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AEW is leaning into its cult status, and I love it
The best way to enjoy AEW is to forget the ratings, at least past the point where you know it’s doing well enough to be successful, and is going to stay on the air and in existence. However it compares to whatever Chicago show is on NBC or whatever gas Tucker Carlson has been huffing that night, doe...
Cody Rhodes got what he wanted, but what’s next?
When you get Cody Rhodes’s entrance at WrestleMania this past weekend — the drawn out silence before to build anticipation, the house lights being cut, importing his elevator through the stage from AEW, and 70,000 people losing their shit, it would be impossible to argue that Cody Rhodes was wrong i...
Nostalgia is WWE’s biggest weapon… with a tinge of spite
There might not be a promise I’ve broken more than saying I won’t mention AEW when discussing WWE, and vice versa. I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten it right. It’s not so easy when that’s the main narrative of the wrestling industry these days. And it’s also hard to avoid when WWE, on their biggest nigh...
AEW out-Manias <em>WrestleMania</em>
AEW has been such crazy fun and so ridiculous that it pretty much makes me a hypocrite on a weekly basis. I’ve said, on more than one occasion, that trying to compare AEW and WWE is pointless and a bit too cynical. They’re two different things, even if they’re in the same general industry. And yet y...
Your AEW Revolution Preview
It seems like every time we gather to preview an AEW PPV, we marvel at how it’s the biggest card they’ve put together. I’ve said “Jiminiy Jillikers!” so much the words have lost all meaning! But we can’t help it, as this card is probably as stacked, maybe more so, than September’s “All Out.” I guess...
Cody Rhodes is nuts
Cody and Brandi Rhodes must be insane, right? The couple integral to the founding of All Elite Wrestling, with a strong family heritage inside the squared circle, has left the upstart promotion they helped lay brick and tile for and could head back to their former employer, World Wrestling Entertain...
I just want to watch Keith Lee throw people out the building all the time
When you boil down what people love about AEW so much (and Tony Khan’s running of it), it’s that the company and he usually just do the simplest thing. Just give the people what they want. It sounds like it should be obvious, but there are a lot of ways to overthink it....
MJF is the best wrestler in the world
“Love to hate” is a term that gets lazily thrown around by media types. It’s generally the only phrase they can come up with to describe someone who is generally hated or reviled but also pulls in huge attention. Or it’s used as a cover for not actually digging into why someone is loathed by the mas...
It’s been the best and worst of AEW this week
If a newcomer to the wrestling world wanted an exhibition on why AEW makes so much noise for such a new company in the industry, this past week would be it. It has showcased everything the company does well, as well as exemplified the problems it has, and more importantly how it addresses those prob...
Some great wrestling matches from the year that was
That time again. This year’s list feels a little more genuine, as wrestling (outside of Japan at least) was able to get out of the TV-studio era and back in front of the crowds it so desperately needs. Whether that was or is a really good idea at the moment, we’ll save for another time. Trying to ju...
They just give this to you for free
As I’ve said a few times, I’ve only been a wrestling fan again for about six years now. So while I’ve done my fair share of research and rewatching, my grip on wrestling history isn’t as strong as a lot of people’s....
Even WWE wrestlers think <em>Survivor Series</em> sucks
Generally, the fall has always been the downtime on the WWE calendar. Before SmackDown on Friday nights became the A-show, WWE was happy to cede the floor to Monday Night Football and let its booking from September through the end of the year get even lazier and more banal than it normally is, which...
AEW must not confuse bloat with genius
Because I know how hardcore AEW fans get, and I’m one of them, let me get this out of the way at the top. I do not think Saturday night’s Full Gear PPV was bad. Far from it. It was good. Maybe even very good. And any show that ends with the culmination of the two-year Hangman Page storyline is by de...
AEW <em>Full Gear</em>: Fantastic <em>All Out</em> could look like a community board meeting compared to this
I’m not sure how AEW has put together a card that is the equal, or maybe even better than All Out in September. But this Full Gear one could easily surpass it. The stories are a little more fleshed out, and it also has Bryan Danielson in the ring instead of just making his debut. This has a chance t...
No one cares if they can coexist
To claim that there is one tired storyline trope that WWE has to do away with is to bring a squirt gun to a massive inferno. It doesn’t cover the breadth of the company’s problems, and you probably don’t have enough ammo to even take care of the specific portion you want. And it might come down to p...
This is why AEW is king right now
Any wrestling fan could be excused for having their brains scrambled by the sight of Kenny Omega and Bryan Danielson staring at each other from across the ring before actually engaging. It was not something we’d ever conceived of actually happening, and even when we knew it was going to happen month...
Ruby Soho is yet another chance for AEW to keep promises about its women’s division
My fear is that once or twice a year, until my bosses find out that I’m just an absurd algorithm devised out of some combination of bong water and Primus records and they fire “me” (even though I don’t exist in physical form), I’ll be writing some piece about how this is the time that AEW can, shoul...
Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole now define AEW, just like that
It’s strange to say that a company that has been around almost two years still was trying to find something of an identity. And it’s always had one, but until Sunday it still had some nebulous quality, after Sunday’s All Out pay-per-view, we know exactly what AEW is, what it’s going to be, and where...
AEW <i>All Out</i> 2021 preview and predictions
It’s the first week of September, you know what that means! It’s time for AEW’s biggest show, All Out. Not only is it the biggest show they’ve ever run, or their most important, but it has a real chance to shift the wrestling world in a way we haven’t seen in a couple decades. AEW could very well be...
Um, YIKES, Max Caster
We all know heels need heat. And I get it, AEW is supposed to be the alternative to WWE for “real” wrestling fans, the ones who long for a return to the grittier, TV-14-rated Attitude Era. But there are a bunch of fans (read: women) who don’t want to go back to the Attitude Era, a time when women we...