AEW Dynamite last night was suffocating.
All Elite Wrestling, for the past while, has been suffocating.
Sometimes you don’t realize it in the moment. Boiled frogs and all that. But I’ve felt the heat. It’s the only heat I’m getting in January.
Heat in pro wrestling is supposed to be a good thing. You want a hot crowd. You want heat in angles so they are hot and exciting. Heels need heat so when they finally get beat the babyface win means something.
In All Elite Wrestling it’s less like the good kind and more like humidity. It’s New Orleans in August. It’s inescapable. It makes the air hard to breathe.
This is All Elite Wrestling and it has been All Elite Wrestling for quite some time.
It’s not just the Death Riders. Trust me, I’ll get to the Death Riders. It’s everything. Have you looked at the champions lately in All Elite Wrestling? You have a Men’s World Champion who won’t bring out his belt. You have Trios Champions who never defend their belts. You have new Tag Team Champions who are sometimes cheered but clearly positioned as heels. You have a Continental Champion the fans want to cheer but prefers to flip them off and work half as fast as he could because he believes he’s better than everyone. You have an International Champion, part of the other suffocating top heel faction.
You finally have a babyface TNT Champion in Daniel Garcia, who hasn’t won a match on AEW Dynamite since October 23, which is prior to him winning the title! That babyface title win is also less than 70 days as of writing while all of those heel title wins aside from Hurt Syndicate are over 100 days. More than three months.
Then you have the women. Mercedes Moné has been TBS Champion for 249 days as of this writing. You also have the Women’s World Championship being held by Mariah May, who cut a good promo on Dynamite. Both championships held by heel champions. Moné finally had someone come to step up to her, a recently turned Kris Statlander, but otherwise doesn’t look to have any strong contenders. May? We knew everyone who faced her was going to lose because she was holding for Toni Storm.
And Toni Storm came! On Collision! It was phenomenal! It was by far my favourite segment of the early year for AEW, where the heel tries to get heat and the heat is responded by the revelation of Timeless Toni Storm. It was Storm triumphantly saying you can whip me with your belt, you can make me bleed, but you will never break me. It’s a babyface being defiant in the face of evil. It felt good, for once, to cheer in AEW.
No Fuse To Light
Toni Storm wasn’t booked for AEW Dynamite.
Who was booked? Will Ospreay! Will Ospreay opened the show, his theme music being the first thing you heard on the broadcast. It felt good to tune into Dynamite. We were going to get Brian Cage and Will Ospreay having a great match. And they did have a great match. And then the heat.
The Don Callis Family, after doing a great video on Collision talking about how they shouldn’t underestimate Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay, how they need to increase their numbers? They just got their heat again. A relentless slog of a beatdown that just kept going and going. It was like AEW was trying to stretch to the end of the quarter instead of ending the segment when it needed to end. After Omega and Ospreay opened Dynamite last week with an incredible arena fight with Don Callis Family, which they won, which felt liberating, which had the crowd the hottest it had been to that point? We went right back to the babyfaces getting beaten down after a win.
You don’t get to enjoy anything in AEW anymore if you’re on the roster. If you lose at least the beating stops. If you win? Protect that neck.
The Death Riders… I’ll get back to you.
Ricochet beat AR Fox in an excellent match, and once again Swerve Strickland and Ricochet was the best program on the show. Why? Because Swerve Strickland isn’t some constant punching bag for the heel. No, that was last program. This program he’s an equal to Ricochet and Ricochet fears him. Ricochet isn’t embarrassing Swerve every step of the way. Instead, Ricochet himself is being embarrassing (cringe) so the audience groans at his promos and sees all the cool things he can do in the ring and jeers him for it instead of enjoys it. Ricochet and Swerve Strickland are the one shining spot in this show, and it was still a heel winning.
The show closed with Mercedes defending her TBS Championship on TBS, which is nice to see, and it was her defeating Yuka Sakazaki in a good television main event. Glad it happened. Score one more for the heels.
Let’s get to the… you know what? No, not yet. Powerhouse Hobbs cut a promo. Hobbs has been great lately, even though after his title loss he got beat up. Had a great street fight with Big Bill on Collision. But he said he’s not cleared to wrestle again. Can’t have anything.
Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Hangman Adam Page. Did you know both these men are supposed to be heels? Page was supposed to be the most frightening heel on the roster after beating Swerve Strickland at All Out, but his follow up with it wasn’t winning the AEW Men’s World Championship and instead helping build Jay White up. And build Jay he did! Both ended up getting a shot at the AEW Men’s World Championship through their program. The heel lost there and it helped make a babyface a title contender.
And now that title contender in Jay White is getting beat up. Week in. Week out. Since December. He’s just getting his ass kicked over and over and over. Last night he beat Wheeler Yuta. Yuta hasn’t won a singles match since October 3, 2024 against BEEF in under three minutes. Beating Wheeler Yuta means nothing in 2025. Remember when Wheeler Yuta was one of the most interesting wrestlers on the roster, conflicted about the Death Riders? Nah. He’s back to his usual role. The whipping boy. The pin eater.
What happened after that win? A beat down for Jay White. Like every week. Because what Page did for Jay White needs to be beaten out of him so he never dares try to act like a contender again. This is the narrative of AEW. You must always lose.
And prior to that, we had Jeff Jarrett, a guy trying to photocopy Bryan Danielson’s AEW Men’s World Championship retirement run for himself, is losing to Claudio Castagnoli in his hopes of getting a title shot. It’s the right decision. Jarrett shouldn’t be getting all of this TV time over so many more deserving and talented wrestlers. But it’s just another moment of suffocating heat. Oh, did you know what it took to beat Jarrett? A run in by Moxley with the Death Rider and two Neutralizers by Claudio.
Suffocating. Heat.
Nothing to Believe In
AEW did a Close Up video on YouTube. 20 minutes of Death Riders promos, repeating the same things they’ve said for months. The only part I got enjoyment was PAC sitting in a sauna being interviewed by Renee. Because you know, the heat isn’t enough. PAC at least didn’t try to pretend he was doing something for us and it was for the better. He straight up said he hated All Elite Wrestling.
That’s what this booking feels like. It feels like it’s coming from someone who hates All Elite Wrestling. I know the purpose. I know the goal. All this heat and then finally the hero returns in Darby Allin to end Jon Moxley’s suffocating reign of terror. It’s supposed to be a giant release, a great awakening, a return to the normal.
But it won’t be. Because this is how AEW books.
It’s good to build heat. It’s good for heels to be believable and credible. It’s good for them to look strong so the babyface is beating someone strong.
But AEW babyfaces are not strong. They are weak. Throughout every division, AEW babyfaces are getting beaten down and destroyed. We don’t get any great elation. We don’t get any reprieve. This company is telling you week in and week out that suffering is the only thing you should be getting in AEW.
AEW, as a company, is trying to tell a story about a heel faction putting a dark cloud over the company. The problem is that even when things are at their darkest? You need something for fans to want to hold onto and believe that things can get better. Silver linings and progress.
We’re leaving January and there’s absolutely zero hope in this. The heels hold the majority of the championships. The heels win the majority of the matches. The heels, even if they lose, usually beat up the babyfaces so the babyfaces get no time to celebrate their victories.
The few moments of light we’ve had, like Private Party defeating the Young Bucks? We didn’t get weeks of Private Party showing they were a turning point for the tag team division. They got barely any TV time and beaten for the titles on their second defence. Daniel Garcia won the TNT Championship, lost in the Continental Classic, and now only works meaningless defences on Collision. Timeless Toni Storm makes her triumphant return on Collision and then the follow up is a heel promo by Mariah May on Dynamite.
I’ve been critical about the “Main Event Mafia” of old wrestlers taking the spotlight, but even the old wrestlers taking the spotlight can’t catch a break. Christopher Daniels retired to Hangman Adam Page, which might end up turning Page babyface if the interactions between him and MJF go where I hope they go. Jeff Jarrett just got beaten to dust. Adam Copeland has merely become “Post match run in man” for his feud with the Death Riders. It’s like Tony Khan heard the criticism and said, “Okay, I was putting over the old guys as the heroes of this company and you complained about it. Instead of putting over young guys as heroes? There just won’t be any heroes.”
There’s so many more stories in the company of heels absolutely destroying the babyfaces I haven’t even got to all of them. Komander, who was a replacement in the Continental Classic and beat Claudio Castagnoli to prevent him from winning it? He’s lost his last three matches in AEW even though he’s ROH Television Champion. There was no, “Hey let’s see what we got in Komander after beating Claudio” it was right back to jobber to the stars.
Over and over, again and again. The babyfaces get a couple small victories, and then those victories get beaten out of them. Snuffed. Choked. Suffocated. Every win on Collision is erased on Dynamite.
Stop Asking Questions
You know why we were so happy about the return of Timeless Toni Storm?
Because it signaled that in just a few weeks, at Grand Slam: Australia, Storm was likely taking back the Women’s World Championship. AEW would finally have a champion to cheer for again. It was light at the end of the tunnel. We humoured the rookie gimmick because we hoped it would lead to the return of Timeless and it did. And even if she hasn’t yet beaten Mariah May, and there’s of course a great chance in this choking humidity of AEW right now, that she might not? It at least feels like hope.
There’s no other hope. There’s just Jon Moxley taking 20 minutes to tell everyone to stop asking questions and enjoy the ride.
I’m not asking for a pivot anymore. You’ve beaten it out of me. I’m tapping out. This is the All Elite Wrestling you wanted. An All Elite Wrestling where I know to never enjoy a babyface win because a heel beat down is around the corner. An All Elite Wrestling where every win on Collision is erased on Dynamite. An All Elite Wrestling where I know that the wrestlers I cheered to win in the main event, the moment they lose? They will be forgotten, the way Orange Cassidy is now forgotten. Forgotten and replaced by new contenders who will also lose, and lose, and lose, and if they win they get beaten after the bell is rung, usually on Collision, until the pay per view, when they lose, and then get replaced before the pay per view is over.
This is the All Elite Wrestling that Tony Khan wanted. I’m now PAC sitting in the sauna, expressing how much I hate AEW.
“I loathe the culture. Somewhere that rewards the manipulative and emboldens those without shame. Bluffers. Braggers. And slimy little rats run amok. You know who you are. For yes, I have struggled to exist. A lonely bitter man who trusts no-one, who loves no-one. So here I am: here to burn this company to the ground.”
How do they change this without ruining the stories being told? I’m already over 2,000 words. It’s obvious. You have to let people breathe. Babyfaces winning without immediately being beaten down like Ospreay and Omega last week. Wins on Saturday not erased on Wednesday. If one faction is beating someone down on a show? That’s it. No other beat downs. You got your one beat down. It’s not just the heels who need heat. The babyfaces also need momentum so we believe in them. You can’t do that for one week before a pay per view and then beat the babyfaces anyway. You have to sustain it.
I know it’s January. I know the next pay per view isn’t until March. But what have I been told by this company, on every level, in almost every storyline, for almost every title? I’ve been told that the only thing I have to look forward to is watching continuous, consistent, and impenetrable suffering.
AEW is trying to build a company where the day the babyfaces win you’re going to be absolutely exploding off your chair due to all of the heat you’ve dealt with. But the only way that happens is if we believe in these wrestlers, and we believe in this company. They keep telling us time and time again. Don’t believe in us. Don’t have hope. We know that the day you get hope? The only thing AEW is going to be thinking about is how to take it away. AEW won’t even allow us to have a silver lining. It’s loss after loss after loss.
Shut up and enjoy the ride.
Hard to restore a feeling when you feel nothing at all.
