Tony Khan gets a lot right in his booking. Frequently, a wrestler’s chase to a title has been expertly done.
Hangman Page confronting his demons to finally conquer them and his former friends-cum-enemies in topping Kenny Omega is a prime example.
Mariah May running the All About Eve racecourse in toppling Toni Storm is another.
There have been organic and surprise surges to the top that sort of came out of nowhere that AEW has handled on the fly deftly.
Orange Cassidy’s run to the International Title, The Acclaimed’s sudden ascension to the most popular tag team, or Julia Hart’s improvement in both character and in-ring, giving her serious momentum.
AEW seems to recognize when it has a raging force powering to the top and to not get in its way (normally this is where I would insert a rant about Sami Zayn and Montreal but I’ve been told to watch my blood pressure).
The problem is that, so often, Khan thinks that the work is done once the title changes hands.
The title reigns never match the chase, thus ensuing title changes don’t really carry as much weight as the previous one did. Which is lessening the meaning of these titles altogether.
The most recent champions are a prime example. Private Party had to really dig in to look like deserving tag champs. But with some serious work and some help from a finally interested Young Bucks, they got there. Their win at AEW Dynamite Fright Night felt like something.
And since?
One defense against three face tag teams where the biggest story was the teased breakup of The Acclaimed, and then a trios match alongside Mistico against MxM and Johnny TV that was mostly an ad for the luchador Rampage to follow two days later.
Two matches in a month, one title defense when they weren’t the main story.
Not exactly riding the wave.
Mariah May was part of the best women’s story the company has ever told. She’s been champ for over three months. She’s had quick one-offs with Nyla Rose, Yuka Sakazaki, and an interminable feud with an improved but probably still oversold Anna Jay. Add a thrown-together feud with Willow Nightingale, culminating in a win at AEW WrestleDream that didn’t live up to what those two should be constructing. Is there anything there that Mariah has been allowed to sink her teeth into? There’s an argument that there just aren’t enough quality faces for Mariah to run a program with. But that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for AEW either.
Jack Perry began his heel run by decking Khan, and Khan selling his injuries AT THE NFL DRAFT FOR FUCK’S SAKE! It had both the wrestling world and football world abuzz. This one carried at least a little momentum past the title change with a win in a coffin match against Darby at All In, even if it got some time snipped. Since? You probably can’t name one, though I’ll tell you his run included a match against Christopher Daniels, and you’ll know everything you need to.
Even the top of the top, Jon Moxley, hasn’t been able to free himself of this nasty habit. Before taking the title, Mox and The Death Riders seemed like the scariest fucking people on Earth. It was in the realm of possibility that they would turn Dynamite into a sequel to The Running Man. They tried to commit murder multiple times! They promised big changes.
Then Moxley took the title, sent Bryan Danielson into retirement in a couple different buckets, and since…they’re just another heel faction. Beatdowns, cheating in title matches when the ref has his back turned, running when the heels show up, vague promos, with nothing really looking all that different than it did two months ago. The story wasn’t over when Danielson was carried out of AEW WrestleDream, and yet like most of the other title reigns in AEW’s history, it kind of feels like it was with nothing to follow.
Konuske Takeshita returned from a G1 Climax performance that had fans salivating. He won the international title where the main story was Kyle Fletcher turning on Ospreay. He has barely been seen, except for a match with Ricochet that most didn’t like. Granted, he’s taking the International Title international again, which limits his time on US TV. But be honest, did you forget he had it for a second there? They teased a greatest living tournament wrestler (Kazuchika Okada) facing the hottest tournament wrestler at the moment (Takeshita), and it’s now in the land of wind and ghosts.
It’s not just a current problem.
Remember when The Acclaimed conquered the All Out crowd in 2022 by force and pretty much had to be made champs a couple weeks later? They used all that energy to have three title defenses on Rampage and one on Battle Of The Belts. The Varsity Athletes and Jeff Jarret and Jay Lethal got multiple title matches. By the time the Acclaimed gave it up to The Gunns, it was hard to care. Arguably, they’ve never recovered.
Swerve Strickland, thanks in part to being the largest charisma machine on the planet and in part to his two wins over Hangman, was white hot when he took the world title off Samoa Joe. His first defense on a PPV was against Christian Cage at AEW Double or Nothing, where it wasn’t the main event. His next was against Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door, where Ospreay was the focus. And then he got swept up in Khan’s booking of Bryan Danielson (of which there was little choice given Danielson’s impending retirement). Do the TV defenses against Claudio Castagnoli and Roderick Strong make up for that? What was Swerve’s main feud as champ until the one he and Danielson had to manufacture on the fly?
We could go back to Page’s run as champion. It started with two banger matches with Danielson, including a 60-minute draw on TV. And then what? A Texas death match with Lance Archer and a mystifying feud with Adam Cole that made little to no sense before he, too, had to fall victim to more short-sighted booking, this time with CM Punk (worked out great for everyone, right?!)
This list could go on.
Jamie Hayter, who had become the biggest character in the women’s division simply by having great match after great match, wasn’t doing much before injury short-circuited her run. The Bucks latest run, Cassidy’s second International run, Statlander’s TBS reign, etc. Even Mercedes Mone, one of the biggest stars in the world, hasn’t always been able to squeeze blood from a turnip, especially if that turnip is named “Britt Baker.”
That doesn’t mean they’ve all been this way. Cassidy’s original run with the international title was everything anyone could have asked for and made him one of the company’s biggest stars who’s now worthy of competing for the top title.
MJF’s title run veered into one of the worst stories fans had to slog through at the end, but it started with the Iron Man match against Danielson and an underrated match with Kenny Omega (if that’s even possible).
Swerve In Our Glory helped give Strickland the platform to go on to bigger and better.
“Timeless” Toni Storm will probably be studied in film schools for decades.
It’s just that there’s not enough of them. Heading into the end of the year, what titles are AEW fans really interested in seeing and the feuds that will surround them? Moxley will always be box office, even if he’s flattened out a bit. But beyond that? Is anyone champing at the bit for Private Party’s next defense? Mariah and Mina Shirakawa have history and will deliver in the ring, but it’s a foregone conclusion and will be quickly wrapped. Often, we think of these matches as a bridge to something else, but what would that be? Is Takeshita even going to be around?
The biggest stories in wrestling are almost always the chase. But that doesn’t mean they have to be the only ones in AEW. Otherwise, those chases don’t mean all that much.
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