The Secret Critical Mistake AEW Keeps Making

The conflict existed between the characters, yes, but the stakes did not. It was such a broad and non-specific and ultimately meh thing to fight over. People care about AEW, obviously - but, as evidenced by the decline in popularity, not necessarily as a fictional construct. Not in the same way they care about a monumental title programme or a hate-fuelled blood war. Not in the same way they cared about CM Punk Vs. MJF or Kenny Omega Vs. Hangman Page.

In 2023, Tony Khan booked an umbrella programme under a similar idea. This was much worse, and, being a women’s programme, was not permitted the Anarchy In The Arena match. Written, in effect, because Saraya had turned herself heel by walking into AEW with a sense of entitlement, she, Toni Storm and Ruby Soho comprised the Outcasts: a heel group who felt they were “above” AEW, which had treated them poorly shortly after they had jumped across.

The dim memory of the programme extends as far as “the Outcasts cheated in every match and it effectively culminated with heel Saraya getting a babyface title win at Wembley before the title was switched to Toni Storm who, rather than represent AEW as a babyface saviour figure going forward, immediately turned heel”.

So what was the point?

The point, at least for a while, was to lean in, lazily, on the idea that AEW is the babyface promotion and that Dr. Britt Baker et al. were to eventually topple those ex-WWE wrestlers and their cheating and awful finishes. That AEW would prevail against the forces that tried to meddle with its benevolent gift to the industry of professional wrestling.

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