12 Exact Moments AEW Booking Stopped Making Sense

From messy and baffling title pictures, to a certain Cody-verse that was even more bizarre than you remember

I am Gareth, this is WhatCultureWrestling, and here are 12 exact moments AEW booking starts making sense

Number 12, The Interim AEW World Title Picture, June 1st, 2022 On the June 1st, 2022 Dynamite, new AEW World Champion CM Punk was scheduled to wrestle Max

Caster and the Guns alongside FTR. He just about gutted it through what was meant to be a low-stakes

celebratory affair. It is rather infamous in retrospect, Punk shattered his foot and the

complexion of the company by first jumping into the crowd. Silly Philly. He vacated the belt on

the subsequent edition of Rampage. But because Tony Khan wanted to strap Punk back up as soon

as was practicable, he created an interim world title. And this idea was, well, disastrous

So firstly, it seemed to annoy the guy who got it, Jon Moxley, because it cast him as inferior

to and a placeholder for CM Punk, resulting in an infamous program teeming with political tension

This didn't do much for Mox. Even though he was one of the absolute best wrestlers in the world

it portrayed him as solid, reliable, dependable. Words you don't tend to associate with genuine superstars

The process of arriving at Mox was also quite baffling. Ahead of Forbidden Door, at which Mox represented AEW against New Japan Pro Wrestling's Hiroshi Tanahashi

Khan booked a battle royal to determine Mox's opponent for the number one contender spot

And that man was Kyle O'Reilly, who outlasted top stars such as Bobby Fish and John Silver en route to victory

Missing from that match was Hangman Page, who didn't get the chance to win his belt back

And Wardlow, who was white hot following his awesome rampage to avenge MJF between March and May

How do you not include those two in that match? Well, Wardlow was actually scripted to bury the idea of the interim title to explain why he wasn't in the match

What? Look, as great as Mox definitely was throughout 2022, this business stigmatized him as a safe pair of hands

It fueled CM Punk's top star entitlement, undermined Wardlow as a major prospect worth investing in

and diminished the value of the world title. Yeah, not good business

11. Bryan Danielson's World Title Reign Something clearly happened during Bryan Danielson's AEW World Title reign that wasn't communicated

The easy, if perhaps unfair, inference is that he was far more banged up than he and AEW anticipated

when the decision was made to plot his World Title run last stand

Darby Allin had become number one contender by winning a Royal Rampage Battle Royal

and was indeed meant to dethrone Bryan Danielson in a Seattle Derby at WrestleDream

Could you imagine? He was made to look like an idiot when the booking plans changed, though

It was thought a better idea for a heel Moxley to dethrone Bryan

and later drop the belt to Derby. So Derby put his shot on the line against Mox at Grand Slam and lost

This weird shift also wasn't helped by Mox's experiments with cryptic Malachi Black-style promos

In the meantime, Christian Cage won a casino gauntlet match at All in London, securing essentially a Money in the Bank contract

Wait, didn't AEW think WWE was bad? Surely the idea wasn't for him to cash in on fellow heel Jon Moxley

He was either going to ruin Derby's big moment, or fail in the pursuit when challenging Danielson

Perhaps when Luchasaurus had finally tired of his bullying. Yeah, that would have made more sense

Luchasaurus was suffering terribly unfortunate health issues at the time, so if that was the plan, clearly AEW could not proceed

In another odd development, Nigel McGuinness and his return from injury, a great story that AEW didn't even need to write

was complicated by Nigel's insistence that Bryan was a coward who might not even make it to Grand Slam

That match right there was a worthy last chapter that didn't need any bogus episodic TV crap to build

Now yes, it did make narrative sense for Bryan to work Jack Perry, who had been favoured in the booking

But I mean, who really asked for that? No, no you didn't. Here and thereafter, AEW's booking fell off a gorge, was airlifted back up, struck a tree, and then went back down again

Now for a touch of positivity, eh? What's your favourite Bryan Danielson moment in AEW

Was it his big world title win at All In? Was it something else

You let me know in the comments down below. Yes! Number 10, The Early Days of the Death Riders, October 30th, 2024

The Death Riders stable ultimately was a major success. In this era that we're living in, the booking draws more heat than any fictional heel

The idea of Hangman Page finally putting a stop to hokey crime sprees and relentless heat angles

drove the smash success of All In Texas. It also helps, and should not go unmention

that Jon Moxley finally realised his potential as a top heel with a couple of months to spare

We got there in the end. Bad and or repetitive booking with a great payoff is the new long-term storytelling, folks

Initially, the stable was abysmal and nonsensical. Here's an example for you

one that thwarted the early promise of an overarching, interconnected plot designed to

restore the feeling, remember that? Jon Moxley broke Zay's hand because he was disgusted that the private party member had

stagnated in the same spot. Zay was everything wrong with AEW, a company that itself was languishing

Zay, together with Mark Quinn, very quickly, too quickly I could say

dethroned world tag team champions, the Young Bucks. Surely Private Party should have cut a promo on the Death Riders

telling them that they had not forgotten about Mox violent attack They should have asked the Death Riders to call them stagnant now or the private party should have then feuded with Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta over the belts

But nope, this thread was just dropped. Instead, the two squads simply ignored one another

Okay. Daniel Garcia, another early defender of AEW, won the TNT title and then did not do a great deal with it

Shouldn't this have drawn the ire of Pac? Shouldn't Garcia have asked PAC, who in his mind was superior to anybody else in AEW, where his singles title was

It was as if Private Party and Daniel Garcia just skulked away, defending their titles in random matches

And neither reign, unsurprisingly, was particularly good. This was haphazard in the extreme

Nothing fit together at all. 9. CM Punk's Collision, June 17th, 2023

CM Punk's Collision is a strange thing to hold nostalgia for. It only happened two years ago, for one, and, well, was it that good

It was refreshing, sure. A welcome shift from the often frenzied, numbing pace of Dynamite

on which too many angles are not registered for long enough. But how good was it really

Beyond the overlong main event matches, the storytelling was a bit baffling

One long, unkept promise. CM Punk unveiled an AW World title with a spray-painted X on it

proclaiming himself to be the real world champion. Naturally, fans expected a unification match against recognized world champion MJF

This, astonishingly, was never formalized, nor even planned. So why did Punk, who asserted a degree of creative control, do this

It was difficult to interpret as anything other than a political power play

which, factoring in the rumors of certain talent being banned from the building

might sum up CM Punk's collision generally. Why, oh why, did Tony Khan approve it

You don't tease or hint at matches that you have no intention of delivering

Like that's the first rule of promotion. Did Khan just expect everybody to magically get along

Now that might sound snarky, yeah. But honestly, it's not untrue. Khan booked his show in the summer of 2023 with total naivety

It was almost cruel to his fanbase. But eventually, at least until 2025, scorned fans just taught themselves not to get excited

Which is a bit sad. Cloaked by a darkened cloud the entire time, a happy ending to the unresolved CM Punk vs

The Elite feud was never remotely likely, was it? The early days of collision were beyond untenable

It was a source of anxiety, not escapism. Number 8, the TNT title picture, April 27th, 2022

Eddie Kingston should have dethroned TNT champion Miro at All Out 2021

Kingston was the rarest of wrestlers in the modern scene. All Soul, a living folk hero, and his output that year was phenomenal

Tony Khan instead gave the nod to Sammy Guevara, who defeated the Redeemer on the September 29th Dynamite

Now this was an understandable decision and noble failure. Guevara was a day one project who for a time was very over as a charismatic, obnoxious heel

The TNT title was both his reward and an instruction to the fans that if they connect with a wrestler, that wrestler's career will progress

In other words, your long-term investment actually matters. What a world. If the Guevara push was a justified tactic

the Scorpio Sky push was just irritating. Guevara, in his second reign, dropped the belt to Sky on the March 9th, 2022 Dynamite

Guevara won it for the third time proper at Battle of the Belts on April 15th

Look, the idea of one Scorpio Sky reign was inexplicable enough, since he was a mere solid hand in the mid-card scene

whose work never really approached best match in AEW history level. He then embarked on his second after winning back the title on April 27th

before then dropping it to Wardlow on July 6th. This was all kinds of awful, folks

Sky was a barely over heel whom Khan saw more in than most

Guevara, an increasingly unlikable babyface. Nobody wanted either man to reign with a belt that lost its prestige at an alarming rate

A blur of hot potato nothingness with minimal fan interest. The what are we doing here of it all was compounded by the fact that AEW's roster of 2022 was teeming with countless better options

Tony Khan is a patient, loyal booker. But this, this was idiotically stubborn business

Number 7, the full gear 2023 show long angle. November 18th, 2023

There is a lot to unpack here my friends. MJF and Adam Cole became friends in the late spring of 2023

They formed the skit-loving team Better Than You, Baby. The most succinct way of describing, which is just about entertaining and charming enough to get away with itself

Yeah, that was the peak. The decline was astonishingly bad. Adam Cole shattered his ankle at Grand Slam in September 23

which somehow didn't necessitate a TV write-off. The injury was so bad that Cole ended up missing over a year of action

The injury was so bad and complex that a dead man's bone was inserted into his foot via experimental surgery

That's bad. AW was, and is, meant to be the vaguely sports-oriented promotion in the US mainstream

At a minimum, its world should make sense in the context of a sport

Typically, football players with destroyed legs are not allowed to enter the field, right

On the full gear pre-show, MJF was attacked by the guns, and in a hook, was sent away in an ambulance

With his knee in agony, he could not defend his title against Jay White

So, who stepped up? The even more injured Adam Cole. Yep, the even more injured Adam Cole, who A. was even more injured than MJF

B. under no circumstances would ever get cleared to compete by a conscientious, fit-for-purpose

medical team. And C. was plotting to betray MJF, and had no idea that MJF would make his heroic return

just in time for the main event. Illogical barely captures how overthought this whole thing was

And that wasn't even the worst of it, but oh boy we'll get there right after I remind

your lovely face to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. You get so many more fantastic WhatCulture Wrestling lists series news videos and more It just makes sense unlike some of these pieces of AEW booking Right back to it we go

Number 6, The Devil Storyline. September 27th, 2023. Adding to the previous entry on Full Gear, in September 2023, Jay White was attacked by several mysterious figures

One was wearing the devil mask worn by MJF at All Out 2022

It was implied that this must have been MJF, but it was very obviously a red herring

Jay himself didn't even seem that bothered, to be honest. Few were, really

A couple of characters accused MJF of being the devil, Roderick Strong most notably and most obnoxiously

But MJF was adamant that he absolutely was not. This saga was just horrendous

The hokiest tripe that AEW ever served up at such a prominent level

It utterly killed MJF as a babyface. People gravitated towards him because he was an entertaining a-hole

They didn't care about those old evil deeds catching up to him

Hell, they would have preferred to see him do more of them than this

At one point, this was a Vince Russo-sized disgrace to the idea of a sports-oriented, high-quality wrestling league

The storyline was all over the place narratively, since the only person to care about it for a month of inactivity was Roddy

The logic was equally dismal. The devil was able to hack into the mainframe to deliver his glitchy messages

and even put on a dazzling light display when his masked men made their entrance for matches

in which their opponent never immediately removed their disguise. Right. This was dumb and goofy at the time, and was somehow worse when the perp was revealed to be Adam Cole, baby, at World's End

Cole, the devil, plotted to betray MJF and distracted him from the master plan when at Roddy Strong's place

pulling slow-motion happy faces while making sandwiches and riding around on mobility scooters

Yeah, I mean, positively satanic stuff, yeah? Number 5, The Codyverse, November 13th, 2021

Cody Rhodes was savvy and bold enough to realise that by late 2021, he had effectively been sidelined to accommodate CM Punk and Bryan Danielson

Mired in the upper midcard and through his own decision making, unable to buy for the world title, there was nowhere to go but out

The widely derided Codyverse booking was the first sign that there was nothing of purpose for him to really do

He traded wins with Malakai Black over the summer, as Tony Khan bottled jobbing out his rapidly expanding roster

And the exact same thing happened with Andrade El Idolo too. In truth, this is less stopped making sense and more political booking with zero drama

Until the bizarre events of November 2021. At full gear, a perma-bleeding Cody teamed with Pac to defeat Malakai and Andrade in a weird tweener-tinged match

Pac teaming with Cody made sense. They were locked in singles feuds with their opponents on the night

But what drew Malakai and Andrade together? Well, as alluded to on screen, Malakai was married in real life to Andrade's fictional valet in WWE

That was cute insider knowledge masquerading as a story, really. Then at some point, after inexplicably waiting well over a year

FTR decided they wanted to attack Cody for saying F the revival on being the elite

several years prior. This led to an eight-man tag on the November 24th Dynamite. FTR, Andrade

and Malachi defeated Cody Rhodes and his loyal, trusted friends, Death Triangle. MJF loaned his

pinnacle stablemates to make this deal happen. You know, just in case this storyline was missing

yet more extraneous detail. Convoluted and just very wasteful, WWE's far simpler approach won out

with Cody Rhodes. Number four, Don Callis tries to recruit Chris Jericho, August 16th, 2023

Chris Jericho, sorry, AW had an idea for the inaugural All In London in 2023. It just so

happened that Jericho got a match bound for a cauldron atmosphere and critical acclaim

against the best in-ring wrestler in the world, Will Ospreay. Fancy that

But the process of getting there and slowly turning Jericho babyface was so convoluted that he instead turned even more heel

Moreover, the very idea was dumb before the botched execution. Most fans would rather Jericho have gone away for a while rather than received him as a hero

Don Callis, Osprey's manager, tried to persuade Jericho not to retire. Itself an unconvincing storyline tease

They held secret meetings in a bid to hash out an alliance. Eventually, Jericho, spurning his Jericho Appreciation Society stablemates

made the decision to align with the heel Don Callis. Callis, expecting a rejection, had actually intended to betray Jericho

as an oil painting uncovered by Jericho revealed. Why then did Callis make such an effort in the first place

To recap, Jericho teased Turning Babyface by appealing to the crowd, asking them to believe that he was still good enough

The Calis betrayal was meant to pile the sympathy on Jericho, turning him face

But Jericho had seconds earlier made the decision to continue his cheating ways with Don's help

All of this happened ahead of a match against the Essex England-born Osprey

who was going to draw the majority of cheers at Wembley regardless. Now, in AEW's defence, they had existing continuity to worry about

Osprey and Callis were presented as heels in Canada at Forbidden Door in June

so booking him in London two months later was always going to require some careful thought

This was overthought to a stupid extent in the end. But Jericho got his four and three quarters star rating from The Observer so who cares eh Me I cared Number three the Blackpool Combat Club General August 23rd 2023 The Blackpool Combat Club seemed like a winning idea Brian Danielson and Jon Moxley drafting in Wheeler

Yuta and perhaps others to reshape AEW in their own violent image while continuing to escalate

their now very bloody stiff matches before inevitably feuding with and elevating their

Protegés? Oh, it sounds great. No, not great, actually. It was more an identity, a lifestyle

than a faction. All less generously, an excuse for Mox and Danielson to just indulge their

tough-guy leanings. When they actually did engage in stable warfare, the results were

underwhelming. They feuded over concepts in emotionless sagas. They defended the art of

wrestling against the evils of sports entertainment versus the Jericho Appreciation Society in 2022

which, without any believable hatred, just dragged on and on against the elite a year later

There was lots of vague, unengaging chat about professionalism amid the usual anarchy in the arena and blood and guts faction feud template

Moks barely cut promos throughout this run too, preferring instead to mow down mid-card opposition in increasingly random and pointless matches

This moody, tweener role made for such bland television. This was a foolish use of the great man, and things got plain dumb narratively the longer it went on

By August 2023, with CM Punk's exit causing several migraines, the BCC played heels against career rivals Best Friends and the Lucha Brothers

as Danielson played face against Ricky Starks at the exact same time

The matches were outstanding, yes, but the booking made zero sense. Everything the grifters spout about AEW was sadly true during that dumbass summer of 2023

Big sigh. 2. The Babyface Super Team Device June 28th, 2023 It used to be that AW's hold on alliances was very tight and logical

If you had a loyal friend, they would back you up in a fight. If that friendship was strained, it might be reluctant to help

This was so well observed in the early days of Dynamite that the decision whether or not to back up a fellow babyface was a key phase in a wrestler's character development

Hangman Page specialized in making these decisions. AEW installed a much-needed rule, exercising a promotional advantage over Vince McMahon's WWE

Babyfaces should have friends. Eventually, though, this fritted away. The conglomeration, which for a time was very charming, granted, accelerated a certain

booking crutch. The Babyface Super Team. A good early example of which unfolded on the June 28th, 2023 Dynamite

Ah, that's summer again. Orange Cassidy, El Hio Del Viquingo and Keith Lee defeated Daniel Garcia, Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ange

As many of these matches are, it was loads of fun in and of itself

But Tony Khan subsequently became fixated on this type of match. Wholesome, strange, bedfellows, babyfaces defeating a team of heels

This quirk is a cool novelty for live crowds and a neat way of adding levity to the TV show in the midcard

But what does it truly achieve? Very little. And what's more, when the time comes for a babyface to get saved, their new pals desert them

Orange Cassidy made dozens of friends in these sorts of matches throughout 2023

but they were nowhere to be found when he needed them the most. This vacuum business adds up to a whole load of nothing

AEW never feels quite as empty and trivial as when Khan books this kind of stuff for no real purpose

Like, how many of these matches do you actually remember? Not many, I bet. Number 1, the death of the ranking system, April 2024

It used to work, and it used to be bloody great. Remember when Darby Allin was on the rise in the early days

Simply seeing his face near the top of the rankings graphic was a visual hint as to how close he was to making it

Hangman Page hovering near the top only to get displaced was a clever device

The fans were told to worry about, but never give up on him. Now, with no fixed narrative structure in place

the idea and value of contendership is under constant, deserved scrutiny. Now broadly, AEW gets it right more often than not

Consider the Hangman Page comeback of 2025. He won the Owen Hart Cup, was protected in the booking elsewhere

and won a major match against MJF at Revolution. He was built brilliantly and with conviction as the world champion elect

There is no flawless, wholly logical method to booking pro wrestling and determining who is positioned where

Indeed, the rankings wasn't that either. But the dismantling of the system has spawned far too many bad and nonsensical habits

Hologram embarked on a double figures winning streak without even challenging for the lowly TNT Championship

Everyone gets a shot at that. Challengers pin champions in a direct, potentially damaging

WWE-style way far more than they did in 2019 and 2020, let me tell you

Toni Storm has taken pins from Megan Bain and Athena this year in two examples of an accelerated

development. And it's just as well Toni is too big a star for this to matter

Because Toni Kahn has recruited too many star acts, wins and losses don't matter as much as

they once did. FTR, who win a great deal on their beloved collision, should have received

infinity more tag title shots than they have over the years. And FTR even made a mockery of this

quirk on TV in 2022. The eliminator match has replaced the intricate map to the top

and it lacks any real heft. Who hasn't earned the chance to defeat a champion at this point

I think I did at some point, and I don't even work there. Alright, rant over. Now carry on

your YouTube journey by tapping on another WhatCulture Wrestling video right here. That is

time well spent if you ask me and makes a ton of sense. Have a good day. See you later