The honeymoon phase is officially over at AEW
If you caught the latest edition of Dynamite, you probably walked away with the same sour taste as the rest of the vocal minority on social media. We are living through a weird moment in wrestling where the high-flying spectacles of the past are constantly colliding with booking decisions that feel like they were written on the back of a cocktail napkin. The June 17 broadcast was a perfect microcosm of what is currently wrong, and let’s be real, it was anything but smooth.
The pacing was erratic. We saw segments that felt like they were dragged out by twenty minutes just to hit a broadcast quota, while actual character development was shoved into a three-minute rush job. You cannot expect fans to stay glued to the screen when storylines are moving with the urgency of a sloth in a sauna. It felt like we were watching a promotion trying to do too much while accomplishing absolutely nothing.
The ring work couldn't save the paper-thin angles
Look, credit where it is due: the actual wrestling talent is still the best in the industry. But we are past the point where a decent sequence of moves can mask a complete lack of narrative weight. When you have top-tier athletes trading spots without a meaningful reason, it turns into a glorified house show. That is exactly what we got on this episode, a collection of matches that lacked the emotional payoff required for television.
The lack of a coherent thread linking the mid-card to the main event is starting to leave a glaring hole in the presentation. You can find the recap of those disjointed segments over at the PWInsider archive. It feels like the creative direction is being improvised on the fly, which might have worked in the early days, but that strategy is now falling apart under the weight of a bloated roster.
The missed opportunity with the latest roster rotation
There was a specific segment involving a mid-card grudge match that could have been the highlight of the night. Instead, we got interference that made the heel look weak and the face look unobservant. It is a tired tactic that feels like a relic from decades ago. Why go through the effort of building a rivalry if the payoff is a chaotic mess that settles absolutely nothing?
We need to talk about the booking philosophy, which currently leans too heavily on the shock value. They are fishing for a viral moment every single week at the expense of long-term planning. It is frankly exhausting to track. Even the most dedicated fans are starting to check their watches during segments that should be explosive. If the goal is to drive engagement, this current path is doing the opposite by alienating the base. You cannot win a ratings war if the writing staff treats every episode like a stand-alone event with no continuity. By the time they reached the 9:45 PM segment, the crowd energy had audibly shifted from anticipation to apathy, which is the kiss of death for a show that prides itself on being the alternative.
Where does the creative team go from here?
Change is needed, not just on the roster but in the writers' room. They need to stop chasing external trends and focus on consistent, logical character arcs. Wrestling is about the build, the tension, and the release. Right now, AEW is forgetting the middle part entirely. If they keep relying on random pairings to fill time, the audience is going to keep tuning out. It is time to treat the product with the respect it deserves, or stop pretending they are doing something different from the status quo.
