The problem is Tony Khan is a fucking mark.
Rant:
A tornado tag team between 60 year old Sting, Darby Allin and Matt/Nick sounds like it's going to suck. It does not make sense. Taking the belts off one of the best acts in the company in Starks/Big Bill is ridiculous.
Putting out the geriatric Hardy boys on a weekly basis is embarrassing and someone is going to get hurt. Update: Jeff just got his nose broken.
Sammy Guevara is nothing special and he's douchebag of a person, Jungle Boy is (?) fucking around in NJPW apparently while on suspension for being a cunt, AEW likely has no booking plans for Darby after Sting retires, and MJF is hurt and they turned him face.
No one cares about the Devil storyline. Everyone involved looks like shit. Wardlow was wasted potential and now he's banged up. Adam Cole looks like a shell of himself. Roderick Strong has no creditability. They cannot continue their storyline until MJF returns from injury which is months away.
Jon Moxley is only interested in doing his style of matches and no one cares. ECW/CZW style matches are typically stupid and gross.
Jericho is incredibly out of shape, geriatric, and toxic to have on the program since those allegations were never addressed. He's dog shit as a face.
They saddled Christan Cage and Edge with bullshit side plots. No one is interested in their feud which had promise in the beginning. I do not know who Nick Wayne or his mother is and I do not care. Edge is not even drawing a rating for them.
Danielson is constantly injured and a non-factor in their programing. He's going to wrap up his career and no one will want to remember his final year.
Billy Gunn, Gold Dust, and Jeff Jarrett are still wrestling for a promotion in 2024.
There are too many titles.
Excalibur is unlistenable.
Ranking system failed before and now it's back???
There is endless amount of talented performers in catering that cannot get consistent booking or television. Miro, John Morrison, Jay Lethal, Keith Lee (when healthy), etc.
Missed an opportunity to push Jay Briscoe to the top of the card.
OC does nothing for me. He's the most low effort gimmick that has ever been put on television. I guess that's the point.
Tony's attempt to introduce fans to new styles of wrestling, wrestlers from different promotions on AEW television, and advertising other wrestling promotions by having AEW wrestlers on television for different companies has failed to accomplish the intended goal of growing AEW or drawing interest to AEW television. No one fucking cares about some random dudes from CMLL or NJPW unless you are already interested/watching those products. They do a terrible job promoting these wrestlers and explaining why people should care about them before putting them on television for random, sporadic appearances. I don't know them and I am not going to waste time figuring out who the fuck they are because they put no effort in presenting them to the audience.
Toni Storm is one the few good things going for the women's division and her gimmick feels like it has already run it's course.
All major women's signing since AEW's inception have not done a damn thing to draw interest to the women's division. They do not know how to book a woman's division. Mercedes is going to be paid a lot of money to wrestle weekly against nobodies until her star power on that show fades because that is what Tony always fucking does.
They have already lost immensely talented performers in Punk, Cody, and Jade Cargill. There's rumors every couple weeks that once promising talents are dying to leave the company due to the lack of television time. I honestly cannot wait until someone like Starks or Hobbs leave AEW. They would be better off literally anywhere else.
Purchasing ROH was fucking stupid.
The lack of coherent storylines, rules, structure, and pacing. Characters have unclear or nonsensical motivations or confusing interactions with each other. Matches go on too long. Segments involve too many people. It only makes sense to people who watch on weekly basis, watch the b and c level shows, follow NJPW/AAA/CMLL/ETC, and can suspend their disbelief to compensate for Tony sucking at his job.
They are almost guaranteed to not get as much money as they need from their next television deal. Tony will be forced to make hard decisions and the diehards will wonder why more people are not interested in the product as it fades to obscurity.
/endrant
I rooted for AEW in the first 2 years, but it flat out sucks right now. I can list the stuff I like about it, but it would be a pretty short list.