10 Things AEW Wants You To Forget About 2023

6. What DIDN'T Happen

AEW decline CM Punk
AEW

There's much for AEW to fret over what the promotion did do - more on which imminently - but it was a year to forget for they didn't.

Bluntly, and this has been a problem for at least two years, Tony Khan has signed too many top names. This has caused a bleak sort of havoc on the narrative; even without a formal rankings system, Khan can't book too many top stars to win because they'd be in contention for titles, and then he'd have to beat them.

Konosuke Takeshita best highlights this issue. He pinned Kenny Omega, former AEW World champion, twice in the space of a week. Take was not figured into the World title picture, and Khan became particularly enamoured with TNT champion Christian Cage in the autumn. Jon Moxley needed sprucing up, and so he was given the International title. There was nothing for Take to really "do", so he instead paraded as a bodyguard figure for Don Callis and didn't work a singles match on TV between July and October.

The ranking system disappeared in part because of Khan's greedy recruitment policy. He can't push everyone, so instead, he made a very unfortunate habit of treating multiple wrestlers like paperwork he'd hidden in his drawer at 4:55PM on a Friday.

This had a suboptimal effect on programming...

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!