10 Failed AEW Experiments
The less remembered about The Nightmare Collective the better.
Depending on where you mark your personal calendars for when AEW began, the company is now three years into its life having been founded on January 1st 2019.
Whether you've watched AEW from the very first show or joined in along the way, everyone who has tuned in has seen a show that has made its way out of its awkward infancy and now knows how to tie its own shoelaces. Still, as the company tries new things, there will always be risks. But you have to hand it to AEW and Tony Khan for getting the company to where it is in such short order and also for not playing it totally safe all the time.
If there's anything most can all agree on it's that WWE tends to get formulaic a certain amount of the time. Still, what the two promotions do have in common is trying things that don't work out.
It's the nature of storytelling, as well as television, that not all your ideas are going to stick - and honestly, trying to please everyone all of the time is one hell of a tall order.
In this list a look will be taken at some of AEW's teething troubles as they've looked to make a mark on the wrestling landscape.
10. Abadon
Having a monster on your roster has been a common thing for most wrestling brands for the last 25 years. Not the muscle-bound God types; quite literally the undead or otherwise inhuman. Many try for dark characters with supernatural edges, but few have the visuals quite like AEW’s Abadon.
Fans were stunned by her first appearance, and the potential was clear.
The problem with Abadon is a lack of credibility. Hell, if you don’t watch AEW Dark you’d be forgiven for forgetting she was still signed with the company as her on-screen appearances for Dynamite and Rampage have been few and far between. Her most significant story saw her quite literally taking a bite out of AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida but failing to pick up the important win. In October 2021 she was defeated on Rampage by Britt Baker.
Whilst her win record on AEW’s YouTube content is rather impressive, she hasn’t ever gained any ounce of momentum on the shows where it matters despite her unique and still quite frankly powerful presence.
At the end of the day, a good storyline is all that it’ll take to get Abadon on the right path to becoming a key figure of AEW's women's division. The real question is, why haven’t they found that storyline yet?