today I look back at AEW and the beginning of AEW Dynamite, where the company started and my journay as an AEW fan. How the product changed, my thoughts on what has gone right and wrong. And why i almost stopped watching AEW altogether.
#aew
[Music] hey everybody Welcome to assemble I’m Matt great to have you here today we’re talking about aew I have watched aew since the beginning since it first came out and I almost fell off from watching the product overall kind of recently now I want to talk about aew in general with all of you because I am a fan of it I’m a fan of just having pro wrestling available to watch to be able to have alternative options growing up my whole life watching WWF WWE then being able to watch TNA and impact during kind of its Heyday and then eventually being able to have the experience of aw launching and seeing it from start until now we’ve had the product now for 5 years and I thought it’d be cool to be able to talk a little bit about why I almost fell off watching it and I say almost because I haven’t I still watch the pay-per-views I almost said ples I still watch the pay-per-views I still watch Dynamite but we’ve got Rampage we’ve got collision and there are I think some big issues with the product overall and if you’re a dieh hard aw fan amazing if you’re a Die Hard WWE Fan amazing this isn’t about we’re going to talk trash and crap about why aew is a crap product but there are issues with it that I want to be able to discuss there are issues with WWE as well but this video Let’s look back a little bit when aew was first announced and it was coming out and Tony KH was leading the CH and still is Tony by the way seemed L more put together didn’t he his hair was shorter he had the glasses he just looked like a wrestling nerd and it was kind of fun it was like cool this nerdy billionaire is starting a wrestling company you had the likes of Jericho coming out you had the buck the elite Kenny Omega you had big name pack showed up you got hangman breaking out as a new star in aew and as a new talent for me a lot of the talent not to mention you had Cody rhod Dustin rhods and so on but for me experiencing aew when it first launched I was super excited for it the reason why was because one it was an alternative to WWE in 2018 and really even before that like I feel 2016 17 18 19 and 20 and 20 I we get into Co era but like there were years of WWE that I felt were almost borderline unwatchable as a fan and I have watched WWE forever even when it has been absolute trash in my opinion I have still tuned in to watch and those years right around the time of aew coming out was really hard to watch WWE story lines were crap endless rematches Vince just doing random matches stuff that didn’t make sense character development wasn’t there there were so many issues and it was borderline unwatchable to see WWE so when aew came out I was so pumped I thought this is an alternative for me this is going to expose me to different wrestlers it’s going to expose me to different styles of Storytelling within wrestling quick fast-paced action being able to just experience what a new crop of talent and what a new company could do with wrestling that really seemed to have the budget the push the talent in there to really see what it could do so when aw launched a dynamite in October of 2019 this was huge and I remember watching it beginning to end because it’s the debut episode and I was intrigued to see who would show up what they would do what what it would look and feel like that is a big thing for me when it comes to wrestling is the overall feel and I was like oh is this going to feel tiny is this going to feel like a small little Arena and it’s going to feel like TNA or is it going to feel different it felt different it looked different you had the dueling tunnels you had a different entrance you had a different feel for the intro you had way different talent and again for me there’s a lot of people that I wasn’t familiar with with and I liked that a lot I lik that there was more cursing blood it felt more vibrant it felt alive the arena was packed that first debut episode of dynamite also got over a million viewers for the show it had me hooked you ended up the first episode ended with Jericho and you’ve got the Inner Circle being born Jake Hager debuting on Dynamite at the end of the show and the crowd was going electric for it it was a big deal you had John Moxley debut attack Kenny Omega put him through the table and all the glass going everywhere they made the show and again debut episode yes they’re going to throw everything they can at it totally understand but it started off with a bang and subsequently for that whole year and beyond that I was hooked with aw and I was a big big fan watching Dynamite every single week wanting to get more familiar with the product getting invested in the stories enjoying stories like MJ versus Jericho enjoying hangman rise up the ranks being able to see the Young Bucks put on some crazy matches Cody rhods on Cody Island doing his store but like they had so much stuff going on it did however feel even in the early days a little splintered the women’s division really felt like it was on its own Island Cody felt like he was doing his own thing uh TNT title you had the heavyweight division the Tag Division they felt very like split in their own kind of sections of the show and they didn’t feel totally connected all the time which was a critique I had of it but I was in I I liked watching everything that this had to offer I would see characters I would see wrestlers like wllo start to break out from Pinnacle and mjf and becoming familiar with mjf as a new fan of his and figuring out who is this guy why do I like him every time he’s on the microphone I’m entertained I love his promos even Jericho at the time it was exciting to see a giant WWE name like Chris Jericho and yeah he was doing so much cool stuff in New Japan and then he finally came over and he was kind of leading the charge when it came to aw in those early days and it was exciting to see what he was doing what Inner Circle was all about there was a lot of cool stuff on the show that really drew me in and then it started to kind of fall off for me in like the last year I watched every week and then they announced Rampage and when you had Rampage come out you got CM Punk and Tony khon signed CM Punk coming back to wrestling and it’s the first time we had seen him in forever and I’m a big CM Punk fan but this meant a lot the crowd and they debuted him on rampage they didn’t put him on Dynamite they had pushed Rampage to be the secondary show the run the smackdown side of things right that equivalent they wanted to beef this thing up I had been to aw Rampage page I’ve seen it the crowd was hot and CM Punk coming into the company it was a big deal it was a big big name to get and we had incredible feuds him starting off with Darby Allen was amazing you had him versus Darby the really really impressive Feud great storytelling between him and mjf it was fun to see and then and I’m not saying that it’s because well Punk left and you had brawl out and then everything took a downfall I’m sure there are points in this where people can point in time where aw started to maybe slip or splinter off or started to go down a little bit and you can look at a multitude of ways of like Talent versus ratings uh the crowd sizes quality of shows like there’s endless ways to kind of cherry-pick what what did not work or what is not working in aw but the early days of it man it felt like it was fun and I tuned in every week and I was excited because WWE was not doing it raw was crap and then I was able to watch Raw and then I had aw on Wednesdays and then I was able to watch Rampage and I got Smackdown I kind of had my fill and those early pay-per-views for aw were fun and I was paying for those every single month too to support it cuz I was really intrigued but then I fast forward and I fast forward to I guess the last year 2023 especially and before I move on mention forgot to mention other names you had the likes of Brian Danielson coming in Adam Cole coming into the company massive deals both of them coming in the same night really feeling like aw was going to the next level you got Alistar black Malachi black Keith Lee you had really cool names in there but as I fast forward to 2023 I started to really fall off of aew and really started to struggle to watch it every week and this wasn’t because oh the CM Punk left and there’s brawl out and it it’s I think it’s just been a combination of everything I’ve watched aew like I said since day one I followed the feuds I followed the pay-per-views followed the product seen them launch Rampage seen them launch collision and as we have come into 23 and 2024 I’m just not connecting with it as much but what about you for me it’s been a struggle for the last year and a half and I started to wonder what it is why is it why do I feel like I am not enjoying it as much is it just because I’m enjoying WWE’s product more in the last 12 to 18 months maybe but that doesn’t stop me from watching other wrestling I still want to enjoy everything so that’s not really it because I like having alternative options and seeing different feuds different matchups but I started to really try to dissect for me what is it and it really starts to feel like they’re not doing enough storytelling for me that has been the big reason why I’ve almost fallen off of aw because I feel like every single week on Dynamite every single month with pay-per-views the pay-per-views can put on some Banger matches now that you have the like because you have the likes of will ospr and you have a you have a talented roster but I feel like there is a lack of Storytelling overall there are some stories don’t get me wrong and some of them are fun in fact the story line with the EVPs the Young Bucks like I’m not a big bucks fan and I like it I kind of do like it I think it’s interesting to see where they’re going to go with it with okata and and see how they’re going to take this up a notch and take it to the next level and can they land it with this fun storyline that they’re doing but for me it’s felt like it’s just lacked that sizzle that special feeling and it’s sad to see that you know there’s endless pictures online of the crowd sizes going down and again when I go back and I look at aew Dynamite first year first episode in first year crap the Arenas are full Crowds Are hot big names a lot of fun happening the Crowders energized and as I watch Dynamite now Crowds Are small not a lot of enthusiasm turning to the same markets all the time viewership is down overall you’re going from a million views to 8 900,000 sitting comfortably at north of 800,000 which is incredible going down and down and down and when I look at ratings and and it doesn’t totally matter I understand that but it’s an indicator and and it’s an indicator of people’s interest I think in the product whatever the product is and so I see that and I’m like yeah it’s getting into like 600 ,000 and they when they launched Collision I was like okay cool they’re going to do another show and I thought we’ve we got so much aew product and I think that is partially my problem with it and why I almost kind of left it is it started to get too thin and I’ll go back a little bit here for a second so we have Dynamite we had the YouTube shows at the time dark in elevation and I couldn’t keep up with that cuz they’re on YouTube and it’s just too much there there there’s a cap for me of how much I can consume but you had Dynamite aw dark and elevation Rampage then you had collision and when Rampage numbers started to really go in the tank it really did feel like WWE’s version of velocity like it really started to feel like a third brand like the stories didn’t really happen on rampage there wasn’t anything of consequence there you weren’t really going to see any of the large names from Dynamite showing up on rampage they got rid of darken elevation started reducing the time Rampage became that extra show so then they launched collision and I was not really a fan of them launching Collision now it was really really a mess if you remember the launch of collision because the marketing was all over the place we didn’t know if CM Punk was going to come back it was a big headlining name that they wanted to kind of anchor with the show as we know and so I’m like well I’m going to give it a chance maybe this is going to be their shot to be able to take two hours to dynamite and you got 2 hours of collision happening and you also got Rampage in there too and Ring of Honor as well so when Collision launched I was given it a shot once again excitement level is up for me felt intrigued like the roster kind of felt like they were doing a brand split wasn’t really clear but now I had two pretty good shows and very quickly Collision just kind of fell off and it’s also time of the shows they’re on really late and I say really late but I’m an old man but they’re on late and it started to very quickly show that not a ton of intriguing stuff was happening on collision it was still happening on Dynamite as the primary show so one of the issues I’ve had with aw as a product is Tony KH splintering off the product into so many directions over bloating the roster too as I look at it all feeling like they signed anybody and everybody they could especially in the early days making that roster huge only recently have we seen or heard of a couple of talents leaving aew some their contracts are just up they don’t renew some are just let go but in large part Tony khong keeping everybody and great keep people employed I’m all for it people get TV time people get to wrestle and do their jobs amazing but the roster is so big and the additional shows they put on didn’t feel like they were doing more other than just offering more more wrestling but seeing the ratings and seeing my own personal interest in it it starts to go down and I wonder if other wrestling fans feel the same way because I started to notice that I was skipping Dynamite like one week the next week the next week and then certain things bring me back in like watching swerve and the rise of swerve Strickland and becoming world champion is incredible and I love swerve but I see like the Women’s Division and they brought in Mercedes and I’m like okay cool Sasha Banks let’s see what she can do she’s still injured or has been injured and she’s going to have her first match coming soon but you brought her in and it’s just segment after segment and promo after promo with with nothing there’s nothing there and it doesn’t feel special so I’ve almost fallen off because I think a lot of lack of direction is a big thing and getting bored of just seeing endless matches that have no vested Direction where they’re going for the large part it’s not always the case we’re not seeing the aw audience grow we’re seeing it shrink but what do you think did you almost fall off from a like I did I’m still watching I still try to tune in almost every week but I am actually down to like just watching Dynamite cuz the rest I don’t feel like there’s any big consequence there what do you think they need to do how do you improve it how do you get back to when aw felt like it was on fire and hot and it was almost mustsee or maybe you still watch all the time and that’s awesome but let me know in the comments below I’d love to know what you think just my two cents on the whole thing have a great day and if you guys enjoy videos like this click right here cuz we have more WWE and we’ll have more aew content coming at you have a great day see you
43 Comments
Who the F*** is this guy and why do I care?
It’s gotten stale. There’s no storylines. I don’t hate AEW but the HHH era has just made raw and Smackdown so hot
AEW😅
I still hope for AEW to be a success but I haven't watched it in a year. It was too many dream matches and no stories of any interest.
This is a very real and cool dissection of what happened to aew. I've always been a huge fan of aew mainly from in ring work but i agree fully with the very telling lack of stories. This is one of the main reasons why i loved MJFs title run with all of his stories and making the aew atmosphere feel so connected. I hope they add more stories so people can get behind the wrestlers.
I stopped watching AEW full time after the CM Punk MJF feud. AEW right now has a drawing problem. They don't have a big draw that's making people turn the show on. MJF was the last guy that was even somewhat of a draw. Although once he drawed them in the show still had the problems going on that they still have today. Tony Khan is a decent matchmaker but he's not a booker. He doesn't know how to format a TV show or book a card properly. There's a litany of issues I could go all day about. Their commentary is a fuddled mess. Between Excalibur and Tony Shivani talking over each other about how AEW is so great or talking about a rare move that was used once in Japan in 1987. If I was Tony Khan this is just me now I would write a blank check Mauro Ranollo. Because for me at least commentary is half the point when watching a wrestling show. And it doesn't help that the bucks are ratings poison. They suck there's no other way about They suck there's no other way around it. Like I said I could go on and on. They also have a losing aura problem. How many big debuts has AEW had only for them to be squandered not long afterwards.
I remember when Punk Debuted, then Danielson and Cole at All Out 2021. Seemed like the sky was the limit at the time…sigh I hope they pick back up
I dipped watching AEW after 4 years.
My biggest problem is basic psychology (The Moves. The constant No DQ matches. The Commentary team. Refs etc) and continuity.
I absolutely agree that AEW brought a lot of people back watching wrestling again, including me. BUT overall…I think they're damaging the perception of wrestling as a whole with the lack of basic in ring psychology on their shows.
The first new talent that caught my attention was Jungle Boy. It was awesome knowing who his dad was and him not using that to his advantage. Looks at what’s happened since then. There’s some good and then there’s some really bad. Tony is his own worst enemy at times. And yea Cm Punk sucks.
Bc it sux
Sorry, you're a bit of wwe fan boy. And that cool, but today's wwe is like a new attitude era.
Some weeks, the shows are really exciting, and other weeks, the show is not worth watching. Not everyone is a CM punk fan. There are a lot of midcard wrestlers that should be main superstars now. Some of your top wrestlers' matches are boring. AEW struggles with storyline and finishing feuds. Aew need good storyteller's. They have the best matches, and for just wrestling, they have the better roster.
I lost my trust in AEW. They will debut big names but they won't follow through with them. Those wrestlers just seem to get forgotten.
Yeah man, the booking is just not good. Feels directionless
Reason why AEW and TNA don’t survive to keep people is cause when WWE guys come in, they start their storyline referring to their WWE character
an aew mark would just summarize that you are a hater and wwe drone 😅😂😅
Wwe after WM has been unwatchable boring and stale lame creative now until now I’d say wwe creative was miles ahead but EVP story over anything in wwe rn new bloodline is garbage and no one cares what they’re gonna do with Jade and they chose punk over Will
AEW's big problem for me is that the Mexican Luchadors are 10x more entertaining than most of the mainstay wrestlers. It's doing very well with the female wrestlers now as opposed to the beginning years when 43 lb Riho somehow was champion and Britt Baker won matches by putting her hand in her opponent's mouth. Big guys just pounding on each other gets repetitive. Watching Bryan Danielson kick people for half the match gets repetitive. Seeing Orange Cassidy every show gets repetitive. Just my opinion but as far as story telling in concerned, NXT was blowing both WWE and AEW away. That'll probably change for a little while because of the promotions to the main roster of some of the best NXT wrestlers but once the writers get used to the new talent coming in and learn how to write for their personalities it'll get better. Also, as far as AEW goes, I'm a little tired of seeing 50+ year old wrestlers and some of the newer guys look like they've never been to a gym in their lives. They don't need to look like Brian Cage but they should look like they've lifted weights every once in a while.
Biggest problem AEW has is that people wanted something different…then because it wasn't like WCW, they got bored and began to slag it off because there aren't any stoopid fart or vomit skits like on WWE.
Also since they stopped the internet shows, the lower end of the roster don't get a fair crack of the whip.
I mean tbf WWE do the same thing with obscure NXT talent as well as the call ups that they have misused in the past (and how they're treating Dragunov right now isn't helping his next steps imo).
I did! Why did I stop? Tony Khan
What happened to wardlow
My opinion on aew is they had so much good will at the start and have proceeded to piss it away but refuse to admit they have.
3 TV shows shouldn't be an issue. Have 1 live, 2 taped. Either have a taped showcase a weekly highlight show for Sunday afternoons.
Wwf ran RAW, Smackdown and heat really well, I watched all 3.
In 2021 when WWE released Bray Wyatt I was done with them. AEW was crushing it with Danielson and especially with Punk. But it started sliding after Brawl Out and that slide has just continued. Meanwhile, McMahon getting tossed from WWE (finally) just really elevated WWE a ton. Then add in that the main reason I was into AEW was Punk and he moved to WWE and it's just a real sinking ship. I like Ospreay and Danielson and MJF, but I'm not sure those three can turn things around, especially since Tony is just… He's not a good booker.
Too many wrestlers. Ricky Starks should not be sitting in catering. They need to stop signing new talent and start letting contracts expire. Or if there are wrestlers that would like to go back to WWE or elsewhere, let them. Free them of their contracts and allow them to sign somewhere else.
Make Rampage a YouTube show with the developmental talent or cut it completely and bring back Dark.
Collision needs to have main stars every week, with main storylines from Dynamite bleeding straight into Collision more often. It can't be treated as a second rate show. Really, they should put their main storyline + world title matches on Collision only for a while. Similar to what WWE was/is doing with The Bloodline storyline on Smackdown. Make it fight to be the A show, not make it known to obviously be the B show as it is now.
Hire a head booker
Give Danielson the world title in the next year
Get rid of a belt or two
Push Toni Storm as a face. Her feuds are bad because she's too good at this character to get booed.
There's too many things I'd like to see changed in AEW to list. I love AEW still, but WWE is putting out a way better product right now overall.
I like AEW and want them to succeed but I feel like there's not enough story telling and there's alot of assumption that we know every big inde name or new Japan wrestler so they make matches without any build as to who certain stars are.
I still DVR Everything, but I rarely every start and AEW show and watch it until the end. It's too stupid most of the time. Sometimes they will have a killer match or segment, but I'm not gonna watch the whole show for five minutes of something cool to me. I mostly keep up with whats going on with them like I do TNA and New Japan through review podcasts and Botchamania. If something really good or (most often than not) REALLY BAD comes on their shows, I'll seek it out on youtube or my DVR. Their PPVs are usually really good if all you care about is match quality.
It hurts me to say I agree with you 100%
ok !
AEW has become great background noise for scrolling on your phone. Except for when Excalibur is talking..
I think it’s to much of the “elite”
You explained all the reasons why there's "AEW haters". Were not haters we just want a decent product. You don't have to knock it out of the park every show but come on man. Like you said I grew up flipping channels between WCW and WWF/E. It was great to have an alternative. WWE bought out WCW then TNA came. Great another alternative! Nobody is hating on AEW. We want it to succeed. TK shit himself in the foot by keeping WWE in his mouth but not delivering a decent product.
AEW was awesome the 1st half of there time & Wwe sucked . Now IMO I just think tables have turned
I stopped watching months ago.
Way too many titles.. they created an inflation with the belts so they're all pretty much worthless right now, even the world championship feels like a midcard title because of it
As a wrestling fan. AEW has a lot of problems. They have the talent but it's not just storylines they are having a hard time to deal with. They just don't care about how things end up as long as they put on "good" matches. Having some good matches is okay but the problem is how they ended up in those matches. Like if you noticed they also stop using the ranking system like they use too. It use to be if someone lost a title chance that they didn't get another chance. That changed now they get two chances to do it. Even though someone is next in line to challenge the champion. Some of the title runs are just feeling forced as well. Like some of the title defenses are just there to try and get people to watch. Not everything needs to be a title match and the champions don't need to take up the spot light. They are slowly trying to do somethings WWE are doing. Like making some wrestlers into jokes. It works for WWE because they have great wrestlers that can pull it off like R-Truth. AEW has to go back to what works for them.
product is horrible and they force feed fans new japan. ass
the few months of AEW leading up to ALL IN 2023 was probably better than RAW 2023 imo
I'd say You get rid of half the titles they have because everyone seems to be a champion so titles don't feel special. Have the wins and losses actually matter.
I don't understand how you used to be a big fan back in 2019-2022 when AEW had many random matches and a FEW stories, but now that they have MORE stories with less random matches you are losing interest?? This doesn't make sense to me at all. To me it seems you were so disinterested in Vince's WWE that you had no choice but to become a big fan of AEW. Now under the HHH regime, you are losing interest in the AEW and loving WWE once again. Are you not able to enjoy both companies at the same time, or do you just want to pick one company and watch focus on them? We all the real problem with AEW, it's all the injuries to their top performers. You can start a new company with MJF, Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, Hangman, Dr. Britt, Jamie Hayter, Miro, Keith Lee, etc. Once those performers return, then AEW will be back in your good graces. How great will MJF v Adam Cole feud be once both are healthy? Aren't you looking forward to DMD vs the CEO? Kenny vs. the new Elite?? What side will Hangman be on?? So many great stories will be told once everyone is healthy.
I fell off at the start of the year. I agree its just way too much content, I stopped watching WWE on the regular almost 4 years ago when the terrible Vince booking took over. I just don't want to watch 5 hours of either of them per week to stay on the up and up. Maybe if either one of them would just bring out like a half hour clip show to summarize each show I'd stick around. Like tier it so that your main guys are on Wednesdays and sometimes Friday and the your lower guys are Saturday and sometimes Friday, that probably won't help ratings but as of now I'm not really watching any wrestling on the regular anymore and I like you was super excited for the start of AEW but their huge misstep was saying Cody was never going to win the World Title for fear of being seen like Jeff Jarrett. But come on he was clearly a top talent they should have looked past it like they did with the Bucks.
My biggest issue with AEW aside from all of the ones people bring up: its just too damn corny.
I watched for the first few years, but at this point, if someone walked in while i was watching it, i would feel embarrassed. It's so fake looking, cheesy, and goofy. And not in a good way, so stfu if you're gonna go there.
I want to watch wrestling that I can be immersed in. Get INVESTED in. If it doesn't take itself seriously, then why should I? That goes across the board for every aspect of AEW.
One thing that AEW reminded me of WCW… the constant disconnect between the wrestlers and the fans.
I watched from the beginning, stopped when Cody left but still checked in, and then stopped checking in after punk came back to WWE. No I just watch a match after the fact if someone says it was a good match and it was with people I like. I'm not sure why I love okada Samoa Joe and will ospreay as well as a couple others
I far prefer AEW, but here are several of my big gripes:
Overly predictable matches up and down basically every show, that then still need to go 15-30 minutes. Additional squash matches against local talent further add to the predictability.
Nerfed big names who mostly are not All Elite. If they work primarily for another promotion, it's 99% likely they will lose their matches. Minoru Suzuki and Jun Akiyama are two prime examples.
Lack of exclusivity for the wrestlers who almost all also wrestle any other indie promotion they can get a match, making AEW feel like just another indie, but with a TV deal. It's not like WWE, where as long as someone is under contact, they won't show up anywhere else.
A huge roster that's largely unused, with major stars going missing for months or longer. A few are only used if someone gets injured.
Former champions tend to just disappear when they lose, occasionally showing up for ROH instead of back on Dynamite with new or continuing storylines.
Storylines that just drop randomly or take forever to get going.
Refs a little too consistently being blind to heel behavior.
The expectation that the audience watches every other promotion and knows who every one-off wrestler is. It's like comic book presentation that forces you to check out all the referenced books to know what's going on instead of putting together a simple video package summary. This is the exact opposite of a problem I have with WWE overdoing the recaps and video packages on well-established stars and their storylines.
Needing to keep up with every wrestler's social media for random promos that should have been on TV.