THIS Was The Most Genius Wrestling Angle In Modern History

Kenny Omega
AEW

This needed addressing, and in this reactive, insta-take culture of a war, the momentum shifts in which fluctuated wildly, across November and December, AEW ideally needed to address it in two hours of television. AEW needed to somehow rehabilitate the auras of four stars in two hours.

The Homecoming show required not just a big, positive headline, but a deft series of masterstrokes. It wasn't enough to book the various members to win what amounted to exhibition matches on a show with a feel-good vibe. AEW serves a more knowing audience with a limited capacity for transparent carny booking. They'd have seen the strings. And besides, this wasn't a spot show. This was episodic television. It functions, every week, to make you watch the next episode. There are no happy endings in episodic television - it is rule - and yet Tony Khan had to book a happy ending.

He did, one that doubled as an intriguing episodic story beat, in the cleverest, best, and most effective show-long angle of the modern era.

The Homecoming show, filmed in front of a packed and beautifully unusual Daily's Place, started with a melodramatic video that asked the exact same question of the audience that the audience had asked of AEW: Are the Elite still Elite?

CONT'D...(4 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!