10 Troubling Things AEW Won't Change

4. The Bad Side Of Long-Term Storytelling

Hikaru Shida Serena Deeb
AEW

Effective long-term storytelling is a valuable tool; the slow-burn enhances audience investment, compels fans to watch week-to-week, and makes the destination feel essential and even elusive, when Khan is operating at the peak of his powers.

Ineffective long-term storytelling for long-term storytelling's sake is really just as pointless as 50/50 booking. Dither, and treat the characters as plot devices, and all heft is lost.

Remember Best Friends Vs. Miro and Kip Sabian? The blow-off was fun, but by Christ did it take several tedious centuries to get there.

"I'm going to avenge this awful transgression, about which I'm furious...in a few months or whatever" is a strange booking device that makes little to no sense from the perspective of character credibility.

FTR Vs. ReDRagon is bound to happen at some point - an angle was shot during the Casino Battle Royale in which Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly f*cked over Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler - but this was before Revolution. They should have been out for blood well before now. This follows a similar pattern to the Serena Deeb Vs. Hikaru Shida blow-off, in which Khan took a while to book the match after Shida returned from (another!) injury angle.

It was cute that the Street Fight was saved for the hardcore wrestling hotbed of Philadelphia, but isn't cute the exact opposite tone to strike?

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!