This weekend is AEW’s Wrestle Dream, the company’s third pay-per-view offering in about a month and a half, but following “Title Tuesday,” a Dynamite show that was moved from its Wednesday time slot for this week, there’s not much sizzle or anticipation ahead of the event. First, it should be noted that it’s tough for the organization to sell the PPV based on the “go home” show being moved from its usual time slot. A portion of the AEW viewing audience, as sluggish as they might be in recent months, that will miss the broadcast simply because there are in the routine of watching Dynamite on Wednesday.
Still, the lack of overall build for this card, and some of the same could’ve been said for All Out since it was just two weeks after All in from London, suggests that monthly PPV cards won’t yield success for the company. Tony Khan’s slapstick approach, a booking philosophy that lacks focus by nature, doesn’t lend itself to monthly PPV cards. Granted, if this is being done in anticipation for the new deal with Max that could offer pay-per-views at a much lower price than there’s an argument to be made for it, as it would intrinsically lower expectations for each event.
However, as of right now, AEW management is trying to sell this $50 broadcast based on the majority of the matches being advertised just days before the actual PPV. It’s simply not possible to build any hype or anticipation when the first mention of some of the scheduled bouts are on a preempted episode of Dynamite.
Daniel Garcia made his return to television this week and probably cut the best promo of his career, but he’s not scheduled for Wrestle Dream. The argument could be made that the most effective segment on Dynamite this week was for a performer that doesn’t have any role on the PPV and thus no impact on its buyrate.
Obviously, with matches being thrown on the card just days before the pay-per-view, the hotshot approach was used to try to generate some level of importance for these bouts, but those efforts have yielded mix results. Jack Perry vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the TNT Title is a very minimal match, in terms of importance or its ability to generate a buyrate. Shibata might be one of Tony Khan’s favorite wrestlers, but he’s not featured too often and is a secondary character at best. Plus, Shibata, as talented as he was, is clearly past his prime after he suffered a very serious head injury several years ago. Is there any reason for the fans to think it’s possible for Shibata to win the title? If he does, will he actually do anything of importance with it?
On the other end of the spectrum, the returning Jay White attacked Adam Page a few weeks ago and with minimal interaction, they have a match on pay-per-view. But, the difference is that this should be a contest that delivers bell-to-bell and has an effect on each performer’s path going forward. From a character prospective, I honestly think that Adam Page was ruined multiple times during his All Elite tenure. The whiny promos, the draw when he defended the championship during his initial reign a few years ago, and the switches from baby face to heel haven’t helped his career. Because of that, I have zero faith that Adam Page can be rejuvenated to the level that he had before he won the AEW championship. I don’t know his contract status or if there would be interest from NXT, but he would have to completely reinvent himself somewhere else to make progress in his career. Make no mistake, Page can go in the ring, but there are only so many times a performer can hit the reset button until they just have to go elsewhere. Jay White is a quality pro inside the ring ropes and probably should’ve had a much bigger role in AEW so far. That said, this return from injury is a chance for him to rejuvenate his status and hopefully work his way to the main event scene, depending what the overall plans are for the title picture on a long-term basis. In that sense, at least there’s something at stake for a match that was otherwise booked without a lot of momentum behind it.
Mark Briscoe vs. Chris Jericho for the ROH world title is cannon fodder. I hate to say it, but does the Ring Of Honor brand truly matter in 2024? AEW has too many belts as it is, and this is nothing more than a mid-card match with a prop. Speaking of cannon fodder, Private Party got destroyed by the Blackpool Combat Club a few weeks ago, is the audience supposed to take them as a serious threat to the tag titles? If not, The Young Bucks vs. Private Party on the card is moot. Mariah May vs. Willow Nightingale could be the best match on the undercard, but that’s a rather low standard given the matches already discussed.
Brody King and Darby Allin will probably be an entertaining car crash segment, even if it’s something we’ve seen before. The only problem is, this was shoehorned onto the card simply because they called an audible with the Bryan Danielson match so does the result really matter? The same could be said for the International title match, Will Ospreay will defend against Ricochet and Konosuke Takeshita. It will be an incredible spot fest that will give the fans their money’s worth, but does it truly have any cache besides the dazzling dives that are seen on television every week? Don’t get me wrong, Takeshita is a top talent and should be the focus of the world title, but adding him into this scenario actually takes away from the narrative. When Ricochet and Ospreay went to a draw last week, it naturally set the stage for a rematch at the pay-per-view, which could’ve used their extensive history as a selling point. The addition of Takeshita reduces this segment to a spot fest rather than a match-up based on an extensive rivalry. Takeshita is definitely worth a spot on pay-per-view, just not being shoehorned into an already established match just to get him on the card.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s meat on the bone so to speak for this pay-per-view, it’s just camouflaged within a slew of glorified TV matches.
The main event, originally penciled in to be Darby Allin challenging for the championship, will be Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley for the title. Unless there’s something major on the horizon, particularly with Moxley’s new faction, I’m not sure the match-up should’ve been switched. With the event being hosted in Tacoma and both Danielson and Darby being from Washington, the stage was set for the sentimental passing of the torch. If Darby is going to win the belt, the hometown victory would’ve been the way to do it. His style being completely reckless and counterproductive to drawing money as the champion is a different discussion for a different time. Moxley wouldn’t have been given the match unless he was going to win the belt, thus ending Danielson’s full-time career, but I’m not sure such an abbreviated run as champion does anything to help All Elite Wrestling or put heat on Moxley as a heel. If anything, there would have to be a build, where Danielson narrowly escapes with the title through tough competition before his run concludes. Enough cache hasn’t been allowed to build up for his title run to translate to importance for the organization or heat for the opponent that retires him. At this point, the end of Danielson’s title run would more or less be indifference, and there’s nothing more counterproductive to drawing money than indifference.
However, as ridiculous as this might’ve sounded in the past, and I even wrote a column about it to dismiss the initial rumors, if Shane McMahon is revealed as a part of Moxley’s group, as the cryptic reference Moxley made during an interview with Tony Schiavone several weeks ago, it would justify the switch of opponents for Danielson. When the photo of Shane and Tony Khan surfaced a few months ago, I figured it was nothing more than Tony trying to get some positive press for AEW online, and that could still be the case. Since that time, a picture of Shane McMahon with The Young Bucks was posted online, which added a little bit more credibility to the speculation, as it seems odds that they would just happen to be in the same place at the same time.
After the Netflix documentary about Vince, it should be noted that Shane was the best McMahon portrayed in the series. The story was told that Shane was overlooked as Vince’s successor in favor of Stephanie, and even Shane acknowledged that his efforts in the ring were to get the approval of his dad. Given the horrendous accusations against Vince earlier this year, it’s at least possible that Shane would consider a tenure in AEW as a way to do something completely on his own. As much as Shane doesn’t need the money, Tony Khan would undoubtedly pay him some hefty cash simply just to say that he has a McMahon working for him. If Shane shows up, the shock alone will get fans talking and thus tune into Dynamite, giving the company a chance to regain some of the viewers that it lost after CM Punk left the company. A boost in the numbers would also look good for the new TV deal the company just signed with the Turner networks.
Outside of a monumental surprise at the pay-per-view, Wrestle Dream just doesn’t have enough of importance on the card to justify the $50 price tag. It might sound trivial, but given the current economic uncertainty and the rate of inflation, a PPV with mostly glorified TV matches on paper is a more difficult sell for the company than it was in the past.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
