5 Ways AEW's Tony Khan Is A Great Wrestling Booker (& 5 Ways He ISN'T)
4. ISN'T - He Can Build, But He Can't Follow Up
AEW is drawing phenomenally suboptimal parallels with late 2010s WWE, which is a gut-punch of a paradigm shift: AEW exists in no small part because late 2010s WWE was so unfulfilling.
In late 2010s WWE, it was impossible to get behind anybody because they rarely if ever ended up doing anything of meaning. The same thing (but different) is happening in AEW. Vince McMahon hated your favourites; Tony Khan in contrast likes too many of them and can't keep track of which names he really wants to build around.
The byproduct?
A warehouse of barely used and barely over names who exist more as cautionary tales than TV characters. Be wary of investing; often, there's no point. Worse still, this is exponential. It becomes increasingly difficult to invest in anybody once that trust is dented, and the holes started to appear ages ago.
Konosuke Takeshita was a veritable sensation as a babyface. When he turned heel, he was the glorified bodyguard of Don Callis, and since Omega barely cared enough to go after Callis, Take was doubly pointless. Hangman Page's AEW World title reign was, sadly, solid at best. Wardlow wasn't as fun or dominant when he "made it". The House of Black did nothing with the Trios titles.
What on earth is Khan doing with Jay White?
It's a miracle that Riho and Hikaru Shida still generate such big reactions when they appear all too infrequently. It has everything to do with their enduring appeal and nothing to do with the booking.
Khan has a remarkable job of making talents feel cool, sympathetic and or vital - and then booking them in such a criminally and inexplicably basic way when he gets to the easy part.
Tony Khan made a pivotal mistake in early 2022 - more on which later...