9 Lessons AEW Should Learn From Revolution 2021

5. Too Many Gimmick Matches Spoil The Broth

Jon Moxley Barbed Wire
AEW

That old chestnut. There were eight matches on the main show at Revolution, five of which could accurately be placed under the 'gimmick match' heading. Sure, the 'Big Money Match' between Hangman Page and Matt Hardy was essentially a standard singles match with post-match implications, but it still counts. Five out of Eight is too many, and four in a row to close the show? Overkill.

As the old saying goes, too many gimmick matches spoil the broth. The excitement around them comes from their unique settings on a wrestling card; why should I care about the risks and rewards of a ladder match if there is still an exploding barbed wire deathmatch and a street fight to come? Having a multi-man ladder match and a battle royal on the same card is hardly any better.

Too many gimmick matches on one show always give the impression of a fan fantasy booking a show. That might be what AEW is in essence, but this is big-time professional wrestling and it needs to come with the gravitas that demands. A proliferation of gimmick matches shows a lack of ideas, not an abundance.

Still, pushing Scorpio Sky is long overdue, right?

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.