AEW Rankings are returning. How to make them work.

All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan announced on Twitter during AEW Collision that the rankings would be returning to the company.

The rankings were last posted August 31, 2022 as the Power Rankings. The Power Rankings didn’t really have a purpose, unlike the original version of the rankings which began in 2019. Those rankings ended April 20, 2022 which were supposed to be a weighted rankings system similar to college football according to Cody Rhodes.

There has been a clamouring for a return of the AEW Rankings by fans of All Elite Wrestling, which is interesting to me because during their entire existence fans just complained about them. And many of the complaints were correct.

First of all, nobody likes NCAA college weighted rankings. Even in the sports world people complain about the placement of teams, the match up choices, how teams get ranked or de-ranked, etc. to the point where they are basically treated as a joke. So bringing it to pro wrestling was almost a way to say, “Hey we can just do whatever we want and you can’t say it isn’t like legitimate sports.”

In All Elite Wrestling, what would usually happen is the win/loss records of wrestlers were largely ignored because AEW Dark and AEW Dark: Elevation led to a lot of midcard wrestlers having impressive records but were mostly beating undercard talent or independent talent. But if at any point Tony Khan wanted someone ranked he would have them win a match on Dark and treat it as it was important. That ended up the justification of “weighting” when in reality it was just a poor excuse to get someone ranked.

When Hangman Page lost to Brian Cage back in 2021 after being the top ranked wrestler for several weeks, he didn’t just fall to 2nd. He fell to fifth just due to losing. This didn’t end up what would happen with other wrestlers, but that was what they decided in storyline to keep Hangman Page away from Kenny Omega a little longer.

Basically, there were a lot of issues with the rankings. But people have either forgotten about them or don’t care anymore. They want to, as the saying goes, “restore the feeling” and bringing back the AEW Rankings can do that. So here I offer a way to make the rankings not just make sense, but allow for better booking management in AEW.

Exhibition and Ranked Matches

Simply put, all matches in AEW right now are exhibition matches for all intents and purposes. The only semblance of a regular season was during the Continental Classic, where 10 wrestlers had to wrestle five ranked matches. Wrestlers right now don’t fight for anything other than the attention of the promoter.

The previous system in AEW treated all matches as ways to improve your record in AEW. Your win/loss record is displayed during the entire year when a wrestler makes their entrance. I’m fine with that. But I think there should be two listings: your overall win/loss record, and your ranked win/loss record.

In my system, not all matches are ranked. But Tony Khan can specifically book a match between two wrestlers he feels should be working a ranked match. Upon doing this, whoever wins ends up ranked. Whoever loses doesn’t get ranked. After say five of these matches, you can establish a clear ranking in the Top 5.

Once wrestlers are ranked, you have to beat a ranked wrestler higher than you to move up. If you lose a match that isn’t ranked it doesn’t effect your standings. But if you lose a ranked match to someone not ranked? They move into the Top 5 rankings (usually at 5th) while you get pushed out and have to beat someone ranked to get back in.

One might ask already, is this going to create confusion? What if a guy loses five unranked matches, why doesn’t that effect his ranking? Because it’s no different to a boxer having exhibition fights with unranked opponents. Losing a tough sparring match in your local gym isn’t going to cost you your spot for the heavyweight championship. It shouldn’t hurt you to lose an AEW Rampage match where outside interference costs you against someone who previously lost 10 matches. Not unless the match was ranked.

Oh, and to steal an idea from the Continental Classic? All ranked matches have no interference on penalty of employment termination. This keeps ranked matches clean, while exhibition matches can stay the wild west with fast and loose refereeing. Those matches are for pride. The rankings are for the rankings.

There will be a clear concise date in which the top ranked wrestler is locked in to a title shot. It should be after a match between the number one ranked contender and the number two ranked contender, or can be some other form of match involving the number one ranked contender (triple threat, four way, etc.) but after that date? They can’t lose their spot. The promoter (Tony Khan) would decide no more ranked matches for the top ranked wrestler.

How it could work

If you need a visualization of how this could work, imagine this was an AEW Collision Card:

Buddy Matthews vs. Matt Sydal

Yuka Sakazaki vs. Taya Valkyrie

Workhorsemen vs. Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty

Ranked Match
Adam Copeland (3rd) versus Wardlow (5th)

Ranked Match
Hikaru Shida (2nd) vs. Kris Statlander (3rd)

Ranked Match for Number One Contender
FTR (1st) vs. The Young Bucks (2nd)

On this show, there’s three ranked matches and three unranked matches. It doesn’t matter for the rankings how quickly Yuka Sakazaki beats Taya or how great the match between Buddy Matthews and Matt Sydal is or how great Workhorsemen looked against Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty. These are not ranked matches. But Copeland versus Wardlow? If Wardlow wins, he moves into the top three. Statlander can move closer to 1st with a win over Shida. And FTR and Young Bucks? This would lock into place who the number one contender is for the upcoming pay per view.

Does this mean the unranked matches mean nothing? No! Because if Workhorsemen had an amazing match that everyone loved, and FTR lost the number one contender ranked match, it might make sense for Tony Khan to book the Workhorsemen in a Ranked Match against FTR. Where if Workhorsemen win, they become ranked and FTR falls out of the top five. If they lose, they go back into the pool of unranked exhibition matches. Your performance still counts. Getting the crowd behind you (or hating you) still counts. But it counts in getting attention to get ranked, not to get automatic title shots.

Because in the past year, AEW has had a problem with giving people either unearned title shots or weak earned title shots. Just the other week, Preston Vance got an AEW International Championship shot because he got the victory in a trios match. That shouldn’t be enough to get a title shot. This was also a problem with the rankings. A wrestler could win one match and suddenly be ranked to gain it.

How about the TNT and TBS Championships? How do you decide those? That’s why you have five ranks. The top ranked wrestler goes after the Men’s and Women’s World Championships. But anyone ranked between 2nd and 5th can be eligible for a television shot. You could also exclude the television titles entirely and state those still work on an open challenge basis, but that might end up a lot for people to remember. People already make noise any time the TNT or TBS isn’t defended on a pay per view when that’s not the point of either championship. They are supposed to be for the television shows. You could even create a separate rankings for them if one was so inclined. The International Championship and the Continental Championship would be beasts of their own, as well as how Ring of Honor could be involved.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I am curious how Tony Khan goes with the rankings going forward, if he tries something new or if they just go back to a power rankings which lets guys win meaningless match to slip in. I do hope they put more thought into it, and treat it with the responsibility and integrity they added into the Continental Classic. Whether it’s weighted rankings, a strict top list, or the ranked/unranked matches I suggested, this is for the fans of AEW and not the people who don’t pay attention and complain later. Hopefully it restores the feeling, instead of restoring the weekly complaints people have already forgotten.

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