{"id":147879,"date":"2022-10-17T14:26:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T19:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=147879"},"modified":"2022-10-17T19:22:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T00:22:06","slug":"out-of-bounds-roh-dynamite-and-something-about-aew-i-guess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/10\/17\/out-of-bounds-roh-dynamite-and-something-about-aew-i-guess\/","title":{"rendered":"OUT OF BOUNDS: ROH Dynamite! (And something about AEW, I guess?)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1204299345\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>In the winter of 2017, I had a crush on Timothee Chalamet (Still do. HMU.), and I was ecstatic to see \u201cCall Me By Your Name,\u201d which had just expanded to 114 theaters the week before. I spent the whole day buzzing about it. I downloaded a subtitling app on my phone, met my friend Tobi at Steak \u2018N\u2019 Shake, and together we made our way to a glorious theater in a town far bigger than my own. By the time I got to that absolute palace of a cineplex with a chandelier in the lobby, bordello-red carpet on the floor, and the nostalgic smell of popcorn in the air, every inch of my body was fully ready to experience the Oscar-nominated film \u201cCall Me By Your Name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They were sold out. Instead, we got tickets to see \u201cThe Shape of Water.\u201d As a result, I had a thoroughly disappointing time. Don\u2019t get me wrong, \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d is a good film. Actually, strike that; it\u2019s a great film. The darn thing was nominated for thirteen Oscars, and it won Best Picture, but the point is that even the greatest product in the world can be a disappointment if you\u2019ve shown up to see something else.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever picked up a glass of orange juice, took a fish-sized gulp, and discovered it was milk? It feels weird, doesn\u2019t it? It doesn\u2019t feel weird because you hate milk; you might love milk. It feels weird because it wasn\u2019t what you were expecting. It\u2019s like turning on the radio to set a romantic mood and forgetting the last thing you listened to was Rob Zombie. It\u2019s like watching a funny movie after hearing devastating news. It\u2019s like sitting down to an episode of AEW and watching ROH.<\/p>\n<p>Again, don\u2019t get me wrong. Much like \u201cThe Shape of Water,\u201d Ring of Honor is a good company. Actually, strike that; it\u2019s a great company. However, tuning into AEW Dynamite and seeing it dominated by Ring of Honor storylines feels like ordering the steak and getting the fish. If I wanted fish, I would have gone to a seafood restaurant or a drag show, not Ruth\u2019s Chris.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the words \u201cdominated by\u201d might seem like a strong turn of phrase, but it feels terrifyingly accurate. Ring of Honor is \u201cdominating\u201d much of AEW\u2019s programming. On Oct. 5, I kept a tally of how many times the words \u201cRing of Honor\u201d or the letters \u201cROH\u201d were mentioned, and I compared them to how many times the words \u201cAll Elite Wrestling\u201d and the letters \u201cAEW\u201d were mentioned. (Full disclosure: I did not count graphics or the physical appearance of title belts for either company.) During the course of the program, AEW was referenced 43 times. Even considering that they have to plug upcoming events, reset the show at the top of the hour, and welcome us back from commercial breaks, that\u2019s still a lot of times, but it wasn\u2019t as many times as Ring of Honor was mentioned. ROH was mentioned a staggering 58 times. I didn\u2019t even count mentions of \u201cThe Code of Honor,\u201d but if I had, that would\u2019ve pulled the number of mentions up to 66!<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not sustainable, and I\u2019m not the only person who thinks that. On Oct 4 of 2022, Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post wrote an editorial titled \u201cAEW Can\u2019t Keep Going On Like This.\u201d While I\u2019m loathed to quote a news outlet with such a poor \u201cFactual Reporting\u201d score on MediaBiasFactCheck.com, I still found Staszewski\u2019s commentary compelling and accurate. In the article, Staszewski asks, \u201cThe two (ROH and AEW) can\u2019t be married this closely forever, can they?\u201d He points out how ROH is draining time away from AEW programming in the likely hopes that ROH will someday get a TV show of its own, but what happens if it doesn\u2019t?<\/p>\n<p>According to Staszewski, there are now a total of 15 titles that can appear during AEW\u2019s three hours of weekly programming. That number presented by Staszewski stuck in my mind long after reading his article because, if used to its fullest, that\u2019s a title every 12 minutes. Titles are supposed to be special, but things that happen every 12 minutes aren\u2019t special. Birthday cake is special, but if I was offered a slice of birthday cake every 12 minutes, birthday cake would become the bane of my life and my waistline.<\/p>\n<p>It is my sincere hope that Ring of Honor will get its own TV show and soon. That would solve a lot of AEW\u2019s problems. However, if it does get its own TV show, Tony Khan should not be the head booker. Attention is a finite thing, and some weeks I feel like I can see the outer edges of Tony Khan\u2019s attention fraying in real time.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-621416361\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>For me, the last \u201cepic\u201d AEW PPV was Revolution 2022. While Double or Nothing 2022 and All Out 2022 were good, they lacked the focus and long-term storytelling that previous AEW PPVs relied on. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence that Khan announced his purchase of Ring of Honor a mere four days before AEW\u2019s last \u201cepic\u201d PPV because it was around that same time that Khan\u2019s attention span got sliced up three ways. One slice of Khan\u2019s mental pie chart went to Ring of Honor, one slice went to AEW, and one slice piefaced unsuspecting casual fans with a New Japan partnership that gave birth to the Forbidden Door PPV, which still sounds like the name of a NSFW subreddit.<\/p>\n<p>When Khan focused solely on telling stories within AEW, he was good \u2014 extremely good. All Out 2021 was heralded by many as the best PPV since WrestleMania 17, and interestingly enough, WrestleMania 17 was heralded by many as a \u201cpinnacle\u201d event that just so happened to take place days after the acquisition of a major company. Maybe there\u2019s a lesson there. WrestleMania 17 marked the beginning of a long, slow slide for WWE.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want AEW to \u201cslide.\u201d I want AEW to be good again &#8211; extremely good again. I believe it can be. That\u2019s why I\u2019m writing this column. AEW is a beautiful intricate thing that wasn\u2019t supposed to happen but somehow did. It\u2019s a company that defied the odds, created an alternative in a monopolized market, embraced in-ring action over glossy presentation, and sold kick-ass wrestling t-shirts. AEW should be sustained at all costs &#8211; even if it means jettisoning ROH.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not a hater; I\u2019m not an internet troll; I\u2019m not even a journalist. I am a fan. I\u2019m a huge, impassioned, unashamed wrestling fan, and in many ways, I\u2019m also AEW\u2019s key demographic \u2014 and not just age-wise. I\u2019m a lapsed viewer who loves the indie scene and believes there is a wider wrestling audience chomping at the bits for a more mature product. I\u2019m not writing this editorial out of hate for AEW; I\u2019m writing it out of love for AEW. I\u2019m writing it because I think someone like Tony Khan is smart enough to tell the difference between advice that comes from a place of disdain versus advice that comes from the heart.<\/p>\n<p>Khan is a smart man. He is smart enough to know that adding a million explosions to a movie doesn\u2019t make you a good director; it makes you Michael Bay. He\u2019s smart enough to know that adding every ingredient in the kitchen doesn\u2019t make you a good cook; it makes you me. And he\u2019s smart enough to know that if someone orders AEW but gets a heaping helping of Ring of Honor, they\u2019re not going to appreciate what\u2019s on their plate. Papa John\u2019s doesn\u2019t belong at Red Lobster, Cardi B. doesn\u2019t belong on a Phoebe Bridgers\u2019 album, and 15 titles don\u2019t belong on three hours of weekly TV.<\/p>\n<p>To quote Staszewski, \u201cAEW can\u2019t keep going on like this.\u201d To quote \u201cThe Shape of Water,\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t want an intricate beautiful thing destroyed!\u201d and to quote Timothee Chalamet, \u201cWho is that creep peeping into my window, and why is he wearing a kick-ass wrestling t-shirt?\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>(David Bryant\u2019s totally normal amount of selfies can be found on his Instagram account @IamDavidBryant, and his many, many Wordle scores can be found on his Twitter account, which is also @IamDavidBryant because David Bryant is not good at naming things. He previously covered AEW Dark for PWTorch.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2778244705\"><div id=\"pwtor-118059131\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>In the winter of 2017, I had a crush on Timothee Chalamet (Still do. HMU.), and I was ecstatic to see \u201cCall Me By Your Name,\u201d which had just expanded to 114 theaters the week <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/10\/17\/out-of-bounds-roh-dynamite-and-something-about-aew-i-guess\/\" title=\"OUT OF BOUNDS: ROH Dynamite! (And something about AEW, I guess?)\u00a0\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-17-at-2.16.30-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147893,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147879\/revisions\/147893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}