11/17/2023
Tony Khan is addicted to the big moment rather than being committed to the one thing that will make his wrestling promotion grow: long-term compelling storylines
I want to give Tony credit that since starting AEW, he has done a great job of creating a legitimate promotion to rival and compete with WWE. He has put on numerous dream matches, given us some great PPVs and has helped many wrestlers who would go unappreciated find a home.
But recently, I’ve come to the realization that this man is hurting his brand more than helping it by doing the following:
1. We all know that Tony loves his announcements to help boost ratings. I won’t blame him for that—-it works to a point. People are always buzzing about it but the conversation has almost shifted from instead of “what is Tony going to announce?” excitedly to “how is Tony going to overhype something very ordinary?” This happens when you do this too much. I really hope he’s not setting up the fans for disappointment on Saturday at Full Gear with his new signing . But the bottom line is that big announcements and signings don’t sustain viewers and don’t replace impactful storylines.
2. The roster is very bloated still so Tony tries to compensate this by booking 6 and 8 man matches and a lot more tag matches than I’d care for. These matches are fun but they’re always more chaotic than they are substantive and meaningful. They rely heavily on spots than story. This is okay, there is a place for that but not excessively to the point where people are being conditioned to wanting a bunch of spot matches rather than be invested in a story.
3. He recently announced the Continental Classic, a round robin style tournament featuring 12 of AEW’s top stars. This is really cool but the question is, with Tony booking another tournament, is he using tournaments that set up random matches between opponents as a crutch rather than developing more long term meaningful story lines? I think it’s a fair question to ask.
I am not saying that there aren’t some great stories happening in AEW but to have things remembered for years to come, you need to tell stories from the top of the card to the bottom that make people feel something. This needs to be Tony’s commitment as a first priority more than just leaping for the big moment and announcement that someone doesn’t care about the next week. He also doesn’t need to make matches and try to fit stories into it. Create the stories, allow the matches to flow from that.
At this point, Tony needs to use the talented people and minds he has around him to do the booking and allow them to tell the stories that are waiting to be told. - TJ
