Not royal enough to rumble

US’ second biggest wrestling promotion is facing a creative crisis

In January 2019, when Tony Khan – son of self-made Pakistani-American billionaire Shahid Khan – formed All Elite Wrestling, it was a breath of fresh air after WWE dominated the market for decades. It immediately rose as a threat to the WWE monopoly on the business. But more importantly, at the time when WWE was churning out creatively corrupted shows, AEW offered an alternative product that resonated with fans.

AEW didn’t adhere to the WWE formula of ‘sports entertainment’, presented wrestlers from all over the world who, prior to joining, had not found mainstream success (except a few) and had quality storylines that engaged the audience.

Khan, who grew up a wrestling fan and fantasy booked shows online in his teenage years, had finally got a chance to run a very real wrestling promotion. And for the first three years, he exceeded everyone’s expectations.

The good

After a few fantastic pay-per-view events throughout the year, the weekly TV Show titled AEW Dynamite started in October 2019. And a few months later, the pandemic resulted in unforeseen circumstances for a budding company. Yet, compared to WWE, AEW managed to make their shows must-see and retained the interest in wrestling for a lot of fans during a difficult period.

With Cody Rhodes (son of legendary Dusty Rhodes and brother to Goldust/Dustin Rhodes), Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks – all of whom were also in management positions – the company brought in talented performers like Chris Jericho to legitimise their existence in the business. Over the years, a lot of former WWE wrestlers joined in, and the company grew.

One of the secrets of AEW’s success with the fans was not hot-shotting incoming stars and sacrificing existing, continuing stories in their favour. They had the pulse of the audience and continued what worked and discarded what didn’t. Since most of the roster wasn’t already well-known, the company had to grow new stars. Wrestlers such as Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, MJF, Hangman Adam Page, Britt Baker, and many more became homegrown names and were looked at as stars who would carry the company’s future.

Along the way, Khan pulled off miracles here and there. In 2021, AEW announced a second weekly show titled AEW Rampage. The second episode of the show, held on August 20, 2021, at the United Center in Chicago, was historic. It marked the return of CM Punk to professional wrestling seven years after he quit WWE in 2014.

Thousands of fans witnessed the all-time great moment, and it led to a fantastic run by Punk who not only brought in more eyeballs to the product but also record-breaking business for the company. AEW had hit the jackpot.

The bad

However, things soon turned sour. One of AEW’s co-founder Cody Rhodes suddenly left the company in February 2022 to return to WWE. Although it was a huge loss, AEW relied on Punk and other stars to push through.

Eventually, backstage politics, rumors and confrontations led to CM Punk leaving the company in late 2023. During the two years, Punk also suffered injuries, would recover and return to action. To avoid issues, CM Punk was allocated to their newest Saturday show AEW Collision. Leading the Saturday roster, Punk would elevate new stars like Ricky Starks, Hobbs, The Gunns, and more. However, the issues became too big to ignore, and CM Punk made his WWE return in November 2023 after almost a decade.

Since then, AEW has not recovered. And it’s not that the company can’t survive without Punk. It was doing well before he even joined. But the countless creative and managerial decisions Khan has taken in the last few years have resulted in a steady drop in interest in the product.

In April 2024, AEW shot itself in the foot by airing the backstage altercation between Punk and Jack Perry, hoping it would make the latter a star, when it only shrunk his stock. It proved Punk had told the truth in a podcast earlier about how it all went down.

Even the weekly product –Dynamite, Collision and Rampage (which was taken off air in December 2024) – since 2023 has been average at best and almost unwatchable at worst. A reduced focus on stories and character building has resulted in a few hits and more misses.