10 Things AEW Stopped Doing That We Really Want To See Again
8. Adding A Sense Of Finality To Programmes
When Cody challenged Chris Jericho for the AEW World Title, and failed, that was it.
When the Young Bucks defeated FTR, that was it, too. For long enough to make it feel formal, the Young Bucks were declared in the fiction as the greatest tag team ever. That's why their 2021 run was as legendary as it was.
When Hangman Page lost the AEW World Tag Team Title, and Kenny Omega callously brushed him aside, the man looked despondent - because he had lost everything and the loss mattered.
It was final.
There's little finality to everything now, which in turn has slightly undermined fan engagement. The tense, all-or-nothing drama of the early wins-and-losses framework has crumbled away, replaced by looping booking patterns. Wins and losses still matter in the grand scheme, but the gravity of the outcome and the elusive, premium feel of dream pairings has lost a certain something.
Hikaru Shida Vs. Serena Deeb, Orange Cassidy Vs. Adam Cole, Andrade Vs. Everyone He Has Feuded With: there's a familiarity to a lot of what happens in AEW now.
Also: who won the Cody Rhodes Vs. Malakai Black feud? Has Andrade gone 50/50 for his entire AEW run?
It's more muddy than it was in 2019, the general AEW picture.
Is this affecting crowd reactions...?