10 Things AEW Needs To Stop Doing IMMEDIATELY

2. Running The Gauntlet

Bryan DAnielson
AEW

Making a heel use his sway to force a babyface to fight an uphill battle and overcome the odds in order to earn a shot at said villain? That can be a great tool when used effectively and sparingly.

In AEW, this is a tactic that already feels overused when it pertains to making somebody run the proverbial gauntlet.

Even as of this writing, AEW has two instances of a gauntlet challenge in place on its weekly television product. There's Bryan Danielson having had to defeat five stars in order to get a crack at MJF and the AEW World Title at the upcoming Revolution PPV, whilst simultaneously Ricky Starks was tasked with running the Garcia-Guevara Gauntlet to land a match with Chris Jericho at the same PPV... despite Starks having already faced and beaten Jericho earlier this year.

Retreading familiar beats with any storyline is always a dangerous move, but to have the same narrative - as in, beat a bunch of other wrestlers to earn a shot at a certain superstar - playing out with two separate sets of talent, on the exact same TV show each week, is absolutely baffling.

It may seem like an extreme example, but imagine that while the storyline of Steve Austin trying to discover who ran him over at Survivor Series '99 was playing out, at that same time we had, say, Mick Foley involved in a similar story where the Hardcore Legend was likewise trying to find out who had run him down at the Survivor Series.

In that situation, the two similar stories dilute each other and make both feel less important - which is exactly what's happened with Danielson and Starks' respective gauntlets.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.