10 Times AEW Took It Too Far
AEW once had a stated mission: we won't be WWE. Channelling Vince Russo is not the way to do that...
All Elite Wrestling is a promotion designed for the millennial wrestling fans who wondered whatever happened to the wrestling they grew up on.
Where's the blood? Where are the stables? Where are the screaming promos cut straight down the lens? Why does every show start with a 20 minute rehearsed talking segment? Where's the energy? Why does everything feel so predictable and drab? Where are the sets?
AEW sought to answer those questions in a quest for far-ranging fan service.
While AEW at its best is a magnificent, creative promotion - Anarchy In The Arena was so great that, this time next year, fans will fantasy book the next big stable war into that attraction just as happily as they will Blood & Guts, which is truly impressive - the byproduct of this mentality isn't ideal...
...at all.
At times, AEW is rather too inspired by the 1990s.
Of course, Tony Khan isn't directly responsible for some of the questionable incidents on this list - but since part of his philosophy is to extend creative latitude to his talent, it's all AEW in the end...
10. Jake Roberts Terrorises Brandi Rhodes
Eurgh, the state of that image. It is repulsive.
The Cody Rhodes Vs. Lance Archer programme was so close to being an unqualified success. Not only was it mostly fantastic, it was stunningly resourceful. Operating with a 29% capacity skeleton roster in Atlanta in the first phase of the pandemic, Tony Khan crafted a TNT title tournament into which an awesome grudge programme was folded. On one side of the bracket, Cody narrowly eked out wins against the men, Shawn Spears and Darby Allin, who had given him his sternest tests. On the other, Archer, who looked like a mutated skyscraper in the context of QT Marshall's training school, ripped Marko Stunt to f*cking shreds and left a pool of blood under Cody's brother's head in a fantastic match that had no right to be as dramatic as it was.
Jake Roberts was great in the role of Archer's manager, in sinister pre-taped promos that didn't rely on him projecting his shattered voice in arenas, but in the live environment, it was difficult to ascertain what he was saying. This wasn't ideal, and it wasn't helped by that time, ahead of Double Or Nothing, that he crawled over Brandi Rhodes, adopted the missionary position as a taunt, and allowed a phallic snake to crawl all over her.
An unsettling artefact of a heat angle, this was just gross.