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I primarily watch AEW programming not because it's the perfect promotion, but because I can see the effort and the vision. Its not translating to viewers and attendance right now, and I have a laundry list of things I'd change about it - but it feels like AEW is more malleable and open to change than WWE, which is more or less a monolith. In 2021-early 2022, we really did have our Immovable Object (WWE) vs Unstoppable Force (AEW). In 2024, AEW is a stoppable force, in desperate need of momentum, and I think eventually Tony will step aside a smidge and let someone else co-book the shows
Currently, TK books shows based on what HE would want to see as a wrestling fan, but (with all due respect) Tony is a man without a wife, kids, a mortgage, 401k or day job. The average fan does not want to go to a 4-hour long wrestling show on a Wednesday night, combined with a 1-2 hour commute back and forth. They especially won't do so if the booker/promoter has a habit of only having top stars appear/wrestle every other week; or they're on Dynamite this week, but Collision next week. The same issue plagues TV fans trying to follow storylines from week to week but guys/gals disappear for weeks at a time without explanation. Continuity is needed. But I digress.
You cannot book and structure your shows like Action Glory Wrestling at the Curtis Cooper High School gym in Saginaw, Michigan every Friday night at 8pm, and expect to compete with WWE solely because you have WWE-level talent and TV time. I am really really hoping that once AEW gets a Streaming/PPV deal and switches to a subscription model that the focus on the die-hards will subside and AEW TV shows will become far more all-encompassing. For now, AEW TV shows are god damned near a PPV with commercials - a parade of unnecessarily long matches that don't "tell the story in the ring", actually, what they do is fatigue viewers and fans
Ironically, what AEW needs the most is BTE humor and entertainment, but on TV, not YouTube
