10 Ups & 10 Downs For AEW In 2019
AEW's product is exciting, though their first year presented plenty of problems.
All Elite Wrestling has changed the game by bringing competition back to the once monopolised American market in 2019, but has the promotion been successful in achieving the goals outlined during their 8 January unveiling in Jacksonville, Florida?
This year-in-review column is an attempt at answering that question, and others.
Our breakdown of how AEW's first year has gone will look almost exclusively at big-picture topics. It'd be easy to populate this list with individual matches, segments, and storylines, but while there is always an element of subjectivity when it comes to Ups and Downs, attempted objectivity is of more importance here. This column aims to asses AEW's overall success as a viable professional wrestling organisation above identifying individual creative components its writer liked or disliked.
It's important to preface all of this by acknowledging that AEW is still an infant promotion, with Dynamite only 11 episodes old. Things were never going to be perfect right out the gate, so while there has been plenty to criticise, some issues were to be expected, and there's every chance they'll work towards solving these problems in 2020.
They'll certainly need to if Dynamite's ratings are going to improve...