It’s the holiday season. We say this because all over the world everyone has decided that the end of the year is when it’s the right time to celebrate a bunch of times and get together with family and friends and be jolly and all that good stuff.
When I was a kid in Canada we had the Sears Wishbook and my mom would give me a pen and tell me to circle every single thing I wanted. And then because I circled too many things she asked me to put a big star beside the big gifts I wanted. She didn’t ask me to do anything after that so I think I picked a sufficient amount of big gifts.
So I’m going to be circling the Christmas gifts I want for All Elite Wrestling to get and enjoy in the new year. I apologize for using “Christmas” I probably should have used holiday but I already finished my graphics and heck I’m not religious anyway nor was I raised religious; my family just loves decorating a dead tree and handing out a ton of gifts on a day my dad got off work.
Here is my All Elite Wrestling Christmas Wish List!
An ROH TV Deal and Hard Split From AEW
There have been rumours that AEW has been negotiating with WBD for a Ring of Honor TV show likely on TruTV. TruTV now has a “TNT Sports” block and it’s believed they want a pro wrestling show to help fill some hours on that primetime block.
I personally wish they’d get ROH on a streaming service. Whether it’s MAX or Tubi (Tubi at one point was publicly saying they wanted more pro wrestling content) I think there would be too much pressure on ROH to perform well on cable television and the numbers would be such an insufferable discourse due to the fact of course they’d be low. It’s ROH. It’s not a major wrestling promotion. It’s the secondary promotion of a secondary wrestling company. Streaming would help shield a bit of that.
Regardless of where they get a deal? I hope they get one. And in getting one? I hope there’s a hard split between ROH and AEW. I’m talking if you work for ROH you don’t necessarily work AEW. It should be a unique and special feature to see ROH talent on AEW, as should it be for the other way around as well.
My vision for Ring of Honor is to essentially be the farm system for All Elite Wrestling. That doesn’t mean nothing but rookies. It means when you have a young talent that isn’t necessarily right to go on AEW TV, you don’t use AEW TV to build them. You use ROH. ROH they can get plenty of promo time, matches, segments, angles, heel turns, face turns, etc. It’s where you refine all of the rough edges on the talent you have.
It’s also a good place for veteran talent you just know you don’t have room for in All Elite Wrestling. AEW should be for the best. That veteran talent will still have a direct line to AEW should they pop off in ROH. Imagine a guy like AR Fox working exclusively in ROH, having a great title run, and now Tony Khan sees his value for AEW. That’s what I hope for.
ROH TV deal, ROH hard split.
Unique Locations for AEW TV
I want you to watch this clip.
That’s the AEW Dynamite on the Jericho Rock N Wrestling Rager cruise ship. I know that there were some real complications on filming it and getting the footage completed to broadcast live. But look at that crowd. Look at the wind. Look at how different and special it feels to be doing this in such a unique location.
AEW is running the Hammerstein Ballroom soon for ROH Final Battle and AEW Collision and Dynamite and that will probably be unique looking, but I want something more. A lot more.
I want Red Rocks.
(Ignore the music and just look at the visuals. Unless you like Bleachers.)
I want this for AEW. I want Red Rocks. Make it a Pay Per View. I don’t care if you lose five million dollars on the show and invite everyone to show up for free. What matters is that you’ll never get a visual experience quite like Red Rocks.
Of course we want to see All Elite Wrestling in Japan sometime, but honestly I don’t care as much about the Tokyo Dome or Korakuen Hall. I want the KBS Hall in Kyoto.
I’m sure it would be difficult to do the traditional AEW entrance and I don’t really care. You don’t need it. I don’t care if it will be harder to film. None of that matters. Attendance doesn’t matter. What matters is the visual of having All Elite Wrestling wrestle in front of that stained glass window.
Now I know Club Le Vela is essentially dead. You can’t really do the WCW Spring Break anymore.
Tony Khan could just, I dunno, buy Club La Vela. Come on. Just buy it. It’s Christmas. Come on.
But if he won’t do that? Might I suggest the Virginia Beach Oceanfront in Virginia Beach?
Imagine if in 2025 there was a free AEW Dynamite on a Wednesday night on Virginia Beach right at the ocean front with Hangman Adam Page in the main event. You don’t think that place would be rocking?
Again… just give me something that doesn’t feel like the same ol’. That’s what I want here.
Andreza Giant Panda and Chiitan in AEW
I’ll keep this one short and sweet.
You can have your serious sports product. You can have your catch as catch can. You can have all that stuff. Give me one night where Andreza Giant Panda and Chiitan are wrestling in an AEW ring. Just one night. That’s all I’m asking! Okay I want more than one night but just give me one okay?
The Elite All Holding AEW Championships without being together
In 2025, I want to see at some point the Young Bucks holding either the AEW Trios or AEW Tag Team Championship, and then Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega holding singles gold. I don’t need another Elite reunion. I don’t need more Elite feuds.
What I do need is a point where All Elite Wrestling as a company says that the world still revolves around The Elite and by doing that I need to see them in the champions roll call.
Daniel Garcia can wear, “Restore the Feeling” on a t-shirt every day and the only thing that actually will? Is The Elite back on top.
Return of Riho
I miss Riho.
We haven’t seen Riho in AEW since she got injured back in July, and that was her first match since March. Riho has been doing this thing where she comes in, works a few matches, gets a couple wins, then gets expected to put over the world champ. Hikaru Shida has been on a similar run with AEW.
I want the return of Champion Riho. I want Riho to dethrone either the Women’s World Champion or TBS Champion. It’s time to see Riho back on top and the company build around the fact she’s one of the most likeable wrestlers in the world.
When I say Return of Riho? That’s what I’m talking about.
Reasonable Criticism from Critics
Alright, let’s get into it.
Have TV ratings dropped faster than cord cutting at times? Yes. Has attendance been dropping in a lot of markets? Yes. Are PPV buys down? Yes.
All of these things are true for All Elite Wrestling.
Here’s what’s also true. AEW Dynamite on September 4 had 2,448 tickets distributed when in April of 2023 they had 3,273. That’s a difference of 824. WWE Smackdown on November 15 had 10,436 tickets distributed when in March they had 11,253. That’s a difference of 817.
Now I’m not saying that’s the case for every single market, but unless you can prove to me that 800 wrestling fans that attended AEW and WWE shows just died between those periods it’s telling me that there’s drops in attendance everywhere.
If you pay any attention to live music concerts you’ll know there’s been serious drops all over the industry with only the tippy top acts always selling out. Everyone from Jennifer Lopez to The Black Keys were cancelling concerts this summer because it was pointless to lose the money going to the towns.
Then you got TV Ratings. Over on Monday Night Football the Bengals and Cowboys did the best total viewers since 2001. Meanwhile the 10th best prime time broadcast in 18-49 in all of television on Monday night did only a 0.25 rating. Dynamite back in July did a 0.26. That’s how bad things are getting for the rest of television.
Dynamite last week looked terrible because it was doing under 600,000 viewers with a 0.17 but that 0.17 was only a 0.04 away from third place on primetime cable that week. We’re not talking a giant gap. We’re talking 0.04 from third place in all of primetime cable. They are not out of the Top 100. Not out of the Top 50. Not out of the Top 25. Not out of the Top 20. Not out of the Top 10. On all of cable in the United States. And people are freaking out about this number because it’s “not as good as it used to be.”
When you only compare AEW to WWE? It looks weak. When you compare AEW to what they were doing in the past when there were more people still watching TV? It looks weak. When you compare AEW to the rest of television? AEW is one of the best shows on TV. That’s why WBD renewed them. A renewal that hasn’t even kicked in yet!
I can point out that the PPV buys are lower year to year because AEW is doing more PPVs which means expecting people to pay for more pay per views. They will sell more PPVs total due to the bigger schedule.
Some people are going to call this all cope. I get it. And some will exaggerate and say I’m saying AEW has no issues. Not the case either way. What it is though? It’s perspective. AEW is not just competing against WWE. They are competing against all of entertainment. Every Wednesday they are fighting for the live viewership eyes against TV, streaming, and online content. Every live event they are fighting every live event in town. Every PPV they are fighting anything that costs around the price of a pay per view.
There are plenty of ways for AEW to improve live attendance, and it starts with better marketing of their ticket prices as a lot of have stopped buying due to the price increases of 2022 and 2023. There are ways to improve viewership and part of it comes in the simulcast that kicks in with MAX in 2025 which means anyone subscribing to MAX will now get AEW. There are ways to sell more pay per views and it comes with how AEW markets and advertises their shows, and in getting marquee matchups advertised early.
All of that said? I just want reasonable criticism on these things. Reasonable to me is understanding that AEW is a number two company in a niché form of entertainment. Reasonable to me is understanding AEW outside of the bubble of “WWE and everyone else”
I want people to actually pay attention to the fact that the videogame industry is having a crisis of people not buying full priced games. That AEW’s top competition in wrestling doesn’t sell PPVs at full price but bundles in their network. That WWE’s NXT moved from cable to network television only to see their ratings drop below what they were doing on cable especially in the women demographics. That AEW Dynamite’s quarter ratings were artificially inflated by their lead in on TBS and now their lead in is weak. When you factor all of these details? Yes, AEW could be doing better. But that doesn’t mean AEW is in a crisis.
Be reasonable when you criticize in 2025. Give me that gift under the tree? I think a lot of people will be happy. And Andreza Giant Panda. That too.
