9 Ups & 9 Downs For AEW In 2022

Ups...

9. ...Yes, He Is

Ricky Starks
AEW

At All Out 2020, Lance Archer became the no. 1 contender to the AEW World title by winning the Casino battle royale. As he sat down to watch the main event, the very improbable idea of an Archer Vs. MJF match all but spoiled the outcome. It didn't detract from the drama; Mox and MJF did a particularly magnificent job of working such a great match in such dire circumstances.

Still, Khan had an unfortunate knack of telegraphing his outcomes. The Grand Slam Tournament of Champions was a great idea undermined by the fact that MJF was told to talk up Jon Moxley before he'd actually won the thing.

He has learned; Ethan Page was a great red herring in the Full Gear Eliminator. It was thought he would win, because he was the first to talk up his prospects, but that was a deft, subverted means of obscuring the real winner: Ricky Starks.

Fans complained about how AEW shows had started to resemble NXT TakeOver events, or Heroes of Wrestling, and was told to turn up the brightness. He did. The show looks vibrant once more. Grand Slam looked exponentially less like SmackDown in both scope and colour.

Video packages condensed from the Road To series were integrated onto television in a shrewd and much requested move.

Some - not all, but some - longstanding minor complaints were addressed. Khan doesn't know what you people want more than you do.

Yet.

Advertisement
In this post: 
AEW MJF
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

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!