting in Maine play any part in such a sudden large drop in viewers? I know I switched over to the news once I saw a notification on my phone about it, I believe it was during the six man match.
@@deathorjustice true. I'm just wondering if that played any factor on Wednesday. Just odd for such a large drop after the first half hour. Certainly out of the norm for such a sudden drop in viewers.
@@zerozeeros If you think AEWs tv deal is going to plateau when they're #1 on cable for Wednesday nights a plethora of times a year,Have 3 shows they're being paid for(one David Zazslav personally asked for),And the top viewership gainer besides live sports Warner has idk what to tell you.
I don't know about anyone else but a lot a people in my area had cable and internet problems during the show, I had to watch it later that night, once things got stable
@@omegaman6494well who's gonna be? It can't be wwe/triple h. Dave Meltzer subscribers are the IWC and they hate wwe. Bet TK is getting the bias award again 😂😂😂😂😂😂
You know, I was all ready to blast this idea, because I really liked the show, but I think some really hard-to-argue points were made. AEW just doesn't want to do the wrote, by the numbers, seen it a million times stories and formulas, and that has created some truly awesome stuff...but it has also created a very scattered structure in general. Having 3 shows helps talent get on, but then you have to book 5 hours of TV, not including ROH. That is a LOT, and I would agree that they can do better at consistency in telling those stories and doing it more.
It satisfies me as an AEW fan but Tony is doing himself no favours with the booking trying to attract new fans. And in his actions he is testing the patience of the loyal fans and you do not want to do that I can see a slow collapse of AEW which gives me no pleasure in admitting but when you do segments with Cole and Strong your going to kill yourself. Tony needs to get out of his own way and let some others do the booking
Considering MJF is heavily involved with his own creative and has also come up with corny BS like the tofu chants and the call and response 2012 rock shtick i wouldn't be shocked if he was the one who came up with alot of the stuff revolving around him like Roddy and cole.
@@97ECWpossibly. Part of the corny scenes work with him involved but the last couple weeks were so awful at rods house. Whomever did those just don't haha
MJF vs Omega should have been built over several weeks toward a PPV, but instead they rushed it for this week's Collision. Why would they drop a money feud like this out of nowhere and blow it on a weekly, lower rated Saturday night show?
They do a no decision draw and the rematch is still intact... or there will be interference and mjf and Kenny do a tag match for the roh titles with Kenny standing in for Adam cole.. It's not rocket science, people should stop expecting what they want to happen all the time is what has to happen
I think this is the culmination of a number of things. The buzz around AEW from last year when they brought in Punk and a big number of casual fans is fading. Any casuals that hung around are wondering what the fuck they’re looking at and tuning out. AEW is cold and Tony is panicking leading to bad booking and disjointed stories. I think AEW needs to make a decision on whether it wants to remain an alternative to WWE, with a focus on wrestling, or if it wants to emulate WWE, with stories and characters. If it’s the latter, they’re failing at it and may end up losing their core fanbase in the process, but Tony is probably beginning to realise that the core fanbase isn’t enough to be sustainable for the company long term.
AEW at it's core will always be professional wrestling because that's what the company represents,An alternative.By no means whatsoever should AEW focus on the"casuals"who might watch 1 show a month and maybe buy 1 shirt. AEW should always focus on it's core audience who actually watch the shows,who buy tickets,who buy merch,PPVs,etc.Idk what out of the main stories are supposedly disjointed anyone who's actually involved in a story has had storyline advancements,MJF and Jaye,Sting/Darby/Copeland and Christians crew,Hangman and swerve,Orange and the BCC,Jericho and the Callis Family(Which will probably include kenny again after Saturday)etc.AEWs core fanbase is more than sustainable long term as long as they stay an alternative.
@@97ECW What does AEW represent nowadays? A generic WWE rip off with good matches every now and then, but absolutely no consistency in booking and storytelling. And consistency is by far the most important thing a promotion with weekly shows needs. That's what makes people tune in, just matches with poor/ no build won't help to grow the TV audience.
@@BulletClub444Life AEW represents very good professional wrestling still. Leaning into sports entertainment aspects a bit more with MJF as champion by no means makes it a"A generic WWE rip off"That's like saying if WWE has a good match between Walter and Drew they're all of a sudden a strong style wrestling company. There is at least two good to really good matches on Dynamite and Collision almost every week,There's usually consistency in booking outside of injuries that happen or other things like travel issues that effect the booking.Consistency in storytelling almost every main feud has had consistency since they started like hangman & swerve,Jaye and MJF,Christian and his guys vs sting darby and edge,etc.There was numerous matches on Dynamite that had weeks of story like Juice vs MJF,Shida and ruby goes back to when shida beat saraya for the title,And OC has had issues with the BCC for months now.Collision on Saturday had matches that followed up from the week prior Miro vs action,BCC vs Ricky and big bill,And JJ vs Kingston to set up Lethal vs Kingston what are you even talking about.The tv audience is usually in the 900ks and #1 on cable when there isn't sports competition their tv audience is fine and clearly WBD was happy enough to give them another show for Saturdays.
@@97ECW With WWE rip off I meant: lame storytelling, overuse of annoying sports entertainment/ wrestling tropes, too much "comedy", a dull tag division and more. They did propagate the product is supposedly presented like a sport and that wins and losses would matter. If that's the case in AEW right now I'm the king of the world. And I'm not even talking about the overuse of incredibly fake-looking spot fests. Then add poor consistency (what you just deny, but whatever) with how they're booking/ pushing wrestlers and also the amount of guys who lost steam. Hook is in the exact place as he was two years ago. Takeshita beats Omega, is still Callis' lap dog, and didn't move up the card while Omega (who lost to him not long ago) gets a heavyweight title match even though it's completely undeserved. Strickland beats Hangman, then doesn't build any momentum and will likely go 50:50 with him (in other words: nobody gets elevated and remains in the exact same position, classic 50:50 booking WWE-style). At the end of the day AEW has become just promotion with a bigger budget that feels like WWE-lite. Giving how poor creative is there is no reason to get emotionally invested. And matches aren't a selling point, then I could just buy a random show an FITE or something.
@@BulletClub444Life Lame storytelling is a subjective opinion it isn't an objective fact.The over use of tropes happens in every wrestling company after a while usually for heat for heels stuff like roll ups,interference etc AEW still barely does DQ or count out finishes.They had a ranking system but then everyone complained about it so AEW did away with the rankings.Kenny is getting a rematch because he never had one for the title before and his record is almost up so he's getting the chance to try and stop max from breaking it.Hooks only been wrestling 2 years and just started doing longer matches consistently this year,Making hook the TNT or international champion with his current experience level wouldn't make any sense. Takeshitas literally Callis' lapdog who he's manipulating just because he beat kenny wasn't going to all of a sudden change that. Takeshitas being super protected right now so he's not going to challenge for titles and lose. Swerve is still in the feud with hangman and was most certainly elevated by beating him at the last PPV gaining more credibility,Even if he loses the rematch you can still get over without going over trading wins isn't a WWE exclusive thing. People are emotionally invested in multiple AEW stories like MJF and jaye,Swerve and hangman,Copeland and Christian,Who was behind the devil mask and attacked jaye,2.0 holding Garcia back,DCF vs jericho and kenny,etc. Just look at the crowds reactions during those stories and you can see people are invested just because you aren't doesn't mean the live crowd isn't.Also "matches aren't a selling point" couldn't be more wrong when AEWs roster is their biggest strength and huge top level matches between top guys is what people have been asking for more of.
Why does Shida have the belt and what's the story? She lost her title to scum supporting Saraya for a cheap pop, got a rematch and won it back after a brief few other matches. She's probably the best worker among the female talent, always gets a crowd reaction and does a lot in general. The biggest issue is that out of 5 hours of television every week we get MAYBE 20 minutes for 3 women's matches per week. Any attempt to build a story is pointless when the men get so much more time for matches and promos that run longer than most of the women's matches. Try building a story without time and you get Excalibur trying to build the match after a brief video package showing why it's happening. It's gotten to the point that there are no story builds for women and only a few for the men. Aside from the outliers like Swerve - Hangman, Copeland - Christian, Darby - Christian, MJF - everyone we have "here's a match, enjoy it". TK needs to stay off social media before he's accused of false advertising too. My friend when she heard he gifted Ric Flair to Sting, "I hope he kept the receipt."
Isaiah Kassidy & The Hardys have NEVER won a Trios match, ever. Ruby Soho lost a title match to Statlander, then lost a #1 contenders match to Shida, then lost a title match to Shida. Why are losers getting championship matches? BRING BACK THE RANKINGS!
Comes with a ton of qualifiers: "I really liked the show" and "I don't want to be doom and gloom"..neither he nor Dave will ever outright call something Tony booked awful and roast it like they try with WWE
I totally agree with Byran and Vinny, man AEW have amazing matchs but they are bad in stories not sure why but i guess because it has EVPs and other key people can change stories easily...and they aren't clearly in same page thats why it has weird booking decisions like Toni vs Saraya cancelled and all sudden Shida is champion... they are cleary writing without main ideas for future. They just write whatever for this week and thats it none writing for long distance stories as clear as day so it is bad and this affect ratings badly... most fans are only hocked by stories upcoming not just matchs long term stories helps alot to rating and biggest example is WWE doing it they hock up fans with long stories even if they deliver bad match matchs they still win the fans over while AEW struggles in that
I’ve watched maybe 10 aew matches total since all in. I’ve stopped watching dynamite and collision. I hadn’t watched rampage in months. I’m genuinely back to following wrestling how I did pre 2019: follow channels like this and look up the matches that are worth watching
They gotta have storylines on rampage and collision. I read the results of those two shows cause the only show that feels "canon" is dynamite. There really is no progression. Everyone thats not MJF just feels like they're spinning their wheels. Too many start/stop pushes. People wrestle, pick up a win, and then disappear. What happened to Keith Lee? To Action Andretti? To Miro? To Lance Archer? People start to get wins and then get disappeared. They have 5 hours of tv a week. Each show should have a storyline on it that makes them each feel important. Instead its main story on dynamite and then adjacent matches to the storyline from dynamite on rampage and collison. Rampage and collision is just where the heels and faces of dynamite feuds pick up wins to keep momentum in their dynamite/ppv feud
They've been building santana and ortiz for weeks on rampage as well as Keith lee and shane taylor on Collision,Miro was JUST on collision in a storyline match vs action andretti,Alot of the copeland and Christian story has been on Collision,Ricky and Danielson just got done having a feud on Collision,etc.They most certainly have storylines on Collision and advancement on Dynamite as well what in the world are you talking about.
Everyone including Bryan were happy when the booking power was centralized and Tony started to make all the key booking decisions. While this was a good decision it took away substantial booking power from guys like Omega / Bucks who are incredible when it comes to long term story telling and also power was stripped from Jericho. The MJF vs Omega for example didn't start from Dynamite, it started from BTE and then boom it was on Dynamite. The womens division was significantly better than it is right now and some womens matches were better but as soon as Tony got the power he did what I believe was riding the wave created when the booking was decentralized. Look at the messy decisions involved in Brit and Rosa's feud and also Rosa's booking after she won the Champion. Also the booking of the other 3 pillars was significantly better than now. In fact Darby, Jungle Boy and Sammy have not significantly improved character wise and it can be argued that their characters have suffered significantly (especially Jungle Boy and Sammy) because of Tony's booking decisions. Hangman who was involved in what believe is the best story in AEW history was booked poorly after Tony took over the booking decisions and this is especially true after he won the Champion from Omega. AEW booking decisions can be fixed so easily: 1. Give a great deal of booking power to Omega and Jericho, Christian can also be added to have a very diverse group of people. 2. Use the coaches and trainer to help women develop as wrestlers and have women practice their matches if needed. 3. Use Rampage / ROH to develop talent by letting them learn how to cut promos, call matches on the ring and have competitive matches and not squashes. 4. Semi split your roaster to Collision and Dynamite and it's believed that Danielson already has some booking power on Collision and so Tony might as well add him to Omega, Jericho and Christian. There are other things I have probably left out that can be done but Tony needs a significant shift in terms of booking.
While I don't agree with everything here I think you're on point. TK is running the Jaguars, he's vice chairman of Fulham, he's the owner of AEW and ROH and Trumedia Networks. Any one of these is enough responsibility for one person. But on top of that he handles booking and all sorts of other sub jobs within AEW and possibly within those other companies as well. TK clearly can't handle this work load nor should he be expected to. His work has suffered as a result of his inability to delegate responsibilities. . I'd like to see Daniel Bryan retire from the ring next year as has been hinted at and take over as head booker of AEW. I'd like to see him supported by a dedicated booker for womans division and another dedicated booker for tag/trios division.
@@jeremiahmorin1867 It was a different model back then and sure I think TK deserves some credit but I can't agree that the current booking is the same model as before.
urm there is the hangman swerve story that been happening every week, jericho and the don family, orange cassidy story, Plenty other stories bryan having every week. Lets see what rating is next week. U can;t know for sure what reason was one week. It best to judge after a few. Cause last week very different
Also, the company did not grow because the wrestling style is not the American wrestling style Most of the show is Japanese wrestling style and indy wrestling style Where is the new Mr. Perfect, the new Kurt Angle, or the new bret Hart?? Most of the show are lightweight wrestlers
I guess people don't realize the stories are told and continue to evolve on Being The Elite and Sammy's Vlog. They are the only 2 AEW sanctioned vlogs and they help tell the stories there. Too bad if people are missing out.
They blew through all the big stories and matches too fast. But hey, this the same platform that puts AEW on a pedestal rather than call them out like they do to WWE.
It’s an interesting anecdote from Bryan. His criticisms are valid from a show quality standpoint but viewership is so nebulous that I’m hesitant to ascribe a drop to something this simplistic.
I dont get what's so wrong with AEW being the more Wrestling show of the two companies. These AEW complaints sound like complaining that Burger King doesnt sell big macs and McFlurry's. If AEW focused on "sports entertainment" over the wrestling people would be bitching that it's "WWE lite". Plus WWE storytelling isnt better. Raw is litterly groundhogs day week after week, and SD is just 1997 Nitro with the nWo....i mean "Bloodline Saga" suffocating the rest of the roster TV time. Everyone just thinks it great booking because "at least its not vince booking"
@Snakeskin94 I mean, people are complaining like they want AEW to be WWE. Why can't AEW be AEW? You're getting 5 hours of amazing wrestling every week.
It's so funny watching the AEW asylum slowly start to realize that "we do a bunch of moves in a match that's booked by a randomizer in Excel, and has 100 false finishes, it's not good TV?"
Like, this is theater. Storytelling. Doing cosplay N64 wrestling is not good TV, and even the stannest stans in the IWC realize the call is coming from inside the house.
Thank you. 100% agree
Thr problem is that the stories need to be spread throughout the show and need to be show cased at least on Dynamite or Collision. MJF having multiple people after his title makes sense. He has enemies and people want the big belt. Don Callus family is heavily featured, Christian and his group against Adam, Sting and Darby, Hangman and Swerve, now House of Black running rough shot in collision and Eddie Kingston and Jay Lethal. The stories are there and they make sense. The issue is if they have 7 stories to tell dedicate a few months to a few then do the others later. People are going to hate when I say this but WWE doesn't have alot of stories either. It is usually Bloodline or Judgement Day related, but they keep up with it and make it like a soap opera so you want to tune in next episode. While in AEW you might not get the next instalment of Hangman and Swerve for 2 weeks and feel the feud you were invested in cooled down. So the problem is not that AEW doesn't have stories or good stories, the issue is pacing them.
I agree and have full shows dedicated to 1 or 2 storylines so we can get some proper progression and a reason to keep watching the show. E.g. If the show revoles around MJF then have him in the opening segment, have him in multiple segments throughout the night and then have him in the main event and progress the story throughout the show instead of wasting time with no build matches
There are not many stories. There are feuds without story. Swerve and Page have a story going. MJF and Wardlow had a story. It needs to fleshed out wheb ready. Mjf and omega really don't have a story. Other than mjf mentioned 13 and most viewers will not know what that means. Mjf has a story wirh BC Gold. Callis family could be great. Horsmenesque. But the story is just them vs omega and jericho. Needs more to it. What else is there? Tony storms intro was interesting I guess. Not much story there
@@willejones1918 The commentators literally told everyone right after the segment that it was 13 days until MJF surpassed Omegas title reign so every viewer knew what that meant. Toni's been going a little crazy since losing the title and then falling out with her stable mates and losing a shot at regaining the title pushed her over the edge, now she will only feel vindicated if she regains the title. I mean. AEW's pacing issues are definitely there but you cant pretend there are no stories because you aren't paying attention. MJF also has a story with Samoa Joe, Sky blue/willow/julia hart. Miro/Cj Perry. All the stuff involving the BCC and starks, OC, moguls etc. There's plenty of stories.
@@FailureByDesignMusic commentators telling a story is not the same as wrestlers showing it. That's not good story telling and audience does not know what he is referring too.
@@FailureByDesignMusic lmfao. Whatever you say. Mark
Hook and Jungle Boy are two great examples of young guys that at the start I said "wow, they're really going to be something" and today they are just there. In Hook's case its not really his fault. They should have done so much more with him when he got hot. With JB, I just don't think he's got it yet. JB seems to like the activity of wrestling matches but he has no facials, no promo skills, no skill at telling a story with anything other than doing a move. That mentality belongs in backyard feds and small indys. Not on cable TV.
Jungle Boy was great when he was with the Jurassic Express. After he left, he turned into a generic face followed with a generic cowardly heel run. Nothing about him stood out.
Jungle boy would make a lot of money on the indies. On a televised show he looks vastly unpolished and unprepared
Jungle boy is very very bad at promos and has no psychology. I hate to sound like cornette but you can't be a wrestler if you're only a gymnast.
I remember when people said hook was 10x better than Dom
Fast forward
Dom has multiple stories and a new character
Hook is still the same exact character and doing the same exact thing he was doing 1.5 years ago
@@christophernear6990 Yeah AEW is falling into the same trap TNA fell in. Yeah they have MJF but their home grown talent is taking a back seat to every 50 year old former WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestler that becomes available.
Been saying this since 2019. Not me, the majority of wrestling fans I feel. Excellent matches. Dream matches. Unless the story is 'you were my friend' it ain't happening. From the Elite to Edge and Christian.
I was a big AEW fan from day 1 but gradually came to realise that for as long as TK was booker it would never ever come close to its potential, I finally gave up watching it a couple of months ago
But what TK was awarded the best booker of the year from that "journalist" lol
@@ooapaa7950 *Readers, not Dave. Always has been like that. And besides, he said he'd give the award to HHH last year.
You can tell who has Tony’s ear based on what’s happening on TV.
I mean do you watch AEW for the in-ring action or story? Sure you want both but after watching WWE all these years, I want to see solid in-ring action. If you want all stories, watch a soap opera LOL. A true fan keeps watching through the thick and thin...you aren't a true AEW if you stop watching. Dynamite is the best wrestling show on TV...bar none. You never know what surprises there will be...unlike WWE which never has a great surprise appearance.
I agree. No one is really mad at each other, they’re just all jealous someone else isn’t their friend. They’re all 12 year old school girls.
AEW does make me sad nowadays. So much talent, and all of it just flailing around in six-man tags. I actually had to check my ears for wax when Kenny and MJF got set for Saturday, thirty seconds after the crowd chanted Holy Shit just to see them standing face-to-face. Top work. Could have had a two-month program there.
I sometimes forget Malakai Black is in AEW, he's just not treated like a big deal, and they keep signing more guys instead of putting their existing star power to use.
I agree. I sometimes forgot that mjf is the champ.😢
AEW has a lot of bodies but lacks talent. And an actual experienced, adult booker. Not a man-child booking an e-fed.
I think Tony realized that MJF is the only guy on his roster that is capable of drawing money right now, so Tony just decided to have him feud with the entire roster. lol
They've brought in Edge, Mistico, and Ric Flair in one month. TK is just gonna keep signing people in hopes to up the ratings.
Tk went off on wwe for putting taker and cena on nxt then he brings ric flair what a hypocrite
Maybe he should just hire q creative team
Bryan is still in mark mode but he’s starting to wake up
Not soon enough.
Them finally acknowledging that lack of/poor storyline planning in AEW is a problem is funny. Coming from the guys who kept saying that the “dream matches” were practically all the company needed.
2 hours of story each week brotha
MJF goes and so does the audience.
NXT proved the other week, present some stars and people will tune in.
Blame the storytelling all you want, the fact is MJF is the only talent AEW have who’s over in any meaningful way.
The Hikaru Shida point is very interesting, and sad. She's a great person and her being a multi-time women's champion is cool, but it feels like that's her whole story and nothing else. The women around her have more character. I'm just waiting for Timeless Toni Storm to win back the belt because that seems to be where this is heading.
Bring back Deeb to finish the story.
I don't know Shida's contract status but this seems like a "If you re-sign with us, we will put the belt on you."
Shida is a great example of how they screw up their booking.
The problem is AEW has never wanted Shida to be the one. Each time she won the title it was due to circumstances beyond TK’s control. The first time, they wanted Riho to win it back but with the Covid Quarantine, all the Japanese talent were stuck in Japan except for Shida. The second time, Hayter got injured and that “book the women better” sign spooked TK big time. The third time was cause they screwed up giving Saraya the title and had to fix it by giving it back to Shida to please the fans.
I can totally see what bryan is on about and lot of people sewm to be freaking out about his opinion. All he wants is aew to do better. Im glad non of the people i seen in the comments are like tbis at the actual shows.
Any complaint about AEW, no matter how minor, will piss off the hardcores. This is why the show doesn’t expand their audience because they can’t handle criticism
No1 flew in for Alverass and his opinion. These videos never even reach 20k views 😂
Storylines are EVERYTHING in wrestling. I've been fast forwarding through 80% of the shows every week for months now. The only matches that ever mean anything are on PPV. A "good" wrestling match doesn't mean anything to me if there are no real stakes.
AEW has loads of stories! Uh, didn't you see the one about _"I thought you were my friend! I remember when you were MY friend, but now you're HIS friend! Why aren't you still my friend?"_
As much as I don’t want to agree with Brian he definitely has a point, the match quality is still high week to week but I do wish they did a better job of telling stories for the non featured acts, hopefully the house of black bcc stuff will get expanded apon on Saturday
I'm my opinion it's a wrestling show. Unlike WWE witch just caters to mostly the sports entertainment high drama storyline crowd. AEW Caters to less storylines and more high quality wrestling matches.
@@michaeltodd3738 that’s not true because when aew was at its hottest it had great matches AND great storylines throughout the card, saying it’s a wrestling show doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to tell stories wrestling has always been about storytelling whether you do that in a match or a segment. To me that’s just a lazy categorization of both companies, especially when there’s plenty of high quality wrestling on wwe just look at Gunther’s ic title run
@@SleepyGrapes but when it boils down to not every wrestler needs to be in these long drawn out storylines that a lot of times don't go anywhere. For example AEW is more of a innerpromotional company. They have a lot of partnerships with other wrestling organizations NJPW, CMLL and it's more so of a true strong style wrestling show. We're WWE on the other hand focuses more on dramatic storylines. While there is a lot of great wrestling talent in WWE Gunter, Roman, Seth, etc. The fact is that a lot of people who aren't that into wrestling just watch the show for intense storylines.
@@michaeltodd3738 that’s not what Brian is asking for he’s just asking for the stories that are being told to be advanced in some way every week, not every wrestler is featured on the show but what’s the story for shida who’s literally the women’s champion? She’s been on the show but she’s just having matches with no character development that’s what he’s talking about
@@SleepyGrapes To each his on.
I have no idea who the tag champs are anymore…
That being said there are more stories, they just don’t show them. Hangman and Swerve, blackpool combat club and best friends. Julia hart infecting the women’s division. Don Callis and the family. The stories are there, they just aren’t telling them.
What it is is that MJF is the only true draw in the entire company lol.
You ard correct, MJF is the best they got, but he isn't that great. It's just that everything else on there is so horrible.
@@XRingcutterHe's not the best there ever was but I'm sure he can hang with the big league when AEW crumbles.
Yep. I even said out loud that I was very happily sports entertained with the beginning of that episode... then it fell off a cliff by the time of The Hardys and Brother Zay match. I literally fast forwarded through the Shida/Ruby Soho match because it felt so inconsequential.
AEW has gotten better with the stories, but they are not consistent enough for you to be able to count on them. There is a constant feeling that at any moment a story could be dropped never to be heard of again.
As an example, I loved AR Fox's heel turn... then he did a babyface turn... then he disappeared. I keep waiting for some resolution for a wrestler I started to get invested in, and there is none. I realize there were Visa issues, but you make the story work around that like they did with Adam Cole's injury. You don't just drop it cold. That leaves a bad feeling with fans, but more importantly it trains them to not expect too much even when you do a big story line.
This and the fact that too many matches still have no stories attached to them is why ratings have been so bad even though AEW has gotten better with pushing stories. If fans tune in, they have little expectation they'll get story progression, so there is little incentive to stick around.
The other thing that they just bury their head in the sand on. Every single time they promote a main event with somebody from New Japan, the rating absolutely tanks.
Who would have thought that pandering to a very specific online audience instead of building on that audience would lead to a bad rating?
Agree 100%
I love this video. It is time to face facts, changes need to be made.
Yeah for all promotions, I'm one of those "watch if there's something I want to see" viewers, and lately in AEW that mostly just means MJF and Jay White. I was also curious about the Sting segment this week, personally.
- Shida is one of the best wrestlers in the world; I'm sick to death of the Outcasts.
- Okada is one of the best wrestlers in the world; it was hard to care about his nothing match.
- I like Swerve; that he's still feuding with Hangman fills me with dread.
- I like Hook; 52-year-old Rob Van Dam does nothing for me.
I don't agree the okada March was a nothing match. He got his arm broke by Danielson and OC is feuding with the BCC? And I generally am not really into the old wrestlers coming back but rvd looks pretty good out there. But I do wish that time was used on a young person.
Shida is nowhere near one of the best wrestlers in the world. There are at least 25 women who are better than her.
@@BulletClub444Life Well you're entitled to your opinion, but I would at least remind you not to confuse uninspired booking for uninspired wrestling. For what it's worth, her community rating on Cagematch is about 9.1, which does in fact place her as one of the highest-rated full-time women in the world today, as well as one of the highest-rated members of the AEW roster (of either gender).
@@MarkieDood I didn't. She's IMO genuinely massively overrated. She's a passable to decent wrestler who can have good matches with the right opponent. That's about it. Her strikes are mostly very weak, her transitions from one more to an other look clunky and in general she can only work one type of match: move, kick out, move kick out until the end.
If you honestly watch joshi wrestling and still call her one of the best in the world, you're just deluded.
AEW has basically been "I'll check out the MJF segment on UA-cam, also Collision was great for about a month" for forever now.
But now I don't even care about MJF, and that's utter insanity to me. Him and Punk made me start following again, but these days I just listen to Cornette tell me about what happened in AEW, because it's way more entertaining than AEW's actual TV shows.
Plumbers getting dropped on their head by Felix the cat has way more staying power than I ever could have imagined.
I don't get the whole thing with MJF and Max Caster. They have been playing it for laughs as if Caster has some sort of crush on him
It's nice of Bryan to finally admit what some of us have been saying for years. Don't even get me started on all the former wwe guys. Nothing about the company seems new or different. Just the same old shit I could have watched on Mondays.
Brian, I'm impressed that you were able to be even-handed in your comments here.
Booker of the year.......what a mess😂😂😂
Yes sir 😂😂😂😂😂
In the times that I watch Dynamite it usually is in the beginning and then maybe ill keep watching or start watching something else and never go back.
A lot of us have been saying this for a while... the stories generally ren't intriguing or are non-existent. Bryan finally reached a point where AEW is indefensible.
I prefer AEW over WWE, but AEW needs some kind of reboot, hiring some writers that cater for TV14 content.
100%. Need to catch their breath; so much has happened in the last while.
Well at least the people that should have stories have them. MJF, Christian and Edge are doing great with their storylines. Maybe Ricky and Big Bill? Tony is dropping the ball on everything else.
Bryan, Dynamite loses close 200k viewers every week. Every week. You just noticed now?
86 Down Votes from the "AEW Can Do No Wrong" Cult. How dare Alvarez finally address the criticisms many have had for YEARS with this promotion.
Unrelated but Dave saying that a Memphis crowd chanting "Whoop That Trick" must mean Trick Williams is breaking through is one of the single funniest wrestling bubble things I've ever seen in my life.
Also I think the stories are fine and everyone complains about everything anyways so you'll never, ever be fuckin happy.
I never heard of the chant in wrestling until trick William wait did I just agree with Dave f&*k lol
@@bash8387 lol, gotta watch Memphis film classic & Oscar winner Hustle & Flow
None of this is new for AEW.
The MJF stories are terrible. The stuff with Castor, the other story with Cole and Roddy, it’s all so dumb. It’s wild that it’s the relatively good part of the show but that’s simply down to MJF being such a great performer. He was so much better as a heel though.
Ruby Soho has matches. She wins matches.
The problem is she NEVER wins BIG matches. They book her as a total choke artist, so who cares? We know she ain’t winning.
I don't get the hype for ruby,to me she's just like jade cargill good look,great promo,sloppy wrestler her match with shida was trash,don't get me wrong she can put on a good match once a blue moon than the rest in terrible she failed in wwe now she's failing in aew i believe the problem is her to be honest
@@donzellmccalipp8510that was also Shida's fault. That match was absolute garbage but Shida is awful. Ruby can work but you can't put two bad or mediocre wrestlers in a match and expect anything good. Shida is only first ever three time champion because Tony had to promise her a record and another title run to keep her and I don't understand why he even wants to keep her. Toni Storm is the only entertaining character in that division and they don't have anyone who can wrestle in their women's division anymore. At least not on the levels of Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton (if you haven't seen her matches, you should).
Ppl complain there's no storytelling. Then too much storytelling..I think it's a great idea, having everyone coming after MJF all at once.
Story wise, I would LOVE to see another story build around Orange and his title. His previous title run really turned me into a fan.
His last run wasn't much of a story. It was just him consistently defending his title every week just as Statlander is doing now.
Huh
There was a story? lmao
@captain-brickhead8317 The story was Orange was growing increasingly desperate to defend his title, while feeling like it was a burden on his shoulders to keep defending it. He went from winning with his Orange Punch, to winning with roll-ups, trying to cheat a bit, to taking advantage in multi-man matches.
Orange is meh
Aew has always been like this
This is what happens when the observer tells people something is great and it never was. Now you guys have to admit there’s nothing but matches going on.
The exact thing bryan is complaining about with stories supposedly not advancing week by week happened here idk what he's talking about.Everything around MJF advanced as it should since he's the world champion,The Sting/Darby vs Christians crew story advanced,The BCC and Orange story advanced,Hangman and swerve advanced,etc.Some matches didn't have stories and that's fine because not everything needs weeks and weeks of build.As far as people tuning out it there was HEAVY NBA competition on which was the obvious drop between last week and this week.The only"problem"AEW has with stories is just pacing them across the show better with MJF and not doing all of them right at the beginning.All of the main stories advanced and we're starting to see build for the PPV outside of just the main event start to take form.
This is what I came here to say. I'm not at all sure wtf he's talking about.
This is what happens when you care more about Dave Meltzer star ratings than putting a good show keep booking your show for Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez and all of the UA-cam marks that parrot everything they said instead of booking the show for people that want to see good stories and good matches cause i don't care how good a match is if the booking behind the match makes no sense i wont care about the match specially when every match and every wrestler looks the same
Agree!
When AEW first formed, I said they had the wrong people in charge. From the beginning, AEW has been a television wrestling company run by people with no experience on tv. Tony never worked in wrestling before AEW. The EVPs are all career indie guys (or their wives). Head of Talent Relations is a career indie guy. The head Trainer is a career indie guy. They have no one with television experience in any position of power. You have a tv show written, produced, and booked by people that have never been on tv. All they know is indie wrestling, and indie wrestling is completely different from tv wrestling. These guys are doing what they know, and the indie stuff doesn't work on tv. QT Marshall is training their performers to wrestle on tv, when he has never done it himself. What is the end result going to be?
Story problem, in AEW? Noo, booker of the year, remember? Any criticism means Cornette simp, obviously.
TV viewers get sick of watching matches week in week out with no build.. you need to invest in the characters .. they don’t call pro wrestling ‘soap opera for men’ for no reason..
Compared to Raw, that's the same matches week in and week out.
@@PowerPackers90agree! But I think wwe is acting towards the entertainment side that has a larger audience to draw from. While aew wants to draw towards the sport side which has a more limited audience
It’s crazy how many top tier wrestlers, newcomers with bright futures, and everything in between have been devalued in AEW 🤦♂️
Kenny-MJF was booked 3 days in advance with Kenny cutting a promo about wanting a belt somebody else has already stolen from MJF. Says everything about the horrible booking.
AEW has an MJF problem
Hes bailing for WWE on 1/1/24
Book it
Sooo now the same thing we been saying is being said by the media
They lost those 200,000 viewers because the fucking Dark Order came out
Bet TK still gonna win dave meltzer booker of the year 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Wasn't that shooting in Maine right around when the ratings dropped on Dynamite?
Certain fans seem to not realize that we need a reason to care about these matche besides here's a match. Sure it's going to be sometimes good but guess what I can find that in other companies too.
Bryan totally leaves out how the bucks,shida,omega,page and so on have had 4 Years to build a fan base and the only one they've gotten is the one they already had. 700,000 is the sealing. Time to focus on newer homegrown talent to really break through the sealing. Until then the numbers will always fluctuate the same.
Now that Flair showed up were a Hogan and Bischoff away from full blown TNA
relax Flair is just there for Sting. AEW has always known how to treat legends and not overshadow the current full-time roster.
If the ratings keep going as they are, won't be long before hogan shows up
@PowerPackers90 fans have not been best pleased about flair being in aew, so he better not be around for long
Aew already has team tna
WCW vibes
MJF is the Bill Goldberg of AEW.
And by that I mean he was the only star AEW built in their entire hot period. Right now MJF in AEW 2023 is like Goldberg in WCW 1999. Not quite the floor, but feeling like it's getting there.
AEW is losing their Goldberg to WWE on 1/1/24
I enjoy AEW, very much. But I instantly turned to the Celtics when the game got underway.
Did the breaking news of the mass shooting in Maine play any part in such a sudden large drop in viewers? I know I switched over to the news once I saw a notification on my phone about it, I believe it was during the six man match.
@@deathorjustice true. I'm just wondering if that played any factor on Wednesday. Just odd for such a large drop after the first half hour. Certainly out of the norm for such a sudden drop in viewers.
@@RetroVideoVaultI think it's because the show is awful
Can’t see AEW being a thing in 2-3 years if this keeps up. Now they’re adding more PPVs all of a sudden!
They are the #1 rated show on Wednesdays. They are fine.
@@PowerPackers90it's sad if 750 is the top rated show but you're right.
Aew may be around but their TV deals will plateau
@zerozeeros Remember when people were saying TNA would be dead in 2-3 years 15 years ago?
@@zerozeeros If you think AEWs tv deal is going to plateau when they're #1 on cable for Wednesday nights a plethora of times a year,Have 3 shows they're being paid for(one David Zazslav personally asked for),And the top viewership gainer besides live sports Warner has idk what to tell you.
Tna is like a cockroach I will never die watch aew and wwe go out of business and tna will still be around lol @@PowerPackers90
But! Booker of the year 😂😂😂😂😂
Yes sir. That "non bias" aged really well lol 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I don't know about anyone else but a lot a people in my area had cable and internet problems during the show, I had to watch it later that night, once things got stable
Anyone remember the HUGE surprise of satnam Singh ?? 😂
Love to hear Bryan criticizing AEW lately. Well deserved. AEW is cold as a block of ice right now and Tony Khan has never been more unlikeable.
He is being criticizing AEW now because most of the wrestling fans know that he is not neutral
He wants to bring back the fans who left
Someone get Tony some help already.
Yeah get that "non bias know it all" dave Meltzer to help him. Seems like he knows everything and anything about this business
@@ooapaa7950Naw I meant someone who can book.
The problem is... and I was one of them... around 8:45pm i started watching coverage of the shooting in Maine. I finished Dynamite around 11pm.
Did that happen at the same time? I’m not American, so genuine question. Because that could explain why the drop was so big.
But how could that be? I thought Tony Kahn was the booker of the year in perpetuity?
Not this year he isn't
@@omegaman6494well who's gonna be? It can't be wwe/triple h. Dave Meltzer subscribers are the IWC and they hate wwe.
Bet TK is getting the bias award again 😂😂😂😂😂😂
You know, I was all ready to blast this idea, because I really liked the show, but I think some really hard-to-argue points were made. AEW just doesn't want to do the wrote, by the numbers, seen it a million times stories and formulas, and that has created some truly awesome stuff...but it has also created a very scattered structure in general. Having 3 shows helps talent get on, but then you have to book 5 hours of TV, not including ROH. That is a LOT, and I would agree that they can do better at consistency in telling those stories and doing it more.
MJF has more storylines/angles currently then AEW had total in it's first four years. But that is a plus, as long as we get to see more of it coming.
It satisfies me as an AEW fan but Tony is doing himself no favours with the booking trying to attract new fans.
And in his actions he is testing the patience of the loyal fans and you do not want to do that
I can see a slow collapse of AEW which gives me no pleasure in admitting but when you do segments with Cole and Strong your going to kill yourself.
Tony needs to get out of his own way and let some others do the booking
Considering MJF is heavily involved with his own creative and has also come up with corny BS like the tofu chants and the call and response 2012 rock shtick i wouldn't be shocked if he was the one who came up with alot of the stuff revolving around him like Roddy and cole.
@@97ECWpossibly. Part of the corny scenes work with him involved but the last couple weeks were so awful at rods house.
Whomever did those just don't haha
Almost every segment after MJF had boring old ex wwe stars… AEW don’t need them. The roster is so strong now.
MJF vs Omega should have been built over several weeks toward a PPV, but instead they rushed it for this week's Collision. Why would they drop a money feud like this out of nowhere and blow it on a weekly, lower rated Saturday night show?
This is wcw booking,
They do a no decision draw and the rematch is still intact... or there will be interference and mjf and Kenny do a tag match for the roh titles with Kenny standing in for Adam cole..
It's not rocket science, people should stop expecting what they want to happen all the time is what has to happen
They want ratings.
Bruv wwe has the same people feuding for six months and then no one complains, Kenny and mjf can do another match later on
Stories and long term booking took a hit once Cody left. It's hard to say this, but they need Vice Russo with supervision.
LOL no. Keep ur lame sports entertainment away
Like Julia hart hooking up with Buddy Matthews? 😂😂😂
I think this is the culmination of a number of things. The buzz around AEW from last year when they brought in Punk and a big number of casual fans is fading. Any casuals that hung around are wondering what the fuck they’re looking at and tuning out. AEW is cold and Tony is panicking leading to bad booking and disjointed stories.
I think AEW needs to make a decision on whether it wants to remain an alternative to WWE, with a focus on wrestling, or if it wants to emulate WWE, with stories and characters. If it’s the latter, they’re failing at it and may end up losing their core fanbase in the process, but Tony is probably beginning to realise that the core fanbase isn’t enough to be sustainable for the company long term.
AEW at it's core will always be professional wrestling because that's what the company represents,An alternative.By no means whatsoever should AEW focus on the"casuals"who might watch 1 show a month and maybe buy 1 shirt. AEW should always focus on it's core audience who actually watch the shows,who buy tickets,who buy merch,PPVs,etc.Idk what out of the main stories are supposedly disjointed anyone who's actually involved in a story has had storyline advancements,MJF and Jaye,Sting/Darby/Copeland and Christians crew,Hangman and swerve,Orange and the BCC,Jericho and the Callis Family(Which will probably include kenny again after Saturday)etc.AEWs core fanbase is more than sustainable long term as long as they stay an alternative.
@@97ECW What does AEW represent nowadays? A generic WWE rip off with good matches every now and then, but absolutely no consistency in booking and storytelling. And consistency is by far the most important thing a promotion with weekly shows needs. That's what makes people tune in, just matches with poor/ no build won't help to grow the TV audience.
@@BulletClub444Life AEW represents very good professional wrestling still. Leaning into sports entertainment aspects a bit more with MJF as champion by no means makes it a"A generic WWE rip off"That's like saying if WWE has a good match between Walter and Drew they're all of a sudden a strong style wrestling company. There is at least two good to really good matches on Dynamite and Collision almost every week,There's usually consistency in booking outside of injuries that happen or other things like travel issues that effect the booking.Consistency in storytelling almost every main feud has had consistency since they started like hangman & swerve,Jaye and MJF,Christian and his guys vs sting darby and edge,etc.There was numerous matches on Dynamite that had weeks of story like Juice vs MJF,Shida and ruby goes back to when shida beat saraya for the title,And OC has had issues with the BCC for months now.Collision on Saturday had matches that followed up from the week prior Miro vs action,BCC vs Ricky and big bill,And JJ vs Kingston to set up Lethal vs Kingston what are you even talking about.The tv audience is usually in the 900ks and #1 on cable when there isn't sports competition their tv audience is fine and clearly WBD was happy enough to give them another show for Saturdays.
@@97ECW With WWE rip off I meant: lame storytelling, overuse of annoying sports entertainment/ wrestling tropes, too much "comedy", a dull tag division and more. They did propagate the product is supposedly presented like a sport and that wins and losses would matter. If that's the case in AEW right now I'm the king of the world. And I'm not even talking about the overuse of incredibly fake-looking spot fests. Then add poor consistency (what you just deny, but whatever) with how they're booking/ pushing wrestlers and also the amount of guys who lost steam. Hook is in the exact place as he was two years ago. Takeshita beats Omega, is still Callis' lap dog, and didn't move up the card while Omega (who lost to him not long ago) gets a heavyweight title match even though it's completely undeserved. Strickland beats Hangman, then doesn't build any momentum and will likely go 50:50 with him (in other words: nobody gets elevated and remains in the exact same position, classic 50:50 booking WWE-style).
At the end of the day AEW has become just promotion with a bigger budget that feels like WWE-lite. Giving how poor creative is there is no reason to get emotionally invested. And matches aren't a selling point, then I could just buy a random show an FITE or something.
@@BulletClub444Life Lame storytelling is a subjective opinion it isn't an objective fact.The over use of tropes happens in every wrestling company after a while usually for heat for heels stuff like roll ups,interference etc AEW still barely does DQ or count out finishes.They had a ranking system but then everyone complained about it so AEW did away with the rankings.Kenny is getting a rematch because he never had one for the title before and his record is almost up so he's getting the chance to try and stop max from breaking it.Hooks only been wrestling 2 years and just started doing longer matches consistently this year,Making hook the TNT or international champion with his current experience level wouldn't make any sense. Takeshitas literally Callis' lapdog who he's manipulating just because he beat kenny wasn't going to all of a sudden change that. Takeshitas being super protected right now so he's not going to challenge for titles and lose. Swerve is still in the feud with hangman and was most certainly elevated by beating him at the last PPV gaining more credibility,Even if he loses the rematch you can still get over without going over trading wins isn't a WWE exclusive thing. People are emotionally invested in multiple AEW stories like MJF and jaye,Swerve and hangman,Copeland and Christian,Who was behind the devil mask and attacked jaye,2.0 holding Garcia back,DCF vs jericho and kenny,etc. Just look at the crowds reactions during those stories and you can see people are invested just because you aren't doesn't mean the live crowd isn't.Also "matches aren't a selling point" couldn't be more wrong when AEWs roster is their biggest strength and huge top level matches between top guys is what people have been asking for more of.
Why does Shida have the belt and what's the story? She lost her title to scum supporting Saraya for a cheap pop, got a rematch and won it back after a brief few other matches. She's probably the best worker among the female talent, always gets a crowd reaction and does a lot in general. The biggest issue is that out of 5 hours of television every week we get MAYBE 20 minutes for 3 women's matches per week. Any attempt to build a story is pointless when the men get so much more time for matches and promos that run longer than most of the women's matches. Try building a story without time and you get Excalibur trying to build the match after a brief video package showing why it's happening.
It's gotten to the point that there are no story builds for women and only a few for the men. Aside from the outliers like Swerve - Hangman, Copeland - Christian, Darby - Christian, MJF - everyone we have "here's a match, enjoy it". TK needs to stay off social media before he's accused of false advertising too. My friend when she heard he gifted Ric Flair to Sting, "I hope he kept the receipt."
booker of the year
Booker of the year for a second row coming up 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
If WWE are able to sign MJF when he becomes a free agent, then that might be the dagger through the heart of AEW.
The Christian Cage angles seem like a break from that.
WON of all people shouldn't be overanalyzing the smallest things like this. This is stupid.
Isaiah Kassidy & The Hardys have NEVER won a Trios match, ever.
Ruby Soho lost a title match to Statlander, then lost a #1 contenders match to Shida, then lost a title match to Shida.
Why are losers getting championship matches? BRING BACK THE RANKINGS!
I don’t get it , I was told Brian never says a bad thing about aew
Comes with a ton of qualifiers: "I really liked the show" and "I don't want to be doom and gloom"..neither he nor Dave will ever outright call something Tony booked awful and roast it like they try with WWE
@@Pennypackerr you cornette people are crazy
They have so many stories happening at once.
They have great storylines and storytelling.
Settle down Aubrey.
I totally agree with Byran and Vinny, man AEW have amazing matchs but they are bad in stories not sure why but i guess because it has EVPs and other key people can change stories easily...and they aren't clearly in same page thats why it has weird booking decisions like Toni vs Saraya cancelled and all sudden Shida is champion...
they are cleary writing without main ideas for future. They just write whatever for this week and thats it
none writing for long distance stories as clear as day so it is bad and this affect ratings badly... most fans are only hocked by stories upcoming not just matchs
long term stories helps alot to rating and biggest example is WWE doing it they hock up fans with long stories even if they deliver bad match matchs they still win the fans over while AEW struggles in that
I’ve watched maybe 10 aew matches total since all in. I’ve stopped watching dynamite and collision. I hadn’t watched rampage in months.
I’m genuinely back to following wrestling how I did pre 2019: follow channels like this and look up the matches that are worth watching
They gotta have storylines on rampage and collision. I read the results of those two shows cause the only show that feels "canon" is dynamite. There really is no progression. Everyone thats not MJF just feels like they're spinning their wheels. Too many start/stop pushes. People wrestle, pick up a win, and then disappear. What happened to Keith Lee? To Action Andretti? To Miro? To Lance Archer?
People start to get wins and then get disappeared. They have 5 hours of tv a week. Each show should have a storyline on it that makes them each feel important. Instead its main story on dynamite and then adjacent matches to the storyline from dynamite on rampage and collison.
Rampage and collision is just where the heels and faces of dynamite feuds pick up wins to keep momentum in their dynamite/ppv feud
They've been building santana and ortiz for weeks on rampage as well as Keith lee and shane taylor on Collision,Miro was JUST on collision in a storyline match vs action andretti,Alot of the copeland and Christian story has been on Collision,Ricky and Danielson just got done having a feud on Collision,etc.They most certainly have storylines on Collision and advancement on Dynamite as well what in the world are you talking about.
How are you going to complain about a lack of stories on 2 shows you don't watch? You're literally just talking out of your ass
Juice and MJF should have main evented, give them a reason to stay tuned in.
Everyone including Bryan were happy when the booking power was centralized and Tony started to make all the key booking decisions. While this was a good decision it took away substantial booking power from guys like Omega / Bucks who are incredible when it comes to long term story telling and also power was stripped from Jericho.
The MJF vs Omega for example didn't start from Dynamite, it started from BTE and then boom it was on Dynamite. The womens division was significantly better than it is right now and some womens matches were better but as soon as Tony got the power he did what I believe was riding the wave created when the booking was decentralized. Look at the messy decisions involved in Brit and Rosa's feud and also Rosa's booking after she won the Champion.
Also the booking of the other 3 pillars was significantly better than now. In fact Darby, Jungle Boy and Sammy have not significantly improved character wise and it can be argued that their characters have suffered significantly (especially Jungle Boy and Sammy) because of Tony's booking decisions. Hangman who was involved in what believe is the best story in AEW history was booked poorly after Tony took over the booking decisions and this is especially true after he won the Champion from Omega.
AEW booking decisions can be fixed so easily: 1. Give a great deal of booking power to Omega and Jericho, Christian can also be added to have a very diverse group of people. 2. Use the coaches and trainer to help women develop as wrestlers and have women practice their matches if needed. 3. Use Rampage / ROH to develop talent by letting them learn how to cut promos, call matches on the ring and have competitive matches and not squashes. 4. Semi split your roaster to Collision and Dynamite and it's believed that Danielson already has some booking power on Collision and so Tony might as well add him to Omega, Jericho and Christian.
There are other things I have probably left out that can be done but Tony needs a significant shift in terms of booking.
Yeah, no, this ain't it. The entire Hangman vs The Elite story happened under this model of booking. As did Jericho vs MJF and Punk VS MJF
While I don't agree with everything here I think you're on point. TK is running the Jaguars, he's vice chairman of Fulham, he's the owner of AEW and ROH and Trumedia Networks. Any one of these is enough responsibility for one person. But on top of that he handles booking and all sorts of other sub jobs within AEW and possibly within those other companies as well.
TK clearly can't handle this work load nor should he be expected to. His work has suffered as a result of his inability to delegate responsibilities. . I'd like to see Daniel Bryan retire from the ring next year as has been hinted at and take over as head booker of AEW. I'd like to see him supported by a dedicated booker for womans division and another dedicated booker for tag/trios division.
@@jeremiahmorin1867 It was a different model back then and sure I think TK deserves some credit but I can't agree that the current booking is the same model as before.
urm there is the hangman swerve story that been happening every week, jericho and the don family, orange cassidy story, Plenty other stories bryan having every week. Lets see what rating is next week. U can;t know for sure what reason was one week. It best to judge after a few. Cause last week very different
They lost that many viewers because Tony can’t book matches
Also, the company did not grow because the wrestling style is not the American wrestling style
Most of the show is Japanese wrestling style and indy wrestling style
Where is the new Mr. Perfect, the new Kurt Angle, or the new bret Hart??
Most of the show are lightweight wrestlers
Hmmmm. Wasn't that TK got the booker of the year 😂😂😂😂
MJF carrying aew rn
To it's lowest ever ratings
@@rubberchix he jus explained how the viewers dropped AFTER his seg
@@52LilBoot hahahaha "carrying"
The Bucks need to be on TV more..boost the ratings
I guess people don't realize the stories are told and continue to evolve on Being The Elite and Sammy's Vlog. They are the only 2 AEW sanctioned vlogs and they help tell the stories there. Too bad if people are missing out.
People shouldn’t have to go out of their way to follow the story.
"Wtf, this tv show makes no sense! Wait, let me look up if there is a vlog or a spinoff, that will clear things up."
Said no-one ever.
They blew through all the big stories and matches too fast. But hey, this the same platform that puts AEW on a pedestal rather than call them out like they do to WWE.
1:22 I think the mass shooter incident took some viewers.
It’s an interesting anecdote from Bryan. His criticisms are valid from a show quality standpoint but viewership is so nebulous that I’m hesitant to ascribe a drop to something this simplistic.
Tell that to their advertisers and the network. They only care about numbers.
Adam Cole breaking his own leg during a run-in... really ruined their plans for MJF.
Hey guys it's 2023, you can stop advertising that your shows are in HD. You haven't been able to buy a non-HD camera in like a decade.
Bryan finally seeing the holes in Tony Khans's bookings.
I dont get what's so wrong with AEW being the more Wrestling show of the two companies. These AEW complaints sound like complaining that Burger King doesnt sell big macs and McFlurry's. If AEW focused on "sports entertainment" over the wrestling people would be bitching that it's "WWE lite". Plus WWE storytelling isnt better. Raw is litterly groundhogs day week after week, and SD is just 1997 Nitro with the nWo....i mean "Bloodline Saga" suffocating the rest of the roster TV time. Everyone just thinks it great booking because "at least its not vince booking"
Dave and Bryan version of a North America wrestling company is different from what fans seem to want. They also want aew to grow and do better.
People don't watch Wrestling for Wrestling ironically.
Good Wrestling is fine but I like stories and characters and Wrestling comes 2nd
You are on point.
You do know "Storytelling in wrestling" does NOT equal Sports Entertainment, right?
@Snakeskin94 I mean, people are complaining like they want AEW to be WWE. Why can't AEW be AEW? You're getting 5 hours of amazing wrestling every week.