- 22 hours ago
AEW had a wild 2025, but not everything went as planned. Here are the biggest lessons they need to learn moving forward.
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00:00Adam, what huge lesson must AEW learn from 2025?
00:04Well, I thought about coming on here and, you know, quoting Britt Baker and saying nobody cares
00:08because I think the lack of investment in certain storylines is an issue for AEW
00:14and that's why we've seen, you know, the dwindling viewing figures.
00:17I know, they get 500,000 viewers on whatever, HBO Max or whatever.
00:22They've got a girlfriend, she just doesn't go to this school.
00:24But that's not what I'm here to talk about.
00:27What I'm here to talk about is, as I always like to, my best friend, Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
00:36The thing you need to realise in 2026 is he is a precious commodity who needs to be utilised better.
00:43I'm not saying, although I'd quite like it, he needs to be world champion next year.
00:47What I'm saying is he is crucially important and in very high demand with regards to the fact
00:55that the reason we're not seeing him right now is not because, you know, he doesn't want to be there or whatever.
00:59He's got other commitments. He's a movie star as well.
01:02He does TV shows, all these other things.
01:04So the moment that you have him back, know what you want to do with him and utilise him.
01:09Like, the briefcase nonsense isn't making the best use of MJF.
01:14Setting Mark Briscoe on fire isn't making the best use of Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
01:19He didn't even successful.
01:20He didn't even do it, exactly.
01:23Look, he is a megastar.
01:25He's one of the, you know, the biggest guys in wrestling, in my opinion.
01:27And I think, you know, he is crucial to seeing things, not turn around,
01:32because I think they've had a far better year than last year, for example.
01:36But the uptick that you can see with AEW, I think, centres around having crucial characters.
01:41And when you haven't got people like Will Ospreay or Swerve Strickland,
01:44the multitude of injuries that they've got,
01:46you need those stars that you can utilise, doing their best stuff.
01:50And he's had one of the best matches of the year, and it wasn't in AEW.
01:54So utilise him better. He is crucial.
01:57I love MJF.
01:59I'm not entirely sure it's a lesson that AEW must learn from me,
02:02but with a gun to my head or just making a video,
02:05because obviously there is no firearm to my skull right now.
02:07I, for one, and listen, I do pay for pay-per-views.
02:10If people think that I don't, no, I take my money and put it down.
02:13But I, for one, could deal with a shorter pay-per-view length running time.
02:17For two reasons.
02:18Firstly, I don't define worth by how long something goes.
02:21I used to get this chat when I used to work in video games all the time.
02:24If I spend, well, more now, if I spend 50 bucks on a video game and it's 10 hours,
02:28is it worth more or less than I spend 50 bucks on an RPG, which could be 100 hours?
02:31As long as I enjoy those 10 hours, it's going to be dependent on the individual,
02:35but then I can sort of work out afterwards.
02:36Do I think that was a worthy investment?
02:38If I enjoy myself in 10 hours, then yes.
02:40Now, I'm not saying that I don't enjoy myself for the five hours or so an AEW pay-per-view would go,
02:45but I do find myself enjoying some matches less just because that's always going to happen.
02:49You get fatigued.
02:50Maybe the match beforehand is so good, so you dump a bunch of adrenaline,
02:52and then you just need a few minutes to calm down.
02:55But also, I think you could take a lot of these matches and put it on dynamite.
02:58And because they are such big matches, they're pay-per-view worthy.
03:01It's going to raise up your television as well.
03:03This would have been different back in the day,
03:04but everybody is putting on amazing TV matches all the time.
03:07It's not like you're actually giving anything away because you're probably going to go out and find two people to come together.
03:11People go, oh, well, that's absolutely amazing.
03:14I just watched Bandido versus Okada when I'm filming these videos for the unified title.
03:18That could have been a pay-per-view match should you have built them up in the right way.
03:21But that's just to me.
03:22I'm a less is more guy.
03:23So if all of a sudden I got a three and a half hour pay-per-view and we took sort of two or three matches out of it,
03:28I don't think that I'd be like, I can't believe I spent $50 on that because I still got those amazing matches that I saw.
03:33And nine times out of ten an AW main event is so good, it gets your endorphins going anyway.
03:37But that's just my personal preference.
03:39But of course, if you are out there and you're scrimping and you're saving and you drop $50 on a pay-per-view,
03:43maybe you aren't going to watch it like me.
03:45I literally get up and I make sure I get the whole thing in because I'm blessed to do this job.
03:48But if you're going to watch a little bit on a Sunday, a little bit on a Monday because you don't care about spoilers that may be floating around the internet,
03:53you are going to have a more enjoyable experience.
03:55But I'm not saying it ties into my job either.
03:57I think I feel this way regardless.
03:59I'm just less is more.
04:00Same with WWE, same with AEW.
04:02I wasn't a massive fan of the weekend of WrestleMania when it first got brought in, but I still think it helped condense it.
04:08Worst thing I've ever said, but I've told that story before.
04:10WrestleMania 35, I was lucky enough to go.
04:12And after like hour seven, I was like, I'm a bit bored now.
04:14I was at WrestleMania and I was bored.
04:16But that's why I always keep it in my head.
04:18I think wrestling is better when it's quality over quantity.
04:20And I certainly wouldn't feel shortchanged, even if it was like six matches.
04:24If there's six amazing matches and it really sets me up for the day and I get excited about talking about social media and doing my videos,
04:30then I still think it's worthwhile.
04:31Just one man's opinion.
04:34The commentary team is about three years past its sell-by date and needs a complete rethink.
04:38This is my take on the matter.
04:39I like all of them individually.
04:40I like every AEW commentator one by one, right?
04:43I think Excalibur did a tremendous job in the early years.
04:46And he was really good at filling dead air, in particular running through his match cards in about 10 seconds at the end of the shows.
04:52I think that Jim Ross, when they still bring him in, like their sparse usage of him really does help add a bit of gravitas.
04:58And it's good as well because Jim is getting old and he maybe doesn't have the energy that he used to have to get through a full show.
05:03So I think they use Jim well.
05:05Taz is the most charming man alive to me.
05:07I love Jones, all of that nonsense.
05:09I'm a big Taz guy.
05:11And Tony Schiavone, I mean, if you don't like Tony Schiavone, you're probably dead, is the problem.
05:16But the thing is, right, this announce team has really depreciated over the years to the point where it makes the shows quite hard to listen to above everything else.
05:27I think that Excalibur over the years has been exposed as perhaps not the best at regulating emotion.
05:32When there's a really exciting moment on the show, he calls it in much the same way as like a trade of holds, like a headlock.
05:40That's a problem.
05:41I think that Taz is no longer as locked in as he was.
05:45I think that where previously he was really engaging and funny and he had things like his technique breakdowns and stuff like that.
05:51These days he is coming a bit off like he did in his later WWE commentary days or in his time in TNA.
05:57Taz is awesome when he's locked in.
05:59When he's not locked in, he's not the most best for the show.
06:03And Tony Schiavone, I think, has the appeal of the beloved wrestling uncle who has fallen back in love with the sport that he fell out of love with when WCW died, has kind of ran its course a little bit.
06:17I think that he needs a complete reshuffle and I think that they do have the tools to do it.
06:22Number one, Bryan Danielson in the analyst role.
06:25Keep him there.
06:25He's good already.
06:26He will only get better.
06:28He's the best on that team at breaking down the intricacies of a wrestling match, explaining what's going on so that you can fully understand and fully make the most and you can fully immerse in the situation.
06:38Number two, take Excalibur.
06:40Move him from the play-by-play role.
06:43Pop him in the second man in the booth.
06:45So we've got Danielson's number three and Excalibur here number two.
06:50It will let him do less.
06:52It will mean that he doesn't need to speak every single second of the broadcast.
06:57And it also puts less of a burden on him to add the emotion, to add the highs and lows, to regulate his announcing, to go through the gears like Jim Ross used to do so well, when he'd scream his head off at the big moments, but take it right down for the somber moments.
07:11It would much take that burden off of his shoulders.
07:15And then number one, you find the best play-by-play person for the business and you put them in the number one spot.
07:21For me, that's Ian Riccoboni.
07:24I know that Ian Riccoboni has a shoot job and they've tried to get him to do more and he's said no in the past.
07:30He likes his family life.
07:32He likes being on the road once every fortnight or whatever.
07:35But come on, he's the best.
07:37He's the best.
07:38Double his salary, man.
07:39Do what it takes.
07:41I think that he does a great job of going through the emotions and he also does a great job of holding the show together and keeping it running and stuff like that as well.
07:49Wrestling's not just about explaining what's going on.
07:51Which is what Brian Magnuson can do really well.
07:54I still watch Japanese wrestling with Japanese commentary.
07:56I don't touch the English commentary.
07:58Even though I don't have a clue what the Japanese commentators are saying.
08:02The way they come up and they're screaming their heads off at the big moments and they're really quiet.
08:07The regulation of emotion is far more important.
08:10I can understand this story.
08:12I'm an adult.
08:13I can break these things down for myself.
08:15The emotional side of it is super important.
08:18AEW is seriously letting itself down at the moment with this.
08:20And I know these commentators are sacred horses.
08:23Sacred cows.
08:24Sacred unicorns.
08:26Yeah, people love them.
08:29But what it's time to do is take those horses and...
08:32Don't put them out to pasture.
08:33No, don't put them out to pasture.
08:35Maybe put them in a different stable for a while.
08:37Feed them different hay.
08:38New field.
08:39New field.
08:39Get a Shetland pony in, man.
08:41Why not?
08:41Let's go.
08:42Fix it.
08:42It's time to stop indulging Jon Moxley in 2026.
08:48And I say that understanding that that's difficult for Tony Khan and maybe AEW Hardcores to want to accept as well.
08:56Like, there are times at which, like, Jon Moxley's omnipresence in AEW were a necessity.
09:00Times, plural.
09:01Like, I can think of two.
09:03Like, the 2020 world title reign and the pandemic.
09:052022, both...
09:06Well, either side of, like, CM Punk's return in the summer and Brawl Out and all that sort of stuff.
09:11There were times when Jon Moxley was so vital to AEW.
09:14Not just because he objectively drew.
09:17But also he stood as this, like, one safe pair of hands to hold your world title to.
09:22Kind of, like, you know, contribute to any program and make it better.
09:26I don't think that's the case anymore in 2025.
09:29And I say that, again, complex as it is, in spite of him being, like, largely responsible for AEW's best moment, the crown of Hangman Page, all in Texas.
09:37He gets to be everything and anything.
09:41And that can sometimes become worse than the sum of its parts.
09:45Like, yes, it's cool sometimes when Jon Moxley is the hardest guy in the room.
09:49Yes, it's cool sometimes when he's the most dangerous and scariest.
09:52And even sometimes the funniest as a heel.
09:54But it's not so great when he's trademarked Michael Sidgwick, a cat burglar.
09:58It's not so great when he's all of those things over the course of one match.
10:02Yeah.
10:03You know, and it kind of, like, at the start of the match he's supposed to be the hardest guy and then halfway through he becomes the funny guy.
10:08And, yes, some of it's in service of him being a heel.
10:10So the heel can kind of make choices where he's like, oh, he was lying to you all along.
10:13He is a coward or whatever.
10:14And I understand that.
10:15But I am not as high on the Death Riders in spite of some of the high points.
10:20I'm not sure that this group ultimately has necessarily sort of served its purpose beyond that one great moment.
10:28I think the idea was too big and too confused from the very beginning about, like, making AEW better.
10:34Because then you're kind of tacitly saying it's crap.
10:37And then you're undermining the things that are good.
10:39I think there are points where they've been the most terrifying heel stable.
10:41And then in the next segment the babyfaces don't even care.
10:44I think at times when the babyfaces are supposed to rally round and stop the Death Riders, it makes them look like bigger geeks.
10:50So there's just a lot of times for me where the Death Riders doesn't work.
10:52And so much of that is clearly Jon Moxley's passion project.
10:56It's been six years in AEW and it's tricky with wrestling because wrestlers earn that amount of stroke.
11:02They earn that amount of say.
11:03Jon Moxley was once like a business driver.
11:06There were objective metrics to suggest that Jon Moxley was the guy to go with.
11:09And AEW does well on pay-per-view or comparatively well considering it's a monthly product.
11:13But the buildings aren't getting any fuller.
11:15Often they're really quiet.
11:17The ratings, in spite of the millions that watch on streaming, of course, aren't exactly like record highs or anything like that.
11:22There are less objective metrics than ever to justify Jon Moxley's omnipresence.
11:27I am not saying just lift him off television never to return, although he's still never taken that fishing trip.
11:32But it could be time to just see if you can find a way for Jon Moxley to fit somewhere in one polite mid-card spot just for a bit, just to see.
11:43Someone called Steve Austin kind of infamously said that you can't move a character like Steve Austin down the card and then proceeded to leave the company twice and make that not really a conversation.
11:53I do wonder sometimes if the only way that Jon Moxley ever leaves the main event of AEW is if he leaves AEW full stop.
11:59I almost can't picture a main event scene without Jon Moxley sort of dominating it, but I would really like to.
12:05And 2025 was the year that confirmed that for me.
12:07Right, a big lesson that AEW has to learn, like, going into next year, going into 2026, learn from 2025, is not every match needs to feel like an epic on a pay-per-view, okay?
12:21It just does not.
12:22Like, I love the quality of wrestling that we get.
12:25We spoil as wrestling fans right now in 2025.
12:27I've lived through the dark ages of some of the absolute ribald, terrible stuff that we were given in WWE, like, in the end of the 2010s and that kind of stuff.
12:39It was just, it was bland, it was boring, whatever it is.
12:41We don't have that problem now, like, with the incredible talent that you see in the likes of AEW and even WWE, but there's a danger right now that a lot of the talent,
12:51because they're given, like, artistic license and given the freedom to be creative, there's a lot of those talents on the AEW roster that are aiming for these five-star epics every single time they get in the ring.
13:03And that's fine, that's great to be ambitious, but not every match needs to be that or close to that on, like, a ten-match card, however big these AEW events are.
13:12Because what happens if every single match starts to feel similar in style, this back-and-forth showdown epic?
13:18Well, none of them feel special, none of them feel big or like an epic, that is the idea.
13:24For me, call me old-fashioned, but I like my epics to be same for the main event or co-main event, whatever it is, like, towards the end of the show.
13:30Because that makes them feel special, like the big attraction, the thing that you've paid your money to see, the big stars doing their thing in that show towards the end,
13:39when you feel like they're the big angles, they're the big storylines that have earned that time, or at least they should have earned that time in the lead-up to it.
13:47Whereas if every single one on the card, every single match on the card, feels like a 20-minute, even over 15 minutes, like, worth of wrestling, like, match,
13:56that is back-and-forth and near-falls and, oh, drama, they all start feeling samey.
14:01None of them feel special.
14:02And you just get tired, you just get drained really quickly having to come up and down, up and down, these big rollercoaster matches all the time.
14:08A bit of variety spices up these events.
14:10This is why WrestleDream is the most recent AEW pay-per-view at the time of recording.
14:14That's why I really enjoyed the start of WrestleDream, because it started with a literal bang.
14:18You had all the fireworks going off, we were mid-match, and it felt like, even though, because I didn't tune in for the pre-show at this point,
14:24I just watched, like, from the start of the show, it felt like you were getting this little sprint squash match at the start.
14:29Not squash, but you know what I mean?
14:30Like a little sprint match where you're like, whoa, energy, blah, blah, blah, and it was just, like, over before you knew it,
14:35and you were like, ah, I want wrestling, oh my god, this is so good, and it was like a shot of adrenaline into your soul,
14:41and it wasn't this 20-minute epic, like, where you're like, okay, I'm going to get into it, and everything else is going really good.
14:46It was just a shot, a shot of electricity, and that's what I think we need a bit more of, a bit more variety.
14:51A few of those sprinkled in to a pay-per-view card, or just different styles of matches, shorter matches, longer matches,
14:57and just really vary it a little bit.
14:58Some of these matches that were on WrestleDream in particular, like, you had the Kyle Fletcher-Mark Briscoe match,
15:04which was a wonderful match, like, of course, brilliant work in there, but it was long.
15:08It could have had 10 minutes, 15 minutes taken off it and still been just as good,
15:11and probably more memorable because it would have been one of the shorter matches on the card
15:15and felt more like a wow, sprint, high-octane, insane showdown rather than this long epic
15:20where it starts to feel like it's just an exercise in showing you how good the cardio is of these talented wrestlers,
15:27which we know anyway, we know they're all brilliant athletes, and we salute them and celebrate them for that.
15:31For me, though, I just want to reiterate that I want those big closing matches on a show to be the epics,
15:39and I want a bit more variety, I think, throughout the rest of the card coming into 2026,
15:43because there's a lot of great pay-per-views that AEW have had this year,
15:47and I've had some great matches on them that I have forgotten because they've got lost in the shuffle
15:51because they've all felt like epics.
15:53I could not tell you half the card that happened at Double or Nothing this year, for example, off the top of my head,
15:58because a lot of those matches felt samey, there were a lot of big, long matches,
16:02and they are fine in their place when you pick your moments, but not every single match on every single card.
16:08For me, it's getting a bit tiring, and I think it's just a lesson that they're on the cusp of learning
16:13because they did the great opener to WrestleDream.
16:14I just want a bit more of that sprinkled in and across my pay-per-view rather than just at the start,
16:19like every now and then.
16:20It needs to be every card.
16:22Keep me excited.
16:23Keep me engaged by mixing things up a little.
16:25Tony Khan, you either die a hero or you live long enough to prove the grifters right
16:32because at this point, in terms of his approach, in terms of what he books on as a TV product,
16:40it is asinine, bad faith, ignorant to say he doesn't tell stories.
16:45Inherently, every wrestling match is a story, right?
16:48But my God, this year more than most with this, where the best wrestle campaign,
16:54which is really so, he's gone full ball into the idea, and it's always been around in AEW.
17:00It's a selling point of AEW is to put great matches on TV.
17:05But that initiative was launched when WWE would just gleefully put out middling efforts
17:12with terrible finishes, like to deprive the audience of good matches or whatever.
17:17That selling point no longer exists.
17:20I would say the idea of skill in pro wrestling generally pisses me off.
17:24This idea of everyone trying to be the best and the best wrestler and have the best matches,
17:30like it's really undermined, like the emotional component of pro wrestling.
17:34And Tony Khan at this point, again, I'm not saying the guy doesn't tell stories.
17:39If you look at how they all deftly dovetailed into that last 15 minutes of the All in Texas main event,
17:46I mean, it was quite incredible.
17:49But after All in Texas especially, this was really brought into focus to me,
17:55I've tried to coin it on the podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
18:00wherever you get podcasts from, you can listen to those.
18:02I would describe it as critical acclaimed doping, where the amount of matches that seem to exist
18:08for the quality has just, it's increased to like an absurd volume, right?
18:15Like these all-star eight-man tags.
18:17If you remembered them, well done, I really can't at this point.
18:20I watch it and review it every single week.
18:22You can't trace the winners and losers anymore.
18:24Increasingly, they're becoming immaterial.
18:26And the emphasis is on great action, great action, great action, great action, great action.
18:30The money matches and those like collision, like the whole sickos thing on collision.
18:36It's like, I don't care who wins or loses anymore.
18:38And considering this was the wins and losses matter company in 2019,
18:42that is almost disastrous.
18:45And what's happening is that he's so like match happy and match graphic happy.
18:51First of all, it's lazy.
18:52It's not particularly inspiring.
18:54It feels like a cheap way of getting you to watch when at this point,
18:58just the quality of a pro wrestling match, is it not boring to you?
19:02Have we not already peaked in terms of the Danielson AEW run, the peak of New Japan?
19:06It's like, it's like chasing a nostalgia.
19:08Like, in many ways, AEW in 2025 feels like the WWF of 1995,
19:13where everything it's trying to do feels a little bit uninspiring and past A.
19:17And a diminished return of things we were getting like two, three, four years ago.
19:22And what the worst criminal thing is, and this is the lesson they must learn,
19:25is that the emphasis on this, it's where the best wrestlers, da, da, da, da,
19:29has come at the detriment of actual promotion, anticipation, live in-ring promos.
19:35I need to see way, way more talking on these Dynamite shows in particular,
19:41especially now that the monthly pay-per-view calendar is in place and has been for ages.
19:46Like, you've got monthly pay-per-views now.
19:47The idea is, even if you don't consider the malaise and the fatigue of the great match,
19:53like, there is less of a need to do them on Dynamite now that you're not running quarterly pay-per-views.
19:59The idea was, oh, yeah, you're going to get the big emotional matches in about two or three months,
20:03but you're going to get some great matches on Dynamite in the interim.
20:06What's the point anymore?
20:06There is no point now that it's monthly.
20:09And it's match after match after match after match after match.
20:11Like, I want to anticipate these matches.
20:14I want these matches to be promoted.
20:15Mark Briscoe, one of the best promos of his generation,
20:20did not, on the Dynamite before WrestleDream, cut a babyface promo on Kyle Fletcher.
20:26That made me think, well, I can't not give him the title.
20:30Like, I knew kind of the result.
20:31I kind of expected Fletcher to win, realistically.
20:35But, like, the idea should have been, oh, Mark Briscoe's just got that promo.
20:38So, how can you not strap him up when he's just cut the promo of his life in there?
20:42What they're doing with Eddie Kingston is a fucking disgrace, quite frankly.
20:46Like, look, his gimmick, his persona now, is someone who is affronted
20:53when the production team knocks on the locker room door
20:56and asks him to promote a match on Collision.
20:59He does this thing where the best promo of the century, arguably, Eddie Kingston.
21:04You might not even need that qualifier, by the way.
21:06You could go all-time with Eddie Kingston.
21:09The persona he is currently working is a guy who the production team knocks on his door
21:15and goes, hi, Eddie, you've got to promote your match.
21:17He comes out in a mood, like, really low energy.
21:20Oh, this again.
21:22Says the best promo guy ever.
21:25This again.
21:26All right, okay, well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:27What's there?
21:28Hook, what's the match?
21:29Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:30When is it again?
21:31I can't be bothered to remember.
21:32Yeah, yeah, I'll see you then.
21:33I was doing a warm-up, and you're going to interrupt me to do a promo.
21:37What are we doing?
21:39This guy on the flagship TV show should be involved in an absolutely massively important match
21:45almost every single month and sell you and talk you into it.
21:50One of the best moments in AEW history was the CM Punk-Eddie Kingston rampage confrontation.
21:55They haven't sniffed that in 2025, and that is a major, major, major issue.
22:01But it's fine.
22:02You're going to get sickle A versus sickle B and sickle X versus sickle Y on collision.
22:07And if you sat down, right, January to October, or, like, yeah, it's a month ago, right?
22:15I'm like, Eddie Kingston, who cares?
22:18Who cares?
22:18October, Saturday, Saturday, who cares?
22:21I don't want to talk.
22:22I'm the best talker in the world, though.
22:23But, like, it mapped out everything that's happened on collision from January to October
22:29this year, and I watch it, and I cover it, right?
22:32Not in the podcast anymore, but I do watch it.
22:35I'll be like, oh, yeah, that's probably a great match in January, probably a great match
22:38in the second match of January, probably a really great one in the third.
22:40I think in February, there's probably another match with two cold underground heroes that
22:45I can't remember the finish of or the result of or the body of, really.
22:47I'm sick of it.
22:48Talk me into the goddamn buildings and make me care.
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