- 11 minutes ago
It’s called All ELITE Wrestling for a reason.
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00:00Is AW already the best wrestling promotion ever? I mean, I would say so, but I'm just one man. Look,
00:05it's far from perfect. Dynamite, even at its seminal peak, is too rushed and formulaic as a
00:10TV show. It's also, and this is deeply unfortunate given the early sports-oriented
00:14messaging, a little bit too silly and trivial. The various crimes, the wacky angles that invariably
00:19use pathetic, fake props, the consistent failure of the self-indulgent commentary team to be
00:23believably self-serious, or various emotion-driven angles, AW does sometimes feel like it isn't
00:29proper, if that's the word. AW can also be accused of living down to its reputation as a company that
00:34exists solely to put on the quote-unquote best matches. You'd be a bad-faith operator to accuse
00:39AW of not telling stories, but the relentless all-star eight-man tags, overused plunder,
00:44collision in general, it's pure critical acclaim doping at times. Now, you could easily argue that
00:50New Japan Pro Wrestling embarked on a single classic era, the 2011-2019 resurgence and US expansion,
00:56that was superior to, and has outlasted, AW's entire existence to this point. And that's
01:01without factoring in the promotion's massively popular 90s heyday. If using objective commercial
01:05measurements, obviously WWE is the best literal promotion, ECW was far more creative and influential,
01:11Jim Crockett promotions almost perfected the trifecta of great pro wrestling, matches, angles,
01:16and promos, and its best stuff was so believable and soulful that it withstands
01:20time's test better than any promotion of yore.
01:22If you think about what makes a great promotion across every category though,
01:26well, AW might still have peaked higher than any other competitor.
01:29I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com, and these are 12 times AW was better than literally everything.
01:3512. The Kenny Omega vs Hangman Page Storyline
01:38Traditional pro wrestling heat barely exists, which is less than ideal. The mainstream US
01:42scene is still modeled to chase an unrecoverable emotion. I mean, when was the last time you
01:46earnestly felt moved by the conduct of a heel, without playing along to the admiration of just the
01:51performance? For many, it was 2020-2021. Hangman Page vs Kenny Omega was the storyline that best
01:57captured relatable audience investment in a time defined by social media. The misleading,
02:02glamorous lives our peers apparently live make it difficult to feel a true sense of self-worth.
02:06Many of us are just anxious that we don't compare. Page never felt elite, and the buy-in was easy.
02:11He,
02:12in 2019, was a very good worker and one of the funnier cast members of Being the Elite,
02:16but he wasn't Kenny Omega. Hangman never drew money nor worked a truly iconic singles match.
02:20Kenny had worked so many of them that it defined his persona.
02:23Together, they tagged at Kenny's urging, the reason behind which slowly became apparent. Omega
02:27was in decline. He knew Page was his successor deep down, and he wanted to use him. Page scored
02:32the falls in their successful tag team title defenses, but Omega still treated Page like
02:36he was doing him a favor. The fans caught on and gravitated towards Page, who in parallel was
02:41putting forward genuinely hilarious character work. At All Out 2020, Omega had the temerity to abandon
02:46Page, even though he'd carried the team. This catalyzed their singles feud, and put Page all
02:51the way over as a man who was elite. The fans just needed to convince him. MJF vs CM Punk
02:56conversely
02:57somehow generated the real stuff. MJF was such a manipulative sociopathic POS that it felt like
03:02he'd travelled back in time to a period where we could all just get lost in the fiction.
03:0611. Those Magic Weekend Nights
03:08To reduce it, the core purpose of a pro-wrestling promotion is to build towards, and nail the execution
03:13of, major destination events. If there's a top 10 list of the best pro-wrestling pay-per-views ever,
03:18it really might be difficult for any other company to get a look in.
03:21AEW Revolution 2020 is the model pay-per-view for any promotion of an upward trajectory.
03:26Match for match, it has since been improved upon several times, but the vast amount of talent who
03:30felt like world-beaters on the night was just incredible. Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, MJF,
03:35Jon Moxley, and Hangman Page all looked more than capable of securing AEW's future across the next
03:40five years, and they did. All Out 2021 was in fact too good to be true, but if Revolution
03:4520 felt like the night AEW could become one of the best promotions ever, All Out 2021 was the night
03:50it
03:50did. Since then, take your pick. The talent roster expanded to an extent that presented several
03:56niggling issues on TV, but on those immortal weekend nights, it was totally worth it.
04:00Revolution 2023 boasted the best Iron Man match and, to that point, the best plunder match in AEW history.
04:06An absolutely exhilarating trios match between the Elite and the House of Black was merely the
04:10third best match on the card. Dynasty 2024 casually presented what many consider to be the best match
04:16ever promoted on US soil. If you troll through AEW's big show chronology from 2021 onwards,
04:22the absolute worst you're looking at is a 7 out of 10. The sheer number of bonafide nines,
04:26WrestleDream 23, All In, London 24, Revolution 2025 is outrageous. All In, Texas was a 9.5. For the
04:33love of god, the fourth best match on that show was a worthy entry into the Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika
04:38Okada rivalry if we're just gonna put it up in lights. 10. Every anarchy in the arena match
04:44For a long time, it felt like pro wrestling had exhausted the possibilities of the gimmick match.
04:48Even the last great pre-AEW idea, Money in the Bank, so successful that it spawned its own annual
04:53PLE, one that expanded the big four into the big five, was a tweak on an existing idea. It was
04:58a ladder
04:58match with six wrestlers in it. Every other new idea was a convoluted take on something that already
05:03existed, which was practically the specialty of TNA. There was until the pandemic forced AEW to think
05:08creatively, and they did so to an extravagant degree with Stadium Stampede, a retooled version of
05:13which Anarchy in the Arena transplanted the deranged action and comedy hybrid into the wild
05:18throws of a bigger packed building. An outrageously entertaining melting pot of ideas, Anarchy in the
05:23Arena is just amazing. Squads of five do battle across the entire arena and the backstage area.
05:28At its mind-blowing best, Anarchy in the Arena is so unhinged and expansive that the director
05:33sometimes struggles to capture the next wild stunt. This is a feature, not a bug though,
05:37that enhances the all-important sense of chaos. For an elaborate match that requires so much in
05:42the way of expert timing, it never really feels like it. You could argue that the match is formulaic and
05:46a bit contrived. Every year a song plays on a loop over the PA before the heels find a way
05:51to cut it
05:51and deprive the crowd. Every year since the Young Bucks have worked it, there's an awesome unexpected
05:55explosion spot. Every year a babyface comes back from the dead and heroically walks down
05:59the ring to even the odds. But this is wrestling Christmas. You do the same things every year
06:04precisely because they're so good. Anarchy in the Arena is the last great gimmick match,
06:09and very possibly the best. 9. Sting's Retirement Run
06:13The major Puro leagues know their way around an epic, emotionally draining retirement run and ceremony.
06:18WWE did a near perfect job with Ric Flair back in 2008, even if the man himself removed all heft
06:23and
06:23meaning from the occasion by doing four consecutive jobs to Hulk Hogan in Australia just a year later.
06:28Mostly though, the retirement gimmick is just that. It works, it draws, but nobody takes it too seriously.
06:33Sting's retirement run was as incredible as his wonderful AEW chapter. It all worked to a frankly
06:38magical extent. AEW Sting was two men at once. The icon, rendered timeless through the painted face,
06:44and the expert smoke and mirrors party matchmaking, and a visibly old man in his 60s whose unhinged
06:49bumps ranged from electrifying to terrifying. He was once a genuine superhero and a man drenched
06:54in pathos all at once. This was explored to genius effect against the Young Bucks at the
06:58site of his retirement, Revolution 2024. The Stinger popped the Greensboro crowd with his
07:03superb no-sell fire-up spots, but he also bumped on glass. This was inspired since his partner Darby
07:08Allen had set the tone by taking the more dangerous version earlier in the match, writing him out of it
07:12until the finish. Sting prevailed, finding the wherewithal to avenge the Bucks, who had bloodied
07:16his family soon after his father's passing, the chilling revelation of which on Dynamite might
07:20have informed his best promo ever. Sting Rafter dropped into a death match in what was the perfect
07:25summary of his best WCW and AEW output. There's a reason everybody says they want to go out like Sting.
07:318. Whenever the stories earned their moments
07:33You watch professional wrestling to feel bad or scared, and then to feel good. The feel-good moment should
07:38not be manufactured. It should be the result of careful, agonizing, well-thought-out storytelling.
07:43And for a promotion that some insist tells no stories, the sheer volume of earned, jubilant,
07:48feel-good moments is the best proof that that take is the dumbest one around. Take, for example,
07:53the I-need-my-older-brother reunion between the Rhodes Brothers at the inaugural Double or Nothing.
07:57That set the tone for AEW's cathartic creative model. Since then, AEW has not created, but rather
08:03arrived at genuinely stirring and rewarding conclusions that became moments. The success of Hangman Page's quest to
08:08prove himself elite at Full Gear 2021. Swerve Strickland taking the spot he promised was his
08:13and making Black History at Dynasty 2024. Bryan Danielson finally showing the ambition to win
08:18the big one at Wembley, powered by the love of his daughter stationed at ringside. Sting proving that
08:22he actually was a superhero all along by winning his retirement match at Revolution 24. The acclaimed
08:27winning the tag team titles after they'd fought to become the most over-act in the company when
08:31opposed by the most competitive field ever of major star names and genuine living legends. Hangman Page,
08:37soaked in tears, ready to prize open the briefcase at All In Texas to retrieve his second world title.
08:42Quite possibly thinking that his real-life feud with CM Punk meant that AEW might never have such
08:47a moment in AEW possible again. 7. When the bell rang
08:50Through sheer longevity alone, New Japan has almost certainly promoted more great matches than AEW,
08:56and indeed every other competitor. Where AEW might win this category though, is range. WWE boasts
09:01both. It's a promotion that has dealt in incendiary brawls. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin,
09:05WrestleMania 13. Modern technical classics like Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles, TLC 2018,
09:11and deliriously entertaining BS spectacles, Sami Zayn vs. Johnny Knoxville, WrestleMania 38.
09:16The sheer volume of terrible WWE matches though, is only matched by the mundane. WWE, by design,
09:22doesn't want to win awards for best matches, often crafting them to be nothing special. AEW does.
09:27There may not be a technical wrestling match anywhere ever as good as Bryan Danielson vs. Zack
09:32Sabre Jr. at WrestleDream 23. Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door 23 is a candidate for the
09:38best modern epic, and features the most well-timed rope break spot ever. Omega only seemed to start
09:43moving his feet towards the rope following the Stormbreaker at 2.9. Whichever tag style you prefer,
09:48Lucha, High Flying, Southern, between them the Lucha Brothers, Young Bucks and FTR have all delivered
09:53classics. MJF vs. Bryan Danielson at Revolution 23 was the most dramatic Iron Man match ever. Eddie
09:59Kingston is one of the best brawlers ever, and his AEW library is stunning. There have been over 300
10:04episodes of AEW Dynamite. Almost every single edition has presented at least one excellent pro
10:10wrestling match. The vast majority have featured at least two. There hasn't been a single episode
10:14with all bad matches. And for better or worse, since Collision fundamentally exists to book matches
10:19for the Sickos, that principle applies twofold. 6. When the roster got stacked. AEW's roster at
10:25various points and in totality is the best ever assembled. Kenny Omega, the best big match worker
10:30ever, solidified that case in AEW in unforgettable wars against Will Ospreay, Bryan Danielson and Hangman
10:35Page. Bryan Danielson, the best worker ever, enjoyed his best ever run of matches in the promotion.
10:40Almost everything he did was genius. His Dynamite match against Roosh was one of the most disgusting
10:45frenzied brawls in modern wrestling history. And it wasn't even his best AEW match involving blood.
10:50Hangman Page evolved into a modern great in AEW, with his unparalleled attention to detail and
10:55frightening commitment. Will Ospreay's 2024 was an absurd collection of state-of-the-art dream
11:00matches. CM Punk, in contrast, delivered much in the way of elegant strip-backed craft. The Young
11:05Bucks, kings of pay-per-view, made fans believe the finish wasn't false about a hundred times in
11:09countless matches. MJF reached these stratospheric levels when he wasn't trying to do too much.
11:14Swerve Strickland ascended to the tier of best in the world from 2023 onwards. Jon Moxley,
11:19when motivated, felt like a real hero and the most imposing big bad, depending on which role
11:23he played. Tony Storm eventually became the most over-wrestler in the company, irrespective of gender,
11:28in early 2025. And the supporting cast more closely resembles the best wrestling festival
11:33ever than just a mere roster of talent. The range and quality of talent is just silly. Chris Statlander,
11:38FTR, Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle Fletcher, Darby Allin, Bandido, Kazuchika Okada, Eddie Kingston,
11:43Hikaru Shida, Jamie Hayter. He's unfashionable now, but AEW even got the best out of the legendary
11:48Chris Jericho for three mostly glorious years too. 5. Whenever AEW hit the music
11:54The stereo output of Mikey Ruckus and licensed themes is a massive AEW selling point. AEW perhaps
11:59hasn't captured the grand majesty of Old Japan's 90s library, nor classic-era WWF's ability to
12:05soundtrack the distinct personality of its crazed cast of wrestlers, though timeless Tony Storms does
12:09come very close. Also, and this is crucial and very annoying, AEW does not turn the volume up on TV
12:15feed anywhere near as loud as they should. Still, the themes. Hangman Page boasts no less than two
12:20incredible compositions. One sets the tone of a man who lives to persevere. The other is a menacing
12:25sound of that same man finally succumbing to the dark. FTR's Giorgio Moroder soundalike is too brazen
12:30even for Jimmy Hart, but it's still awesome. Eddie Kingston's theme brilliantly distills the
12:35aggression, anguish and dogged spirit of his persona. Brodie King's own God's Hate facemelter
12:40is as hard as any wrestling theme ever. There are other infinitely more significant reasons to wish
12:44cast an Adam Cole return. His incredible theme remains one of them. AEW can't claim credit for
12:49many themes, which were ported across from other promotions, but they still play them. This is a
12:53promotion blessed with blaring out Katsuyori Shibata's theme, The Pixies, and Willow Nightingale's
12:58five-star bop on the same night. Tony Khan's love of the game is so ardent that he'll spend appalling
13:03amounts of money to make the moment soar as highly as it should. The Darby Allin balcony
13:07dive to the final countdown, that was just sensational. 4. Whenever Tony Khan wasn't a
13:12typical Kani. This is a hard sell, given that he's a billionaire who might act with more childish
13:16ruthlessness than his sometimes dopey public persona suggests. Many performers have spoken
13:21of Khan's tendency to ghost the wrestlers on his roster that he has no intention of using.
13:25Tony Khan, though, truly wants good things to happen for his talent, and puts them in positions
13:29to achieve it. Even the dud signings, whose runs were unfortunate, enjoyed at least one great night.
13:34Keith Lee at All Out 2022, Malakai Black at Revolution 23, Jake Hager during the first
13:39stadium stampede. Hell, even Paul White took an awesome bump in the strange yet wonderful Like
13:43a Dragon Street fight. Khan fought with Warner to get the Briscoes on television. His tribute to the
13:48much-missed Mr. Brodie Lee was the most emotionally stirring and dignified wrestling tribute show ever,
13:53and the best wrestling show ever, full stop. On that night, Khan allowed Brodie Jr.
13:57the stage on occasion to create dream moments for himself. He granted Hangman Page as much time as
14:02he needed and wanted to be a father, when Page was in the midst of the push of his life.
14:06Khan,
14:06at times, is too nice. Without overpushing them, he has refused to give up on wrestlers who stood a
14:11very remote chance of getting over. A lot of people love AEW because it's great, and while Khan has made
14:16more than one appalling decision, the signing of Ric Flair for example, more people love it because,
14:22by wrestling standards, it's really quite nice.
14:243. When Tony Khan Listened
14:26Almost every promoter in the history of the medium has inflicted an unwanted wrestler upon their
14:31audience because the Booker happened to like them. Vince McMahon almost specialised in this. Bill
14:35Watts operated with galling nepotism when pushing his useless son Eric in 1992. Triple H is also guilty
14:41of this. Solo Sokoa, Seth Rollins in the role of a top guy, and the inverse scenario of not pushing
14:46wrestlers the fans vocally want to see more of. Bianca Belair has been underutilised since July 2022.
14:51Guido is practically defined by his stubbornness during these years of decline. Has Tony Khan
14:56ever burdened his audience for such a significant amount of time?
14:59Jack Perry's big push in 2024 counts, sure, but we are entering exception to the rural territory. And
15:04Perry was written off TV when Khan eventually got it. He didn't dig his heels in. Tony Khan might have
15:09repeated the very mistakes he knew all too well not to make as an intelligent superfan. The sub-WWE
15:14skits of 2023 were ghastly, but he listens to, respects and rewards his fanbase. If the fans
15:20dislike a certain direction, he will abandon it, even if he's a little slow to implement the change,
15:25and should be more ahead of things in general. To cite two examples, after a dismal 2023,
15:29Khan implemented his own version of the G1 Climax, the round-robin continental classic,
15:33as a bit of an apologetic gesture. He should have known full well that the money in the bank cash
15:38-in
15:38gimmick wasn't what AEW fans wanted for their alternative company, and so he's dropped it.
15:42One thing has also remained consistent. Khan outright refuses to falsely advertise matches.
15:47That's better than deliberately booking a mediocre product in stasis, as Khan knows he's
15:51already secured his audience. 2. When Dynamite was at its peak
15:55Yes, Dynamite is rushed. Yes, Dynamite too often features matches that are predictable. It's not
16:00inaccurate to state that up to 90% of them have a clear favourite, who ends up winning in the
16:04end.
16:04Yes, match quality is too often emphasised over the emotional investment of who actually wins and
16:09loses. Can you even remember the winners of the all-star eight-man tags that are nakedly designed
16:13to get a four-and-a-half star rating? Sure, the commentary is all too trivial. It's not
16:17remotely ideal when the booth is missing an ill-tempered post-prime Jim Ross to ground things.
16:21Dynamite remains the best episodic TV wrestling show of all time, though. Peak Mid-South had better
16:26angles and gripping show-long storylines, ditto Jerry Jarrett's Memphis TV, but neither had a match as
16:31good as Kenny Omega vs Bryan Danielson, or Will Ospreay vs Darby Allin. Peak WCW Nitro was incredible,
16:37powered by a constant thread of mystery, cool new character archetypes and bombastic action set
16:41pieces, but even then it was bloated and convoluted. A lot of the vaunted cruiserweight
16:45action was more refreshing then than great now. WWE Raw has ranged from the best and worst TV
16:50wrestling ever, the most wildly uneven show of all time, and it was the latter well over half the time.
16:55Hangman Page's epic, super detailed, emotionally torturous arc played out over Dynamite. MJF's
17:01phenomenal plots between 2019 and 2022 made for genuinely unpredictable and compelling TV.
17:06In a much needed contrast to the endlessly great in-ring fare. The names plucked for the labors
17:10of Jericho, the stipulations set out for Cody Rhodes, the seven star rivalry with CM Punk,
17:15all were great actual television. Whatever's good about wrestling TV,
17:19AEW Dynamite at one point or another perfected it.
17:22And number 1. Whenever AEW Built A Major Match
17:25Truthfully, while AEW has broadcast some of the best promos in wrestling history from 2019 to 2025,
17:31Dynamite hasn't featured anywhere near enough. The emphasis on action is AEW's key selling point,
17:35and that is astute given the competition they face. But it's hard to shake the idea that such
17:39a high concentration of matches could mean so much more if AEW just stuck a microphone in front of
17:44some of the best talkers more often. CM Punk is definitely one of them, and his stuff was
17:49sensational. The signature venom was still there, the wisdom of his old man character at times profound.
17:54Jon Moxley knows his way around a graphic threat with a screenwriter's panache. Hangman Page's rhythm is
17:59outstanding, his fiery self-belief works so well since he's careful to be meek with his opening comments.
18:04Eddie Kingston and MJF need to feud at some point over the next few years because holy hell,
18:09together they occupy the perfect face vs heel match graphic. Just imagine what that would
18:13look like or better yet sound like. What's more irritating about AEW's relative lack of interview
18:18segments is that it's a promotion in which so many people find themselves. Will Ospreay had improved
18:22a lot in New Japan, but in AEW he evolved into a man drenched in offbeat charm and irresistible
18:27determination. Toni Storm was a dork before joining AEW, but now she's one of the funniest wrestlers
18:32ever. Ricochet was defined by how terrible he was on the stick, but he exudes confidence in 2025.
18:38AEW might not be the best ever promotion for interviews, but it's not far off and it could
18:42easily become it, rounding out the entire argument that myself and Michael Sidgwick on
18:46the script have just put forward.
18:47CLICK
18:47że
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