Unlike WWE and other major wrestling promotions, AEW does not hold production meetings before its televised shows or Premium Live Events. This lack of structured planning has reportedly led to frustration among talent and backstage staff.
In WWE, production meetings serve to align creative decisions, ensure match variety, and prevent segment repetition. However, according to Bryan Alvarez, AEW operates without such meetings, which has caused ongoing issues.
While recapping a recent AEW Dynamite segment involving Thunder Rosa, Alvarez expressed how many within AEW are baffled by the company’s approach:
“The bigger story here than this was just such a fucking disaster is not a week goes by, not one week goes by where I don’t hear from somebody in AEW saying, ‘Why the fuck don’t we have production meetings? We need production meetings. Things happen on every show where if we had a production meeting, they wouldn’t happen.’ But Tony [Khan] refuses to do production meetings, and here we are. This is another one. What in the fuck happened here? Nobody knows. I didn’t get a single good explanation for it. It was just everybody was on a different page, and you made the baby face look like an absolute idiot, and away we go.”
This lack of coordination has led to inconsistencies in AEW programming, including segments and matches feeling disjointed or conflicting with prior angles. It has also created confusion among agents and talent, making it harder to execute storylines effectively.
With AEW experiencing significant talent departures, including Miro, Malakai Black, and Ricky Starks returning to WWE, backstage frustration may only continue to grow if these issues aren’t addressed. Whether Tony Khan will reconsider his stance on production meetings remains to be seen.
