[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by Sepholio This is the one guys. I can feel it in my soul. This is the announcement that will change everything.

They should just hire Dixie Carter, and repeatedly have Tony make an announcement that she has an announcement, and then have her announcement be that TK has an announcement. Just bounce it between the two of them, ad infinitum.

They also haven't done anything like the borderline bait & switch announcement yet - like that time "Chris Jericho will appear on Impact"... and it was just a one-time airing of a Fozzy video at the end of the show, even though everyone knows that wasn't what was being implied.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect It was like that from the start. They dropped “change the world” thing very quickly when it was apparent that it wouldn’t change much of anything. It doesn’t help that they lied about things, but the chief problem is that it is bad.

"Sports-Based presentation!" - legless guy in a battle royal.
"Wins and losses matter!" - rankings and wins are only mentioned when convenient for the here-and-now, and after a specific match happens where it was a big deal? Very small print in the entrance lower third.
"Faces and heels are tired old tropes!" - almost everyone that is even in an angle is in an angle about who is and isn't friends anymore. Because being a saint or an irredeemable shithead doesn't matter in this morality play; only if they're still friends or not in a very slow burn that goes nowhere and nobody cares...

I had more shit written here, but I lost interest. I agree with you: chief problem is that it is bad. Followed closely by they don't know it's bad.

Originally Posted by Ben Rodrigues He needs to do something to boost that live attendance. Has he thought about walking around with the AEW World Championship before shows and taking photos with the fans?

No, seriously, Tony should hire Dixie.

Originally Posted by Verbose Minch The Garcia thing is so frustrating. Like why is this happening? Garcia has never drawn a dime, and never will unless he gets on the gas. Swerve VS Penta is oood though, looking forward to that

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect Garcia’s not w/o talent. He’s just not there yet and has been presented like a joke. People aren’t going to be invested in the idea of him challenging for the World Title, especially when everybody knows the belt is no danger of changing hands. Swerve vs. Penta isn’t my thing. If it’s yours — cool. But again, there’s no drama in this because they’re just going to flip for 20 mins before Swerve wins because he has a match against Hang-on Page coming up.

These two things perfectly encapsulate major AEW problems - low stakes matches you can predict the outcome for and repeated flip-o-thons where the winner doesn't matter as long as everyone goes through tables or into thumbtacks for a "holy shit" chant and everyone "gets their shit in".

Originally Posted by XL Remember when they had a ranking system to determine who got a shot at the champ? Now Garcia has a title shot because reasons.

Originally Posted by screech lol the rankings! CM Punk was still listed as number one like 6 months after he'd been suspended. Update: he still is number one because the rankings haven't been updated since August 31, 2022.

Originally Posted by Ben Rodrigues That's not how rankings should work. Almost always you should beat someone ranked to move into the rankings. Beating nobodies shouldn't get you ranked. Back when I cared I noticed CM Punk beat numerous people when he first joined AEW some of whom were ranked. Quite frustrating to see that he wasn't getting ranked. This changed when he said at the press conference that he wanted to be AEW Champion.

Originally Posted by Destor If Gabe couldnt get rankings over no one can

Originally Posted by xrodmuc316 Ill never forget when Tony Nese was a top 5 contender for the World Title based on a bunch of dark wins lol

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect Holy shit. The rankings were always a bad idea. Was always going to force them into corners. Limits the stories you can tell and makes it hard to shift gears and directions with guys.

I disagree. They were a great idea... but here comes the qualifier... IF they were consistent.

Similar to how WWE has been off and on again with the idea of a Brand Split, or whenever they decide that Tag Teams are in any way important enough to actually push beyond two teams specifically having a feud for a few months then all the teams fucking off to obscurity or fighting against randomly thrown together teams of singles, AEW just never follows through with anything worth following through with for future use. They want to spend all their currency of "set up a potentially cool moment" without earning the moment by making people that fans want to see in and of themselves.

If they maintained consistency on rankings and win/loss records - two of the things the company sold themselves on - they should have some folks there to keep track of this shit and help book longer term than some random match in the next two weeks at Daily's Place. Folks who are getting positioned to be stars should be getting more wins than shitheads who are middling or jobbing... and the only consistent "jobbers" are Fuego Del Sol and the dudes from Bear Country. Everyone else they pretend are all upper midcard to main event when that can't even work in the loosest of theories. Nobody gives a shit about The Best Friends, but they're boys with Orange Cassidy, so they're all unilaterally supposedly championship material. Whatever you feel about guys like Tony Neese or Keith Lee, they came in with a bunch of buzz that was pissed away by AEW inside of a month. Same with guys in-house like Hobbs and Wardlow.

At this point, after 4 years, a Powerhouse Hobbs and Wardlow collision (no pun intended) should have been considered a must-see inevitability for the AEW Championship. Instead, both guys are spinning wheels, have met in nothing matches and battle royals umpteen times with meh results because "that wasn't important right then" (and what I mean is like, Wardlow tossing Hobbs from one such battle royal because Hobbs was just some random obstacle in the way of the then-angle Wardlow was in with someone else. So, instead of teasing or placing the seeds for a showdown one day and being denied because it was inturrupted, it became evident to fans that Hobbs wasn't worth Wardlow's time from the presentation).

They consistently find new and unique ways to make people not care about any of the talent, be it from Tony or the person's own creative dumbness. Or both.