Wardlow should be a main event fixture in AEW by now.
AEW hit its apex last year when MJF, CM Punk and Wardlow carried the company with captivating main event feuds, but the magic that pro wrestling’s No. 2 promotion was able to capture in 2022 has slowly but surely dissipated in 2023.
It hasn’t been all bad, of course. Saying so would be an overreaction. There have been plenty of bright spots in AEW in recent months, like Jamie Hayter, The Acclaimed and Ricky Starks, as well as the overall match quality, which continues to be at an extremely high level.
What’s lacking from AEW, though, is the same quality storytelling that has made WWE’s The Bloodline a must-see stable and transformed Sami Zayn into a massive TV ratings draw for the company. Ebbs and flows, as any long-time wrestling fan knows, are inevitable in a pro wrestling industry in which any and every company hits it stride for varying lengths of time.
But this feels like a long rut for AEW at a time when Tony Khan is expecting a significant TV rights fees increase and AEW Dynamite is one week removed from its lowest TV viewership of 2023 while Rampage viewership recently bottomed out to an all-time low. This week, Dynamite viewership hit a 2023 high, but it took the tease of yet another “major announcement” to get there while Dynamite’s overall viewership has remained steady but stagnant for virtually its entire existence.
Part of the problem with the presentation of AEW is that Rampage is clearly a B-level show, but an even bigger issue is that there isn’t anything in AEW that feels like an A-plus right now. It’s nothing more than a—wink, wink—B-plus player, if you will.
Most of AEW’s current problems stem from a lack of direction for major stars and storylines that just aren’t clicking. You can name virtually any top AEW talent right now, and you’d be hard-pressed to think of something interesting they’ve done recently. Even MJF, the most important marquee star AEW has ever created, is losing steam, stuck in the midst of a repetitive feud with Bryan Danielson that has mostly felt like a bad carbon copy of his previous top feuds with stars like Jon Moxley or Punk.
Moxley is another star who, though he remains popular, has been a victim of poor storytelling. What, after all, has become of the Blackpool Combat Club? Is it even still a faction, and is Danielson even still a part of it? Sure, his matches are instant classics, but what compelling story has Danielson been involved in? Are the BCC heels or babyfaces? When it comes to the BCC, like other names near the top of the card, there are more questions than answers.
The booking of Wardlow since the end of his epic feud with MJF is one really big question mark. While it was virtually inevitable that Wardlow would never be as red hot as he was while feuding with MJF, he’s colder than ever before—ice cold just like other homegrown stars who should be carrying the load for AEW.
And none is more frigid than Jade Cargill, a physical phenom and should-be-cornerstone of AEW who has been held back by an undefeated streak that wore out its welcome a long time ago. Cargill is just the latest to fall victim to AEW’s subpar booking of its women’s division, which has become so disjointed and mundane that even the excitement surrounding Saraya’s improbable in-ring return vanished as quickly as it came.
Willow Nightingale, Toni Storm, Britt Baker and Ruby Soho are other female stars who’ve barely managed to stay relevant despite tremendous talent and strong fan connections, a result of the woefully misguided direction of a women’s division that barely gets any TV time. AEW mainstay Chris Jericho recently shed some light on why stars like many of the aforementioned ones often disappear from TV, and simply put, it’s because they may not be driving TV viewership in a positive direction.
That begs the question, however: How are any stars—outsides of those firmly entrenched at the top of the card—supposed to develop into must-see attractions when they come and go quicker than day and night?
There is something refreshing about the way AEW cycles stars in and out of the mix, but there have been more cons than pros to that strategy. The list of names who’ve disappeared from AEW programming for long stretches without warning would be a mile long and include potential world title contenders in Miro, Eddie Kingston and Powerhouse Hobbs, just to name a few.
It takes high-quality long-term storytelling for fans to be truly invested in its stars—not just five-star matches. AEW is failing in that regard right now and is failing its stars as a result.
Cargill, Wardlow, Darby Allin, FTR, Hook and Malakai Black are among the numerous stars who caught a spark only for that spark to fizzle out because of a lengthy absence from TV, lackluster booking or some combination of the two. AEW even has struggled to create compelling storylines for top talents like The Elite’s Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, leading to an underwhelming build as AEW heads toward Revolution.
What’s resulted is an audience that has flatlined with no signs of sustained long-term growth on the horizon. AEW’s pay-per-view schedule, which features just four major shows per year not including Forbidden Door, should theoretically be paving the way for stories to be flushed out and characters to be developed.
Instead, there has never been a time when more top talents—whether it be Danielson, Omega, Cargill or Saraya—are simply spinning their wheels, stuck in a seemingly never-ending cycle of major AEW stars putting on quality matches but doing little else to grow AEW’s audience for the long haul.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakeoestriecher/2023/02/24/aew-dropping-the-ball-with-wardlow-bryan-danielson-other-top-stars/