Just a week after the Blood and Guts episode, AEW Dynamite followed up with a rather disjointed edition of television, a semi-regular problem for the organization, which is further emphasized when the promotion is a month away from its biggest show in All Elite history, the Wembley stadium event that has already sold more than 65,000 tickets.
Granted, the tickets are sold in the UK so the show is already a success from a financial perspective. That being said, the pressure to deliver and make a definitive statement about AEW’s status within the industry is still there.
All things considered, nothing that has taken place on television within the past few weeks has given any indication that Wembley stadium will be the conclusion of any long-term angles within the company. Without the payoff of a long-term storyline, the stadium event might boil down to a one-off super show so to speak, as far as the results won’t have a major impact on the direction of the organization. If that ends up being the case, the accomplishment of selling tens of thousands of tickets will be successful within a vacuum, but won’t boost the overall perception of the company. Keep in mind, a huge part of the ticket sales so far are the novelty of AEW’s first event in England, but if this isn’t more than a glorified house show then it could hinder business in the European market in the future.
Right now, especially after the conclusion of The Elite/Blackpool Combat Club feud with the cage match last week, there aren’t really any current angles of substances left for the Wembley card. That gives Tony Khan roughly four weeks to book not only something impactful, but something that can get the fans invested beyond just the setting of a stadium. The booking becomes exponentially more difficult when you take into account that just a week after the stadium show, the All Out pay-per-view must have matches that justify the $50 price tag to order the event.
That’s not to take away from the stellar accomplishment of more than 65,000 tickets being sold, but it’s important to remember that a portion of that draw is the novelty of AEW’s first live event in England. It’s a rather unique equation when you take into account, the very successful ticket, sales overseas, but programming that often lacks direction or seemingly a long-term goal for most storylines.
This week’s edition of Dynamite was a prime example of that.
It’s not a ground-breaking revelation that the bloated roster of the organization led to attempts to try to shoehorn as much talent on screen or to try to get as many talents over as possible. The biggest problem with that being, when you try to get everyone over then usually nobody gets over. Quite simply, there must be a focus on core talent and what their overall direction is. Too often, the format of the shows are taken in too many directions and that tends to lead to a lack of overall progress. The booking of Orange Cassidy vs. AR Fox this week was a typical example of how disjointed the overall direction continues to be on a weekly basis. AR Fox was a signing that was showcased for a few weeks initially, but then faded into obscurity of the YouTube shows. Suddenly, he was mentioned in an interview segment last week and then booked for an International title match for this week. This is not to take away from his talent as an athlete, but he’s a secondary wrestler within the All Elite landscape, and thus there’s really no reason for the audience to be invested in his involvement, especially because there wasn’t any period of time to truly familiarize the audience with him. He attacked Cassidy after he lost the match and then looked regretful. I understand what they were trying to accomplish with this segment, but it missed the mark. The AR Fox run-in during the main event segment flopped in a similar fashion. Again, this isn’t a knock on AR Fox as an athlete but as a character, there’s really no logic to him being involved with the main stars of the program because he was just a random wrestler on the roster a week earlier.
Along the same lines, Swerve Strickland is a tremendous athlete, but with the way that he has been booked, it’s tough to consider his involvement on Dynamite important because his character has either lacked direction or used in a lackluster fashion for the majority of his AEW tenure. Aside from the fact that his feud with Keith Lee was paused for months at a time before it randomly return to television, Strickland’s initial heel turn was rather flat. Similar to many others, a lack of consistent television time afterword didn’t really emphasize his status as a prominent performer within the organization. He was also a part of the atrocious Rick Ross segment that is memorable for all the wrong reasons. You have to ask, what is Swerve’s character and why should the audience be invested in it? Sure, he’s a tremendous athlete, but he works a similar style to many already on the roster and with a nondescript heel persona, it doesn’t make him stand out. I could be wrong, but I honestly don’t see what Strickland brings to the table that AEW already doesn’t have on its roster. To be fair, it could be that the Mogul Affiliates have been rather pointless as a stable and lost in the shuffle of Tony Khan‘s booking process. Is there really any difference between the Mogul Affiliates and the QT marshall stable?
Aside from shoehorning, the AR Fox heel turn onto the program, the lame angle of Adam Cole and MJF, as a tag team continued and also still made them both look subpar in the process. Cole looks like a total doofus if he trust the supposed top heel in the company. It’s a drastic example, but would The Rock or Stone Cold fall for something like that and do a dance routine with the villain? Cole being presented as a naive dork is the absolute opposite of how he should look before he challenges for the world championship. MJF looks like a yuppie instead of a dangerous heel and this storyline has done zero to help his title reign. The whole “LOL wrestling” stuff probably doesn’t have a place on the card for a national promotion, but if it does, it’s certainly not for the world title storyline.
Finally, the Britt Baker vs. Taya Valkyrie match was a total mess. There were some botches and the pace was very clunky. I’m not sure if these two just had an off night or if they just didn’t gel for this particular match, but the AEW Women’s division is completely hit or miss in terms of in-ring quality. Given the amount of talent that Tony Khan signed to the roster, you’d think that All Elite might have the best female division in the industry, but that hasn’t been the case since the company started. On the flip side, the WWE women’s division is probably the most consistent division as far as quality and star power in the entire business.
The biggest takeaway from all of this is that, more often than not, episodes of Dynamite have a slapstick approach that doesn’t seem to have the bigger picture as a priority. Instead of where an angle is going to build up a pay-per-view, Tony Khan seems like he only books for the next segment. The bottom line is, Wembley Stadium is the biggest show in AEW history, but has anything be booked to actually hype the event?
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
