Cattle Mutilation
Superstar
And WWE won’t - and can’t - stay hot forever.
AEW 5 YEAR REPORT CARD - give your letter grade of AEW as a promotion to date
- Thread starter Ed MOTHERFUCKING G
- Start date
Reality Check
Keepin' it 100
Impact on the Industry: A+
Talent on the Roster: A
PPV Quality: A-
Consistency with Match Quality: A-
Consistency with Storylines: B-
Consistency with Television Shows: C
Consistency with Booking: D-
Dealing with Backstage Egos: F
Lot of peaks and valleys, as there would be with a startup, but they've quickly and clearly established themselves as the #2 promotion in the company. The biggest impact has been on the industry as a whole with better paydays for wrestlers and upping the quality in WWE. I'd give them overall a B or B-. Lot of room for improvement.
Talent on the Roster: A
PPV Quality: A-
Consistency with Match Quality: A-
Consistency with Storylines: B-
Consistency with Television Shows: C
Consistency with Booking: D-
Dealing with Backstage Egos: F
Lot of peaks and valleys, as there would be with a startup, but they've quickly and clearly established themselves as the #2 promotion in the company. The biggest impact has been on the industry as a whole with better paydays for wrestlers and upping the quality in WWE. I'd give them overall a B or B-. Lot of room for improvement.
Cattle Mutilation
Superstar
Objectively, the wrestling, rosters, and PPVs get an A, rest generally ranges anywhere from F-B.
No one has ever done PPVs as consistently good as AEW does. That’s not to say they have never had mediocre/bad PPVs, most recently Worlds End would fall into that category. But far more often than not they are pumping out good to great PPVs because the roster they have assembled is a ridiculously high level collection of wrestling machines.
My objective grade is a B, as previously stated, which includes basically everything including shyt I don’t care about. It’s stuff that largely has no impact on my enjoyment of the product but matters if we’re evaluating it as a business entity.
But alas I’m a fan, not an employee, an investor, a tv network, etc. So my subjective grade, which is just me grading it on the stuff I care about, is an A-.
It’s like if this new movie came out that you loved but it got lapped by some other movie that came out the same week. Like so what? I’m going to be sitting at home watching this again when it hits streaming enjoying the hell out of it, it getting crushed by something else at the box office is the studio’s problem to figure out.
No one has ever done PPVs as consistently good as AEW does. That’s not to say they have never had mediocre/bad PPVs, most recently Worlds End would fall into that category. But far more often than not they are pumping out good to great PPVs because the roster they have assembled is a ridiculously high level collection of wrestling machines.
My objective grade is a B, as previously stated, which includes basically everything including shyt I don’t care about. It’s stuff that largely has no impact on my enjoyment of the product but matters if we’re evaluating it as a business entity.
But alas I’m a fan, not an employee, an investor, a tv network, etc. So my subjective grade, which is just me grading it on the stuff I care about, is an A-.
It’s like if this new movie came out that you loved but it got lapped by some other movie that came out the same week. Like so what? I’m going to be sitting at home watching this again when it hits streaming enjoying the hell out of it, it getting crushed by something else at the box office is the studio’s problem to figure out.
Finn Baller
Superstar
they'll still put up better numbers than AEW. You say that as if crowds start dropping from 10K to 7K that those 3000 people will all take up AEW at once. More than likely they'll just find some other hobby to get into.
Jmare007
pico pal q lee
I'll give them a B+ out of the strength of being able to make the most out of a fanbase that was showing they were finally willing to spend real money on the wrestling/wrestlers they liked (for years, the IWC was known for never putting their money where their mouth/twitter fingers were).
They were able to do it for 3 whole years, which to me is
never in my life I would've thought the core IWC fanbase was gonna be drawing 2-3k buildings (like they started to do with ROH and a surprising number of indy shows doing well above the usual 200 people), let alone selling out 5k to 12k tickets multiple times in a single year.
2022 was the end of that wave and it coincided with the internal fukkery with Punk vs The Bucks. And as the positives started to wane, the negatives became the common thing to talk about the company. Which continues to be the case in 2024.
But still, being able to do the shyt they did in 2019, 2021 and most of 2022 was impressive as fukk for a #2 promotion in the U.S in a post WWE monopoly era and that deserves major props regardless of how shytty and frustrating the week to week booking of AEW is.
They were able to do it for 3 whole years, which to me is
never in my life I would've thought the core IWC fanbase was gonna be drawing 2-3k buildings (like they started to do with ROH and a surprising number of indy shows doing well above the usual 200 people), let alone selling out 5k to 12k tickets multiple times in a single year.2022 was the end of that wave and it coincided with the internal fukkery with Punk vs The Bucks. And as the positives started to wane, the negatives became the common thing to talk about the company. Which continues to be the case in 2024.
But still, being able to do the shyt they did in 2019, 2021 and most of 2022 was impressive as fukk for a #2 promotion in the U.S in a post WWE monopoly era and that deserves major props regardless of how shytty and frustrating the week to week booking of AEW is.
get my pool
✶ ✶ ✶ ✶
I had been thinking that was a new person posting on here but that post made me realize immediately who it wasFirst post of the thread and man threw his cape on
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
I gave em a C+
AEW was a response to Vince Mcmahon treating wrestling like a joke, so when it was up against a literal F grade product in WWE
it flourished
but after Vince was thrown out of office, WWE stepped up heavily, and AEW was exposed through Tony Khan's shytty booking
i voted D+, but i meant to change it to C-
it flourished
but after Vince was thrown out of office, WWE stepped up heavily, and AEW was exposed through Tony Khan's shytty booking
i voted D+, but i meant to change it to C-
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Just noticed the OSU sucks option 
B
Since 2002Just noticed the OSU sucks option
Cattle Mutilation
Superstar
It was hard picking between that and an actual gradeJust noticed the OSU sucks option
Peter Parker
Superstar
If it was at least TNA level bad like another 5 of those exploding ring type matches with the silly finish, it’d be a B because it’s still entertaining.
shyt be boring and not entirely stupid so like a C-
shyt be boring and not entirely stupid so like a C-
Everything you stated was spot on
WhatsGoodTy
Ya feel me
AEW has way too many lows and if we’re comparing them to the companies in the op..it’s a F. With their roster they’re not even touching peak ROH(which is hard to do). Really just comes down to booking.
