AEW Growing Pains

 

Happy New Year Everyone! It's January 1st and with that AEW officially turns 5 years old. The pandemic provided a blur of timelines which made everything blend together, but it truly is hard to believe it's been 5 years.

                                            Credit: Getty Images

AEW has accomplished so much in that short time. Backed by Tony Khan's wealth and initially the rock star popularity of the Elite. With all their accomplishments, people often forget how young the company is when it comes to bashing them. Forgetting the company is going through some growing pains.

Growing pains are a part of any process. When Talkin' Suplexes was a podcast there were several growing pains to endure. When I pivoted to a blog there were growing pains. When I did another podcast before Talkin' Suplexes there were growing pains with formatting, show length etc. That were worked through.

The point being growing pains are going to be there, regardless of how successful a company is from the beginning. The key to moving past them and truly growing, is acknowledging what's behind these pains and address them.

Here are 10 growing pains in AEW right now.

10. Women's Roster

Since it's inception it seemed like AEW has never really been sure what to do with their women's roster. Which is sad honestly because they have had a very talented female roster through the years.

With that it always seems like their is one member of the women's roster who will be the brightest star and everyone falls behind her. Which leads to several wrestlers fans have no connection with, which leads to then not caring about the wrestlers.

There have been several complaints from fans on the limited amount of time, most woman get on AEW TV. For example right now Toni Storm is getting the most attention on AEW TV, and where has that left Britt Baker since Toni's character took off?

9. ROH

I commend Tony Khan for buying ROH to save the company, and from a business perspective obtain the rights to All In (which really was the genesis of AEW.)

However, right now ROH is only accessible on the Honor Club app. Which honestly I feel is a missed opportunity by Khan there. When the Hollywood strikes went on months, and stations gravely concerned about content. Khan should have shopped a "new" ROH to the syndicated market.

It's also no secret however theres no real distinction between AEW and ROH. With roster members and titles flipping between shows there is no real seperation.

There truthfully needs to be a hard line between ROH and AEW. Or at the minimum ROH is the NXT to AEW, with a few just a few wrestlers appearing on both. And the championships staying on ROH TV.

8. Hiring Legends And Wasting Them

Since it's inception AEW has hired Arn Anderson, Jake The Snake, William Regal, Tully Blanchard, and Chavo Guerrero as on-air managers and effectively wasted them and the talent they were bought on to work with.

As well as behind the scenes it doesn't seem like Dean Malenko and Jerry Lynn as coaches are used effectively either. If Tony wants to give these guys a nice payday foe their contributions to the business I'm all for it. 

But, it's clear he either doesn't know how to use them or gets bored when the acts don't seem to be catching on. Either way the practice should end.

7. Hitting the same markets

This is not just an AEW problem, Impact and MLW are guilty of this as well. AEW oversaturates Chicago, Jacksonville and the NY/NJ market. I get it NY/NJ and Chicago are big markets and Jacksonville is effectively the home base.

On the surface they seem to be more cognizant of this for 2024 based on dates already announced. Here's hoping they spread out to new markets more to gain new fans and pull back on repeating the same markets time after time.

6. Start and Stop Pushes

Wardlow was red hot, won the TNT title and cooled off. Powerhouse Hobbs has had several pushes and then got saddled with QTV which killed all his heat. Action Andrettis win over Chris Jericho went nowhere.

The women's roster is a hot potato of start and stop pushes. Miro, Ricky Starks, Andrade, Scorpio Sky and Lance Archer all look to gain momentum and then plateau.

 Let's hope they work on reversing that trend.

5. Trying to expand too fast, too soon.

Some of the rapid expansion is likely caused by the partnership with Warner Bros. In the short time AEW has two prime time specials, quarterly specials in addition to PPV's. Which they are slowly trying to expand to 12 a year. Reality shows and the ROH acquisition.

While it appears to be good for business, it can detrimental with a company so young still trying to "find" itself so to speak.

4. Majority of the  roster has cooled

It's no secret it's been a rough year for AEW. From the CM Punk controversy, talent frequently voicing their displeasure on social media. And the general direction of AEW the product and the roster have cooled.

Even Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, and mvp Jon Moxley don't seem as popular as they once were. MJF, Swerve, Toni Storm and Julia Hart among a select few have been red hot. The rest of the roster has chilled and the  dragging on of The Devil Angle isn't helping.

3. Catering To Too Many Audiences

AEW right now is in a tight spot. They are trying to cater to the indy crowd. The New Japan crowd, the smart marks, those who want sports entertainment and everything in between.

Effectively they aren't pleasing everyone because you simply can't. Which leads to all the online chatter that AEW is simply going down. The company isn't going down because of that, it's simply if you do this over here your not pleasing the people over there.

Which at some point to not spread your company thin, you may need to reevaluate what kind of audience your trying to appeal to.

2.Tony Khan

Depending on what side of the fence you're on, Tony Khan is very protective of his baby and passionate about it. Or he's a spoiled brat who cannot take criticism or challenges.

I think he's a bit of both and honestly not much different than one Vince McMahon. He's also a control freak based on his not delegating as much as he should.

I'm a manager and I had to learn sometimes you make a call and stand firm on it. Other times you let your subordinates figure it out and come to you to approve or deny it. Otherwise you will get BURNT out. Tony still hasn't learned that.

He also has to stay off Twitter (X) as his responses to criticism and sometimes off the cuff comments aren't a good look for the CEO of a company on the rise.

1. Vision/Focus is lacking.

Number 3,2, and 1 all tie in together on this list honestly. 

AEW hasn't decided on what they want to be. When the company was started they touted being more sports focused and wins and losses would matter. They always have the stats up, but they honestly don't amount to anything. I for one would like to see the wins and losses to mean something, like determining number one contenders.

That aside like I mentioned before they are trying to cater to too many hoards of fans. Without actually settling on what they are trying to do and who they are as a company.

Maybe some of the recent office changes backstage is an effort to come to that determination. Until then that is probably what's hurting them the most.