Why People “HATE” AEW… and the reasons behind it

A while back a certain writer talked about people having “AEW Derangement Syndrome” and gave ideas why people have it. While the whole column was a load of rubbish, it brought up a bigger point of that people really do not like AEW for a list of reasons.

Granted some are people are just trolls and that is the world we live in just like there are some people here and a certain writer who hate the WWE. I could be snarky and make assumptions about them (i.e. they have no life, hate puppies and babies, wouldn’t know taste if it bit them on the ass, etc) but I am going to avoid that for now.

However, some people have legitimate reasons why they do not like this company anymore and it might be time for AEW fans, wrestlers and Tony Khan to listen.

Instead of running to dirt sheets or X and saying “enjoy all wrestling” how about you listen to the gripes of what turned people off from AEW.

Maybe you will even learn something.

Sorry, forgot I am trying not to lean into my worst nature and will avoid snarky comments.

Anyway, here are some of the valid reasons that people have for turning on AEW,

It ran off the people that were vital to its success.

Let’s face it two of the biggest reasons that AEW started and succeeded in the early part were Cody Rhodes and CM Punk. They were legitimate stars who drew people to the product in terms of fans and sponsors. They made the whole product appear mainstream and throw backs to when wrestling was in its height of popularity.

Cody Rhodes vs. Dustin Rhodes was what made me fall in love with AEW in the first place because it was a throwback to the NWA days. Two men telling a story in the ring, involved blood, family drama, crowd reaction and more grounded wrestling. The match had people in tears and started AEW off on the right path as the alternative to the WWE.

Cody was the unselfish man in a selfish industry who was willing to put over young talent and elevated others. He was fully invested in the product and ready to make this promotion his version of the NWA.

Getting CM Punk into AEW made it a threat to the WWE in that they had “The Guy” who could be the one that brought casuals in. “The Best in the World” was someone who got AEW to over a million people viewing Dynamite and was also able to tell stories.

To date, nothing has reached the zenith as the MJF vs. Punk feud that had everyone talking about the promos. Not the matches but the promos themselves.

And AEW ran both of them out because the EVP’s and Tony Khan couldn’t get along with them.

When TNA did it, fans mocked them and rightfully show when AJ Styles left the promotions and walked into the WWE. When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash went over to WCW and left WWE, fans ridiculed WWE.

The Punk departure was for a lot of fans just heartbreaking because it could have been avoided but it wasn’t.

It showcased how AEW didn’t have guys ready to step up and take their place as stars in the company. Add to the fact that Jade Cargill, Ethan Page and Brian Pillman Jr have also left and became big features over in the WWE and you understand the frustration

Which leads to my next topic.

2) They stopped being the true alternative to the WWE and became WWE lite

When AEW first started the premise was that this wasn’t going to be like WCW, TNA or UWF and stockpile on ex-WWE guys. That this company was going to give chances to talent that Vince didn’t understand or see how talented they were. In the beginning, AEW showcased a lot of those guys and let them become big stars as the top of the roster was filled with a perfect mix.

You had WWE signings like the late Brody Lee, Miro, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Malakai Black, Christian Cage, Chris Jericho and FTR of course. But it also gave way to making talent that never got a chance or wasn’t viewed as stars thrive.

MJF, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin and Jack Perry were the pillars who were going to be the future of the company. Wardlow was the master of the power bomb who came across like a big deal. The Lucha Bros and LAX were brought in to tear down the tag team division.

Even the women’s division was pretty solid with Britt Baker, Jade Cargill, Kris Statlander, The Bunny and Hiraku Shida.

Orange Cassidy was the guy from the indies who had people talking about his gimmick and how different and original it was compared to what we saw.

Fast forward now and the main event scene is becoming more and more of WWE lite with a heavily influence of older WWE talent. Your world champion is Jon Moxley, Tag Team Champions are Hurt Syndicate, Women’s TBS champion is Mercedes Mone and the Trios Champions are the Death Riders.

The rest of the main event players feature Adam Copeland, Jericho, Cage, Ricochet, Big Bill, Swerve Strickland, Adam Cole, MJF and Hangman Page.

Outside of MJF, Wheeler Yuta and Page who is part of the EVP’s, the rest of that cast were wrestling in WWE for over a decade. Hell, Jeff Jarrett who was wrestling in both WCW and WWE over 30 years ago, is now in a major angle against MJF for the world title.

For all the alternative to WWE, this comes across as just a retirement plan for older WWE talent and NJPW talent that are friends with the Elite.

Younger talent such as Daniel Garcia, Private Party, Hook and others have either had to job to them or get pushed to the wayside.

Mariah May is one of the few breakout stars that has been pushed and flourished to an extent. And even she is the backup act to Mone who in theory has the lesser title but beating the bigger name stars.

For the people who liked the original AEW stars and wanted them to flourish, this leads to them giving up. Why would you take AEW seriously when your favorite talents are getting pushed aside for the newest WWE castoff?

3) You hate having to deal with the toxic AEW fan who attacks you for wanting better.

Have you ever been told by one of these toxic people to “Enjoy all wrestling”?

Do you get attacked online and called E-Fed drone or AEW hater because you’re not happy with the product?

Does your social media get flooded by nutjobs who insult you because you don’t like Jericho on your screen every week?

Congrats as you are dealing with the AEW wackos who hurt the product and reputation of more reasonable fans.

It’s embarrassing to hear how celebrities who enjoy wrestling like O’Shea Jackson, Kat Dennings and Vanessa Hudgens get harassed by these people. Its tiring when you yourself as a fan get attacked because the Sickos constantly go after you if you don’t agree with AEW all the time.

Nobody wants to go on social media and hear insults because you tell your mind about an angle that is bad or the match was terrible. It’s like giving your thoughts on a restaurant food and patrons blast you because you critiqued it.

It’s the same crowd who shames you because you don’t know some Japanese wrestler who is making his debut on the show. Or a luchador that you can’t pronounce his name and because of that you’re a hater and racist.

Don’t you know that name of wrestler X’s finishing maneuver? Why don’t you appreciate the work rate? Who are you to say you didn’t like the match that got five stars from WON? Why don’t you like super kicks done every other move followed by Canadian destroyers?

This from the creepy bastards who probably watch anime, love tentacle porn and cosplay as their favorite Japanese super villain character.

(I know… I said I would behave. In my defense these people bring it on themselves.)

Most people don’t want to get spammed by these AEW sickos every time they criticize the product or hope that things change. You wanted to enjoy watching the product but the sickos keep pushing their agenda on the brand.

They keep wanting more death matches, blood, more “real wrestling” that makes it hard to take your kids to the matches. They keep insisting that “real wrestling” is about doing back-to-back to back moves and only kicking out after a 1 count.

Tombstone piledriver only goes a two count and repeated forearm smashes simultaneously without any effect are considered “real wrestling”.

This is not all AEW fans as there are alot of AEW fans who can behave and have well thought out conversations and are critical when the product is bad. But the loud contingent that like a pimple keeps popping up and overstaying its welcome.

Speaking of overstaying your welcome that leads to

4) AEW acted like Vince’s WWE and hurt every “partner” of theirs.

I’m sorry to break this to everyone, but AEW is like Vince McMahon’s WWE in this way.

This is the same company that every time they partner with another wrestling company, they abuse that friendship. Tony’s view of a good partnership is “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours… WILL ALSO BE MINE”.

Look at every promotion they worked with and tell me how that promotion got better or even good treatment.

The partnership with MLW was them basically raiding MLW of its talent and never promoting them or allowing their talent on their TV show. They did the same thing to the NWA, even worse with allegations of contract tampering with Thunder Rosa.

The TNA treatment was so bad that it caused their lowest ratings due to Kenny never defending the title and Tony crapping on the company without comeuppance.

AAA and CMLL have been played against each other and treated like random job guys while Tony has prohibited any promotion of their cards. And NJPW gets the to have their wrestler’s job to every AEW talent possible on AEW and even when AEW talent shows up on NJPW cards.

If this is what a partnership is, no wonder more fans of these promotions say “hard pass” to AEW.

I am a long time TNA fan and the way AEW treated the company really stuck in my craw because it was from the Vince McMahon playbook. You know the playbook when Jerry Lawler went to ECW, ran them down and the fans and didn’t get have a finger laid on him.

This was a thousand times worse and showed that AEW’s promise of working with other companies was blarney.

You were told over and over how AEW was going to revolutionize the business and be different from the WWE. How they were going to treat other wrestling companies like partners rather than just enemies like WWE did. It was the famous mantra of All In in that all the wrestling promotions should be all in with growing the industry.

And what did AEW do instead? The exact opposite and treat the rest of the companies as if there were ATMs for talent and made sure to leave the company worse off.

Who was the brainchild behind all of this?

That is reason number 5 of people not liking AEW

4. You can’t stand Tony Khan and his schtick

Where do I start with Tony? I mean it’s a long list of things that I could go on and on about for days on end that drives people nuts. From his constant pandering to the crowd, being socially inept that he never reads the room, wanting attention and adoration from people to even just being cringe.

But the biggest issue I have; he more like Vince McMahon than we ever imagined.

No, he is not a big masculine muscle fitness nut who has sexual deviances, intimidates people and wrestles his talent. I will give him credit that he doesn’t do any of that crap.

But he is also not the “nice guy” that the AEW defenders like to portray him as.

Want some examples?

Responding to Big Swole’s complaint about lack of diversity by saying “We let her go because she wasn’t good enough”

-Tacking on extra time to Ray Fenix to prevent him from going over to WWE despite promising in the beginning he wouldn’t do that

-Calling the WWE the “Harvey Weinstein of Pro Wrestling” during the interview on NFL Network

-Telling TNA officials that he wasn’t allowed to be insulted and then running them down in his commercials.

-Insulted Ariel Helwani and called him a fraud because he went to WWE Smackdown

-Letting his EVP’s instigate things with CM Punk to the point that it led to Punk’s meltdown

-Tampering with Thunder Rosa’s contract as well as several others from NWA and MLW

-Playing the victim with WWE’s success despite taking shots at them time and time again.

It’s gotten to be too much with Tony’s antics and issues that he is just unlikeable at this point. He is the guy who loves to talk tough and trash talk but as soon as he gets it back, he runs home and cries about it.

He is the rich kid who dad bought him everything, put him in every job that he wanted and still wants more attention and love. And when he gets criticism or something bad happens, he blames someone else and goes on Twitter or gets the AEW bots to go after people.

His booking has been horrible to the point that people are begging him to give up the creative but he won’t do it. He books for an audience of one and continues to give favorites of his long leashes and titles reigns.

The old saying was the best sports owners were never seen or heard from. Tony is always seen and heard from to the point you want him to go away. He just is too much and at this point even defenders of his are wishing him to go away.

Which leads to the final reason people hate AEW.

5. They ruined a good thing and broke your heart.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way when AEW first started out and took off. This wasn’t WCW which got saddled with Southern “rasslin” and saddled with cheesy gimmicks and a history that was discombobulated from WWE and NWA defections.

This wasn’t ECW which was fun for a spell but tarnished by lack of funds and being too hardcore to catch on with regular wrestling fans.

It wasn’t TNA which was full of prospects meets WCW/WWE castoffs with no real value or television home.

It wasn’t even Lucha Underground; in that it was fun and off the wall in a good way but too ahead of its time.

This is what AEW had that nobody else did in that it was a fresh new product with prime-time TV, a billionaire backing it and perfect mix of WWE guys who still could work or had name value with tons of young talent.

Cody Rhodes influence via his father Dusty’s teachings were imprinted into the company and allowed some people to elevate their game. You had storylines that were told that resonated with people and allowed to breathe more than a month.

WWE was not doing well due to Vince’s idiosyncrasies and tastes and AEW was riding in on hope and change.

They had the blueprint on how NOT to screw it up by learning from past promoters and wrestlers. Don’t sign too many high-priced wrestlers who were past their prime and have them go over young talent. Don’t book stupid angles or dive into stunts that were doomed to fail like the Shockmaster.

And even most of the big-name WWE stars they got WANTED to build the company and help other wrestlers. From Bryan Danielson, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Jon Moxley and Brodie Lee, they understood what AEW was offering.

It was all going so damn good and then slowly but then suddenly they have turned into what WCW and TNA became and make the same mistakes. Signed too many wrestlers, pushed older wrestlers over younger stars, are sticking many young talents in catering and booking angles on the fly that have no ending or don’t make sense.

In all seriousness, this is why wrestling fans get a bad rap online. And don’t try to throw it back in my face “Oh, AEW fans are bad, too” — Yes, I know. There are bad apples in every bunch. But none that I see so much make hating a brand part of their identity to the point where they are literally denying reality.

AEW was supposed to know what not to do because they said they knew, but the still did the same mistakes.

That is what angers people; it’s like when you date a girl or guy, tell them what you want out of them, explain how the ex was horrible and they say they will be different.

And for a while they are and everything is great, until they break your heart and hurt you just like the ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend did.

I know this article is going to trigger certain AEW sickos out there because they can’t help it. They are gonna do what they have always done and like an addict they can’t help getting their fix from attacking me or just behaving like nuts.

But to the rational fans of AEW and many of you who turned away from the product, read this article and take what you want from it.

Because sometimes the thing you love is the thing you end up hating because of bad choices and events that drove you to that point.

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