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Rants

AEW’s Reliance on Inside Baseball Stuff

By Scott Keith on 29 October 2024

Hiya Scott

So I've mentioned a few times in the comments in recent months that AEW has a weird 'thing' of late for 'storyline' being centred around stuff like “I got you a job here” type things. Darby v Brodie being one high-profile recent example. Or “We're totally friends in real life… how could this happen?” like with Fletcher and Ospreay, Christian and The Artist Formerly Known as Edge, Darby and Nick Wayne, etc. etc.

Last week's Dynamite had not only that, but also the tag team partner of “I never had any money and was wrestling in front of 5 people and a dog – and not even a good dog – when we met…” as well, which is another long overused thing in wrestling.

Would you agree that this sort of stuff has become a bit of a boring crutch for feuds or match justifications and is way overused at this point?

I'm not saying it's exclusive to AEW either, but it just feels like they go to that well a LOT.

Thoughts?


Hot take: I don't care about Darby Allin as a character. Without Sting around I'm not invested in his journey and I don't find him to be a compelling main eventer on his own, especially when his whole thing is “I was basically homeless and then I got this job”. So yeah, I'd much prefer they spend more time actually crafting stories that I can connect with, even if they're ridiculous and silly.