It's Official: A New Era Has Begun In AEW

Kenny Omega Hangman Page
AEW

With a subtle nod, Matt Jackson finally acknowledged that Page, after all this time, was in fact Elite. The multi-stranded storytelling had converged to inform this ultimate moment, and further underscoring the extent to which the promotion was All Elite, one strand was an all-timer in and of itself. The Young Bucks Tag Title reign was an in-ring, character and angle masterpiece, and it was all for Hangman. Hangman was the one.

AEW is merely a good-to-excellent wrestling promotion now, where it once transcended that label, even the very form. Nothing like that incredibly deft, big picture booking is possible in AEW now.

Without this core purpose, it is something else entirely. It's uneven. The highs are still stratospheric - Anarchy In The Arena was an iconic masterpiece of crafted chaos that somehow didn't feel crafted - but there is no longer a shared universe of which Page is the centre.

If anything, the overstuffed roster has created a strange vibe in that AEW feels like a collective of multiverses in which several segments of television feel like the main event angle of a show in different universes.

The JAS Vs. Blackpool Combat Club feud feels like it could be WCW Vs. nWo-sized in scope, but there's no space for it to be that. The way it came together wasn't entirely focused, either.

CONT'D...(5 of 6)

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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!