MR. TITO: Comparing the HYPE of WWE SummerSlam 2024 versus AEW’s All In 2024 Event at Wembley

Coming soon, we have two major wrestling events… On August 3rd, we have WWE’s #2 ranked event with SummerSlam 2024 while on August 24th, AEW’s biggest attended event, All In 2024 at Wembley Stadium, will happen. While the cards are still forming, the energy level towards both events are way different. WWE has been surging with growth from views on social media, higher attendance, and merchandise selling off the shelves while AEW is struggling to capture 700,000 Dynamite viewers again while playing to empty arenas in North America while merchandise has tanked.

Let’s look at the cards so far:

AEW All In 2024:
– Tony Storm vs. Mariah May
– Swerve Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson

WWE SummerSlam 2024:
– Damien Priest vs. Gunther
– Bayley vs. Nia Jax
– Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley
– CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre
– Solo Sikoa vs. Cody Rhodes

Granted, AEW’s show is further away and much can be booked between now and then. However, if you look through their top superstars, do you have any energy on who they should fight? They could add MJF vs. Will Ospreay, but they are giving away that match for FREE this week on AEW Dynamite. There could be an angle or a controversial result that sets up a rematch, but even then, the energy has been low on MJF since his comeback and Will Ospreay has been underwhelming as a “big signing”. AEW had MJF cut a good promo on a recent AEW Collision event, but nobody watched it.

Okada was a big signing but here in July, NOBODY CARES… There is zero heat on Okada and his teaming with the Young Bucks, who by the way, nobody is excited to see wrestle on All In either.

What about Mercedes Moné? When you hear more excitement about her Forbidden Door opponent, Stephanie Vaquer, than you do the overpaid Mercedes Moné, you’ve got problems AEW. All we heard after the match was how Stephanie carried Mercedes, and then the nuclear eruption of WWE signing her away from AEW.

Ohhhh, who is Adam “Hangman” Page” gonna wrestle? Nobody cares.

There is NO ENERGY for the AEW product right now, and there’s been NO ENERGY in the promotion since the last All In event held at Wembley. Now, I think the backstage decline was occurring before that, as Cody Rhodes got the hell out of dodge and then the famous Media Scrum and backstage fight occurred during 2022. The cracks were in the wall… But then to start 2023, AEW re-signs the EVPs to lucrative deals (Omega & the Bucks) along with Adam Page. Despite that major Wembley event last year, it blew up in their face backstage thanks to Tony Khan being too much of a P***Y to manage his own talent.

Adam Copeland, Okada, Mercedes, and Ospreay were all added to the roster through late 2023 or early 2024. Copeland is on the injury list, thanks to jumping off the top of a cage in his 50s, while the other 3 are failing to draw dimes for AEW.

Personally, I like MJF, but I’m still wondering where the payoff to the Devil storyline went? Where did that go? It was so bad then, but it was supposed to create the big heel stable angle that Tony has repeatedly tried to create for the past 5 years. But nobody cares…

Contrast that with WWE right now…

I don’t even have to bring up a single match for SummerSlam because the hype of Roman Reigns POSSIBLY returning carries this event. Seriously… 1 man returning is causing ridiculous ticket prices in Cleveland, OH and will probably cause SummerSlam 2024 to be the most viewed SummerSlam EVER.

After Wrestlemania 40, things were kind of slow for the WWE and Bloodline, as the Haku brothers weren’t exactly thrilling as additions to the Bloodline. However, the storyline was a slow moving coup of Solo taking over the Bloodline the further we got away from Wrestlemania 40. This created uncertainty that both Solo and Paul Heyman sold like champs and slowly but surely, Solo seized on it and took over the group to Paul’s dismay. Solo claiming that Roman wasn’t coming back began the completion of the coup, while the group turning on Heyman just poured gasoline on that already burning fire.

Roman Reigns was officially turned babyface WITHOUT even showing up on 1 single show since Wrestlemania 40. THINK ABOUT THAT.

From 2014 through early 2020, WWE spent millions and millions in marketing, many main events of Wrestlemanias and other PLEs, and lots of television time trying to sell Roman Reigns as the #1 babyface. Vince McMahon and 50 years of wrestling wisdom couldn’t get him over as a babyface, but in just 3 freakin’ months, Triple H’s storylines and Paul Heyman’s contributions have now given birth to a HUGE babyface for the WWE to enjoy for years.

While Triple H has storylines that are more logical and nurtures all talents (instead of just a few like Vince) Heyman has taught Roman the art of working matches, psychology, and how to cut effective promos. 2010s Roman was constantly hitting high spots and running around the ring, often being winded. 2020s Roman hits fewer moves and stands around to savor each move delivered. THAT is Paul Heyman teaching Roman the simple concept of “MORE WITH LESS”.

Here’s a CRAZY thought… Even if Roman Reigns does NOT show for the Cody vs. Solo match, it’s still intriguing because Solo is now a dangerous opponent for Cody thanks to the growing new Bloodline and the introduction of the Samoan Werewolf to the group. Jacob Fatu is the free agent that AEW wished that it had signed and could have signed for the past 5 years. They didn’t, scared of his past criminal record as was WWE for a while.

Cody’s Spring/Summer hasn’t been that great… Wrestling an older AJ Styles, ehhhh… Wrestling Logan Paul, whom I mostly like, ehhhhh. You can’t wrestle the Rock and Roman at Wrestlemania and then be fed upper midcarders as legitimate opponents. While Solo isn’t the Rock or Roman, or even close on drawing power, he’s elevated thanks to his growing Bloodline. He is Cody’s most dangerous opponent yet because of the uncertainty that the outside help of the Haku brothers and Jacob Fatu present. Suddenly, there’s excitement for Cody as WWE Champion again because he FINALLY has a threatening heel opponent.

Then, you have the NUCLEAR HEAT between CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre. Now, we’ve only got to witness CM Punk wrestling once at a big WWE event since his Survivor Series return and that was at the Royal Rumble where he got injured. So you have that… BUT Drew McInyre has found himself as a top drawing talent at the right time and this match will likely be “Match of the Night”. And it’s all Drew in the way he mocked CM Punk being injured combining that with the actual heat he has with Punk on past experiences. Drew posting memes about Punk was glorious and being obsessed with Punk based on various title opportunities being squandered has poured gasoline on that heat. There is NOTHING like this feud on the planet right now.

The coronation of Gunther will be fine… Honestly, I’m not that excited for him to become champion, but once as champion, the opponent possibilities will be fascinating. Just getting that title off of Damien Priest will be a plus as he just isn’t clicking with fans and the terrible Judgment Day stable has not benefitted him. Nobody has cared about that stable until Dominik and Rhea Ripley joined it and fans only cared about them.

Speaking of Rhea Ripley, hot damn, I’m excited for her match with Liv Morgan. If you asked me last year about Ripley vs. Morgan, I’d laugh and tell you that Liv isn’t even close to being in Rhea’s orbit. However, amazing storylines change things so quickly… Adding the character wrinkle of Liv messing with Dominik has been PURE GOLD and suddenly, I’m a huge Liv Morgan fan. Yeah, pushing adult themed storylines between different sexes draws, who would have thought during 2024? I literally don’t care about the SummerSlam match, but I’m somehow hungry to see it because the storylines have been SO GOOD. And I just want to see how this match ends… Does Rhea and Dominik reunite or does Dom do Rhea dirty by turning on her to fully join Liv? I WANNA SEE IT BADLY.

Then you have Bayley vs. Nia Jax, but the threat is the partnership between Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton with the Money in the Bank briefcase. That heat is looming over what could be a struggle of a match, as Nia isn’t quite known for match quality since being called up to the WWE roster. But the threat of Tiffany cashing in makes this match interesting…

Yeah, I’m just not feeling ya, AEW All In 2024. While you’re likely to be an exciting show to watch, you’ll see multiple 30+ minute matches fully of guys with amazing endurance and hitting 10 moves per minute, you’ve got NOTHING to sell me beforehand other than some curiosity of a follow-up to the Mariah May attack on Toni Storm. Problem is that Maria May is still too new and has only been in the promotion since November 2023. However, I’m NOT spending $50-$60 to buy this Pay Per View based on Mariah vs. Toni alone… I’m afraid that a month and a half isn’t enough to properly build up quick feuds. All In should be the culmination of MONTHS of storylines and feuds and this big event should be the payoff.

Look at Wrestlemania 40, for example… Roman/Bloodline vs. Cody has been something that went on for over a year, but really got hot and heavy for 3 months heading into Wrestlemania. Even a match like LA Knight vs. AJ Styles had months of heat building up that match.

That is why Tony Khan is a highly INEFFECTIVE and DEFECTIVE booker. He had NO IDEA on how to wet the appetites of wrestling fans before a major event. Instead, we have bad writing during AEW Dynamite shows and just matches that mean nothing.

FINGER OF SHAME to anyone who awarded Tony any “Booker of the Year” awards in the past. This guy has ZERO clue on what he’s doing, and having a supporting managerial group involving the Young Bucks has given him no favors either.

Let’s just say it now… Triple H has figured out the job of managing talent and creative well, though it took over 10 years to get there of trial and error. But when you empower someone like Paul Heyman to help with top storylines and top stars, magic instantly happens.

If you’re going to convince me to (a) pay for tickets/parking and spent time traveling or (b) pay for PPVs or subscribe to a service for PLEs, you gotta get me excited to do so.

Sorry, but Pro Wrestling is an investment of TIME and MONEY. Wrestling events happen at night, so thus any evenings spent with your family or even date nights are sacrificed for your wrestling hobby. Wrestling is a money sucker, as it costs money to be a big fan of it. Peacock’s WWE Network is draining your funds monthly, while the Cable/Satellite packages are really draining your bank account. If you attend live events, some venues price gouge you while parking is NEVER cheap. If you take your kids to live events, enjoy paying for the expensive food, drinks, and merchandise stands there.

But to get me to spend 3-5 hours watching a wrestling event requires good HYPE beforehand. SummerSlam has it, All In doesn’t…

If I wasn’t Mr. Tito and need to watch PPV/PLE content for my columns, I’m not even coming close to watching them all. Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Wrestlemania are consistently watched by me, but it would take a strong card to get me to view the other events. For AEW, man, they would need a sensational card to get me to spend $50-$60 as a fan if I didn’t have columns to write.

I don’t know, Tony… Things aren’t looking good and you’ve got nothing coming up from any developmental ranks that could be introduced as a new talent for everyone to enjoy. You just have your sad free agent signings that you were either coaxed into doing by Dave Meltzer (New Japan mark) or the allure of signing ex-WWE talent fooled you again. WWE doesn’t just release talent for fun, they release them after they’ve squeezed the last bit of mileage from or just don’t want to overpay based on drawing ability.

SummerSlam is gonna be great and there’s only 4 matches officially booked. THINK ABOUT THAT… Just that looming threat of Roman Reigns returning is enough to pack a stadium of 45,000 people and have the highest SummerSlam viewership ever.

Sorry, but what AEW currently has to offer doesn’t deserve to be in Wembley Stadium. The novelty of AEW having its biggest event there is selling some tickets, but diminishing returns has already set in.

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