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Cody’s vision never aligned with the rest of AEW it’s a reason his stuff was called the Codyverse. Either way TK didn’t do right by him, he stripped him of any real decision making powers early and didn’t wanna pay him but was willing to give all those things to Punk. At least Cody was smart enough to know the ship was sinking before the rest of the world look at him now.
@@above.average.gaming.natio3026 Yes. It's not widely publicized, as Cody is a consummate professional, and he wants the best for AEW. I'd imagine he probably feels the face of the WWE shitting on AEW (esp. after coming back from there) would weaken it even more. He takes a page out of the John Cena book where he tries to be fair. Cody is always clear about the fact that he's very thankful for his time in AEW, but he does allude in a few interviews as to how things went. Between the creative and the payment disputes, that partnership was not going to be long for this world in any scenario tbh.
A lot of people point at Punk as the beginning of the downfall, but i think it was Cody Leaving that really impacted the backstage morale. Punk was just gasoline to the small fire that started after Cody left.
Seeing how The Elite refused to sit down and fix things with Punk, when this could have been a good example to the locker room, and refused to do business showed me how they don’t care about AEW. They’ve only cared about having a consistent income aka Tony’s money and a place where they can do what they want with their friends and that’s it. Growing the business of AEW and establishing it does not matter to them at all. They got out of it what they wanted and that’s it. And Kenny saying AEW doesn’t need him lol he probably doesn’t want to be in that locker room. He’s always considered NJPW his home more anyway.
"Some of these guys are serious about respecting this industry and making money in it to take care of their families. We just want to have a playground for our friends and us to flip around and pretend we are superstars." There, translated their quote properly.
I was listening through audio only, but once I heard that, I had to stop and rewind to see who said that... my goodness. Of course. One of the Bucks🤦smh. Khan, having these 2 have any influence in his company, has brought it to its current state; a glorified indy show.
@Slacker4Life3 When did "a shitload" become less than 3k??? Nobody cares about AEW, even the "talent" . They are dying in the ratings since the Big Bang Theory isn't bumping their numbers anymore. I would say it's over but it never even got started
i loved them too! i went to many shows and traveled across the country for events. My last one was Cody's second to last appearances where fans were booing him with the ladder.
HAHA! Bro you can NOT compare Cody to AJ, especially not at that time. Cody did NOTHING special in AEW and he wasn't even the face of AEW. When people think of Impact/TNA, they think of AJ. When people think of AEW, they think of MJF, Bucks, Omega, and Cody. He was part of a group. Sure he may be the face of WWE right now, but his title run has been lack luster and WWE is more about the bloodline than Cody. I think the only reason his chase for the title and "his story" got over was because the machine was behind him but now he doesn't look like he can run with the ball on his own because he is an after thought as WWE champ.
The real start of the downfall of aew will always going to be Hangman Adam Page doin business for himself against cm punk back in 2022. Never ever forget that!
@alanmacdonald1457 he wanted to be the guy who he is now, and AEW fans chewed it up and spit it out, he wasn't willing to go full heel because at that point he had probably made up his mind that he had to go to WWE to reach the heights he dreamt about. AEW is an indy with money, and if things keep going in the direction that they are, that's all they ever will be. He knew this too.
@@pinroshan020 I think their short comings are really on display when they admit that Cody was the only one to think theyve needed produces and medical staff in a Wrestling television show.
It's crazy how much mox and Jericho have aged looks wise since joining aew.. Even punk looked older in aew, when he returned to wwe he looked refreshed.
He very much looks like the guy that is desperate to be “cool” to all the neighborhood kids and offers his house for parties as long as he gets invited.
PWG didn't have a time limit to keep. AEW runs over every week. When they schedule an overrun they overrun that. I think the television show has been on time ONCE! Or maybe it was a pay per view that got done early? I do know they managed to overrun a pay per view! Sting's retirement, no less! PWG could afford to let all the wrestlers "get their shit in". That's why the thing was created in the first place. Just announced time limits on every match, so the fans can hear them, call the time every five minutes to remind the wrestlers they need to wrap things up, and occasionally remind fans that as a television production things need to get done on time. Overtime should be rare, like a sport. Rematches should be common, like a sport!
It goes like this once Cody left AEW they died once CM Punk left he exposed AEW for who they really are if Tony khan said he’s not like wwe he won’t make people stay but look at what is happening to Rey fenix
@@Slacker4Life3 do you have proof it’s 80k? Because AEW hasn’t talked about that anymore once the real numbers pulled up and dumba$$ will Ospreay even got a tattoo from that wrong number 🫵🏽😆
Tony is not fit to run a wrestling company and these wrestlers know it they have no confidence in this man anymore and its so clear. The backstage drama also isnt helping because the drama backstage is more popular than the actual show
I blame the bucks, Jericho,Omega and Tony. Jim was right when he said Tony was a mark who let the bucks and friends play wrestling. Tony allowed them to turn aew into an Indy show week after week
Omega was never the problem. He was friendly with Punk and wanted AEW to be multifaceted. And when he was world champion, AEW's ratings and attendance were at the top. Don't lump Omega in there
1:10 Kenny Admitting AEW is not good with Tony in charge of creative. lol 2:10 Kenny admits Warner Bros. Expects minimum of 500,00-600,00? we are getting close to below that 500,000
That section "AEW brought back Punk, removed the dust, the ring rust and basically prepared him for a return to WWE" 🔥 Moreover, Cody was the leader they needed, they polished Cody, added the sophistication, the media management and sent him to WWE. Shot in both feet
@henrymeanwell3972 AEW gave punk the ring sharpness, no point in denying that. Also, Punk gave it back two fold. Not only did AEW get two shows, Rampage and Collision, on the back of Punk, they had their largest gates when he was with the company. His All-in segment with Perry is still the largest AEW audience even after he left. That the two shows are doing poorly are because of AEW mismanagement of a bloated roster and the fact that Rampage is pre_taped after Dynamite means that it has no "oh" factor.
This downhill mess started when Cody left for WWE. He really was the one who built this company. He was the one who made All In possible due to a bet with Dave Meltzer. TK can pump in money as investments and capital, but he cannot run a promotion alone. His EVPs are nothing more than egoistic schmucks that tries to demolish whoever they hated. AEW is great when they launched and beat WWE with their fresh produce, but WWE really beat them overall. And choosing Jack Perry > CM Punk made me turn off on the promotion. And now, with Ricky Starks and Rey Fenix held hostage, I hated them more.
I was a fan of AEW in the beginning. I almost gave up on it beforeCM Punk showed up and did stop watching it after CM Punk left. Punk was right, it's not a real business. Tony Khan is basically the new Vince McMahon (minus all the sex.) He's toxic and doesn't now how to book a wrestling show for a wider audience than just Dave Meltzer.
The biggest lie is the whole, "Tony Khan is a nice guy" line. A nice guy would not allow this toxic environment to flourish. Through his direct actions to encourage locker room drama because it "helps the narrative" and his inaction to reign in his "friends", Tony has caused real personal and professional harm to dozens of people in the wrestling industry.
He's nice up until he has to put his big boy pants on and he has to become a boss. He's so adverse to confrontation he'll just let everything burn around him.
And the Bucks are trash, not top guys. Horrible wrestlers. Look at AEW now without Punk and Cody. I guess they kept the wrong guys and listen to the wrong guys.
Bucks are decent wrestlers but they legit give off go-away heat. They're promo and character works are cringe and I do not find them entertaining in the slightest.
Everything seems to line up with Cody leaving. The one who had the wrestling business IQ of all them combined. I would love to see this company thrive as a wrestling fan. We will see what happens after this current new deal and if they can survive.
You've done a great job of bringing everything to the surface. Just wait til Cody exposes the real reason he was unhappy at the end. It's really one guy Chris Jericho. Yes the Bucks are Meltzer stooges but Jericho has been feeding Meltzer since the 90s. Look deeper into the Punk thing. Punk never trusted Jericho cause he was a politician. When Punk left Jericho reached out to get him on his podcast cause he wanted the downloads Cabana got. Punk never responded. Once Punk got to AEW Jericho did everything he could to stir things up backstage. Jericho has Tonys ear & has probably the most input.
@brokenkayfabe I believe that is why Cody hasn't said more. Jericho is the one guy that never seems to miss a show you notice thst? Doesn't wanna risk losing his spot. This ass has also said he thinks he's the greatest of all time lol.
Will Washington: "last thing I want to do is give grifters validation" lol like he is somebody special... dude has done nothing. he is the ultimate grifter.
@@LILJAYSO777 Well atleast he is not heads up in TK's ass, giving him a fake ego boost, causing a good thing to become slowly and surely sh*t because he is so goddamn out of touch. Get your lame-ass lazy argument outta here man.
That shameless kiss ass has definitely contributed to aew losing fans. The only good idea will has ever had was vacuum Tony's cornhole on Twitter until it got him a job.
Just because someone has a good memory and can recall attendance , matches, locations and what the gate was doesn’t make them fit to book a wrestling show. Just because you have a good memory about wrestling history doesn’t make you qualified to run it.
“I don’t think Tony Kahn or anyone there is capable of booking as bad as wcw did” - oohhh boy if Little Alvarez only knew, even he has seen the light and is critical of their creative. It’s great to hear him call Uncle Dave out on his bullshit coddling of Tony
It's strange that everyone who left had problems with that friendship group (Bucks, Perry, Page, Cole, and Britt). There comes a time when you have to open your eyes to who is clearly the problem.
Great doc all around. But I love the focus around Cody leaving and the pre and post WrestleMania 38 focus. Where the perception of both companies was and everything seemed to shift the night one of show.
Tony is a sociopath who sees these wrestlers as toys, not like assets. When his toys don't do what he wants, he sidelines them indefinitely and doesn't give an explanation, because he doesn't owe his toys explainations.
That's what none of the terminally online Meltzer Marks don't understand. Just because YOU like 5'4", 135lb nerds doing 47 flips per match doesn't mean everyone else is going to. And when you have a TV show? Your responsibility and job is to offer as much variety as possible to give something to as many fans as possible, not just half a million internet marks.
@@brandondawson3782 While I agree with you I think he still has value. Maybe not as a name on its own, but his relationship with Cody and Aj could definitely help
Dude, The Bucks just said everything wrong with them being EVP and their out look on wrestling in general., they said some guys take this wrestling too seriously and we just want to have fun
They'd be fine EVPs for Chikara, Dramatic Dream Team or what not. AEW promised month after month that it was going to be a serious sports based presentation of professional wrestling, SERIOUS always being the first word. I've got no sympathy for The Young Bucks as AEW employees for that very reason. They refuse to be serious and help the company they are executive vice presidents of keep its promise. There's plenty enough goofy companies in wrestling, WWE chief among them, especially during Vince McMahon's twilight years with the zombies, magots being projected on the ring, men swimming around with shark fins, could have had "fun" over there.
7:49 WrestleMania 3 I know people go on about the Savage vs Steamboat match but people didn’t come for that match they came for the Hogan vs Andre match. It was the Hogan vs Andre match that drew the house so technically it was the best match at WrestleMania 3 because it’s the match people paid to see and wrestling is a business it doesn’t matter if the Savage vs Steamboat match was a 5 star match if it doesn’t make people pay to see it. And I think AEW’s problem is that they want to have 5 star matches over ones which have great storytelling which people are willing to pay money to see. The best story in wrestling recently was the Bloodline which interwove with Cody coming back to WWE at WrestleMania 38 and ended up with Cody beating Roman for the Undisputed Universal Title at WrestleMania 40 two years after his return. And that’s why WWE had more people invested into their shows and earning more money than AEW
I was at Wrestlemania III, and yes it was Hogan vs. Andre that was responsible for the great turnout. However, being the match that draws the people and the best match on the card are two very different things. Nobody in their right mind can watch both of those matches and claim that Hogan vs. Andre was the better match. Because of Andre's condition he just couldn't turn in the performance that Steamboat and Savage could, and that's ok. The best match that night was Steamboat and Savage and it wasn't even close.
Fanatics can't run a company anymore than someone like Vince who is nothing but Ego. Both situations lead to my ideas are perfect and the customers don't matter.
Cody Rhodes is the best signing of the decade for WWE. It might be Nick Khan & Paul Levesque that signed Punk to the company, but I'm damn sure that Cody has played some role in restoring morale & good faith of Punk in the locker room. Being that Roman was pretty much absent, Seth being the next top guy who has a major beef with Punk, and now with Roman being present, both have a beef with Punk. I guess that Cody might've played an important role as a bridge who helped to mend the problems between each parties. After AJ Styles & Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes is the best talent signing that the WWE has done in the last 2 decades. (PS: Chris Jericho should leave AEW asap to have his last few days of his career to be memorable in a good way. The more he stays there, the more it has the possibility to be forgettable & boring [like how Kurt Angle's run has been in WWE, apart from the mixed tag match]. I guess he may return to WWE for his one last run, or personally I'd like to see someone like him to go to TNA & be the actual learning tree for the young wrestlers over there, like how John Cena did his part with his US title run)
@@megaapp9185 nick khan was Punks agent before he went to wwe. It was all Nick Khan, Triple H had concerns but Nick Khan took care of the whole thing. Cody def changed the momentum of wwe though for sure.
Damn if will Washington sucks that bad but is hired due to swerve, give me an opportunity and I can book this show to a top tier promotion EASILY. I can write 3 years of storytelling for Khan rn
Tony Khan is not fit to run a company, let alone a wrestling company, because he only promotes his friends and nothing else and doesn't know how to resolve conflicts between his employees, instead choosing to let it all go nuclear. He's basically the worst version of Vince junior as well, considering they are both terrible businessmen. The biggest difference was that one's dad gave them a blank check and told them to succeed, while the other handed over on a diamond encrusted gold platter the most successful western wrestling company of all time. And don't let any WWE revisionist tell you otherwise. Least of all the worst human being alive who has had scandals and monstrous allegations dogged him for decades. Let alone the kinds of people he hired and protected. And yes, your father letting you "buy" his company for pennies on the dollar using company profits while the company was the biggest and most lucrative territory is not him "wanting to keep you out of the wrestling business".
Most of that is true, but Vince Junior is far from the worst human being alive, or even in professional wrestling. He's done more damage to professional wrestling than anyone, but as far as actual crime, well, there have been at least two serial killers in professional wrestling, one of whom targeted old ladies.
Yeah, Vince didn't "buy the WWF" from his dad. Actually his dad gave him his portion of the company which was majority ownership. The people Vince had to buy out was Gorilla Monsoon, Jack Tunney and a few other people who were partial owners.
1) booking is beyond garbage - FAN SERVICE - 2) dead story lines / no build up for " BIG " matches ( to tk ) 3) to much free creative - its become so tug and pull to get some back and forth for balance - 4) win loss records dont mean shit.. 5) biggest pull is hype and cheap pops nothing is longevity 6) TK IS A HORRIBLE BOOKER AND VISIONARY ( AEW HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL FIRST 2 YEARS )
Cody said a telling thing in the Ariel Helwani interview. When hes asked if the idea of going back to AEW was in his mind when he was resigning his contract with WWE, Cody replied it didn't even cross his mind. Even though he'll say only positive things about AEW he has no intentions of ever going back, even when they gave him reality shows and game shows to host.
The nerdy Vince McMahon, without all of the things that make nerds successful, like intimate knowledge of how the subject of their obsession actually works. And with all of Khan's NDAs he might be even more like Vince McMahon than anyone realizes.
I have to disagree. Vince crushed all of his competition over the years, turned a territory into a multi-billion dollar company, made people into superstars, and made himself a billionaire. Without Vince, there would be no Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, the Rock, Kane, the Undertaker, Macho Man, etc, etc. They would have been bouncing around from territory to territory. Vince might have lost it in his old age, but he will be remembered as a legend. Vince grew up in a dirt poor trailer park in North Carolina, then he went on to literally change the culture of the world.
@@mr.joedirt8583 Hulk Hogan was still a mega star. The AWA was would have still been the most expansive territory, and with both Hulk Hogan and The Road Warriors it'd have probably lasted. Which isn't to suggest Hogan would have never gone to WWF regardless, but that WWF could have remained a hundred million dollar territory without putting all of the other successful territories under. Most of those men would have been fine with 39 territories in the continental United States to choose from. Japan, Mexico, Argentina, UK, Nigeria, Australia even would likely be stronger markets to work in with a strong US territory system to feed them. Vince didn't put the under territories under because his business was better, he did it by intimidating arenas, radio stations, magazines, cable stations, into not running other shows, making deals with other territories for wrestlers and then violating those deals and undermining more series products by openly breaking kayfabe. I'd probably still be bitter about thirty nine territories just giving way to one company and it's next closest competition, about a nation with thousands of wrestling stars being reduced to a nation of tens of wrestling stars, hundreds of wrestlers making decent livings off of the business when it was ten times that, but if it was just people liking Vince's product more, well it'd be a bitter pill I could happily swallow. Black Saturday proves that people did not prefer Vince's product, however. Trying to run WWF television in place of Crocket's bombed. And that's okay. WWF had it's own timeslot already, people should have been allowed variety, to enjoy different styles of wrestling, but Vince McMahon just couldn't allow that. So he added some zeroes to his bank account? Good for him. He also did more damage to the professional wrestling business than anyone else to get it. He'd have still been a hundred millionaire, or more, just competently running his own territory, supporting the territory system that had been a successful business model in the form he entered it since 1948, in some form or another since 1888, and wrestling would be more fun for all of us fans instead of sifting through the indies and foreign promotions for diamonds in the rough, for quality alternatives not readily available. The territory system was in need of improvement, of modernization, that much I'll admit. Vince McMahon could have been one of the men to advance it, expand wrestling even further. Fifty, sixty territories, rather than cutting it all down for the sake of building one big house. Like imagine if all the record labels just went away, put up with Rockefeller or enjoy your indie music? All the television stations just got eaten by ABC? All the clothing stores were Gaps? If the thirty four NFL teams all fell away in favor of a Lingerie Bowl tours in a select few cities. If the only alternatives were a bunch of underfunded vanity projects, five figure independent production and in the borders of other countries. If Nintendo made the only game consoles, if Hilton had the only hotels. But I should applaud it happening to professional wrestling? Even if I enjoyed the WWF product, no. Even if everyone else was fine just migrating to the WWF product, no, but they didn't anyway. Tens of millions of people used to watch professional wrestling weekly. They were all watching different programs, but they were all watching professional wrestling. Now WWE gets two, three, maybe even four million viewers for a show and that's supposed to be applauded? But good for Vince Junior's bank account!
@@mantistobbogan890 Unproven allegations by gold digging sloots. Don't be a simp. Women don't always tell the truth. Especially when money is involved.
Tony's obsession of beating WWE in ratings lead to his own company's demise... instead he should've just focused on his own product! And there are so many wrestlers in AEW just Jericho Mercedes Osprey The Young Bucks Christian and many more who are just feeding this ego in Tony!
Around the 20:40 mark. A good example of this is what Eric Bischoff did when he made the mistake of when he brought Hogan in instead of building it right he just put the belt on him and had him beat Ric Flair in his first match in WCW. There’s a reason why by the time we got to mid 1996 Hogan wasn’t even on WCW television anymore and 14 months after he signed Hogan Erick flew to his house to try to talk to him about turning heel. If everything had worked out good, Erick wouldn’t be asking him to turn to a bad guy in Hogan would have still been on WCW television . Now in the short term, it was a very successful PPV to have Hogan come in and beat flare and so was the next PPV and so was the first clash of champions with Hogan on it. But the problem was, they blew their load the first night and by the time you get to the biggest PPV of the year, Starrcade, it’s the worst Starrcade in history. He should have had Hogan come in and have that match instead of being a world title match it be a tag team match with Hogan and Sting vs Flair and Arn. Back then you could still have tag team matches as main events. Then have them work a story up to the next PPV where it’s Hogan versus Ric Flair for the title, but either have Hogan lose by Ric Flair cheating like one of the Horsemen come in and hit him with a chair or win out or DQ. Then you get to wargames, and then you can have Hogan build a team of baby faces against the Horsemen then have one more title match where Hogan is screwed out of the championship again before Starrcade. You actually have a reason to have a steel cage match at your biggest PPV of the year aka Starrcade 94. The fans at that point would’ve been wanting him to beat Ric Flair. And the championship would’ve meant more plus it would’ve done more for WCW but the way Erick booked it. It made WCW look like a second rate wrestling company. All of the top baby faces were quickly made , hogan’s sidekick, and we watched Ric Flair do a clean job for him for a year and a half. That’s why the WCW fans by the time you got to the summer of 1995 we were done with him. Yes, those first few PPV‘s and that first class of champions, they did great ratings but by the time he’s in the feud with the dungeon of doom, we weren’t watching anymore. We didn’t start watching again full-time until Kevin and Scott showed up. And if you notice Hogan was not on WCW television for like a month before Scott Hall showed up and then for the next two months when it was just Kevin and Scott there was no hogan, but they were beating WWF in the ratings. AEW constantly does this ha habitually does this. Tony is a terrible booker. What he does is he just does dream matches for the sake of having a dream match but there’s no psychology to it. I feel like CM punk had some great matches there, but the matches didn’t mean anything.
A video about AEW and somehow, some way a mark tries making it about Hogan and Bischoff. Big surprise. 🙄 Okay, we will go there. Before Hogan got there WCW was doing two months of TV tapings over a 4 day period at Universal Studios, in front of a non paying crowd. Their house shows were in National Guard armories and high school gyms. Bringing him in and putting the belt on him immediately doubled and tripled WCW's numbers, brought back several million fans to wrestling, enabled WCW to go live on Primetime in front of paying crowds and his heel turn flipped them into the #1 brand in the World. None of which has anything whatsoever to do with AEW.
I feel terrible because AEW roster is stacked with talent and was such a trailblazer literally few years ago. Now it’s a huge company with wasted potential.
Loveeee this !! Lots of research and work went into this , and I am soooo freakin pumped watching it all. This was so so so so good !! Thank you for this
i was hyped, as a wrestling fan, when AEW was announced. watched every week and every ppv. but then i just gradually fell off watching it... i realized now why i did and why i eventually got back to WWE as the polar opposites went onto different directions. it sucks that AEW has been sinking as competition and variety is what keeps fans hooked on pro wrestling
Is there any chance that at some point grown men and women can operate a wrestling company? Is there a chance that no one screw or betray or backstab or lie or utterly destroy a persons life and just book a show and have it go down as it was scripted without defecating in someone’s bag or in their shoes or on their samich or halcyon them down and glue their A-hole shut?
Yes, it can happen for tens of years at points. Eventually wrestlers are gonna do alike all athletes though, and act out. Going corporate just makes things worse, as executives are also notorious for bad behavior. I know AEW is privately owned, but it's still corporate, relying heavily on money it doesn't actually generate from customers but partnerships.
I was rooting for AEW from Day 1, I was at All In Wembley, and I still want them to succeed. But boy has it become a car wreck and totally lost the hopeful vibes it began with. And not to be totally Cornette like because he can be off at times, but I do put a lot of it on the Elite (less so Kenny), and obviously TK has to take responsibility. I hope it sticks around and becomes more professional.
AEW was so good the first 3 years. The excitement of Punk being back, then brawl all out happen. AEW have not been able to right the ship since then.The only thing positive AEW has going on is their PPV. But I can see that dropping off if things continue which is very likely
The issue with AEW is obvious, but you have to make certain that what goes on in the back is right. You can't put on a good show if the work offscreen has not been brutally rehearsed and vetted.
Wrestlers should have to rehearse. Mention a few things they NEED to say in their promos, but otherwise let them talk. Maybe talk about a few moves that must be done in their match, but otherwise let them wrestle. Maybe make sure commentary or cameramen know which spots to watch for, but if you're running a weekly televised show and three, four, five, six house shows/spot shows a week, there is no time to rehearse. Even in cases where the promotion only ones one or two shows a month, most of the wrestlers working for it will be working for five such promotions a week to make up for the lack of work, at least if they're serious about professional wrestling being their main profession. Which again, leaves no time to rehearse. With a few exceptions, rehearsed matches tend to be worse anyway. Maybe if you're a savant like Randy Savage who is familiar enough with the promotion in question, but Raven couldn't pull it off, and few wrestlers are even as good as Raven.
AEW lost me after how they treated CM Punk a full force smear campaign to sabotage the one star that would have given them a chance to compete with WWE and they actually wanted him of all people to be gone they deserve their downfall
"We wanna have fun" Is the reason why they are in the situation now nobody takes it seriously. Which is extremely sad because in the beginning i was huge fan didnt miss a episode but now i go weeks without watching and dont feel like i miss a step when i do tune in.
Great video that demonstrates many of the holes in AEW overtime. I’m a fan of all wrestling and I’m judgemental of all companies, but I think there’s something to say about how AEW presented itself as an alternative. That would do the opposite of the other big companies yet years later, they have found themselves in the exact same spot, but Tony refuses to acknowledge anything. At least for WWE when push comes to shove a lot of of the time controversies / decisions are commented on. When Tony has absolutely nothing to say about everything, it makes you think what are you hiding or you can do no wrong. The acclaimed is a perfect example how they were up-and-coming to be the hottest new tag team in the world yet there’s nothing but Jobbers now.
Cody was the glue that kept AEW he was the leader regardless of whom was the owner! Had it not been for Cody taking that bet with Meltzer and had All in be the success it was not even TK would had met with Cody, Kenny and the Bucks! Cody was the back bone of AEW no ifs, ands or buts about it! Once Cody went back home to WWE all the dominos started falling! And for TK to take Credit for everything it is crazy when the only thing he did was bring money to it and yes that money was needed to be able to take AEW to the next level of reality but the way he like took all the credit is a slap on the face for everything the Elite went through to get it going! Had Cody been in AEW things might be different but I guess we will never know! I do hope AEW does repair itself but to do so TK needs to step back and let people that truthfully understand how the wrestling business works inside and out he is a ego maniac and he needs to do the right thing for the survival of AEW and I would love that for the company!
its simple when aew started codys way of thinking is now the real work begins the young bucks way of thinking was we made it got the big pay checks time to relax
Cody open the wound that proven to be lethal....and Punk finish the job. AEW is in life support since Punk and Cody left, they have NO STAR POWER, no FANS striking to the "vision", no rating boost since....the Punk video, and the actual home grown talent, all are lost and stagnated in the machine, Darby Allin is wasting his health, MJF wasted all what Punk and Cody did to make him the number 1 star in the company with an awful face turn and since he is just there.....and Ricky Stark the one with more natural charisma and potential have been put on ICE only because Tony cant handle a talent visiting a friend on WWE and got caught by.....a parking camera, not even nothing on TV or the PPV itself........Punk was right, this company is a joke, Tony is just a clown.
I had high hopes for AEW when it started and I was initially excited but it didn't take long before I saw that Tony doesn't take pro wrestling seriously, he doesn't respect pro wrestling. I mean, Orange Cassidy is the perfect example of that. A dude that looks like he works in a carwash doing a hands in pockets comedy sketch in the ring every week that was never, ever funny and the guy can't work, he can't even throw a worked punch but Tony pushes this guy, he was in the main event of their last PPV so AEW is just this embarrassment to pro wrestling right now. Tony can't book pro wrestling because he doesn't understand or respect it and fans see that and take offence to it. The current AEW product is very insulting in many different ways, if you are a legitimate fan of pro wrestling.
I was pumped over AEW when it was announced and Cody talked about his vision of AEW. It sounded great! It's going to be old school like JCP, with a WCW Nitro type format and WWF circa 1994-1999 caliber of wrestling? Sign me up! I got online the opening day and excitedly bought tickets to the initial PPV. My wife and I bought close to $1000 in merchandise at the PPV. We were pumped for AEW. Honestly the PPV was only okay. I rationalized, well it's a new Company and they probably had to budget the roster hence all the vanilla midgets and flippy garbage. Cody will get more actual talent in the door soon as they land a TV deal. Yeah I gave it until Cody left and..... It just never got much better. Cody was bringing in the talent and trying, but there remained the undercurrent of Indy garbage that couldn't sell out a high school gyms being prominently featured week after week.
My major takeaway from this is around 11:30: Penta and Fenix are smaller than Daniels and Kazarian. If they ever make it to WWE they'll market them as the Powerpuff Boys.
MOST OF AEW IS UNDERSIZED WRESTLERS DOING "FLIPPY STUFF" I REALLY ONLY ENJOY WATCHING THE WRESTLERS LIKE BRODY KING AND THE OTHER BIG MEN WHO WRESTLE IN A MORE OLD STYLE OF WRESTLING..
Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley is not wrong, competition should compel you to be the best you can be. I also believe that Tony Khan and Triple H can work together and create the biggest Wrestling PLE in history, WWE vs. AEW talent. And Cody Rhodes SHOULD be the bridge between the two.
As a company boss, would you want to work with another company that always badmouths you publicly? I hardly think so. Regardless of whether it's true or not, you still shouldn't do it because it only reflects badly on yourself.
Mad respect for the hard work put in making this video. As someone who is from Europe and only ever watched WWE as a kid this explains everything about what I missed during all the years I stopped watching wrestling in general. From his debut in 2007 I knew Cody was gonna be a megastar, I just didn't think it would take him that long but I'm so damn happy for him
Bullet Club was the most popular stable in the world, and The Young Bucks were part of it. Before that they were just two goofy guys with a cult following and who bought a lot of their merchandise, relatively speaking for an indie tag team that didn't sell a whole lot of tickets. When it's 2CW and you know the merchandise will sell out, one doesn't need to sell five thousand tickets. But beyond that, Bullet Club. I personally started see the charade when they started calling themselves "Bullet Club Elite" like they were somehow more important that the Guerillas of Destiny, Marty Scurll, Karl Anderson or Doc Gallows. But I didn't actively dislike them just yet. That didn't come until AEW started, and the Young Bucks had the chance to prove all of their critics wrong, to show they could contribute to a serious, sports based presentation of professional wrestling and instead decided to just keep playing around. One of them did a flip off the entrance tunnel through a table, legitimately injured himself, and still wouldn't sell it. If your own well being is a joke, why should I care?
Apparently, Cody was the only one in Leadership who actually knew how to run a wrestling company. Since his departure, AEW has devolved into a mere a vanity project... Kudos for an insightful video!
You can't run a company when the company has a narcissist steering the ship. TK is a narcissist. The story was over before it ever got interesting. Crying shame. Money don't buy sense.
Like that you compiled segments how Triple H thinks and how Tony Mark thinks. No wonder we see clear difference which company does well and which doesn't.
Why do the African American talent need a writer? It's not like they have their own separate shows. Why do the talent need writers to begin with? This is professional wrestling! Put names in a book next to each other, preferably in ways that highlight strengths and hide weaknesses. Give them a time frame to keep whatever they're doing in, maybe emphasize a few specifics that need to happen. If you want to write a daytime drama, a soap opera, a sitcom, a stage play, a short film, go ahead and do that!
As a wrestler, AEW is the place you go to get a very, very nice paycheck. You dont go there to get famous. You go there to buy yourself a mansion and some cars and feed yourself and your family. And to live a good life. That doesn't seem so bad. Many people would be happy with that. "You're not using me or under utilizing me." Who cares. You're getting paid handsomely for it.
First off, thank you so much for this video! Great insight. Second, this highlights for me, what the real issue was/is with AEW from the beginning. Cody had a vision for AEW and The Bucks had a vision, and TK is more closely aligned with The Bucks vision, because it is antithetical to the WWE. AEW has always had an identity issue because of this, and wrestlers that come from WWE and are given freedom to do whatever they want, lean into doing the WWE style of things, because AEW isnt showing them another way, or developing the young wrestlers in a way that gives fans, wrestlers, even media alike, a glimpse into what AEW's identity is. Because AEW hasnt really established it and so it falls into the category of an independent wrestling promotion with a TV deal. Its very interesting.
Become rich! www.youtube.com/@brokenkayfabes?sub_confirmation=1
Wow. I am blown away by the positive feedback! Thank You all for being patient while I continue to find my footing on UA-cam. Please comment and/like for the algorithm. More Behind The Scenes Documentaries!
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thank you for your hrd work man
GREAT WORK!
Cody’s vision never aligned with the rest of AEW it’s a reason his stuff was called the Codyverse. Either way TK didn’t do right by him, he stripped him of any real decision making powers early and didn’t wanna pay him but was willing to give all those things to Punk. At least Cody was smart enough to know the ship was sinking before the rest of the world look at him now.
He is one of my sons favorite wrestlers
didn't wanna pay him?
@@above.average.gaming.natio3026 yep
@@above.average.gaming.natio3026 Yes. It's not widely publicized, as Cody is a consummate professional, and he wants the best for AEW. I'd imagine he probably feels the face of the WWE shitting on AEW (esp. after coming back from there) would weaken it even more. He takes a page out of the John Cena book where he tries to be fair. Cody is always clear about the fact that he's very thankful for his time in AEW, but he does allude in a few interviews as to how things went. Between the creative and the payment disputes, that partnership was not going to be long for this world in any scenario tbh.
A lot of people point at Punk as the beginning of the downfall, but i think it was Cody Leaving that really impacted the backstage morale. Punk was just gasoline to the small fire that started after Cody left.
Not one single person on earth has ever said Tony reminds them of Paul haymen lmao
Agreed. Not one. lol
The only similarity is tanking their wrestling companies via shoddy business models and practices.
Guarantee Jericho and will Washington has told him that. Theywas lying of course, but yes men will say anything for money.
Seeing how The Elite refused to sit down and fix things with Punk, when this could have been a good example to the locker room, and refused to do business showed me how they don’t care about AEW. They’ve only cared about having a consistent income aka Tony’s money and a place where they can do what they want with their friends and that’s it. Growing the business of AEW and establishing it does not matter to them at all. They got out of it what they wanted and that’s it. And Kenny saying AEW doesn’t need him lol he probably doesn’t want to be in that locker room. He’s always considered NJPW his home more anyway.
Kenny and the Buckaroos have spent more time sitting at home the last 3 years than actively wrestling and they're on guaranteed contracts
“Some of these guys are just so dead serious about pro wrestling…we wanna have fun.” No further explanation needed.
"Some of these guys are serious about respecting this industry and making money in it to take care of their families. We just want to have a playground for our friends and us to flip around and pretend we are superstars."
There, translated their quote properly.
@ Bravo 🤝
I was listening through audio only, but once I heard that, I had to stop and rewind to see who said that... my goodness. Of course. One of the Bucks🤦smh. Khan, having these 2 have any influence in his company, has brought it to its current state; a glorified indy show.
Cody leaving fatally wounded AEW. Punk leaving put it out of its misery. It's been a stumbling corpse for a while now.
yeah for wwe fans who just love talking about aew so much. AEW is still selling a shit load of tickets for every ppv.
@Slacker4Life3 When did "a shitload" become less than 3k??? Nobody cares about AEW, even the "talent" . They are dying in the ratings since the Big Bang Theory isn't bumping their numbers anymore. I would say it's over but it never even got started
@@Slacker4Life3
WWE sell more tickets then AEW.
@@Slacker4Life3Dynamite and Collision will end up like Rampage (out of business)
I loved AEW when it first started! Then Tony Kahn put alot of his buddies in high ranking jobs . AEW losing Cody is like Impact losing Styles.
i loved them too! i went to many shows and traveled across the country for events. My last one was Cody's second to last appearances where fans were booing him with the ladder.
@@brokenkayfabe something changed when Cody left and cm punk 1st backstage brawl like the show been on a slow death ever since
HAHA! Bro you can NOT compare Cody to AJ, especially not at that time. Cody did NOTHING special in AEW and he wasn't even the face of AEW. When people think of Impact/TNA, they think of AJ. When people think of AEW, they think of MJF, Bucks, Omega, and Cody. He was part of a group. Sure he may be the face of WWE right now, but his title run has been lack luster and WWE is more about the bloodline than Cody. I think the only reason his chase for the title and "his story" got over was because the machine was behind him but now he doesn't look like he can run with the ball on his own because he is an after thought as WWE champ.
@@dr6770 lol yes to weird internet fans Cody isnothing special. go watch aew and new japan dude. Cody is the company's top draw.
@@THEYCOOKED*was* not is. Also to think Cody was AEW's biggest draw is absolutely laughable. You clrealy didn't watch the product from day dot. 😂
The real start of the downfall of aew will always going to be Hangman Adam Page doin business for himself against cm punk back in 2022. Never ever forget that!
He is the starting point
The downfall began when Cody left. It wasn't long before ratings dropped as well as the company's credibility
@@corsicacommander8371 cody leaving probably was very bad for the backstage but he was stinking it up on stage in aew
@corsicacommander8371 I agree. Cody leaving was the Start as quality steadily degraded. The Hangman promo was the Accelerator
@alanmacdonald1457 he wanted to be the guy who he is now, and AEW fans chewed it up and spit it out, he wasn't willing to go full heel because at that point he had probably made up his mind that he had to go to WWE to reach the heights he dreamt about. AEW is an indy with money, and if things keep going in the direction that they are, that's all they ever will be. He knew this too.
Cody was instrumental in AEW. Him leaving was the beginning of their “current state”
man the elite dump all over their company.. so wild.
Their egos are their weaknesses anyway.
Mostly the Bucks
must be tough working for your number one fan! 11:50 i feel so bad
@@pinroshan020 I think their short comings are really on display when they admit that Cody was the only one to think theyve needed produces and medical staff in a Wrestling television show.
Not so much Omega surprisingly….
It's crazy how much mox and Jericho have aged looks wise since joining aew.. Even punk looked older in aew, when he returned to wwe he looked refreshed.
He very much looks like the guy that is desperate to be “cool” to all the neighborhood kids and offers his house for parties as long as he gets invited.
@bixbycro who you referring to?
Hes talking about Tony Khan.
Alcohol is hell of a drug
He looks absolutely fresh and genuinely happy
AEW is PWG with a budget but with somehow worst booking and smaller crowds.
PWG didn't have a time limit to keep. AEW runs over every week. When they schedule an overrun they overrun that. I think the television show has been on time ONCE! Or maybe it was a pay per view that got done early? I do know they managed to overrun a pay per view! Sting's retirement, no less! PWG could afford to let all the wrestlers "get their shit in". That's why the thing was created in the first place. Just announced time limits on every match, so the fans can hear them, call the time every five minutes to remind the wrestlers they need to wrap things up, and occasionally remind fans that as a television production things need to get done on time. Overtime should be rare, like a sport. Rematches should be common, like a sport!
@stylevstar253 I've been saying this since day one.
It goes like this once Cody left AEW they died once CM Punk left he exposed AEW for who they really are if Tony khan said he’s not like wwe he won’t make people stay but look at what is happening to Rey fenix
And Ricky Starks
@ facts
died? they sold 80k tickets without both of them. you negative people are hilarious
@@Slacker4Life3 do you have proof it’s 80k? Because AEW hasn’t talked about that anymore once the real numbers pulled up and dumba$$ will Ospreay even got a tattoo from that wrong number 🫵🏽😆
@@Slacker4Life3
Yeah to like two PPVs. That's it. No look at WWE.
Tony is not fit to run a wrestling company and these wrestlers know it they have no confidence in this man anymore and its so clear. The backstage drama also isnt helping because the drama backstage is more popular than the actual show
Yeah it’s incredible how people can’t see Tony for what he is: a gay man. Just like Bischoff, a gay man can’t run a wrestling business for very long.
because tony comes from the real world not the carny world he treats his wrestlers like people do in sports like a family but u think thats bad
@@kyleday5026tony is a gay man. He could never run a successful wrestling business.
@@kyleday5026not family....employees
Tony's not fit to play GM mode on 2K24.
I blame the bucks, Jericho,Omega and Tony. Jim was right when he said Tony was a mark who let the bucks and friends play wrestling. Tony allowed them to turn aew into an Indy show week after week
Omega was never the problem. He was friendly with Punk and wanted AEW to be multifaceted. And when he was world champion, AEW's ratings and attendance were at the top. Don't lump Omega in there
Replace Omega with Hangman and everything you said is accurate
1:10 Kenny Admitting AEW is not good with Tony in charge of creative. lol
2:10 Kenny admits Warner Bros. Expects minimum of 500,00-600,00? we are getting close to below that 500,000
and wwe is close to under a million. cable is dead. yall trying to say aew is dying is funny.
Paul Heyman has more creative talent in his left pinky finger than Tony, Jericho and rest of the EVPs all in their combined fragile bodies. 🤓🤓
That section "AEW brought back Punk, removed the dust, the ring rust and basically prepared him for a return to WWE" 🔥
Moreover, Cody was the leader they needed, they polished Cody, added the sophistication, the media management and sent him to WWE.
Shot in both feet
Removed the ring rust? The guy was pretty much hurt the entire time lol.
@henrymeanwell3972 AEW gave punk the ring sharpness, no point in denying that. Also, Punk gave it back two fold. Not only did AEW get two shows, Rampage and Collision, on the back of Punk, they had their largest gates when he was with the company. His All-in segment with Perry is still the largest AEW audience even after he left. That the two shows are doing poorly are because of AEW mismanagement of a bloated roster and the fact that Rampage is pre_taped after Dynamite means that it has no "oh" factor.
This downhill mess started when Cody left for WWE. He really was the one who built this company. He was the one who made All In possible due to a bet with Dave Meltzer.
TK can pump in money as investments and capital, but he cannot run a promotion alone. His EVPs are nothing more than egoistic schmucks that tries to demolish whoever they hated.
AEW is great when they launched and beat WWE with their fresh produce, but WWE really beat them overall.
And choosing Jack Perry > CM Punk made me turn off on the promotion. And now, with Ricky Starks and Rey Fenix held hostage, I hated them more.
I was a fan of AEW in the beginning. I almost gave up on it beforeCM Punk showed up and did stop watching it after CM Punk left. Punk was right, it's not a real business. Tony Khan is basically the new Vince McMahon (minus all the sex.) He's toxic and doesn't now how to book a wrestling show for a wider audience than just Dave Meltzer.
So Cody what is the only person there that knew their ass from a hole in the ground.
The biggest lie is the whole, "Tony Khan is a nice guy" line. A nice guy would not allow this toxic environment to flourish. Through his direct actions to encourage locker room drama because it "helps the narrative" and his inaction to reign in his "friends", Tony has caused real personal and professional harm to dozens of people in the wrestling industry.
"Nice" guys are rarely "good" men. He's a boy playing with his toys.
He's nice up until he has to put his big boy pants on and he has to become a boss. He's so adverse to confrontation he'll just let everything burn around him.
@@elnyayawhen has he put big boy pants on ever?
Tony Kahn is this generations Dixie Carter.
Tony is worse at least tna had more years of success and better stars
And the Bucks are trash, not top guys. Horrible wrestlers. Look at AEW now without Punk and Cody. I guess they kept the wrong guys and listen to the wrong guys.
Bucks are decent wrestlers but they legit give off go-away heat. They're promo and character works are cringe and I do not find them entertaining in the slightest.
I really want to see Ricky Starks in NXT soon.
hes my last fave in AEW. its miserable.
Him in NXT, MJF on the main shows
bro...this was a lot of work. props!
IMO Tony Kahn is a guy with someone elses money and no responsibility or knowledge on how to properly do the job he has given himself.
Wow 😮😮 this ship sunk faster in 5 years than WCW did in 12 years 😅😅 than TNA did in 8 years
Without any if the stars or glory. Just all the negativity wcw had
Everything seems to line up with Cody leaving. The one who had the wrestling business IQ of all them combined. I would love to see this company thrive as a wrestling fan. We will see what happens after this current new deal and if they can survive.
You've done a great job of bringing everything to the surface. Just wait til Cody exposes the real reason he was unhappy at the end. It's really one guy Chris Jericho. Yes the Bucks are Meltzer stooges but Jericho has been feeding Meltzer since the 90s. Look deeper into the Punk thing. Punk never trusted Jericho cause he was a politician. When Punk left Jericho reached out to get him on his podcast cause he wanted the downloads Cabana got. Punk never responded. Once Punk got to AEW Jericho did everything he could to stir things up backstage. Jericho has Tonys ear & has probably the most input.
Remember he called Punk a cancer after brawl out?? Later he acted like he tried to mediate
@@rickeyholmes420 Also the kylie rae thing... NDA's are very real in AEW.
@brokenkayfabe I believe that is why Cody hasn't said more. Jericho is the one guy that never seems to miss a show you notice thst? Doesn't wanna risk losing his spot. This ass has also said he thinks he's the greatest of all time lol.
@brokenkayfabe please do more of this stuff. It's awesome & I think you are doing great work.
I have a weird feeling we will hear something dark about Jericho in near future
Will Washington: "last thing I want to do is give grifters validation" lol like he is somebody special... dude has done nothing. he is the ultimate grifter.
@@LILJAYSO777 Well atleast he is not heads up in TK's ass, giving him a fake ego boost, causing a good thing to become slowly and surely sh*t because he is so goddamn out of touch. Get your lame-ass lazy argument outta here man.
That shameless kiss ass has definitely contributed to aew losing fans.
The only good idea will has ever had was vacuum Tony's cornhole on Twitter until it got him a job.
Just because someone has a good memory and can recall attendance , matches, locations and what the gate was doesn’t make them fit to book a wrestling show. Just because you have a good memory about wrestling history doesn’t make you qualified to run it.
“I don’t think Tony Kahn or anyone there is capable of booking as bad as wcw did” - oohhh boy if Little Alvarez only knew, even he has seen the light and is critical of their creative. It’s great to hear him call Uncle Dave out on his bullshit coddling of Tony
amen
It's strange that everyone who left had problems with that friendship group (Bucks, Perry, Page, Cole, and Britt).
There comes a time when you have to open your eyes to who is clearly the problem.
replace Cole with Jericho interms of the drama
Khan is the biggest wrestling fan!
A wrestling fan does not make a good business man.
Great doc all around. But I love the focus around Cody leaving and the pre and post WrestleMania 38 focus. Where the perception of both companies was and everything seemed to shift the night one of show.
thank you! be sure to check my hour long Cody doc! if you enjoyed this!
Tony is a sociopath who sees these wrestlers as toys, not like assets. When his toys don't do what he wants, he sidelines them indefinitely and doesn't give an explanation, because he doesn't owe his toys explainations.
It’s not about what Tony likes. And that’s what he doesn’t understand
That's what none of the terminally online Meltzer Marks don't understand. Just because YOU like 5'4", 135lb nerds doing 47 flips per match doesn't mean everyone else is going to.
And when you have a TV show? Your responsibility and job is to offer as much variety as possible to give something to as many fans as possible, not just half a million internet marks.
Imagine Kenny deciding to finally drop the bs and going to WWE...
His stock has a MUCH lower evaluation than 5 years ago. Not sure WWE would even be interested.
@@brandondawson3782 While I agree with you I think he still has value. Maybe not as a name on its own, but his relationship with Cody and Aj could definitely help
wwe definitely would sign Kenny. they signed the good brothers afterall
@@brokenkayfabe Kenny is better than 97% of that roster 🤣 he’ll get signed if he wanted to explore the market
@@BX315 Kenny and Ricky Starks are my two remaining favorites in AEW. Cant wait to see Kenny in WWE. So many amazing potential feuds.
Dude, The Bucks just said everything wrong with them being EVP and their out look on wrestling in general., they said some guys take this wrestling too seriously and we just want to have fun
11:48 imagine working for your number 1 fan and still claiming to be miserable and want to leave.
i included a lot of those types of moments.
@@brokenkayfabe good work mate
They'd be fine EVPs for Chikara, Dramatic Dream Team or what not. AEW promised month after month that it was going to be a serious sports based presentation of professional wrestling, SERIOUS always being the first word. I've got no sympathy for The Young Bucks as AEW employees for that very reason. They refuse to be serious and help the company they are executive vice presidents of keep its promise. There's plenty enough goofy companies in wrestling, WWE chief among them, especially during Vince McMahon's twilight years with the zombies, magots being projected on the ring, men swimming around with shark fins, could have had "fun" over there.
7:49 WrestleMania 3 I know people go on about the Savage vs Steamboat match but people didn’t come for that match they came for the Hogan vs Andre match. It was the Hogan vs Andre match that drew the house so technically it was the best match at WrestleMania 3 because it’s the match people paid to see and wrestling is a business it doesn’t matter if the Savage vs Steamboat match was a 5 star match if it doesn’t make people pay to see it. And I think AEW’s problem is that they want to have 5 star matches over ones which have great storytelling which people are willing to pay money to see. The best story in wrestling recently was the Bloodline which interwove with Cody coming back to WWE at WrestleMania 38 and ended up with Cody beating Roman for the Undisputed Universal Title at WrestleMania 40 two years after his return. And that’s why WWE had more people invested into their shows and earning more money than AEW
I was at Wrestlemania III, and yes it was Hogan vs. Andre that was responsible for the great turnout. However, being the match that draws the people and the best match on the card are two very different things. Nobody in their right mind can watch both of those matches and claim that Hogan vs. Andre was the better match. Because of Andre's condition he just couldn't turn in the performance that Steamboat and Savage could, and that's ok. The best match that night was Steamboat and Savage and it wasn't even close.
Sean Ross sapp is all elite
He just has relationships that he rather not ruin. Otherwise he wont get scoops.
Fanatics can't run a company anymore than someone like Vince who is nothing but Ego. Both situations lead to my ideas are perfect and the customers don't matter.
Cody Rhodes is the best signing of the decade for WWE. It might be Nick Khan & Paul Levesque that signed Punk to the company, but I'm damn sure that Cody has played some role in restoring morale & good faith of Punk in the locker room. Being that Roman was pretty much absent, Seth being the next top guy who has a major beef with Punk, and now with Roman being present, both have a beef with Punk. I guess that Cody might've played an important role as a bridge who helped to mend the problems between each parties.
After AJ Styles & Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes is the best talent signing that the WWE has done in the last 2 decades.
(PS: Chris Jericho should leave AEW asap to have his last few days of his career to be memorable in a good way. The more he stays there, the more it has the possibility to be forgettable & boring [like how Kurt Angle's run has been in WWE, apart from the mixed tag match]. I guess he may return to WWE for his one last run, or personally I'd like to see someone like him to go to TNA & be the actual learning tree for the young wrestlers over there, like how John Cena did his part with his US title run)
@@megaapp9185 nick khan was Punks agent before he went to wwe. It was all Nick Khan, Triple H had concerns but Nick Khan took care of the whole thing. Cody def changed the momentum of wwe though for sure.
Damn if will Washington sucks that bad but is hired due to swerve, give me an opportunity and I can book this show to a top tier promotion EASILY. I can write 3 years of storytelling for Khan rn
Why oh why are millions of dollars wasted on ignorance. Kahn has the mentality of a child. Great doc btw!
thank you so much!
Tony Khan is not fit to run a company, let alone a wrestling company, because he only promotes his friends and nothing else and doesn't know how to resolve conflicts between his employees, instead choosing to let it all go nuclear.
He's basically the worst version of Vince junior as well, considering they are both terrible businessmen.
The biggest difference was that one's dad gave them a blank check and told them to succeed, while the other handed over on a diamond encrusted gold platter the most successful western wrestling company of all time.
And don't let any WWE revisionist tell you otherwise. Least of all the worst human being alive who has had scandals and monstrous allegations dogged him for decades. Let alone the kinds of people he hired and protected.
And yes, your father letting you "buy" his company for pennies on the dollar using company profits while the company was the biggest and most lucrative territory is not him "wanting to keep you out of the wrestling business".
Most of that is true, but Vince Junior is far from the worst human being alive, or even in professional wrestling. He's done more damage to professional wrestling than anyone, but as far as actual crime, well, there have been at least two serial killers in professional wrestling, one of whom targeted old ladies.
Yeah, Vince didn't "buy the WWF" from his dad. Actually his dad gave him his portion of the company which was majority ownership. The people Vince had to buy out was Gorilla Monsoon, Jack Tunney and a few other people who were partial owners.
1) booking is beyond garbage - FAN SERVICE -
2) dead story lines / no build up for " BIG " matches ( to tk )
3) to much free creative - its become so tug and pull to get some back and forth for balance -
4) win loss records dont mean shit..
5) biggest pull is hype and cheap pops nothing is longevity
6) TK IS A HORRIBLE BOOKER AND VISIONARY ( AEW HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL FIRST 2 YEARS )
Cody said a telling thing in the Ariel Helwani interview. When hes asked if the idea of going back to AEW was in his mind when he was resigning his contract with WWE, Cody replied it didn't even cross his mind. Even though he'll say only positive things about AEW he has no intentions of ever going back, even when they gave him reality shows and game shows to host.
Tony is not a leader and he never had a clue. AEW isn't a business, it's a lick
Tony is slowly becoming the person he criticized.
Vince McMahon
The nerdy Vince McMahon, without all of the things that make nerds successful, like intimate knowledge of how the subject of their obsession actually works.
And with all of Khan's NDAs he might be even more like Vince McMahon than anyone realizes.
I have to disagree. Vince crushed all of his competition over the years, turned a territory into a multi-billion dollar company, made people into superstars, and made himself a billionaire. Without Vince, there would be no Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, the Rock, Kane, the Undertaker, Macho Man, etc, etc. They would have been bouncing around from territory to territory. Vince might have lost it in his old age, but he will be remembered as a legend. Vince grew up in a dirt poor trailer park in North Carolina, then he went on to literally change the culture of the world.
@@mr.joedirt8583 Hulk Hogan was still a mega star. The AWA was would have still been the most expansive territory, and with both Hulk Hogan and The Road Warriors it'd have probably lasted. Which isn't to suggest Hogan would have never gone to WWF regardless, but that WWF could have remained a hundred million dollar territory without putting all of the other successful territories under. Most of those men would have been fine with 39 territories in the continental United States to choose from. Japan, Mexico, Argentina, UK, Nigeria, Australia even would likely be stronger markets to work in with a strong US territory system to feed them.
Vince didn't put the under territories under because his business was better, he did it by intimidating arenas, radio stations, magazines, cable stations, into not running other shows, making deals with other territories for wrestlers and then violating those deals and undermining more series products by openly breaking kayfabe. I'd probably still be bitter about thirty nine territories just giving way to one company and it's next closest competition, about a nation with thousands of wrestling stars being reduced to a nation of tens of wrestling stars, hundreds of wrestlers making decent livings off of the business when it was ten times that, but if it was just people liking Vince's product more, well it'd be a bitter pill I could happily swallow. Black Saturday proves that people did not prefer Vince's product, however. Trying to run WWF television in place of Crocket's bombed. And that's okay. WWF had it's own timeslot already, people should have been allowed variety, to enjoy different styles of wrestling, but Vince McMahon just couldn't allow that.
So he added some zeroes to his bank account? Good for him. He also did more damage to the professional wrestling business than anyone else to get it. He'd have still been a hundred millionaire, or more, just competently running his own territory, supporting the territory system that had been a successful business model in the form he entered it since 1948, in some form or another since 1888, and wrestling would be more fun for all of us fans instead of sifting through the indies and foreign promotions for diamonds in the rough, for quality alternatives not readily available. The territory system was in need of improvement, of modernization, that much I'll admit. Vince McMahon could have been one of the men to advance it, expand wrestling even further. Fifty, sixty territories, rather than cutting it all down for the sake of building one big house.
Like imagine if all the record labels just went away, put up with Rockefeller or enjoy your indie music? All the television stations just got eaten by ABC? All the clothing stores were Gaps? If the thirty four NFL teams all fell away in favor of a Lingerie Bowl tours in a select few cities. If the only alternatives were a bunch of underfunded vanity projects, five figure independent production and in the borders of other countries. If Nintendo made the only game consoles, if Hilton had the only hotels. But I should applaud it happening to professional wrestling? Even if I enjoyed the WWF product, no. Even if everyone else was fine just migrating to the WWF product, no, but they didn't anyway. Tens of millions of people used to watch professional wrestling weekly. They were all watching different programs, but they were all watching professional wrestling. Now WWE gets two, three, maybe even four million viewers for a show and that's supposed to be applauded? But good for Vince Junior's bank account!
A rapist?
@@mantistobbogan890 Unproven allegations by gold digging sloots. Don't be a simp. Women don't always tell the truth. Especially when money is involved.
Tony's obsession of beating WWE in ratings lead to his own company's demise... instead he should've just focused on his own product!
And there are so many wrestlers in AEW just Jericho Mercedes Osprey The Young Bucks Christian and many more who are just feeding this ego in Tony!
26:00 i like how he frames his complaint to be so outlandish "will was responsible for writing this whole show" who is actually saying that?
This video was a real eye opener. The rot is worse than I imagined.
Cody was what made aew work and Tony is the money and he should have stayed out of the way
His ego wouldn't allow it😮
Around the 20:40 mark. A good example of this is what Eric Bischoff did when he made the mistake of when he brought Hogan in instead of building it right he just put the belt on him and had him beat Ric Flair in his first match in WCW.
There’s a reason why by the time we got to mid 1996 Hogan wasn’t even on WCW television anymore and 14 months after he signed Hogan Erick flew to his house to try to talk to him about turning heel.
If everything had worked out good, Erick wouldn’t be asking him to turn to a bad guy in Hogan would have still been on WCW television .
Now in the short term, it was a very successful PPV to have Hogan come in and beat flare and so was the next PPV and so was the first clash of champions with Hogan on it. But the problem was, they blew their load the first night and by the time you get to the biggest PPV of the year, Starrcade, it’s the worst Starrcade in history. He should have had Hogan come in and have that match instead of being a world title match it be a tag team match with Hogan and Sting vs Flair and Arn. Back then you could still have tag team matches as main events. Then have them work a story up to the next PPV where it’s Hogan versus Ric Flair for the title, but either have Hogan lose by Ric Flair cheating like one of the Horsemen come in and hit him with a chair or win out or DQ.
Then you get to wargames, and then you can have Hogan build a team of baby faces against the Horsemen then have one more title match where Hogan is screwed out of the championship again before Starrcade. You actually have a reason to have a steel cage match at your biggest PPV of the year aka Starrcade 94.
The fans at that point would’ve been wanting him to beat Ric Flair. And the championship would’ve meant more plus it would’ve done more for WCW but the way Erick booked it. It made WCW look like a second rate wrestling company. All of the top baby faces were quickly made , hogan’s sidekick, and we watched Ric Flair do a clean job for him for a year and a half. That’s why the WCW fans by the time you got to the summer of 1995 we were done with him. Yes, those first few PPV‘s and that first class of champions, they did great ratings but by the time he’s in the feud with the dungeon of doom, we weren’t watching anymore. We didn’t start watching again full-time until Kevin and Scott showed up.
And if you notice Hogan was not on WCW television for like a month before Scott Hall showed up and then for the next two months when it was just Kevin and Scott there was no hogan, but they were beating WWF in the ratings.
AEW constantly does this ha habitually does this. Tony is a terrible booker. What he does is he just does dream matches for the sake of having a dream match but there’s no psychology to it. I feel like CM punk had some great matches there, but the matches didn’t mean anything.
A video about AEW and somehow, some way a mark tries making it about Hogan and Bischoff. Big surprise. 🙄
Okay, we will go there. Before Hogan got there WCW was doing two months of TV tapings over a 4 day period at Universal Studios, in front of a non paying crowd. Their house shows were in National Guard armories and high school gyms.
Bringing him in and putting the belt on him immediately doubled and tripled WCW's numbers, brought back several million fans to wrestling, enabled WCW to go live on Primetime in front of paying crowds and his heel turn flipped them into the #1 brand in the World.
None of which has anything whatsoever to do with AEW.
If Kenny leaves AEW, that could be the final nail in the coffin for them.
I feel terrible because AEW roster is stacked with talent and was such a trailblazer literally few years ago. Now it’s a huge company with wasted potential.
Loveeee this !! Lots of research and work went into this , and I am soooo freakin pumped watching it all. This was so so so so good !! Thank you for this
thank you man
Ain't no way Adam Cole and co. Could compare to hall and nash
I’m loving these videos! Awesome quality! Great stories! Can’t wait to keep watching. Thank you for putting these together so well.
thank you so much!
facts!
Every time Tony says good question means he will talk his way around it
But he doesn't, he tiptoes around the question asked and tries unsuccessfully to change the topic
i was hyped, as a wrestling fan, when AEW was announced. watched every week and every ppv. but then i just gradually fell off watching it...
i realized now why i did and why i eventually got back to WWE as the polar opposites went onto different directions.
it sucks that AEW has been sinking as competition and variety is what keeps fans hooked on pro wrestling
Truly a shame. I havent gone back to wwe. Just clips. I used to watch full episodes of AEW and travel across country for many shows.
Is there any chance that at some point grown men and women can operate a wrestling company? Is there a chance that no one screw or betray or backstab or lie or utterly destroy a persons life and just book a show and have it go down as it was scripted without defecating in someone’s bag or in their shoes or on their samich or halcyon them down and glue their A-hole shut?
Yes, it can happen for tens of years at points. Eventually wrestlers are gonna do alike all athletes though, and act out. Going corporate just makes things worse, as executives are also notorious for bad behavior. I know AEW is privately owned, but it's still corporate, relying heavily on money it doesn't actually generate from customers but partnerships.
who is the Girl at 22:43 ?
Girl on cinema
Girl on Cinema?
I was rooting for AEW from Day 1, I was at All In Wembley, and I still want them to succeed. But boy has it become a car wreck and totally lost the hopeful vibes it began with. And not to be totally Cornette like because he can be off at times, but I do put a lot of it on the Elite (less so Kenny), and obviously TK has to take responsibility. I hope it sticks around and becomes more professional.
AEW was so good the first 3 years. The excitement of Punk being back, then brawl all out happen. AEW have not been able to right the ship since then.The only thing positive AEW has going on is their PPV. But I can see that dropping off if things continue which is very likely
The issue with AEW is obvious, but you have to make certain that what goes on in the back is right. You can't put on a good show if the work offscreen has not been brutally rehearsed and vetted.
Wrestlers should have to rehearse. Mention a few things they NEED to say in their promos, but otherwise let them talk. Maybe talk about a few moves that must be done in their match, but otherwise let them wrestle. Maybe make sure commentary or cameramen know which spots to watch for, but if you're running a weekly televised show and three, four, five, six house shows/spot shows a week, there is no time to rehearse.
Even in cases where the promotion only ones one or two shows a month, most of the wrestlers working for it will be working for five such promotions a week to make up for the lack of work, at least if they're serious about professional wrestling being their main profession. Which again, leaves no time to rehearse. With a few exceptions, rehearsed matches tend to be worse anyway. Maybe if you're a savant like Randy Savage who is familiar enough with the promotion in question, but Raven couldn't pull it off, and few wrestlers are even as good as Raven.
2:00 That’s the first time I’ve heard someone in the company talk about ratings expectations, and it’s exactly where they are now. 😅
AEW lost me after how they treated CM Punk a full force smear campaign to sabotage the one star that would have given them a chance to compete with WWE and they actually wanted him of all people to be gone they deserve their downfall
I really wanna see a superstar like Kenny omega have a final run in wwe I think he’d shine, shame jay white didn’t go there instead
me too!!
Cody coming back to WWE with his AEW entrance at Wrestlemania, had to have an effect on AEW as well
"We wanna have fun" Is the reason why they are in the situation now nobody takes it seriously. Which is extremely sad because in the beginning i was huge fan didnt miss a episode but now i go weeks without watching and dont feel like i miss a step when i do tune in.
Great video that demonstrates many of the holes in AEW overtime. I’m a fan of all wrestling and I’m judgemental of all companies, but I think there’s something to say about how AEW presented itself as an alternative. That would do the opposite of the other big companies yet years later, they have found themselves in the exact same spot, but Tony refuses to acknowledge anything. At least for WWE when push comes to shove a lot of of the time controversies / decisions are commented on. When Tony has absolutely nothing to say about everything, it makes you think what are you hiding or you can do no wrong. The acclaimed is a perfect example how they were up-and-coming to be the hottest new tag team in the world yet there’s nothing but Jobbers now.
Cody was the glue that kept AEW he was the leader regardless of whom was the owner! Had it not been for Cody taking that bet with Meltzer and had All in be the success it was not even TK would had met with Cody, Kenny and the Bucks! Cody was the back bone of AEW no ifs, ands or buts about it! Once Cody went back home to WWE all the dominos started falling! And for TK to take Credit for everything it is crazy when the only thing he did was bring money to it and yes that money was needed to be able to take AEW to the next level of reality but the way he like took all the credit is a slap on the face for everything the Elite went through to get it going! Had Cody been in AEW things might be different but I guess we will never know! I do hope AEW does repair itself but to do so TK needs to step back and let people that truthfully understand how the wrestling business works inside and out he is a ego maniac and he needs to do the right thing for the survival of AEW and I would love that for the company!
agreed he needs to do whats best for his company..it apparent there isn't anyone except some wacked fans that have an allegiance tot he company.
Love that you're back great documentary as always 👏
thank you this took me a while!
What can you expect when you have someone running the company but knows absolutely nothing about the business.
Good work on the video. Nicely done.
Thank you very much!
Here I was thinking that RJ City was the Phantom Menace of AEW, in walks Will Washington
4 real
its simple when aew started codys way of thinking is now the real work begins the young bucks way of thinking was we made it got the big pay checks time to relax
Cody open the wound that proven to be lethal....and Punk finish the job. AEW is in life support since Punk and Cody left, they have NO STAR POWER, no FANS striking to the "vision", no rating boost since....the Punk video, and the actual home grown talent, all are lost and stagnated in the machine, Darby Allin is wasting his health, MJF wasted all what Punk and Cody did to make him the number 1 star in the company with an awful face turn and since he is just there.....and Ricky Stark the one with more natural charisma and potential have been put on ICE only because Tony cant handle a talent visiting a friend on WWE and got caught by.....a parking camera, not even nothing on TV or the PPV itself........Punk was right, this company is a joke, Tony is just a clown.
Down with AEW. Glad I’m on the right side. THEN, NOW, FOREVER, TOGETHER ☝🏿
I had high hopes for AEW when it started and I was initially excited but it didn't take long before I saw that Tony doesn't take pro wrestling seriously, he doesn't respect pro wrestling. I mean, Orange Cassidy is the perfect example of that. A dude that looks like he works in a carwash doing a hands in pockets comedy sketch in the ring every week that was never, ever funny and the guy can't work, he can't even throw a worked punch but Tony pushes this guy, he was in the main event of their last PPV so AEW is just this embarrassment to pro wrestling right now. Tony can't book pro wrestling because he doesn't understand or respect it and fans see that and take offence to it. The current AEW product is very insulting in many different ways, if you are a legitimate fan of pro wrestling.
I was pumped over AEW when it was announced and Cody talked about his vision of AEW. It sounded great! It's going to be old school like JCP, with a WCW Nitro type format and WWF circa 1994-1999 caliber of wrestling?
Sign me up!
I got online the opening day and excitedly bought tickets to the initial PPV. My wife and I bought close to $1000 in merchandise at the PPV. We were pumped for AEW.
Honestly the PPV was only okay. I rationalized, well it's a new Company and they probably had to budget the roster hence all the vanilla midgets and flippy garbage. Cody will get more actual talent in the door soon as they land a TV deal.
Yeah I gave it until Cody left and..... It just never got much better. Cody was bringing in the talent and trying, but there remained the undercurrent of Indy garbage that couldn't sell out a high school gyms being prominently featured week after week.
“I coulda walked into summerslam with the aew belt that night.”
Sure, Jan. 😒
My major takeaway from this is around 11:30: Penta and Fenix are smaller than Daniels and Kazarian. If they ever make it to WWE they'll market them as the Powerpuff Boys.
MOST OF AEW IS UNDERSIZED WRESTLERS DOING "FLIPPY STUFF" I REALLY ONLY ENJOY WATCHING THE WRESTLERS LIKE BRODY KING AND THE OTHER BIG MEN WHO WRESTLE IN A MORE OLD STYLE OF WRESTLING..
There is nothing wrong with the flips. They are just over done.
Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley is not wrong, competition should compel you to be the best you can be.
I also believe that Tony Khan and Triple H can work together and create the biggest Wrestling PLE in history, WWE vs. AEW talent. And Cody Rhodes SHOULD be the bridge between the two.
WWE gains absolutely nothing from throwing AEW that life raft.
Yeah there is 0 reason to that.
As a company boss, would you want to work with another company that always badmouths you publicly? I hardly think so. Regardless of whether it's true or not, you still shouldn't do it because it only reflects badly on yourself.
@@TheUncleWulf my guy wishes another Monday Night Wars or Tuesday Night Wars
Mad respect for the hard work put in making this video. As someone who is from Europe and only ever watched WWE as a kid this explains everything about what I missed during all the years I stopped watching wrestling in general. From his debut in 2007 I knew Cody was gonna be a megastar, I just didn't think it would take him that long but I'm so damn happy for him
Omega kinda half jokingly saying "I'll make my return for new Japan instead" quite a while ago
Makes his return to new Japan instead next year.
😂
27:22 i thought i was the only one that got turned off by the podcast since he joined!
Never got the hype behind the young bucks.. They seem like frat boys that were given a disproportionate amount of authority.
Bullet Club was the most popular stable in the world, and The Young Bucks were part of it. Before that they were just two goofy guys with a cult following and who bought a lot of their merchandise, relatively speaking for an indie tag team that didn't sell a whole lot of tickets. When it's 2CW and you know the merchandise will sell out, one doesn't need to sell five thousand tickets. But beyond that, Bullet Club.
I personally started see the charade when they started calling themselves "Bullet Club Elite" like they were somehow more important that the Guerillas of Destiny, Marty Scurll, Karl Anderson or Doc Gallows. But I didn't actively dislike them just yet. That didn't come until AEW started, and the Young Bucks had the chance to prove all of their critics wrong, to show they could contribute to a serious, sports based presentation of professional wrestling and instead decided to just keep playing around. One of them did a flip off the entrance tunnel through a table, legitimately injured himself, and still wouldn't sell it. If your own well being is a joke, why should I care?
Maybe AEW should get taken over by Shane McMahon.
By Vince so he can Bury it next to ECW AND WCW.
Came across this by chance. Great editing work, great piece of wrestling history, great doc. Checking out more of your vids now
Much appreciated! hope you enjoy
Apparently, Cody was the only one in Leadership who actually knew how to run a wrestling company. Since his departure, AEW has devolved into a mere a vanity project... Kudos for an insightful video!
You can't run a company when the company has a narcissist steering the ship. TK is a narcissist. The story was over before it ever got interesting. Crying shame. Money don't buy sense.
My goodness. Obviously, there was some time and effort put into this. The editing is fantastic. Great job!
Thank you so much!
Like that you compiled segments how Triple H thinks and how Tony Mark thinks. No wonder we see clear difference which company does well and which doesn't.
Why do the African American talent need a writer? It's not like they have their own separate shows. Why do the talent need writers to begin with? This is professional wrestling! Put names in a book next to each other, preferably in ways that highlight strengths and hide weaknesses. Give them a time frame to keep whatever they're doing in, maybe emphasize a few specifics that need to happen. If you want to write a daytime drama, a soap opera, a sitcom, a stage play, a short film, go ahead and do that!
Why do they not need a writer?
As a wrestler, AEW is the place you go to get a very, very nice paycheck. You dont go there to get famous. You go there to buy yourself a mansion and some cars and feed yourself and your family. And to live a good life. That doesn't seem so bad. Many people would be happy with that. "You're not using me or under utilizing me." Who cares. You're getting paid handsomely for it.
First off, thank you so much for this video! Great insight. Second, this highlights for me, what the real issue was/is with AEW from the beginning. Cody had a vision for AEW and The Bucks had a vision, and TK is more closely aligned with The Bucks vision, because it is antithetical to the WWE. AEW has always had an identity issue because of this, and wrestlers that come from WWE and are given freedom to do whatever they want, lean into doing the WWE style of things, because AEW isnt showing them another way, or developing the young wrestlers in a way that gives fans, wrestlers, even media alike, a glimpse into what AEW's identity is. Because AEW hasnt really established it and so it falls into the category of an independent wrestling promotion with a TV deal. Its very interesting.
Thank you so much.