AEW needs to find a more cohesive road to All In | Opinion
I’ve knocked WWE over the last few weeks for having a safe and boring summer creatively. Same people at the top rehashing storylines from decades ago. But AEW also seems to be struggling creatively in recent weeks. While their weekly shows have strong in-ring wrestling, a lot of their direction currently feels weird and stilted with big matches happening on TV at the drop of the hat, confusing twists and turns in its storytelling, and returns being announced at the very last minute. While All In is still several weeks away, the build to the show doesn’t feel cohesive and I don’t feel it’s as strong as it could be.
Will Ospreay defeated Swerve Strickland to officially become the number one contender for the AEW World title at All In. The build to his win involved Jon Moxley suddenly befriend him despite being the one that severely injured his neck last year. Ospreay accepted his offer to train with the group and through that training earned the Wembley title match. We know where it’s going, but it’s weird that there’s so much emphasis on this story as opposed to Ospreay’s immediate future, the World title match.
Speaking of, the Omega title win last week felt odd too. A big title rematch almost for sure should headline a major pay-per-view, especially one titled Redemption that will take place in Omega’s home country. It makes all the sense in the world that Omega would get the big title win in Canada to set up what will be the one of the biggest AEW matches of the year. But the match ended up taking place on an episode of Dynamite. It was a fantastic match, no doubt. But I was left wondering why a key storyline match like that was suddenly free on television. It doesn’t help matters that the actual title match is Kenny Omega vs. Kevin Knight. While that will very likely be a fantastic match, it doesn’t feel like a marquee bout at this stage, and there’s no real urgency to watch it as no one is thinking Knight will leave Montreal as the new AEW World Champion. It didn’t help that fans actually chanted “no” during the segment that set up the bout.
The build for Redemption on this week’s Dynamite was shockingly weak. The show had tremendous wrestling (shoutout to Kyle Fletcher/Kommander!) but didn’t make me any more excited to commit to another five-hour AEW pay-per-view. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage fought off The Dogs and continued to build whatever is going on between Jay White and Cage. But the Redemption match is with Claudio Castagnoli and PAC, which on paper sounds great (notice a trend?). But it was announced in a digital exclusive after Dynamite ended which, by the way, had a 22 minute overrun. You really couldn’t set it up on your television show?
Perhaps most shocking of all was how they handled Hangman Page’s return after a three-month absence. Tony Khan announced the return last Friday during the main event segment of SmackDown, probably the worst time you could make a last-minute announcement. Page returned and cut a vague promo mentioning he may be going for other titles, but didn’t signal a clear direction. You would think that after a major return like this, there would be some sort of follow up, or at least a replay of his comments.
Except there was zero mention of him on Wednesday’s show. None.
I like Tony Khan a lot. I can tell he’s not like other promoters of the past and genuinely likes professional wrestling, and he always makes sure to give people plenty of it. We all know the “sickos” line. But sometimes I feel like one voice making all of these decisions for a company as big as AEW can lead to situations like this. I am sure there is a good reason for all of the above. Perhaps there is a long term storyline that hasn’t been fully played out, and maybe there’s a reason Swerve Strickland has vanished from television, or why title matches are often announced an hour before the show starts, or why a big title match was suddenly moved to television. But when there’s no context, I’m not thinking so much about how great the wrestling on Dynamite is, I’m just wondering why things aren’t being made crystal clear.
The build to Wembley isn’t lost, of course. We’re weeks away, and we don’t know the full card, though we have ideas. I’m simply just left with more questions than answers, and sometimes when I watch Dynamite I feel the in-ring action is far more emphasized than the story that is trying to be told. AEW is often criticized for its lack of storytelling, but the reality is they tell their stories in a way that’s different from WWE, the standard-bearer for the last 20+ years. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and AEW needs to find a better voice in getting their stories across in the weeks leading to their biggest event of the year.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.