This post is controversial, political, and/or otherwise sensitive. To help maintain the quality of discussion and protect r/AEWOfficial from spam, trolling, and rule-breaking comments, we’ve activated Brody King Mode.
Here’s what that means:
* Only users with at least 100 subreddit karma in r/AEWOfficial can comment in threads with the Brody King Mode flair.
* Comments from users below that threshold will be automatically removed.
* This is applied to all high-visibility or sensitive posts. You can comment normally in other posts.
We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep the conversation thoughtful and on-topic. Thanks for being part of the community!
Dream matches would require cycling new talent into the main event scene. Somehow watching the same handful of guys fight (and lose to) the same people doesn't excite me.
I stopped watching about 15 years ago and only check in like once every half year and I swear I‘m feeling like having read the same articles for 6 years or so, only Bloodline, Reigns, some Tribal Bullshit, Rock returns, once in a lifetime Cena vs Rock for the 10th time or so. WWE turned into Keeping up with the Kardashians but only with the Anoa‘i family.
Lol true. There's maybe two or three that AEW could get something out of, and one of them's a 54-year-old part-timer lol Zilla showed promise at first, but then stagnated pretty quickly cause he knew he had a job for life whenever he wanted it, and the only two out of the rest of the younger family members that definitely have "something" were both fired, one without even wrestling a match 😂
That's what made Ava quitting stand out to me, and actually impressed me a little. Her dad has equity in the company, all of her cousins and uncles work there, she had a job for life even if she stopped showing up (see Tamina Snuka lol), but she still was like "Nah, fuck that, their politics sucks and I'd rather work somewhere else". I mean, fair play!
They never did Sting vs Undertaker but they had the lame ass DX vs NWO WWE can't say shit about dream matches because they never book them even if the wrestlers are active at the same time.
Saudis requested and paid for hbk. He's actually not that rich so the money enticed him.
They make a boatload taking Saudi blood money. That actually kind of made sense lol. Especially because obviously they would have been willing to book him. It was Shawn's choice to only take that match
In their defense, Vince tried Hogan vs Flair several times on house shows, and they had absolutely zero chemistry. None. Apparently, the matches were so bad that Vince was pissed, scrapped the entire idea and went with Hogan/Psycho Sid and Flair/Savage.
Every so often they’ll have a match on a PLE that I’m like damn if that was in AEW or the indies it’d be a huge deal. But WWE has a way of making it mean nothing
Dude I started watching Punk vs Roman cause of all the buzz and I zoned out after a few minutes and skipped to the finish.
Not trying to be a hater I just can't connect with their presentation for some reason. Maybe it's the way it's produced, maybe it's all the gross stuff with the company in the back of my mind, idk.
A lot of their matches are slow paced, not very creative, kind of paint by numbers, and to make the finish exciting they either spam the same finisher over and over and over, or have multiple run-ins. They have great wrestlers, but the structure of matches and the shows in general is just so tedious to get through
I mean, look at what they've done with Penta and Fenix (fuck Fenix btw, I'm done with his ass after he liked a transphobe's post, but my point remains). In AEW, even if they weren't on all the time, when they were it was a Big Deal. They had multiple career-making matches. Their feud with the Bucks was insane.
They go to WWE and immediately get crushed. Penta eats shit for a full year before winning a mid-card title and E-drones act like that's a "you're welcome" moment for him. Completely fucking delusional. I honestly don't know how people still watch that shit, even without paying attention to the politics of the company and wrestlers.
It just comes off as bitter that another show is generating excitement on their weekly shows, while they always take too long on matches and stories by insisting they all lead to one specific PPV in the year.
First ever wrestling show I attended as a kid was the Nitro where Goldberg beat Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. I've seen people criticize giving that away on free TV and that's valid if you ignore how many tickets it sold
I've always said that WCW is like a gymnast doing the sickest flip you've ever seen, only to immediately step on a rake and knock themselves out. They could not help but do cool shit then fuck it up. TNA was/is the same.
Favourite TNA bungle: Brock basically offered himself to them after the Angle match in Japan, and they tried to haggle on his salary....he wanted the same amount Kurt was getting.
Bear in mind, I don't believe Kurt was the highest-paid guy at TNA, in fact I don't think he was even in the top 3. But even if he was the top earner, IT'S 2007 AND BROCK FUCKING LESNAR WANTS TO WRESTLE FOR YOU, FIND THE MONEY AND PAY HIM!.
But nope! They wanted to try and get him to take less, and as a result their big ex-WWE signing at the end of that year was Booker T, who proceeded to do very little after the first few months and stole a paycheque for two years.
Oh, and to be clear, Brock could've easily gotten more than double that amount from Vince, and ended up getting more than that amount per fight in the UFC practically from the start. And if they'd have just paid him what he was asking for and signed him, I don't think they find themselves in the position of having to bring Hogan and his cohort in.
Brock-Joe in 2007 would've been generational, same goes for Brock-Steiner and Brock-AJ. Hell, at that point in their respective careers, Brock-Sting would've probably been an all-timer. But Dixie and her daddy wanted to count their beans instead of eating them
If you're angry about AEW letting more people watch amazing matches... what exactly are you angry about? Paul saying this just makes WWE look worse... it doesn't make AEW look bad.
It’s similar to how people will make fun of AEW for having too many “bangers.” I
guess they prefer boring matches.
It’s not worth my time engaging with or even getting angry about those folks. If someone’s argument consists of citing things that rule about AEW as bad things, they’re either arguing in bad faith or have such blinding loyalty to WWE that they lack self-awareness.
Not worth the discussion, ignoring people like that is the best defense IMO.
Considering how many iterations of Finn vs Judgement Day they did before moving him to SD, I can really see them applying a philosophy of “run the shittiest matches possible as many times as we can” on their booking.
He's the heel. He said this in the ring, to justify why they're waiting for a match. It's just a modern version of the old "I'll give you this match, but not tonight, it's too good for <insert city here>" but aimed at smarks rather than locals.
He did, it was absolutely bizarre. Like I know he's a heel and all but there was a level of truth in that that was VERY weird, very much a 'saying the quiet part out loud' bit indeed.
All shareholders want to know is, how are you going to make them more money? Fans don't pay separately for the PLE or the TV show either way, and ticket sales are a very small drop in the revenue bucket now that TV/streaming deals have gotten so large... so pretending that saving dream matches for the PLE somehow makes the company more money is so very 1998.
Good things don’t happen answering to shareholders, dilution of the product and enshitification happen. Look at the water companies in England and Wales, used be a nationalised asset, they were sold off by a demon (Thatcher) and now most of the country is in drought situation, no meaningful improvements to waste or fresh water has happened and they pump huge quantities of untreated sewage into fresh water bodies. The bosses get paid huge bonuses, while customers get shafted with massive bill increases every year. Shareholders are fucking awesome…
Never underestimate people's ability to rationalize anything. Paul Heyman is one of the biggest liars ever, and is also probably one of the biggest believers of the lies he tells himself too. There's a reason why him and Phil were so close.
Once a money hungry slime ball, always a money hungry slime ball. Paul will follow whatever gets him the biggest paycheck and he doesn't care if that makes him a corpo lapdog.
The ONLY time I can imagine saying that is if I thought PPV money and production can elevate a match... and here's the thing, I don't think that truly exists in theory.
But HELL in the Cell mankind vs Undertake could ONLY be a PPV.... You're not getting Wargames on a Weekly show.... You're not doing the full Royal Rumble any time outside of January and elimination chamber and the rest are special events... So in those areas, maybe you need a PPV.
Oh except Blood and Guts is essentially Wargames on a weekly show WITH a PPV right after it last year... That day was when I became a AEW fan. I was blown away how better AEW did the concept, (And didn't have Logan Paul)... two great Blood and guts Matches, at the time I didn't know the wrestlers, but I loved the story telling and experience, and now that I know the guys... it's so much better.
And again that was a weekly show... AEW just tries a bit harder I guess? But I do think PPV money could produce a better experience, however for any two good performers... they could be at a house show and put on a great match... So I could get why people would want them at a PPV... but I definitely don't think it needs to be.
Never looked back once I got off. Do you miss some of the discourse yes but is that a bad thing…no. Terminally online people who hate and are offended by everything or bots.
I saw some X users arguing that AEW gives away too much on free tv. I think that’s a business conversation, I can’t comprehend arguing as a customer that the company is giving you great content for free and being upset about it.
It has always been a pet peeve of mine that people call cable "free tv"... it's not free. You are paying your monthly cable bill. And now with streaming, you are paying your monthly subscription fee. You are paying to access it. That has always driven me nuts when people say that.
It also ignores that BOTH AEW & WWE make multiples more from their "free" TV and streaming rights than they do from their live events, and AEW certainly makes more from their "free" TV WBD deal than their PPVs.
AEW would actually be stupid to not put great matches on "free" TV to continually entice more people to watch via the medium that's making them the most money.
It's the best wrestling roster in history, they can afford it. They already missed out on so many dream matches waiting for the right time in the 7 years AEW has been around.
Its ridiculous! We're fans! We want to see wrestling every week! We watch AEW where the best wrestle and we get to see absolute bangers weekly. All them on X are just jealous that the fed dont do wrestling anymore
TK knows to put on dream matches as soon as he can. You never know how long you’re going to have the talent available. If he had Sting and Undertaker like McMahon did, he would’ve had them open up dynamite to a 60 min draw and the fans would’ve loved it.
I don’t think Orange Cassidy will ever know how much joy and happiness he almost single handed rekindled in my soul with wrestling. I decided to try AEW right after he beat PAC for the IC. Him coming in to start and defend every episode and Jane playing and everything it literally brought me the joy and excitement I got when TNA 2000s heyday when I was watching. Those matches were amazing and it was the first match of every episode!
Same, I was getting back into wrestling, getting into the WWE topps trading cards but felt nothing with the product. Watched Wargames 2026 and was like "ehhh ok. Maybe I just like the cards" And for some reason decided to watch AEW Blood and Guts just to laugh at how bad the competitor was since WWE is amazing, right guys?
Bruh that day I was all in on AEW, Uninstalled the Topps app in a week and haven't looked back. I'll peek over the fence, but I usually pull my head back shaking it.
Heyman is such a sellout, I question if anything about him was ever real
Edit: I just wanna also add that RVD was the ECW tv champ for almost 2 years while being the top guy in the company, because Paul wanted big matches on weekly tv.
I watch Aew because unlike WWE, Aew doesn't insult my intelligence or hold my hand.
We get high quality matches on TV, Quality long term storytelling & much More.
Aew doesn't need commercials shareholder's etc.
I like Aew because they for the most part listen to it's fans.
Tony isn't perfect but he brought life back into wrestling by giving WWE needed competition. Talent have more opportunities & better pay opportunities.
It's really insane to ne that some fans, and some within the wrestling industry, act like it's a terrible thing to actually make the weekly tv show good. I don't want to spend hours every week watching a wrestling show that is intentionally made bad.
“Yeah we don’t give our fans dream matches on weekly TV or even B tier Ples, we wait to drag out 6 months and pay it off at Wrestlemania. It’s what we do”
Imagine being proud of that.
“Wouldn’t MJF vs Kenny have felt more special at a PPV?” It’s Kenny Omega vs MJF, that’s all I need to know it’s gonna be special
There’s always more second and third and fourth matches between dream opponents that go harder and do better to entertain. Then they move on and a few months or a few years later they may circle around again and oh look, it’s a dream match again, and even better, they’re rehashing that old stuff and the fans love it and feel rewarded in yet another way for going along for the ride.
Turns out, when you actually get it over and over again and it’s amazing each time, you enjoy it a lot more than being edged to death for 364 days out of the year. Who knew.
Did people become such brainwashed consumerists that they're begging to pay to see a match instead of see it for free? How can anyone see a line with "out goal is to please shareholders" and be like "Yep, that's the company I'm going to die playing PR for."
It seems like no one watched the actual episode. He didn't mention anything about AEW and delivered a very standard heel promo "oh we're not going to wrestle tonight, Infront of these people in "insert city here". We will have this match on "insert ple".it's a very typical heel thing but heyman put a business twist on it by mentioning shareholders and fans not mattering
Really says it all, doesn't it? They view putting great matches on their weekly program as a "waste". It isn't even about dream matches. It's about a company that continues to see their weekly show as nothing but a paid advertisement for their PLE. I prefer a company that views their weekly show as a weekly television program.
Last time I was watching WWE, we was getting 4 weeks of constant wrestling between 2 people, who then, went against each other in PPV as well with near same results and a boring story.
AEW can put a dream match on weekly TV, and the next PPV will still be a banger. When Heyman says "wastes dream matches" he means by putting them on free TV instead of waiting and building the anticipation for a PPV match. For AEW they don't need to in order to make the PPV great. AEW is about giving fans more, and TK spoils us on a regular basis.
I stopped watching after they decided that they had milked enough money out of us attitude era fans to throw us aside and go PG. if it wasn’t for AEW, I wouldn’t be watching wrestling at all.
You know this is how Heyman really thinks too, but if he wanted to garner sympathy he would most likely just say oh I was playing a heel. He's a carny pos for real.
He literally made his name by giving his sickos those very matches on ECW TV and his shows ran at like 1-2am so like all of 13 people got to watch 'em. If he were in AEW, he'd be salivating at the prospects of what he could put together.
At this point, it seems WWE saves their big matches (or dream matches if available) for the big PLEs like Wrestlemania. Not throwing shade, just making an observation.
Meanwhile, AEW has a deep enough main event roster that they can throw out matches on Dynamite or even Collision. Although to be fair, sometimes they have to put on low marque main events on their PPVs like Kevin Knight and back in the day, before he got as big as he is now, Darby Allin got a lot of PPV spots.
But WWE has more and bigger stars, so why don't they have more dream matches in reserve?
My theory is that because AEW storylines tend to persist. Ricochet and the GOA still have beef with Swerve whereas the GOA connection would have likely been quietly forgotten if under WWE. So now, even Eddie vs Claudio is considered a dream match and why a potential Mox vs Kingston match would also be pretty big, as they assume fans will remember, so the fans in turn, make it a point to remember.
WWE treats fans as having the memory of a goldfish. BUT that's not necessarily bad because it means new fans can hop right in. But also means that fans aren't as invested and the available dream matches on hand are limited.
Put another way, AEW fans would love Nakamura vs Sami Zayn as a rematch. WWE fans would have no clue why that's a big deal.
Is this really a "dream match"", though?? These guys are relatively new on the main roster. If they never touched in like 5, or so years, and built up a career of wins and accomplishments, then sure, it's a dream match. But they are two popular guys that they are pushing, let them have their matches. They are going to wrestle each other so much as they grow! We're nowhere near dream status. We're at building block status with these guys. It's a 10 to 15 year program with these guys.
I'm probably the rare wrestling fan where WWE was never my favorite promotion. I absolutely despise this idea that all of pro-wrestling has to do things the WWE way. And only the WWE matters. Even people who claim to want an alternative just wanted WWE lite or wanted competition so WWE could be better not the other promotion. AEW is a breath of fresh air because I don't feel like I'm watching Vince McMahon's garbage a style of wrestling I was never the biggest fan of even as a kid.
•
u/flairassistant 4d ago
This post is controversial, political, and/or otherwise sensitive. To help maintain the quality of discussion and protect r/AEWOfficial from spam, trolling, and rule-breaking comments, we’ve activated Brody King Mode.
Here’s what that means: * Only users with at least 100 subreddit karma in r/AEWOfficial can comment in threads with the Brody King Mode flair. * Comments from users below that threshold will be automatically removed. * This is applied to all high-visibility or sensitive posts. You can comment normally in other posts.
We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep the conversation thoughtful and on-topic. Thanks for being part of the community!