Jon Moxley declared war on All Elite Wrestling. He didn’t just win the AEW Men’s World Championship. He ended the full-time career of Bryan Danielson in the process. He essentially killed the king and took his crown. Blood still soaked on the edges. Moxley’s crusade to burn AEW to the ground and rebuild it was a direct threat to the wrestlers on the roster. Fight for this or lose everything.
They fought.
They won.
Y’All In Texas was victory. It was winning the war. A new champion was crowned and he didn’t wear a crown. He accepted his fellow soldiers as equals to him. He reinstated All Elite Wrestling to not be a kingdom to be ruled but an athletic challenge to decide who was best of the best. Hangman Adam Page brought peace and order to AEW.
That’s essentially the story in kayfabe. It resembles the story outside of kayfabe as well, and for some reason? Some people can’t accept an AEW in peace time.
I’ve read a lot of people saying the company is boring right now, it needs a shake up, it’s not doing enough. We just went through a suffocating war against a monstrous regime, a regime by the way that still exists. We’ve had championship belts change hands so the idea it needs a shake up isn’t really true. The only three constants as champion are Hangman Adam Page, Kazuchika Okada, and Mercedes Moné.
Battle Ready Champions
We have seen Timeless Toni Storm finally step aside from the women’s singles division, as she looks to try to help build the All Elite Wrestling women’s tag team division. The tournament has just started. We have a new champion in Kris Statlander, someone people had been screaming to get to the top. Even if you don’t consider her a top star in the women’s division (Storm and Moné likely hold those spots) or she’s not the one you would have went with (some are disappointed it wasn’t Willow Nightingale), you can’t just leave the top stars as champion. You have to have fresh faces in those spots. You have to give people a shot to grow, to succeed, to fail, and to see just who the people will embrace. It also flies right in the face of anyone saying it’s boring or needs a shake up. This was a major shake up.
The AEW Men’s World Tag Team division finally has a very exciting tag team in Brodido, organically created, beloved by the fans, at a time when Jurassic Express has now returned, the Young Bucks have revitalized their careers, and FTR are in their proper place as the hated heels of the AEW universe. We’re not watching Hurt Syndicate beat lower card teams. We’re not watching Private Party pushed into a position they can’t handle. The men’s tag team division is thriving in a way it hasn’t for years. What, you want that to stop? You want that ended? Or have you just prematurely built into your mind that Cope and Christian will return to beat FTR for the tag titles and ruin everything so you’ve spoiled your own enjoyment in the current product?
Kyle Fletcher has been absolutely fantastic as TNT Champion. He got to prove he’s a future main event star by working Hangman at All Out Toronto and showing he could go toe to toe with the best wrestler in the company. He’s been a fantastic TNT Champion, though I think he could use a few more fresh opponents. Other than that? It’s a major success. It isn’t on a midcard wrestler who isn’t getting over. It’s on the best young star in the company.
I feel a lot of the teeth gnashing comes from those who absolutely loathe Mercedes Moné and cannot get over the fact that this top paid star is in a top paid star position and performing it above and beyond. She’s doing indie shots around the world and people are disappointed by it? People are complaining she wins too much? Do you have any understanding of how it used to be in the territory days? Do you expect her to be going around the world losing? Her facing Statlander is the biggest challenge Statlander could have. She’s beaten the Women’s World Champion. She now has to beat the dominant TBS Champion. That’s pressure. That makes a diamond. Yes, Moné will lose the TBS Champion someday, and when she does? It’ll mean something for once.
Kazuchika Okada is right now doing incredible work helping Konosuke Takeshita become one of the top babyface stars in the company, and doing it while Takeshita is IWGP World Heavyweight champion. People can’t get over wrestling storylines to understand that Okada is making New Japan Pro Wrestling, an AEW allied company, the babyface to their heel champion. Yes yes, Okada wouldn’t put young guys over leaving NJPW. Guess what? That just adds to this story. When the two finally square off? It’s going to be fireworks. Or Okada can just lose the title to whatever so you can get the change you want. Up to you.
Now we get to the AEW Men’s World Champion. I thought him dressing like Tony Schiavone to trick The Opps was fantastic. One of the best moments of the year. The kind of thing you can replay a thousand times. It’s the kind of feel good moment that happens when a company is rocking on all cylinders and the fans are not cynical. Hangman Adam Page has been the top babyface in a company with strong babyfaces. Darby Allin returned to feud with the Death Riders, Orange Cassidy and the Conglomeration have been rocking the midcard, and Hook… well he exists. Eddie Kingston came back!
Firestarter
The point being, it isn’t just Page. He isn’t alone at the top. He’s brought up the protagonists instead of standing on top of their heads and pushing them down. He’s been an excellent champion. Has he set the box office on fire? No, but he’s been steady. He’s a champion during peace time. All Elite Wrestling did a great job building up Jon Moxley as the great heel but there’s no other heels on the level with MJF gone and Okada held in the Unified Championship scene. It leaves a void for others to fill. Kyle Fletcher filled it in Toronto. Samoa Joe turned heel to fill it for WrestleDream and Full Gear.
The quality of wrestling hasn’t dropped. The quality of storylines hasn’t dropped. We have good people in good spots and don’t have to waste time with people who don’t want to be in All Elite Wrestling. So why are the critics still restless?
Essentially, I think the problem is that All Elite Wrestling had become a consistent conversation creator through negativity. Since 2022, the company has been one fire after another, and it was easy to get attention to point out the fires and say, “Put that out.” So now, in 2025, with most of the fires put out, the criticisms are small in nature. These aren’t garbage bin fires that could light the whole neighbourhood ablaze if it gets too close to a telephone pole. There’s no great concern the company needs to fix or else people will stop watching.
It used to have this platform to easily criticize, and now it doesn’t. AEW is a reliably good show week to week. It has its positives and negatives and momentum and missed moments. It’s dealing with injuries (if you miss Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland it’s okay so do I) that can’t be fixed and you just have to deal with them, but they’ve at least had people come back to fill the spots. It’s a competent four hours every week with a great pay per view from the best wrestling pay per view company of all time.
That’s what peace time is. The company is no longer in a constant struggle with itself. So now the criticism, instead of these big criticism’s that can push long time viewers away? It’s a book that doesn’t tell you what Cody Rhodes did after quitting AEW. It’s a tournament where you’re told top of the show the bracket will be announced and it doesn’t get announced until, well, by the end of the broadcast, but the critic wanted it sooner. That’s AEW not immediately doing a giant video package about Hook once being in The Opps for people who are watching AEW for the first time.It’s the monthly whine about the length of pay per views, people literally asking to get less for their monies worth.
This is unfortunately the level of criticism right now because there isn’t anything big right now to focus on. And for people who both love AEW as a wrestling product and love AEW as a platform to complain about wrestling products? They are missing out on half the reason they talk about the company. And to them? That’s not a good thing. That’s bad. That’s boring. That’s in need of a shakeup.
The New World Reigns
At the start of January I was talking about AEW as a two world company. It was a hard product to fully enjoy. The new world represented AEW’s youth and future. The old world was bending a knee to pro wrestling before AEW and appeasing the old heads who wanted AEW to be what they thought was a draw. It was fighting between the old world and new world.
I was in acceptance that AEW would always try to balance the old world and new world, which was better than just going back to the old world. I can’t say it’s a balance right now at all. The new world has taken control. The old world still gets its moments (Copeland is due to return, Hurt Syndicate still on every pay per view, Samoa Joe currently number one contender, etc.) but it isn’t in the driver seat. Even Moxley has stopped doing old world suffocating heat tactics and now embraces the new world again, a world he helped build.
That’s why I just don’t see the need to complain about changing everything. Things are good now. Real good. If it has to change? Make it change for the better, not the worse. I don’t want this product getting worse just so you have easy targets to podcast about.
Go fight a war elsewhere. This is peace time.
