10 Genius Ways Tony Khan Can Get The AEW Magic Back

The magic of the old AEW - how grim and surreal is that to write, since October 2019 really wasn't that long ago? - is gone.

It's a largely very good promotion still capable of brilliance. It delivers great matches and promos almost every single week - we've just been desensitised to its baseline standard - but the feeling it elicits just isn't the same. That isn't a purely subjective statement, and while everybody's social media timelines are curated differently, from this perspective at least, it's almost impossible not to encounter multiple derivations of "I'm just not feeling AEW lately" virtually everywhere.

Far more objective metrics bear that take out, too: ratings are stable and impressive, granted, but beyond the New York and Toronto shows, AEW has never felt quieter or smaller than it has in the wake of All Out. Attendance borders on bleak in many markets.

Hell, even the Devil Himself, MJF, spoke of the cloud that lingers over AEW in an off-air promo cut after Dynamite on Wednesday.

But is the man he didn't directly name - CM Punk - responsible for everything? Or has Tony Khan somehow conspired to fall into every bad booking trap all at once in 2022? And can it ever feel the same again?

Yes. Yes it can...

It is expected that AEW will be awarded a very favourable rights fee early next year. Even Dave Meltzer - who despite being biased, apparently, has spent much of 2022 fretting over its perception within Warner Bros. Discovery - is quite bullish on that prospect.

One happy byproduct of signing far too many wrestlers, almost all of the wrestlers actually, is that Khan will have a great deal of company-generated money to play with - and not a great deal to spend it on. Who's left to even bring in?

He always finds a way, but still: nobody who will arrive at great expense.

AEW is getting destroyed almost ritually whenever it returns to market in the same calendar year. The November 16 Dynamite drew just over 3,000 punters to the Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They drew 5,993 the last time they ran the building (February 23), convincing just over half of the market to come back. That isn't good.

Of course, returning to the same markets over and over again isn't solely to blame; if the product was as hot as it was on the road to Revolution, the returns wouldn't be quite so diminished. The visibly smaller crowds and comparative lack of atmosphere is detracting from the overall vibe.

There are lots of boring financial, logistical and enterprising reasons why AEW does this - they run Texas so often because it's huge, easy to loop, and was a hotbed before WWE monopolised the country - but it's time to bite the bullet and use the new TV money to eat some costs. No one new star is going to have the same effect as a promotion that looks, sounds and feels red-hot again once more.

It's not the only thing Khan should spend his money on...