Why Wrestling Is About To Make The Biggest Mistake Of The Century

When it's good, it's actually very good.

Sheamus has never been more over, Roman Reigns is the biggest star in wrestling, and the Judgment Day as prize pr*cks bit somehow works. They're t*ssers you can love-to-hate with an inexplicably great dynamic. Dominik Mysterio knows he's useless, and that is his incredulously entertaining gimmick; Priest is a good heavy; Finn Bálor is a cackling d*ckhead who can really go; Rhea Ripley is having the time of her life as the real tough in the group. There also exists the sense that Triple H, despite having peaked as a booker in 2018, still has it in him to deliver under pressure. Really, it's as if he's become complacent already, knowing that his run-away start has left AEW, facing its own struggles, in distant second place.

All of which is to state that, were AEW to ever regain the momentum of last August, things could get interesting: WWE isn't so good that AEW would struggle, nor is it so bad that AEW would, with the right creative this time, instantly take over.

AEW was heartbreakingly close to competing with Vince's WWE amid the surreally brilliant period that was the build towards All Out 2022, but they are far away from competing over a year later. CM Punk's return in and of itself, combined with the signatures of Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole and the momentum of an outstanding and white-hot product, sparked a two-week win over WWE Raw in the 18-49 demographic. It felt like the paradigm had shifted. It did not.

Punk' story arc was superb across the long haul; in fact, it embodied what was so alluring about the very promise of the promotion.

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