10 Times AEW Were Moments From Disaster
All Elite Wrestling must navigate through the CM Punk/Elite debacle. But they've survived worse...
All Elite Wrestling is at a crossroads as a company.
Existing television rights deals are up in early 2023, suggesting that conversations and could be happening as you read this about the financial and broadcast future of Dynamite and Rampage. These are the things Tony Khan will be prioritising, which is less than ideal when his plate is currently full of locker room drama between his top draw and EVPs and the prevailing sense that his creative golden era is over. The chaos at the All Out press conference further exposed damaging flaws in Khan's leadership, in contrast to how the show itself (and Forbidden Door before it) hid his booking foibles.
But what are the goals and expectations of the organisation at this point anyway?
In just three short years, AEW's purpose has remarkably already been served. Last year's inaugural Grand Slam show sold out the beautiful Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, rendering the 10,000 tickets or so currently sold for this year's event something of a disappointment. The same number that Dave Meltzer didn't think any company beyond WWE could achieve in 2017 is now viewed as the sign of a piping hot product gone cold. That is change on an industrial scale, even if the past is required currently required to contextualise an uncertain present.
Disaster? Not quite. But absolutely a reflection of the vibes the company could do with steering away from. No matter - they've done it before...
10. The Post-All Out 2022 Dynamite
There were three specific people that had to maximise their minutes on the first Dynamite after All Out 2022.
The events of the post-show press conference were all anybody wanted to talk about to such an extent that an entire pay-per-view was rendered virtually pointless seconds after it concluded. Worse still, the elephant in the room - or perhaps in this case, the small dog allegedly in Kenny Omega's arms - was edited out of any clips and absolutely couldn't be mentioned. No CM Punk, no Elite, no World or Trios Championship, no hope?
Enter Tony Khan, MJF and Jon Moxley.
Going some way to making up for the weak leadership that had failed to control the situation in the first place, Khan's best on-screen appearance to date succinctly laid out the future of the belts and the broadcast, before MJF effortlessly pivoted from a planned feud with CM Punk to one with Jon Moxley, and the former Champion himself delivered yet another promo for the ages that instantly reset the promotion as the destination to find the very best the industry has to offer.