8 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About AEW
4. The In-Ring Action Has Too Much Cooperation
To clarify, not every wrestling match has to be a hard-hitting battle that looks every bit like a genuine fight. Still, so much of the AEW product comes across as a phoney battle between a couple of friends looking to see what’s the most athletic routine they can pull off.
It’s fair to say that in 2019, the wrestling product is vastly different to the more visceral and realistic battles seen in decades prior. For a good chunk of its runtime, however, AEW has too many matches and segments that go too far the other way – with a large percentage of its action looking more like cooperative ‘performances’ rather than actual matches where there’s a sense of intensity and aggression geared towards winning a contest.
Whether your preferred wrestling product is far more spot-fest-driven, is built around legitimate-looking offense, or a hybrid that mixes things up, the overall aim of any and all wrestling matches should be to win said wrestling match. If you can’t bring that sense of importance to a contest, if you can’t bring logical spots at logical times that are designed around making winning a match your priority, that’s something that always proves questionable to the majority of wrestling fans.
At times, AEW wrestlers seem to lose track of wanting to win matches, instead focussing too much on wanting to pop the crowd or provide a highlight reel moment.