Tonight on AEW Dynamite, the ROH World Tag Team Champion Sammy Guevara is returning from injury to face Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin made his in-ring debut for AEW last week in a decisive victory against Lio Rush.
It’s always possible AEW pulls the rug here but it’s more than likely that Sammy Guevara is about to do what’s he has been doing a lot lately, and that’s making others look good at the expense of his own win/loss record. Since Sammy’s return in the summer if he isn’t in a tag or trios match he’s likely looking at the lights. He helped welcome Ricochet to AEW last month and lost to Kazuchika Okada in an AEW Continental Championship Eliminator match last week.
It should be no surprise if he loses tonight since the purpose is to build up Shelton Benjamin for a match against Swerve Strickland at the Fright Night Dynamite on October 30 in Cleveland. Guevara isn’t here as the former TNT Champion or even current ROH World Tag Team Champion. He certainly isn’t here as a pillar. He’s here to make Shelton look strong.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said this reminded him of when Eric Bischoff came into TNA Wrestling and beat the top guys of TNA
“It’s going down the wrong path.”
A lot of folks got very mad at Meltzer for comparing Shelton Benjamin to Val Venis, though one person who had the best knowledge of TNA in Garrett Kidney having the best response:
Setting aside Meltzer’s comparison (comparison’s on the internet are always a land mine. You are always expected to do a 1:1 comparison with absolutely nothing different or else someone is going to disagree with you. Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie are similar games? Yeah but Banjo has a witch and Mario doesn’t. Stupid comparison. Shut up and delete your account. That’s the usual reaction whenever you make a comparison. Nobody will ever be happy with your comparison even if the point you’re trying to make is fair because all they can see are the problems with your comparison instead of your point. Anyway) I think one should look at the wrong path Meltzer was referring to.
Essentially, the wrong path is bringing in people from your competitor and having them beat established stars that you built up. The problem isn’t Shelton Benjamin so much as Sammy Guevara. Even if you got burned out on Sammy from his TNT run and his constant face/heel turns and cutting work shoot promos that nobody needed, he’s still a day one AEW talent who got built up on AEW TV. Having him lose to a near 50-year-old former three time WWE 24/7 Champion is always going to be a tough look.
Lio Rush was a great opponent for Shelton because he was a former WWE guy himself, and was low enough on the card that losing to Shelton wasn’t burning any momentum or years of establishment in the company. My personal suggestion for Shelton to face is the guy who recently fought Ricochet in AR Fox. His history with Swerve Strickland and the fact he’s a great wrestler at a lower level on the card means it’s okay to beat him and you know you’ll get a good match in doing it. It’s not the same as beating Sammy.
(I’ll add I bet Sammy requested this match and has no problem losing to Shelton because he knows his role right now is to repair his reputation with AEW fans and not try to climb the ladder.)
A lot of people hate the comparison Meltzer made or any criticism because Shelton Benjamin is a guy who was constantly overlooked in WWE. Benjamin burned years of his career being wasted and mishandled and never being the star everyone thought he could be. He’s finally getting a second chance in AEW, looks fantastic, and even if he beats Sammy it doesn’t change the fact he likely has a brick wall in Swerve Strickland to soon run into. This is a short term situation. He’s being built up to be torn down.
Build Up.
Tear down.
This is part of a larger problem in All Elite Wrestling. Too often, guys are given wins not because the company has plans for the winner but they have plans for someone else. They are only winning to look credible against someone else. So Shelton is going to get these wins on Lio and Sammy only to lose to Swerve, who everyone knows his real focus (likely for Full Gear) will be a debuting Bobby Lashley.
A similar problem looks to be happening with The Outrunners losing to LFI. Everyone knows LFI isn’t winning that match to build to an AEW World Tag Team Championship match against the Young Bucks. It’s heel versus heel. It’s more likely they are being built up to lose to FTR. So The Outrunners, with all of their recent momentum? They are really just there to gas up FTR. Gas up their opponents, and gas them up in FTRunners. They won’t actually be moving up or anything. They are in service to someone else.
That’s the build up and tear down. So many wrestlers only get built up to lose to someone else, and that someone else isn’t actually going for a championship. They are just in need of credible opponents. It makes it tough to invest in people because those wins will mean nothing once they serve their purpose of putting someone else over.
It essentially leaves AEW with just a few top people who they rarely if ever want to lose (unless it’s the Continental Classic), a whole lot of people who can lose any day and it doesn’t matter, and then a few who get over only to get driven back down the card because whatever popularity they earned is just getting transferred to the person AEW actually wants to be over.
You take the way AEW builds up and tears down people, and you take the wrong path Meltzer refers to, and it’s a struggle for anyone to move up the card. For all of Jon Moxley’s talk about the young guys not stepping up? It’s because the booker isn’t giving them stairs to step up on. How was Private Party supposed to become a top tag team when they were being used to keep Matt Hardy relevant in 2022? After a great showing in the Continental Classic, Brody King got one singles match in February against Mark Briscoe, one TNT Championship shot against Adam Copeland in May, and then his next match wasn’t until his squash against Action Andretti in September before the Darby match at WrestleDream in October. How is he supposed to step up when he’s being pushed right back into the muscle role of the House of Black?
I don’t think Meltzer’s comparison of Shelton Benjamin to Val Venis was correct, but I don’t blame Dave for seeing the situation and thinking, “AEW isn’t protecting their own” instead of thinking of all the ways why AEW would book the match. The problem really isn’t the former WWE guy beating the AEW guy, but more about how AEW continues to feed people to talent who are not going anywhere anyway. When people talk about start and stop pushes, they often mean AEW’s constant building up and tearing down. It’s hard for AEW President Tony Khan to really stick to an act, and it’s more often for him to just go back to the acts that he knows will work.
It’s unfortunate to see The Outrunners lose when they’ve had so much momentum lately, and it’s unfortunate to see Sammy Guevara lose to a guy who might not be wrestling three years from now. The problem isn’t the fact they are losing, it’s that their losses will ultimately mean nothing. They are not making the next AEW champions. They are just making the next high profile AEW loss.
