10 Things AEW Wants You To Forget About 2023
5. The Effects Of Poor Planning
Who does AEW want to push - and who are you, the viewer, truly meant to get behind?
The answers to these questions were very hazy in 2023, the effect of which was less than ideal. The more you are conditioned not to care, the harder it is to give a damn in the future. There's an exponential effect at work here, one that plagued the general vibe of the promotion.
As covered, Konosuke Takeshita's wins over Kenny Omega meant little to his title prospects. The ultra-charming powerhouse Willow Nightingale won the women's Owen Hart Cup before doing virtually nothing afterwards. Fans used to chant "You're a wrestler!" at the incredible Daniel Garcia, but, underscoring how stop/start his philosophical epiphany arc was, they seemed happy to receive him as an amusing undercard clown deeper into 2023.
Andrade el Idolo was another fitful presence with a low ceiling on Collision. Keith Lee is just another wrestler who can't win that often because he'd have to do something meaningful, and there is simply no room.
Ultimately, because Tony Khan had assessed his new signings on an individual basis, without thinking of his roster as a narrative ecosystem, he made it very difficult to care about the wrestlers he booked.