Another week, another series of conversations about what AEW are doing wrong, despite there being plenty of people that think they're doing more than enough right.
All Elite Wrestling is for the hardcores, and regardless of if Tony Khan suddenly doesn't appreciate granular assessment or not, the fact remains that those that love it will love it hard and those that now don't will dig deep into their souls and personal fan experiences to try and locate specifically what it is that feels off. The match graphic drops - as evidenced by the unusually low hype levels for this week's main event - don't hit like they used to, and while the booking has been a victim of its own initial runaway successes, wrestling moves quickly and it's now being defined by its perceived failures.
Never has this been more apparent than in the criticism towards AEW World Heavyweight Champion MJF, specifically as relates to the comedic segments with Adam Cole, The Kingdom and The Acclaimed. Can funny equal money? Not judging by one too many soft domestic gates, but MJF has always hit different, and the hope was that if anybody could reverse course on a story that was losing its way, it'd be the 'Salt Of The Earth'.
He'd have even more to deal with than that by the end of this week's show.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
