10 Defences Of Horrible Wrestling Moments
1. AEW's Four Pillars
The idea that Sammy Guevara is good enough to build a promotion around is silly. MJF, yes. You can build around MJF because he's a superstar and proved it by headlining Wembley Stadium with the most worthy and compelling match AEW promoted all year, his Grand Slam main event with Samoa Joe drew an amazing demo by Dynamite standards, and Better Than You Bay-Bay Vs. FTR destroyed everything else on Collision all year outside of a debut that almost doesn't count.
Darby Allin headlined a (great) PPV that drew in excess of 100,000 buys. Jack Perry's heel run was a disaster, but he is still just 26 and his hit rate over a four year period is still overwhelmingly better than bad.
Evoking the All Japan Pro Wrestling demigods was extremely bold. Inviting ridicule was inevitable. The promotional gambit may have done more harm than good, ultimately, since two of the Pillars have been lapped by wrestlers who hold vastly more main event potential. Still, it deserves recognition as a noble failure more than some laughable disaster.
The concept was first made canon just as CM Punk and Bryan Danielson signed; the idea behind it was to reassure viewers that the prior two years still counted, your investment wasn't futile, and that AEW wasn't going to toss aside a genuine youth movement just to accommodate two big signings.
It didn't work, but if anything, AEW should be commended for experimenting with a level of continuity unprecedented on a US television wrestling show.