10 Times Wrestling Fans Got What They Wanted (But Didn’t Realise)
1. "We Want Sports-Oriented Storytelling In AEW"
AEW, apparently, has abandoned its promise to present "sports-oriented storytelling".
You've read the various takes blasting AEW for this - for booking Orange Cassidy, for booking Marko Stunt, for - and this is actually halfway rooted in good faith - generally evolving into an episodic North American TV wrestling show complete with wild stunts, bloody angles and constant, exhausting interference.
The people who never actually wanted a sports-oriented product, because several have existed that never developed a strong following in the U.S., are...actually getting a sports-oriented product.
Look at CM Punk and Kenny Omega primarily.
CM Punk returned as "the f*cking old guy on the team" and laboured to a series of early wins against less experienced opposition because he wasn't match-fit. In football, when a star returns from injury, they are almost invariably hauled off at the 60 minute mark because they're knackered and unable to keep up with the sharpest players on the pitch. Similarly - but not too similarly - Kenny Omega is currently working an arc in which he may have returned from his various injuries too early. He isn't match fit, but he's a star, and thus his manager has rushed him back.
Beyond those two arcs, the very principle of AEW is sports-oriented because every last fixture counts and exists to thrust the winner further up the card.