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Rants

Counter-Arguments on AEW Thinking

By Scott Keith on 9 May 2024


Hey Scott – love the blog, hope you and your fam are well.

I am a big AEW fan (and a 30 year WWE fan too, so shaddup in advance, haters), and I agree with the fact that they need help to get out of their current rut. But it seems to me that the most common rhetoric is that Tony needs to let someone else book and they need to downgrade to smaller venues. And to be honest, I’m not so sure I agree 100% with your policework there, Lou.

– Booking: yes, booking has fallen off a cliff since… the Hangman win over Omega, maybe? But let’s be honest – who actually has the experience and success rate to do this? Back in the territories, you had a bunch of people learning how to book by actually doing it. After Vince destroyed that system, and eventually WCW, the number of people who have successfully booked a promotion is down to single digits, and some of them are named Russo. Why would you hand the book to someone who could easily sink the ship when you are already in a precarious position and a control freak to boot? Or why would you give it to someone like Danielson who mostly seems preoccupied with never letting the top face (himself) win the big one and flicking guys’ nuts backstage? Or are we going to pretend Jarrett has ever been a good booker and not a bomb everywhere he went?

– Venues: I’ve heard it said that you have to dress for success. While it’s obvious that sales in most places are bad and don’t look or sound great on TV, the fact is that once you start running smaller venues than WWE, you are immediately telling everyone you are in second place and aren’t going back unless you one day strike fire with an Austin-like wrestler (which is impossible to predict and incredible unlikely). And yes, AEW is and probably always will be in second place, but will Tony ever admit that? Never! And not just because cocaine is a hell of a drug – it’s because you gotta carny and act big until it comes true, right?

Yes, TL:DR, etc. Hey, I don’t have the answers. I’m just a very smart, handsome man asking the questions.

Peace!

I disagree on the arena point. Drawing 7000 to a 12000 seat arena is fine and still looks functionally full on TV. The problem is when you have 3000 people in a cavernous building and it looks and sounds like 1000 as a result. It’s bad optics.