For the first time since their existence AEW will be forced to respond to real adversity.
Yes there have a few mishaps along the way but generally their fans have loved their product and they have a history of under promising and over delivering to the point they swept the WON awards this year pretty much. They sell themselves with a promoter that isn’t an egotistical out of touch maniac and a solid show every week with consistently great PPVS.
However 4 things happened on Sunday:
The under delivered and over promised - any way you slice it Christian was overhyped as a surprise and the explosions under delivered.
The fans were not happy - while it wasn’t a terrible show they fans booed and there were refund chants. Almost certainly their most poorly received PPV to date and in all aspects likely below the recent Royal Rumble which never happens to them when compared to WWE
Tony Khan channeled his inner shady promoter - like him or hate him, when Dana White saw Silva vs Maia he came out and owned that it sucked. He didn’t come out and say “did you expect them to kill each other?” Tony came out sounding more like Vince McMahon trying to explain away a bad situation asking almost insanely if fans expected to see an explosion when that’s what he promoted. He didn’t own it. He removed video clips of it online that people posted. He really went heel here
There was dissension and failure to adapt - no one was thinking enough to to tell Eddie not to lay down but stop selling. Moxley basically buried the angle and then suddenly Khan is out defending it. Reports are Kenny was furious afterwards. It does seem for once it isn’t Neverland.
So the question is what do they do ? In the short term it’s clear - the can’t explain a Moxley absence like this so there will need to be more. Do they admit it was a dud or do they just move on?
However in the long term how do they gain back that which they lost a little? Is Tony Khan really just as shady or else then the rest of them, or was this just a blip. Are they able to back off from over promising stuff they can’t deliver? Do they reel in the creative freedom a little and not book crazy things that could backfire?
A lot of people that are against them suddenly have ammo and how they respond to this will be under a microscope.
My feeling is that they will - they are more in tune with what the media like Post and Meltzer etc say and none of it was glowing. I feel like Tony will be told that what he did was incredibly disingenuous and he will hopefully respond better next time. They will dial back a little on the hype when it’s not needed. I think how they respond to this is key - I feel they are up to the challenge.
From a storyline perspective, I think they should essentially have Kingston say something like this:
“When I saw my rival, laying there, motionless in the ring, my instinct told me to protect him. As I the clock ticked down and I I realized I couldn’t get him out, all I could do is try to save my comrade. Time stood still, then everything went black, thank god when I woke up I was fine, and so was he”.
Im not a writer and this probably sucks, but this is the only explanation I think that is possible other then saying “wrestling is scripted, this wasnt real, and a prop messed up” or “Kingston was knocked out from the force of sparklers”.
I think they will be able to recover from this, though Khans comments worry me a bit. In 2021, fans are very accepting of mistakes, but when you don’t own it, thats when people get mad. I guess we’ll see.
I’ve said it before, Kingston tells me he passed out and didn’t come to til after and I’ll believe hook line and sinker.
Mox needs to be written off again, perhaps he should walk out on the “bullshit” and tease not coming back because of the amateur hour dud. This would align him with fans and turn Kahn slighltly heel only in so much our babyface says he is. He can always come back as a surprise entrant in a multi-man fending off Kenny and the Impact crew later.
Kenny and Tony should just blame each other furthering their feud and adding fuel to the Impact storyline.
Just turn TK full-on heel at this point. He’s out here DMCA claiming clips of his failed ring explosion so internet fans like myself will be turning on him regardless. Let Tony turn heel and mock the idiot fans for allowing themselves to get Rick-rolled by the “big time incredible hall of fame totally not just another guy” surprise signing and being so dumb as to believe he would allow his wrestlers to blow themselves up with explosives and there’s your way out. It’s the asshole promoter’s fault.
Even the Impact ads were kinda funny at first but they have really become very lame. Give the screen time to Callis, who actually can talk and knows how to be a heel.
I’d instantly turn Christian heel and begin acting like he actually is a big star on the level that people wanted to see AEW sign. Eventually, he replaces Jericho in the Inner Circle and Christian/MJF feud with Jericho/Sammy.
I’d also come up with another way to write Moxley off. He gets attacked backstage by a mystery person and Kingston goes on a rampage trying to find out who did it. Just move on from the botched explosion.
Keep Khan off TV completely. The evil owner gimmick is way too played out.
Yeah the one thing that AEW absolutely does not need is Tony Khan playing an evil owner. It’s the most played out storyline of the last 25 years, and should disappear forever.
The only onscreen addressing I would want to see of this whole thing by Tony, would be him accepting responsibility in an honest manner.
I truly believe the post media scrum was him just at his lowest so far as a promoter (this was his biggest botch on a show) , trying the best to deal with the shitty situation. He seemed like he was trying to storyline pivot, and it came across the wrong way.
I mean the absolute best thing they could do would be to have pre-recorded an additional explosion match at Jaguar stadium last night, with Good Brothers beating Moxley and Kingston, and ending it with a great explosion - and play it tonight as part of an angle that acted like it was live.
Chances of that happening are low… But to me that would be the ultimate make-do for fans.
I like this idea, though I’d want to keep Kahn off television. Having Mox cut promos about “management making excuses for Kenny because he wins awards and pops ratings” and Kahn subtweeting Mox would be enough.
On #3 To be fair it isn’t really fair compare the response someone running a scripted performance to someone running an actual sport. If Tony comes out and says “well that sucked.” Unless he follows it up with an explanation of what happened, he is either burying the talent involved or admitting that they did not plan well. In the case of Dana he isn’t involved with the scripting of a fight, so if 2 guys go out and lay an egg he can call it out with no blame falling on himself or his crew.
I definitely see this perspective, but I do believe that in wrestling everything to a degree has been played out a million times. The key to making something work is by putting a unique spin on it in order to make the angle/gimmick/storyline etc. feel fresh. Tony Khan is NOTHING like Vince, Steph, Bischoff, Heyman, Dickie Carter etc. so I do believe that if he was a heal figure on the show, it could work as it would be different.
With that said, you’re probably right. This dynamic has been done to death since the late 90’s and it’s probably best to not also be done with AEW.
Agree here. He’s never going to out heel Vince or Stephanie on his best day so why become a poor knock off.
He can easily have a storyline reason for this and an in interview just say “well that’s a live show sometimes. We have to role with the punches and we will adapt and make it up to our fans”
That’s it.
No need to be a heel or say dumb stuff like “what did people expect?”
He seems like a bright guy. He will hopefully learn
How does AEW respond? Apparently by acknowledging things went wrong, and building off of that. What else could they have done? Double down on it? At least it happened to 2 of the best talkers on the roster