When AEW came on the scene in 2019, it felt like the world of wrestling could be about to change forever.
In a lot of ways it did: wrestlers had more negotiating power in contract discussions with two major players on the scene, and the presence of a somewhat viable competition meant that WWE had to step up its game for the first time in over a decade.
For a long time AEW was the darling of wrestling fans the world over, and it felt like there was a real possibility that the new kid on the block could one day overtake its bigger, meaner cousin.
However, 2022 has not been kind to AEW; backstage disputes, internal drama and baffling creative decisions have put Tony Khan’s House of Harm on the ignoble road to TNA-ville (with a layover in early-2000s WCW City).
It’s not as good as it was, is my point.
So how can AEW bring back some of that magic it had when it began?
8. Give Bryan Danielson The AEW World Championship
When Daniel Bryan Danielson Bryanson joined AEW at All Out 2021, he immediately became one of the biggest guys in the entire company just by virtue of being there (though not the biggest – more on that later).
That isn’t hyperbole either; in terms of currently active wrestlers Danielson is easily the most mainstream person on the roster, and it isn’t even close.
I mean, the guy main evented WrestleMania just last year! He was a featured player on Total Bellas (the highest honor there is in the world of wrestling)!
So why, oh why, is the GOAT goat still holding his burlap pants up with a piece of rope he found instead of the big beautiful gold belt he clearly deserves.
There is actually an answer for this: he doesn’t want it. Danielson wants to spend his final years before retirement having great matches that put over young talent like Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta.
And hey, listen, that’s great. But there’s such a thing as being so selfless that you swing right back around to being selfish. For the good of the company, Danielson has to accept the mantle and help AEW out of its current stagnant period.
7. More Focus On Story Over Bangers
Look, I love a good flip as much as the next guy.
But here’s the thing: fancy moves and six star bangers can only take you so far when it comes to a casual audience.
And like it or not, the casual audience both a) exists and b) needs to be catered to if you’re going to have delusions of wrestling grandeur.
There’s an argument to be made that AEW already has great stories, told in the ring through the art of professional wrestling, and that’s cool.
But you can’t build an entire company around subtext.
This isn’t Twin Peaks; it’s man hit other man fall down pretend time.
Elevating what storytelling can be in the ring is an admirable goal, but you need to supplement that with some explicitly-told stories with beginnings, middles and ends.
And those stories need to be told through dialogue and backstage segments as well as wrestling, and they need to be recapped every now and then for people who sometimes check their phones when characters are talking, because that’ss just the media landscape we live in now.
Otherwise all you’re producing is a YouTube “most kickass fights in John Wick” compilation.
Sure, it sounds cool, but it’s a lot harder to get invested in all those shoot outs when you don’t know that Russian gangsters killed his dog.
6. Fix The Women’s Division
Even if AEW magically started getting three million viewers starting next week, this is absolutely something that needs to be addressed.
Women’s wrestling isn’t something you can neglect, because it’s an integral part of wrestling as a whole.
Neglecting women’s wrestling and pretending it’s fine is like forgetting to put ropes on the ring, or not inviting an audience to come watch. It’s a bizarre thing to even have to address in 2022.
Don’t get me wrong, AEW has a ton of highlights in its women’s division – with current Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter being a real stand out at the moment – but a man cannot survive on Hayter alone.
Not only do you risk alienating half of your potential audience, but it also creates a huge image problem for a company that consistently tries to set itself up as the anti-big corporate soulless wrestling monopoly.
Most shots that AEW takes at WWE at the minute can be deflected pretty easily by just pointing at Hikaru Shida and asking, “Hey, where’s she been?”.
It’s an open goal, and AEW is refusing to kick the ball.
5. Fix Rampage
One of the real signs of AEW’s gradual decline is the dwindling viewership for Rampage, which as of the time of writing has recently experienced its lowest rating in its history.
This is the show that debuted CM Punk. This is the show where Christian Cage defeated Kenny Omega and ended his undefeated streak before Adam Page could (actually, maybe it’s always been cursed).
My point is, this is a show that started as SmackDown and is on its way to ending as Sunday Night Heat.
It’s not even a difficult fix, either.
Put some meaningful matches on there. Have some of your core titles change hands. Make it must-see television instead of “wait, they still make this?” television.
If we want to see short, contextless matches in AEW we already have two shows for that in Dark and Elevation. Two! Why are you using your precious TV time to have Orange Cassidy main event a show with QT Marshall?!
4. Shrink The Roster Back Down To A Manageable Size
This one is so tough. AEW has essentially created a Catch 22 for itself, where the solution to its problem (a massively bloated roster) is in itself a problem (robbing people of their livelihoods by firing them).
We’d never suggest the latter, by the way; ideally what Tony needs to do is spend his inheritance on a time machine, and stop himself from debuting people every thirty seconds for the past year, but alas.
Honestly at this point shrinking the roster could be as simple as creating a hard brand split between AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage (and AEW Dark, and AEW Dark Elevation, and AEW Dark Elevation Rising, and AEW Dark Elevation Rising Redux, and-).
Hell, if Tony ever gets that Ring of Honor deal off the ground he’ll be laughing, as he can make a bunch of guys and girls exclusive to what – in practical terms – will act as a completely separate entity to AEW.
That would give more time for AEW to focus on some of its homegrown stars, and maybe find something for people like, oh I don’t know, Miro to do?
Bring me my Bulgarian monster and his terrible neck, and then let him tear his way through a (normal-sized) roster.
3. Sign Somebody Mainstream
You’re probably sat there thinking to yourself, “Hey, that’s pretty hypocritical of you Ryan, saying that AEW needs to shrink its roster in one entry and then immediately saying they need to hire more people in the next”.
And to those of you I say: Pobody’s Nerfect.
But also I’m not necessarily contradicting myself here. If anything I’m pointing out a key flaw in Khan’s booking strategy. In many ways I’m a hero, and you’re the hypocrite.
Booking one big name to slap on your posters and dangle in front of potential AEW converts has significantly more value than signing a million indie darlings (from a business perspective; indie darlings are still producing more flips-per-minute than your average celebrity, they have that on lock).
AEW has probably signed all the big names they’re ever going to be able to, but you never know.
Brock Lesnar seems pretty flexible when it comes to brand loyalty.
Sasha Banks is still a hard “maybe” as long as she’s patenting random words and praising Joshis on Instagram.
WWE signed a Paul brother, but you know there are two of them, right?
That last one was mostly a joke. Mostly.
2. Bring Back CM Punk
Hey look, I know. I get it. But this isn’t a list of things we want AEW to do; it’s a list of ways that would help them regain momentum.
And bringing back Punk, like it or not, would do that. Outside of Bryan, and maybe Jericho, and maybe MJF, Punk was the biggest draw the company had on its books, and (like Danielson) they never really got around to doing anything with him.
That isn’t anybody’s fault, either – not entirely. Punk’s reigns were plagued by injuries and poor timing, even before All Out. He didn’t have time to do anything really special in the company (outside of a too-short feud with MJF that never felt like it fully got off the ground).
Bringing Punk back might be a huge mistake in the long term, especially with regards to company morale.
But to use the cruel, calculating language of business: Punk make money happen good.
It would also give him time to pursue some really worthy feuds, including a title program with Danielson that I still, to this day, do not understand not immediately booking the very second the two were in the company together (sorry Hangman).
1. Focus On Building AEW Originals
In terms of long-term growth and interest, this is the thing AEW needs to get back to before anything else.
When the company started, it managed to make people like Darby Allin, ‘Jungle Boy’ Jack Perry and Sammy Guevara near-household names in a shockingly short amount of time.
It did that by putting them in compelling programmes, often with each other.
It makes sense, when you think about it; when Steven Spielberg makes a new movie, he doesn’t put ET on the poster to get people to care.
He introduces new characters, and has them do things the audience cares about, until they find themselves forming an emotional connection with them.
AEW was well on its way to doing this in its early days, but unfortunately found itself being sidelined by a million cameos and feuds that had their roots in other promotions.
AEW Dynamite and Rampage should, at their core, tell the story of AEW. Not Ring of Honor. Not New Japan. Certainly not WWE.
The best thing the company can do to regain its momentum is by trusting the people who helped build the company in the first place to take it into the stratosphere.
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