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WORST
ROH Untethered
Ever since he acquired Ring of Honor in 2021, Tony Khan has seemingly not known what to do with the legacy brand. It’s been hidden away on the Honor Club service where subscriptions are minimal and only referenced on AEW TV whenever one of its three annual PPVs comes around. It’s two major champions, Bandido and Athena, appear regularly on AEW TV which undermines their titles and any specialness ROH could have. TK needs to hand the creative reigns over to someone else and turn it into more of AEW’s version of what NXT used to be.
Tony Khan’s Title Obsession
This year Tony Khan introduced the Women’s World Tag Team and AEW National titles. He also introduced the Unified Title which was supposed to combine the International and Continental belts into one championship. I say “supposed to” because when the Continental Classic began, the title was promptly de-unified. It was explained away as a choice by Don Callis so that in the worst-case scenario Okada would have one title left.
Decent enough explanation, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Continental and International titles still exist individually. Add to them the TNT Title and the new National Title and that’s four secondary men’s titles. The men’s World Heavyweight, men’s Tag Team, and Trios Titles plus the three women’s titles (not counting all of the European indy promotion titles Mercedes Moné’s won) and that’s ten championships in AEW.
That’s just way too many titles, especially given all of the men’s secondary titles have definitions of varying ambiguity. Tony also acknowledges ROH titles and titles from partner promotions like Claudio being the CMLL World Champion or Konosuke Takeshita being the IWGP Champion. It’s a lot for even a dedicated fan like myself to keep up with.
Moving into 2026, Tony needs to figure out a way to truly unify some of those men’s secondary titles and put effort into defining the level of each remaining titles, men’s and women’s. All ROH titles need to he kept on ROH programming. Partner promotion titles can get some shine as long as it’s infrequent. This situation must be gotten under control.
Tony Schiavone Needs to Be Reassigned
Look, I love Tony Schiavone. As huge WCW fan growing up, Schiavone was one of the voices of my childhood. When he returned to wrestling as part of the Dynamite commentary team, I was ecstatic. He was the perfect bridge between eras of wrestling on Turner networks. It made me nostalgic when he took over play-by-play on Collision from the epic failure that was Kevin Kelly.
Now, however, it’s 2025 and, as much as it pains me to say it, Tony just doesn’t have it on commentary anymore. With Excalibur doing play-by-play and Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, or Taz doing color, his role at the desk feels superfluous. Even when he’s not trying to do so, he can detract from a match. I believe he can still contribute, though, whether as a producer backstage or still on TV as an in-ring interviewer. In 2026, Tony needs to be transitioned into a new role for our benefit and to prevent him from tarnishing his legacy.
The Hurt Syndicate Politics
When the Hurt Syndicate dropped the AEW World Tag Team Titles at Forbidden Door without actually getting pinned (Brodido won the three way title match when Bandido pinned Dax Harwood) it seemed to confirm the unfortunate rumors surrounding them, specifically their unwillingness to lose.
Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley are absolute freaks of nature who are in better shape at 50 than a lot of 30 year olds. The crowd loves them and loves to chant “We hurt people!” Unfortunately none of that matters more than them – in particular, Lashley – refusing to do business. Having people in your locker room that think they’re bigger than the company is a problem. Tony’s already been through that with Miro and Malaki Black. There’s no reason to do that again.
Assuming the plan is to bring them back next year once Lashley gets healthy, Tony needs assurances that Hurt Syndicate understands their role and that they’re willing to put over the likes of a Swerve Strickland.
A Plague of Injuries
With AEW’s more physical style of wrestling comes around greater risk of injury. Unfortunately, AEW dealt with number of injuries some significantly more serious than others. For starters, Adam Cole was essentially forced to retire from in-ring competition after suffering his second major concussion in two years on a clothesline from Kyle Fletcher.
Will Ospreay had to step away following Forbidden Door in September to undergo surgery for a serious neck injury brought on by years of wear and tear. ‘
Speaking of years of wear and tear, Dustin Rhodes underwent double knee replacement surgery in late August. Hologram also suffered a knee injury requiring reconstructive surgery. Thankfully, Swerve Strickland’s knee injury only kept him down for three months in the fall. Pac was out for several months during the spring and summer with a broken ankle. Jay White has been out most of the year with a hand injury and his Bang Bang Gang teammate Colten Gunn has been out for months after injuring his knee almost immediately upon returning from a previous injury.
This is not an indictment of the AEW style, but it is a harsh reminder of the risks involved.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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BEST
Best Continental Classic Yet
The 2025 edition of the Continental Classic was far and away the best one yet. The match quality was insane. Expectations were subverted all the way up to Jon Moxley winning the tournament. Whether he should have won might be debatable, but what isn’t is that tourney delivered quality television for weeks. Now let’s just hope that the elevation of the likes of “Speedball” Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight do not go to waste.
Partnership with CMLL
This year AEW’s working relationship with CMLL paid dividends for both companies. AEW got access to Mascara Dorada, who showed out in the Continental Classic, Hechicero, who has a contracts with both companies now, and of course Místico. AEW held Grand Slam Mexico at the legendary Arena Mexico in June.
For CMLL, the relationship with AEW provided them with increased exposure and likely contributed to some of their events airing on Triller in the second half of the year. It also gave them arguably the match of the year between Místico and MJF.
Hangman, the Main Character of AEW
“Hangman” Adam Page is easily the most complex, complete person in wrestling. His story throughout 2025 was compelling and relatable. He came into the year submerged in darkness, still overwhelmed by the trauma inflicted during his extremely personal feud with Swerve Strickland.
In January he had a Texas Death Match with the “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. Hangman won and, in the process, inflicted so much damage on Daniels that he was forced to retire. The reality of what he did to his friend and mentor finally started to shake Hangman out his spiral.
Over the course of the next several months, he would defeat MJF in the opening match of Revolution, enter the Owen Hart Tournament, and win it after a phenomenal match with Will Ospreay at Double or Nothing. That victory earned him the title shot against Jon Moxley at All In: Texas.
In the lead up to that match, he cut a promo completely in Spanish at Grand Slam Mexico and had an incredible backstage promo with Swerve where the two rivals finally made peace.
Hangman completed his redemption arc by defeating Mox and extracting the AEW Men’s World Title from the briefcase it had been hidden in for nearly a year. Even though he’s since lost the title, Hangman remains firmly in the main event scene.
Year of the Women
The women of AEW had a banner year in 2025. Toni Storm and Mariah May capped their amazing feud in brilliantly violent fashion with the Hollywood Ending match at Revolution. The match absolutely should’ve main evented the PPV.
Mercedes Moné spent the year collecting championships from around the globe, eventually breaking Ultimo Dragon’s long-standing record of holding nine titles at once. At her peak in the fall, Mercedes had 14 titles to her name. Her in-work has been impeccable. Now that she’s beginning to lose some of the titles she’s doing some of the best non in-ring work of her career.
Also, 2025 marked the arrival of “The Megasus” Megan Bayne who made an immediate impact dominating Toni Storm at Dynasty before falling to her Big Package. “The Toxic Spider” Thekla also made her debut immediately going after Jamie Hayter and then aligning with Julia Hart and Skye Blue to form the Triangle of Madness.
We saw the first women’s Blood and Ghts match in November followed the crowning of the very first AEW Women’s Tag Team championships in the Babes of Wrath, Willow Nightingale & Harley Cameron.
The final image of AEW in 2025 was new TBS Champion Willow embracing her tag team champion partner Harley as well as her longtime best friend Kris Statlander whom she had just reunited with after a year-long estrangement. I think that says everything.
AEW Unbothered
WWE decided to get more deliberate in their attacks on AEW this year. They started by scheduling a Saturday Night’s Main Event featuring Goldberg’s retirement against All In: Texas. They followed that up by scheduling WrestlePalooza, their debut event on the ESPN app, on the same night as Forbidden Door.
Throughout all of this, Tony Khan showed some maturity. There were no angry posts on social media or profane rants at post-show media scrubs. He simply adjusted the times for their shows to the afternoon which ultimately benefited AEW. Even when he was asked about WWE’s strategy by Ariel Helwani, his answer was restrained.
AEW finally decided to just focus on itself rather than what WWE is doing and I think the benefits of that decision were evident. More of this in 2026 please.
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