6/29/2025

© AEW

Vibe Shift

WWE, AEW, and the Mood of the Summer.
By: Micah

There’s a phrase that followed TNA around before they became a feeder league for NXT. Fans would see something dumb and say “LolTNA”. It became a meme because TNA, time and again, managed to fumble great moments with monkey’s paw-like mistakes that would always sour their accomplishments. So close to greatness they’d be, and then something impossibly stupid would happen and everything would play out in the worst way possible.

Of course, not everything TNA did turned to worms, but once the narrative took hold, it was hard to shake. Every success carried the tension of a shoe waiting to drop. Every failure only confirmed everyone’s bias. This is the way of pro wrestling: vibes are everything.

When it started, AEW lived in the honeymoon period of great vibes, and how could it not? WWE’s booking was historically bad, every match ended in shenanigans, and the company was being run by someone the Behind the Bastards podcast once subtitled “History’s Greatest Monster”. From the outside, it felt like WWE management took a special delight in shredding fan’s hopes and dashing their favorite stars.

© AEW

By contrast, AEW was trying to “Change the World”. They were an upstart underdog fighting against a monopoly power. They featured wrestlers who never got their chance mixed together with the other place’s downtrodden escapees. They created a place where matches had endings, new stars could be made, and the fans could get what they wanted.

But the honeymoon wouldn’t last forever for AEW. One of the founders left to become the other place’s top star. The iconic CM Punk (who, for many, represented that anti-monopoly energy that was part of AEW’s original recipe) got into a couple backstage brawls and left to work for the very monopoly he railed against. The booking of The Elite (a namesake cadre of wrestlers whose fans the company was founded around) became confusing, scattershot, and often cast them as the villains.

Heading into this spring, the narrative around AEW was that of a snakebit place where nothing could go right. Swerve, one of the bright stars of last year, was often off TV or losing to incoming WWE cast-offs. Mariah May’s world title reign couldn’t catch a break due to visa issues delaying her big feud and a lack of compelling stories. Arenas too big to fill went mostly empty. NXT was now beating them in the ratings. Despite the reality of a huge new TV deal and the stability it brought, the perception among many was still that AEW was struggling to get by.

© AEW

At the top of the card was the improbable story of the Death Riders. On the back of a failed Elite-EVP takeover storyline and the awkward Bryan Danielson retirement situation around “All In”, one of AEW’s most popular wrestlers, Jon Moxley, shot another big takeover storyline where he nearly murdered a friend and stole the championship.

And it should have been huge. Jon Moxley had many times before put the company on his back when times were tough, most notably during the pandemic. And the angle featured top talent that fans respected, cinematic promos, the death of an icon, and a story focused on him trying to elevate young stars. But from the beginning it was cursed.

Before it even started, some fans were disillusioned over the treatment of Swerve and Hangman. Some were (and are) upset over the lack of women’s wrestling featured on the show. Others were still hurting from the Punk era drama. So, when Darby was made to look like a fool so they could swap Moxley into the big moment, a large segment of the fans became vocally disgusted.

For many, the vibe was clear. This was not the time for a WWE-style Bloodline, this was the time for an AEW original to rise. And those fans, frustrated since that year’s “All In”, were now in uprising.

Meanwhile, WWE was riding on years of goodwill. The opposite of a “LolTNA” “nothing-goes-right” situation, it seemed like WWE could do no wrong. They put Jey Uso as the winner of the Rumble to raucous arena applause (as divisive as it was) and sales went up. They ended the Bloodline vs Bloodline feud a bit prematurely, and it was fine. Business was strong with Cody’s reign, and everything was building to a WrestleMania three-way feud between Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins to potentially tee-up the next top guy.

© WWE

It was an abundance of riches. John Cena had announced a historic retirement year tour. Rhea Ripley and Biance Belair were finally set to clash. Charlotte was back and Becky was on the way. AEW’s Penta had jumped ship to become an immediate star, and his brother was next up. Stephanie Vaquer, Bron Breakker, Guilia, Jacob Fatu, and Roxanne Perez all seemed poised to be the next generation of icons. The lawsuits and federal investigations were quieting down and the narrative of “Bad Man Gone” appeared to be finally taking root.

It is amazing how much can change in a couple very eventful months.

To say the John Cena heel turn hasn’t gone well would be an understatement. It should be a Summer Blockbuster story about the greatest wrestler of all time selling out his values and threatening to destroy the legacy of wrestling. Instead, the inciting event focused on The Rock (who never showed up again). WrestleMania became a vehicle to get over Travis Scott (who also hasn’t been back). Lackluster matches and repetitive promos have defined what should otherwise be a definitional storyline.

We could talk about the match built on ‘Main Event’ Jey Uso’s viral rise getting quietly demoted from the main event. Or the feeling of “that’s it?” people expressed when Gunther tapped without pomp. Or we could talk about the way the follow up with Iyo hasn’t made her feel front and center since “stepping out of the shadows” of giants. Or Seth’s big victory storyline seemingly stuck in a slow-motion build waiting for a moment far in the future. Or the bizarreness of Becky’s sudden debut, sudden championship win, sudden championship loss, and then sudden heel turn.

© WWE

I think, with the honeymoon vibe WWE was living in, any three of these things would have been fine. But the missteps above, and a dozen more I won’t bore you with, have started to change the narrative around the company…which was when WWE decided would be an ideal time to not renew fan-favorite character R-Truth.

We all know the story of the backlash, both from fans and internally. We know about fans starting to hijack the shows again, and the quick turnaround to bring him back. How Triple H tried to play it off at the pre-show and got his hand caught in the cookie jar. But the bigger issue is that it hinted at something else.

WWE was a company that, despite constantly touting record income and sales, would not renew a top merch seller mere days after his main event performance, even as he outshone the champion in the ring. They would cast out a beloved mascot character in the middle of his storyline without warning. Fightful reported someone in the company said “it’s hard to feel good when we fired Santa Claus”. And all of this echoed the decisions in years previous that drove fans away.

It’s hard not to notice the pendulum, both of momentum and good will, swinging between WWE and AEW. When WWE is going against its fans, when WWE is dropping storylines and fumbling opportunities, AEW feels like it gets breathing room to reshape its narrative. In some ways, AEW was built off WWE fan animosity and desire for a change, so the more starkly WWE is not living up to fan expectations, the more appealing AEW seems to become.

© AEW / Lee South

What made spring so interesting, and this summer feel so alive, is that for the first time in a long time, AEW seems poised to jump on this opportunity. The end appears in sight for the much-maligned Death Riders storyline. Toni Storm continues to get the ball and deliver incredible segment after incredible segment. Fan favorites like Swerve, Ospreay, and Hangman have gone from being afterthoughts to feeling like the focus of the main event scene.

AEW feels, for the first time in a while, like they aren’t tripping over their own feet every time they walk. And WWE, for the first time in this 3-year Golden Era (maybe their greatest of all time), feels like they’re stumbling over even easy hurdles and making wildly unforced errors. The vibes have shifted. The pendulum has swung.

The vibes aren’t real, of course. Humans are meat machines that find coincidence and use that coincidence to build narratives that help navigate their world. AEW is still making mistakes (Thekla’s debut appears to be headed toward the lost-in-the-shuffle pile many AEW storylines find themselves in) and WWE is still hitting surprise homeruns (the John Cena Pipebomb probably jumped that match’s hypetrain back on the rails). But the lesson of TNA from long ago is that the narrative around the company can shape both the perception of events and the potential success of them.

Both WWE and AEW appear intensely aware of this. AEW’s upcoming “All In” event appears as a hinge around which fortunes will turn. Both companies are treating it as such. AEW is loading up the card with their biggest possible women’s world title match, a men’s world title match years in the making, and a rematch of one of the greatest matches in pro wrestling history.

WWE has, for their part, loaded up an absurd amount of competition for the show. They have announced not one, not two, but three major events for that weekend. To ensure they compete head-to-head with the earlier start time for AEW, they are running two shows the same day. Then the following day they are running the long-awaited “Evolution II”, an event fans have asked to see for years.

By going so hard to limit the success of AEW’s feature event, WWE reveals the importance of it. If this show doesn’t do respectable numbers, it brings AEW’s narrative down. If it is a giant, media-worthy show, that brings their narrative up.

But even beyond “All In”, Sports Illustrated reported WWE had plans to run the 2300 Arena before AEW’s residency there, presumably to undercut AEW’s ticket sales. Although that no longer appears in the cards, it shows their intent to block every AEW advance.

© WWE

WWE is making moves, almost with an air of desperation. The AAA acquisition was no doubt in the cards for a long while, but the announcement is certainly compelling in its timing. On April 16th, AEW announced a huge crossover show with CMLL, resulting in AEW running in the historic Arena Mexico. On April 21st, just five days later, WWE announced they acquired AAA and would be running a big, free-for-everyone Youtube crossover show.

Again, who knows the real timelines of the behind-the-scenes deals? But the narrative these events produce certainly feel like a WWE focused on trying to catch and smother every big AEW moment with a counter of their own. And it makes the speed of that new R-Truth contract feel a bit more necessary.

Between their main event scene and PR mistakes, WWE feels like it is taking on water, and the last thing they want to do is have the fans turn on them completely. The spectre of fans hijacking shows and chanting untoward things again looms heavy. They spent years in a place where the fans tore apart everything they did, their own version of “LolTNA”, and from the outside it seems like we’re a few big mistakes away from going back there again.

Which is why this summer, and “All In” in particular, are so important to AEW. The excitement, dare I say The Feeling, is palpable among fans.

For many AEW fans, the downcycle of “Hangman” Adam Page years ago represents a sort of Original Sin, and his prominence is no doubt a factor in the rising tide. But so is Toni Storm’s incredible work, as many AEW fans continue to demand more focus on the women’s division. Though it certainly can’t be the only women’s match on the card, the impact of her Goliath vs Goliath feud with Mercedes assuredly has some impact on the vibes getting better, too.

Swerve, and the sudden end to his reign last year, is a wound to many who feel he has been one of the top acts in AEW. Him returning to prominence, regularly kicking Moxley’s ass, and now featuring in top storylines with Ospreay and The Bucks, certainly improves the vibe.

Put simply, WWE has not been giving their fans what they want, nor have they been delivering great execution in their craft. Meanwhile, AEW has been giving each of the many factions of their fans something to get excited about and has been taking care to do it well.

And there is something in the air around it. You can feel the excitement around AEW building. When Hangman was set as the main event of “All In”, the mood changed. Fittingly, this Death Riders storyline was about finding someone who could step up and carry the industry on their shoulders. Hangman, often referred to as the Heart or the Protagonist of AEW, is now marching toward that destiny.

© AEW

And when you watch him cut a promo in front of 14,000 fans at Arena Mexico, thanking them in their language for welcoming AEW into their home, talking about working together and Changing The World, it’s hard not to see parallels to the early days of the company and the original Elite talking about Changing the World themselves. It’s no wonder AEW fans seem alive and excited again.

The future is not written and anything can happen. That’s part of what makes following pro wrestling so fun. As of today, the vibe shift has started. It feels like AEW has left their LolTNA era, where they made every mistake they could find. And it feels like WWE is vulnerable and struggling to stay atop their peak. We’ll see how it goes.

This summer, the build to “All In” (and to “SummerSlam”) and the choices both companies make, are poised to make history. From a business point of view, both companies are safe and will be around for a while yet to come. The wheel continues to turn. But from a ‘vibes’ point of view? This summer is a hinge point for both companies. It’s gonna be fun to watch.

By Micah

© AEW

Why It Is Time For AEW To Add Women’s Tag Team Championships

Seán O’Brien makes the case as to why AEW’s Women’s division would benefit by adding Tag Team belts, despite mistakes other companies have made in the past.

The idea of AEW having a Women’s World Tag Team Championship is something that the fanbase has been talking about for the last 2 years, but the idea has been slowly gaining more and more steam in 2025. Tony Khan has been asked about it in interviews, alliances have begun forming between the women on TV, and with the biggest show of the year, All In, having both the Women’s World championship and the TBS championship tied up in the same match, the stage may be set for a tournament to crown tag team champions in the immediate future. While this is something that many fans (and plenty of wrestlers inside the company, too, it seems) are asking for, the question is, should AEW do it? What have we learned from how women’s tag teams are presented in North America and AEW’s own history with the booking of their male tag team champions? Let’s find out.

Starting off, I think it’s fair to say that every company that has created women’s tag titles has never intended for them to have a muddled history, but when you look at how companies have let down many of these women over the years, a clear pattern emerges. Perhaps of all the examples we’ll be going over here, none are better than how TNA/Impact Wrestling/TNA missed a layup with their women. The Knockouts (women’s) division in TNA was, for all intents and purposes, keeping women’s wrestling alive in the US during the end of the 2000s. In an era where WWE cared more about one’s ability to look like a model and dance, TNA ensured there was a place for the women who got into professional wrestling to wrestle. In 2009, they looked to seize the momentum they had with their division and introduced the Knockouts Tag Team championship tournament. Some of the biggest names in North American women’s wrestling at the time took place in the tournament such as Awesome Kong, Tara/Victoria, The Beautiful People and…Sharmell (of Sharmell vs Jenna fame). Sarita & TNA mainstay Taylor Wilde became the inaugural champions; however, almost immediately, the titles were pushed down in importance. The championships’ first ever reign resulted in 2 traditional defences on TV/PPV across 106 days, with a third defence being in a 6-women tag match. Maybe things weren’t off to a great start presentation-wise, but very quickly, things would go from bad to worse.

© TNA wrestling

Awesome Kong, arguably the biggest star in the division, captured the titles with her partner in January of 2010, only to be released from her contract due to beef with one of Hulk Hogan’s cronies. One irrelevant backstage personality was deemed more important than the star of the women’s division and the titles were vacated. In December of 2010, the titles would be vacated for a second time after Hamada, one half of the fourth tag team champions, was released from her contract, too. Championships that were meant to herald a new era and new level of competition for the women quickly became an afterthought, as within just a year, the belt was scarcely defended and used as more of a prop than anything else. In 2012, the final nail in the coffin would come when ODB won the titles with her tag partner, Eric Young. Not only would they hold the belts for nearly 500 days, the championships would ultimately be vacated and retired for eight years due to them not having any plans for the titles. While a real effort has been made to try and make the titles feel like a bigger deal since their revival in 2021, it’s worth calling out that ultimately the longest reigning champion with these belts is still a man. There certainly have been attempts to make the titles mean something – with a few big names holding the titles since their revival – but we’re still a far cry away from the vision that was promised in 2009. While we’re now in a position where there are teams becoming more established and holding these titles, the company has yet to present these belts as something that aren’t a secondary/tertiary title. Painfully, these belts have had brief periods where they are also probably the best example of why a women’s tag division works for me, too. So let’s not beat around the bush and take a dive into the depressing chasm of WWE’s Women’s tag titles.

© WWE

The purpose of this piece isn’t to tell people who have enjoyed the presentation of women’s tag teams elsewhere that what they liked was bad, it’s designed to just examine how the industry has treated women’s tag teams. WWE introduced tag titles in 2019 for the women and systematically failed the talent time and time again. WWE runs at least 12 PLEs a year, with a minimum of 260 hours of TV programming each week, more if you want to count NXT in there, too. In year 1 of the tag championships, they defended the belts 14 times on television. Year 2, 15 times. Year 3, 13 times. That means out of the 30+ PLEs run between 2019 – 2021 and the 780 hours of television time, the titles were defended 42 times. 3 matches ran over 20 minutes, 10 matches ran under 5 minutes. There’s no other way to interpret the presentation of these belts: they were an afterthought. This would lead to the industry changing event of 2022 – where Naomi and Mercedes (Sasha Banks) would walk out of the company due to how poorly they were being treated in spite of doing all they could do with the division. The response to this walkout in 2022 resulted in the women’s tag titles featuring in 1 hour and 40 minutes of ring time across the 780+ hours of programming WWE has to offer. 2023 saw more of the same with limited focus – and in 2024, the titles were defended more often with a third of the matches going over the 10 minute mark. This is of course WWE, where the audience tends to be more interested in big entrances, middle aged men using catchphrases their kids wouldn’t say, and ultimately where wrestling is the least important piece of the puzzle, but it still doesn’t paint a great picture. In the first half of 2025, the titles have featured just 5 times with 3 consecutive title changes. Any value or prestige in these titles are non-existent and are very much the “hold this on your shoulder until we have something real for you to do” types of reigns. For what was at one point in time the best women’s roster assembled in North America, the introduction and presentation of these titles highlight a lack of care or investment in these women. In what is the norm for the company, it’s lip service to a belief and a failure in their treatment of women.

The burning question has to be: would AEW be any different in their treatment of a women’s tag division? The harsh reality is that while the company started out with a strong tag division, they have continued to make misstep after misstep in the past few years. Whether it’s pushing a team like FTR and stopping all creative the moment they win the belts, whether it’s going to the well of putting the belts on the Young Bucks and hoping they’ll fall into a creative solution, the debacle of failing to elevate a team like Private Party after a massive win or whatever they’re trying to accomplish with The Hurt Syndicate, AEW has failed to showcase its tag division in spite of its talent for the better part of 2 years (I’m open to looking further back than that, too). With the company’s track record for their male tag team championships being so lackluster, it’s fair to ask yourself, “why would a women’s tag championship work any better?” The answer in its simplest form is that it may legitimately fix the glaring problem of women not being featured enough in AEW programming, while making weekly matches simpler to book.

© AEW

Over the past few weeks and months, AEW has slowly been heating up pairings in the women’s roster to good effect. Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford’s unlikely alliance has blossomed into a team that makes sense. Skye Blue & Julia Hart are once again aligned. Tay Melo has returned to rejoin Anna Jay at her side, we’re teasing Willow and Kris Statlander reuniting, Thunder Rosa is teaming with CMLL’s Persephone and this is all without going into hypotheticals for the likes of Hayter & the incoming Alex Windsor, The Vendetta or the vast amount of wrestlers off in ROH with history alongside others or teams in their own right. All this, plus the wealth of talent in partner promotions overseas, just goes to show the untapped potential a division like this could be for the company. Maybe more than all this, though, why do we have to even justify the existence of tag teams being a norm for women? When AEW launched and came with the promise of being an alternative wrestling promotion, tag titles were expected, trios titles were hoped for but here we find ourselves 6 years in hoping for women to be given the same opportunity to showcase teams? With AEW feeling like they’re really in their flow state, surely now more than ever is the time to launch these championships. Considering two male belts are being unified into one, it is simply a must that they capitalize on this energy and strike now before the women outside of the main event scene lose the momentum they have right now. For all the good that’s been going on with the women in AEW these past 2 years, this is unfortunately the crux of the problem.

© AEW

The biggest issue AEW has had with its women has always been that they struggle to book anything meaningful when there isn’t a title on the line (and even then, they’ve missed the mark plenty with that, too). On a good week of TV, AEW will book 3-4 women’s matches: a match that moves the World/TBS program forward, a squash of some kind and a throwaway match to try and feature wrestlers they don’t want you to forget about. Bringing in tag titles sets them up for success in a very simple way here. The women in the squash and throwaway matches can easily feature in tag match ups with meaning and can be given a clear direction and goal. There’s a plethora of talented, hard working women in the company ready to latch on to something and this is the most surefire way of growing that depth outward. When they lock in, AEW can make championships feel like they have value and meaning better than any major promotion in the US, and if there is ever an opportunity to pull the trigger and realise this, it’s now.

As a big fan of tag team wrestling, I think it’s time to end the curse of doomed women’s tag divisions. Learning from the mistakes of 2009, the mistakes of 2019 and frankly, the mistakes they have made themselves the past few years, AEW has the opportunity, the talent and the means to catapult a tag division to the forefront of relevancy – and in doing so, elevate the women in their ranks who deserve the chance to shine.

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