10 Things AEW Wants You To Forget About 2023
3. Tony Khan's Twitter Storm
Due to some sport or other, on October 10, AEW Dynamite was "time-shifted" and put head-to-head with WWE NXT.
WWE loaded up the show with John Cena, the Undertaker and Cody Rhodes - and were always going to win. Khan should have counter-programmed but let his Title Tuesday show speak for itself, realistically.
Undermining the idea somewhat, Tony Khan had previously revealed that he was told to do his anti-corporate, us-against-the-machine marketing tactic by...a corporation. Warner urged him to depict his AEW league as a snotty, defiant "challenger brand" in contempt of their bigger rival.
Khan, and this was amusing for a short while before he signed Ric Flair, went studs-up with both feet. He buried Vince MxMahon’s alleged sexual misconduct and, referencing Curb Your Enthusiasm, called Shawn Michaels a bald a**hole. If NXT had announced a DX reunion, Khan was surely seconds away from reminding his followers that Triple H once performed in blackface.
He then, following a bloodbath loss in total viewers, made sure to mention that Cena and 'Taker had never before appeared on a show that had drawn under one million viewers.
So who was the real loser, huh?
...AEW, handily.
'Poster Tony' worked better when AEW did actually face an existential threat, but when a lot of AEW's problems were of his own making, he had better, more productive things to do than cry foul.
Maybe knuckle down and work out a way to bring back the rankings system?