Goddamnit Tony. I can't believe this is the card for the flagship show.
Moxley vs Evil fuckin Uno, A tag team battle royale, 3 "we'll hear from" segments, a rampage match, and then the acclaimed because they're the only thing that's really over at the moment.
This is not good. Dynamite a year ago was like Hangman vs Danielson, Lucha bros vs Jurassic Express, Malakai being a modern day Kevin Sullivan, the Punk/wardlow/MJF stuff, etc etc etc. The only thing that you can say has improved is the women's division, but that's a slight improvement while massively dropping off in the most important areas. Sure, the matches are usually good, but thats not enough when the booking is so uneven. They have the sports part down pat, but they're really striking out on the entertainment front lately.
I don't want to come off like I have anything against them, quite the contrary actually..im pointing this stuff out because I genuinely want AEW to succeed so, so much. It's what got me back into wrestling and when it's good it's VERY good, but those good moments have been frustratingly sparse (and getting fewer and farther between) for a while now and Tony seems completely devoid of any ideas to fix it. Every time he seems to maybe be getting back on track he runs out of steam after a few weeks and defaults back to the same tired shit that got him there and then gets offended when people criticize said tired shit.
I remember hearing that one of the things that kept Memphis interesting for so long was that every 6 months or so they'd switch bookers. Mostly Lawler and Jerry Jarrett, but there were others involved at times iirc. It made it so the booking was always familiar but still stayed somewhat fresh and the fans got a little bit of everything. I really, really think it's time for someone else to get the pencil. Fuck it, if you want to stick it to the fed throw a bunch of money at Gabe Sapolsky and see if he's got any ROH magic left.