>>12431384Understand this...
If you have the reach, the audience and the resources, the best way to actually grow your company is to gradually build up reliable young talent, whom you can count on.
Tony doesn't get this. He looks at a guy and sees if he has at least some popularity, then completely drains it. He doesn't 'make' stars. MJF was an exception because he called him a mark on live tv and managed to get a reaction(BTW, MJF coming out and winning the Casino whatever right after this event proved even that Tony is a spineless bitch).
That was the initial purpose of hiring ex WWE guys: Use their collective popularity (and the general anti-WWE narrative at that time) to AEW some form of "pseudo-momentum" to get it going.
Then came Punk, and Tony got absolutely blown away by his reach. The merch sales, ratings, audience engagement and satisfaction on an all-time high(again, partly due to Punk's anti-WWE narrative over the years).
Its pretty obvious that he couldn't balance Punk's arrival with the general booking, and completely fucked up. Bucks, Hangman (and Jack fucking Perry somehow) acting up was a result of Tony acting like the "Everyone's happy guy".
So now Punk's gone. AEW has completely driven itself into a corner.
Fucking Christian Cage is the sole thread AEW is hanging by right now.
Because they didn't focus on all round development of the roster (caused by hiring too many nobodies and fed retirees).
WWE has NXT to put its newly hired meat to the test to see if they can hang in the big leagues. In AEW you get a debut with pyro on the main show straightaway (At this point, Dynamite, Rampage & Collision are the same thing), and then you're never seen again.
Grow and rely on your own, rather than riding the backs of vets.
