It's Official: Wrestling Needs An Unthinkable Revolution
Is the audience, quite frankly, tired of having their intelligence insulted?
This week, a poorly-timed editorial dropped on this author page entitled It's Official: A New Era Is Underway In AEW.
While a stellar edition of Dynamite probably won't correct the systemic booking issues creeping into the AEW product, it was a stellar episode. A great opener, an insane party match, some trademark thoughtful plotting in the segment with Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara, and a deft, dovetailing angle in the main event post-match, as busy as it was focused, that teased dream matches in the double digits: this was classic Dynamite.
The main thrust of the article remains accurate; the fact that there is an ideal to which AEW returned this week is evidence of that. Much of the praise directed towards the show on social media was in that vein. "That's what an episode of Dynamite should look like," was echoed across Twitter on Wednesday night. The second clause of that sentence was implied: "...not like an episode of WWE television."
The state of the promotion can not be judged on a single episode of television. It will take several weeks of great form for the feeling to return, and that's what's missing: the feeling. The buzz. The sense that the product is hot, loud, and endlessly fascinating. Different.
The promotion certainly teed up enough developments to carry that feeling in that post-match angle. Blood & Guts is slowly taking shape, and the prospect of the Elite's approach to that match is thrilling. Eddie Kingston Vs. Claudio Castagnoli was one of the best matches of the year; a sequel is guaranteed to be excellent. Eddie feuding with Jon Moxley is another hugely exciting development. Their verbal sparring was sensational in the autumn of 2020, as convincing and emotional as anything the promotion has ever done. The idea of Eddie reluctantly teaming with the Young Bucks is genuinely really funny. They'd play with the personality clash in a knowing, amusing way. Kenny Omega Vs. Konosuke Takeshita might even be Wembley stadium-sized; Omega feels like AEW's top babyface, and those Takeshita segments with Don Callis have generated the most heel heat all year (without the press of a button, anyway).
Still, there's the whole CM Punk thing to navigate. Even in the highly unlikely event that this all doesn't end in an explosion, Collision looks doomed to be a B-show with or without him. This era of AEW feels entirely untenable, and this air of inevitably makes it difficult to invest. AEW has effectively cultivated an atmosphere antithetical to the summer of 2021. Back then, everything was possible. Now, a great, harmonious run feels impossible. There's a remote, naive possibility that Punk behaves himself and embarks on the best heel run of his legendary career: he's one of the best heels of the century, he already has heat, and he seems to be in a terrible, combustible or mischievous mood constantly.
But is that enough?
CONT'D...(1 of 5)