The Secret Critical Mistake AEW Keeps Making

Kazuchika Okada Young Bucks New Elite
AEW

This idea of AEW as the purely good spiritual home of pro wrestling that must be protected at all costs - in addition to throttling the ticket-selling philosophy of personal animosity - is arrogant. And this mentality, off-putting especially when AEW as a wider product is lacking, has crept in elsewhere to become the defining narrative.

While not as blatant, there were shades of this in the Elite Vs. Blackpool Combat Club feud of 2023. The idea, and it was barely articulated, was that the BCC resented the Elite’s vision for AEW. The Elite were - as spoken by Bryan Danielson as an obvious surrogate for CM Punk - “amateurs”. The idea here was to make the Elite feel Elite again, after the group had felt removed from everything in the wake of Brawl Out. It wasn’t an actively bad idea, but still: this “AEW is the true path!” stuff rang hollow. Again.

For the second consecutive year, AEW’s big summer programme is driven by CM Punk - a problem in and of itself. The ghost will never be exorcised, will it?

Tony Khan’s method of handling the backstage events of All In: London has compelled the Young Bucks to make a power play for the very company in 2024, assisted by Kazuchika Okada and now Jack Perry. The idea is half-baked. The new Elite have taken out Tony Khan - who still has the ability to book Collision entirely in his vision, unimpeded, and Kenny Omega - but they’ve hardly taken over the promotion. If you turned on Dynamite and Collision for vast stretches of each show, you’d have no idea there had been some hostile takeover. FTR, Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston have taken it upon themselves to defend the honour of All Elite Wrestling, leading to the sort of pro-AEW rhetoric that Cody Rhodes perfected back in November 2019. The level of detail is impressive - the foreshadowing of the attacks on Khan and Omega through renaming the Bucks’ arsenal, the hints towards Okada’s arrival through the fines levied at various staffers - but in addition to everything else, it’s just repetitive.

Beyond the logic gaps of the Elite Vs. Team AEW, the premise of the story is yet another bid to present AEW as the sacred ground of pro wrestling.

CONT'D...(3 of 5)

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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!