10 Times Wrestling Companies Fed You Total BULLSH*T

4. AEW’s Rankings System Is Important

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AEW

Locked-in ranking systems that govern championship challengers and pay-per-view title bouts require serious planning. WWE tried to convince themselves a few times that shows like SmackDown needed "power rankings", then gave up once they realised nobody could be arsed following it anyway.

AEW would be different though, right? Right?!

Not quite. Tony Khan's company pushed wrestlers and announcers to gush about how serious and credible the rankings system in All Elite would be a few years back. Further, they laid it on thick that wins/losses would matter in the promotion. Yeah, but only sometimes (and when it suited).

This is something that's been forgotten about, for the most part. Commentators do still bring up rankings here or there, but they're nowhere near as much of a focus as they were when Dynamite first launched in 2019. If they were, then the insane number of random title matches wouldn't take place on AEW television.

So much for that then, eh?

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.