One of the main and rightful criticisms of the All Elite Wrestling product is that it takes things beyond the point of logic for ridiculous and/or dangerous stunts. We’ve already seen the laundry list of injuries that this approach can cause, with AEW ace, Will Ospreay as the latest example. He can’t draw money for the company in the ring when he’s going to be on the sidelines for a year with neck surgery. The same can be said for Swerve, he’s a popular athlete that can gracefully soar through the air, which is something that the audience is willing to pay to see, but that can’t happen until he recovers from knee surgery. Granted, injuries are a part of the game, but there’s no reason to completely disregard the risk/reward ratio. The basics of the business can be risky enough, as one wrong step can put someone out of action, but that increases exponentially with many of the stunts of the modern era. However, there’s also the structure or lack thereof side of the equation that creates a completely different problem as far as the inability to be able to realistically follow up or build upon anything if the goal was scorched earth. If every pay-per-view main event match is the end of the world, what do you do when the sun rises the next day?
Ultimately, it leads to diminishing returns, a trend that was not surprisingly started to some degree in ECW, as fun as that product was, but was put into overdrive in the current industry.. It might sound cliche or antiquated, but it remains true, if you see a head-to-head collision then a fender bender seems tame by comparison.
AEW has booked more tables than anyone can count, barbed wire, nails stuck in Moxley’s back, literally someone set on fire with a flamethrower, and too many risky stunts than could be realistically listed. The obvious result of such a skewed risk/reward ratio is the injury rate, but again, the other side of that is that there’s simply not much else to do at some point.
Just a few weeks ago, MJF bled buckets in the world title match before the gory stunt show of the 10-man cage match in the main event. So, now what?
This is a predicament that could’ve been avoided, but Tony, knowingly or unknowingly booked the product into a corner. Less than four full weeks after Forbidden Door, All Elite Wrestling will be tasked with selling the audience another $50 pay-per-view over the course of just a few episodes of television. At this point, there are two remaining episodes of Dynamite left without an announced main event for the PPV. Is it realistically possible for the company to book a worthwhile world title match?
The answer is probably someone from the Don Callis family, and given enough time, Callis probably could sell a world title main event to the audience, but when you take into account how there are so many members of the faction without the focus on a specific performer, it would put any member of the stable in a rather flimsy position of a challenger for Adam Page. Just my two cents since it’s not a possibility based on the amount of stock Tony has seemingly put into Page as the champion, if it was my decision, I’d book Konosuke Takeshita to beat Page for the championship before he challenged for the IWGP belt next month. Essentially, AEW should run with Takeshita as a top guy before New Japan decides to specifically brand him as their top star.
That being said, the main event is still up in the air so we can only look at the current card 10 days before the event.
Adam Copeland and Christian against FTR should be a solid bout given the amount of experience and talent involved in the segment, but the entire storyline seemed rushed so it doesn’t have the cache that it could’ve had otherwise. Copeland’s return to the company from injury was rather lukewarm, Christian’s dismissal from his stable was room temperature, and despite still being arguably the best tag team in the business, FTR’s status is almost an ice cube. Keep in mind, FTR took the pin last month because The Hurt Syndicate didn’t want to drop the titles. Speaking of The Hurt Syndicate, the scheduled six man tag against Ricochet and the Gates of Agony is nothing more than a way to get them on pay-per-view. They might have a point, but it’s clear that the lackadaisical presentation of the product doesn’t suite The Hurt Syndicate so they simply aren’t going to lose to the majority of the roster. This match was booked to give them a win so there’s no much substance to it or the storyline itself.
Another example of a bout that lacks substance is Riho challenging Mercedes Mone for the TBS championship. Riho hasn’t appeared in AEW in over a year and only had a handful of appearance in the past few years. Are the fans really supposed to believe that she has any chance of winning the championship? Furthermore, why should the fans invest in her as a character when it’s obvious that she’s only going to be there for a cup of coffee before she disappears for an extended period of time again. Don’t forget, this is a part of a $50 pay-per-view, not a TV match that probably wouldn’t maintain a rating so is Riho/Mercedes truly a selling point for the show?
The ship sailed on the MJF vs. Mark Briscoe feud when Friedman move onto the world title feud against Page, and when Briscoe shifted toward the Don Callis faction. To attempt to revisit it now is just a way to do a lesser version of what they could’ve done months ago that could’ve had a much more productive payoff. In short, Friedman should be doing something more important than a rehash of an angle that was fumbled initially, and Briscoe continues to be underutilized.
The women’s four-way match is an excuse to shoehorn a few more names on the card as a substitute for compelling storytelling. It’s a sharp contrast to how well done the Toni Storm/Mariah May angle for earlier this year, and displays a lack of true booking skill because nobody will truly be better off after this four-way, and the stagnant nature of the characters is one of the biggest criticisms of the product.
The Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin coffin match is supposed to be a follow-up of sorts to the 10-man cage match since it had the spot where Moxley put a fork through Darby’s ear. This goes back to the original concept of how a fender bender looks rather mundane after a head-to-head collision. What exactly are this guys going to do? Why book them against each other only a few weeks after the gory spots they did at Forbidden Door? It goes without saying that there’s going to be some level of comparison between the two bouts so it’s either going to be flat after such a gory segment last month or there’s going to be a ridiculous risk to try to top the reckless stunt show from last month.
Maybe this is too negative, but I honestly think it’s a realistic look at the card and the lack of meat on the bone in terms of importance to the product. The reason that I point this out is that when you’re trying to sell a $50 pay-per-view in the modern era, especially during the continued uncertainly of the economy, the slapstick approach isn’t a selling point for the audience. To put it in perspective, while some fans will have access to the new WWE pay-per-view model through their cable providers at no extra charge if they have the ESPN channels already, there were already some complaints from those that would have to pay $30 for access to the pay-per-views.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
