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LESSONS LEARNED FROM AEW ALL OUT IN CHICAGO

All Out 2023 was a show that had a limited build, and as someone who covers AEW, I wasn’t looking forward to it. The week after their biggest show ever they had to deal with a backstage incident ending with the firing of CM Punk. 

Going into the Pay Per View, AEW had a build that did nothing to talk me into the building, I wouldn't have watched the show if I wasn’t covering it until after I heard a review. The show itself was better than it had a right to be, and after Orange Cassidy’s “We are All Elite Wrestling” promo at the end of Dynamite last week it felt like some wrestlers wanted to get rid of the drama and just put on a show. .

The crowd had to be won over, and by and large they were. AEW is four years in, and in many ways, it is going through a malaise. They are coming off of their biggest show ever, but overall ticket sales are down, TV ratings are down, they just fired one of their biggest stars, and their competition is on the upswing. 

There are easy ways to rebound. AEW has a strong infrastructure, a great roster, a national platform, and every week they get a focus group of people who will tell you what they want.  This weekend at All Out, I think the crowd sent a strong message to Tony Khan about what they want from AEW:

Use the big men and let them fight. We had Samoa Joe and Shane Taylor as well as Miro vs Powerhouse Hobbs, and in both matches the crowd bought in.  Miro’s big moves were getting a bigger reaction than any of the high-flying stuff that went on in other matches.  AEW has had trouble booking their monsters and many of them vanish for long stints (Wardlow, Lance Archer, etc…). The crowd wants the big hoss fights, and aren’t getting them from AEW.

When the women get to show what they can do, they win people over. The match between Kris Statlander and Ruby Soho came after a match the crowd was into, but they were given time to work, and brought the crowd in.  Too often, we get one token women’s match on a show, and the women's division seems to have narrowed down to a few women fighting for one of the two titles. In the men’s division, there are feuds over all sorts of issues, but in the women’s division, it’s just the titles. Britt Baker got over because of the stuff she did with Rebel and Tony Schiavone. Toni Storm’s new character is a breakout role. Give them more to do and you’ll have more stars people will pay to see.

Bullet Club Gold is your big heel team. Their entrance is over, Jay White and Juice Robinson have connected with the crowd, and the Gunns are excellent workers who can draw red-hot heat. This is a team people will pay to see get beaten, and they can be the big heel faction that drives story after story. 

No one likes the Young Bucks as Baby faces. The Bucks lose ratings, and I disagree with those who say it is because we’ve seen their stuff before. Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and John Cena’s matches had a sameness to them.  It is because the Bucks characters don’t WANT anything. When they are heels, it feeds into their arrogant in-ring style, and their no-selling makes the crowd want to see them taken down a notch.  As baby faces they just exist. I say in audio all the time, the essence of character is that they have to WANT something.  The Bucks as babyfaces don’t want anything, so they don’t matter. As heels, they want to show they are the best, beat down a babyface, or just show what jerks they are.  Heel Bucks are the only Bucks anyone wants to watch. 

Orange Cassidy is over in his new role. Orange Cassidy’s promo at the end of Dynamite last week was the topper on his run as International Champion. He set out what AEW is: The misfits, the people who were overlooked, or told they couldn’t make it. It doesn’t just give him an identity, it gives the COMPANY an identity. Under Vince, WWE characters were biodegradable. Promos were interchangeable, and no one mattered much. When someone DID get a personality, the crowd attached to them like they were a water fountain in a desert.  The people who work at AEW are all unique, and the shows need to give them time to show that, to connect with people, and become someone that an audience member connects to.  That way, when they have an obstacle to overcome, it’s just a “dream match” but the people who say “That person is like me” invests in their success and failure.

When you don't have high-flying moves in every match, it matters more. The old idea of not doing something in one match that will show up in another is a huge problem at times. The first Tope is cool. The 15th doesn’t matter. Why is the Kangaroo kick over?  We saw how MJF came up with it and NO ONE ELSE DOES IT. Statlander and Soho drew people into their match with mat work. Shane Taylor got people excited because he threw haymakers. 

A writing teacher once asked us why “Stairway to Heaven” was considered the best rock song of all time while other Heavy Metal songs weren’t. People in the class said because it was an all out rock song. He then played the song. It starts slow and melodic, building over 7 minutes to the huge guitar stuff.  That’s why Led Zeppelin still sells albums and Yngwie Malmsteen, who goes 100 mph through each song, only sells to the hardest of the hard core. 

Lastly, Bryan Danielson is your biggest star. He has not had a bad match, carries the load when given it, and is considered a massive star no matter what crowd he is in front of. He is a locker room leader, a teacher, and quite possibly the greatest of all time in the ring.  The more the focus is on him, the more he will be the rising tide that lifts all boats. 

AEW has a chance to improve, let’s hope they grab it.

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