Likes:

LIKE: Toni Storm doing everything she can to make the feud with Serena Deeb worthwhile. I love both ladies, but this feud is struggling to come off well on television. Storm is way above the whole heel-face dynamic at this point, and Deeb is more foil-of-the-week than a heroine that is trying to take down a dastardly villainess. However, Deeb playing the straightwoman to Storm's bawdy comedy is a redeemable dynamic. The hijinks—and I am sure there will be plenty—will be interesting come Double or Nothing.

LIKE: TNA's 16-person Tag Match. When I read about this match on the spoilers, I feared that it would be a sloppy mess that was typical of TNA's yesteryears. Instead, I saw a 20-plus minute party tag team match that was clean, easy to follow, with good bits of storytelling throughout. Joe Hendry got the win for the TNA All Star team by pinning TNA World Tag Team Champion Bryan Myers. This match never spun out of control, and it is a testament to very clever planning by TNA producers.

LIKE: Jade Cargill's Mama Bear sass coming to WWE. Jade Cargill has made it a point in her career that her role as a mother is going to be a major part of her on-screen character. That has not changed in WWE. Nia Jax hilariously talked mess to Cargill's daughter, in which the Mama Bear came out and whacked Nia Jax with a chair. While it disqualified her from the Queen of the Ring tournament — and avoided a match with tag team partner Bianca Belair — it was a nice touch to show some depth to Cargill's WWE character.

LIKE: NXT in general. In many ways, NXT is beginning to remind me of early AEW: just a weekly party. Not everything lands perfectly, but the character-driven nature of the show makes NXT an interesting universe in of itself. This past week's show was no different, and I really liked the cliffhanger of Gallus returning to wreak havoc in the mid card scene. Battleground is shaping up to be interesting.

Dislikes:

DISLIKE: As much as I want to dig this Elite vs AEW story, it is just coming off as really tacky. This storyline is has an interesting situation: great parts, mediocre whole. The individual personalities in this storyline are all doing a fantastic job (and yes, that includes Jack Perry). However, the TV is a bit uneven as it seems that AEW prioritizing very predictable pro wrestling tropes to sell a match (that's too early to have) over taking the opportunity to tell a very nuanced story about power and corruption.

DISLIKE: World champions not being the top main character(s) of programming. On one hand, I think Swerve Strickland’s feud with Christian Cage and The Patriarchy has been good. It is a story of a reformed villain-now-hero having to answer for the errors of his previous ways. However, it isn't even the biggest story being told in AEW at the moment. It seems that almost every promotion on TV is avoiding having storylines top men (or women's) champions as its primary focus. It's annoying. It's quite a turn off.

DISLIKE: Cody Rhodes - a great talent and a great guy with very bad material to work with. You can tell that a business decision was made here with WWE trying really hard to make something work for the main event in Saudi. To their credit, the contract segment between Rhodes and Logan Paul resolved a glaring plot issue in taking the United States Championship out of the match. The outcome couldn't be more obvious. Rhodes has yet to hit his stride as a TV character, and in a seeming holding pattern until The Rock returns, he's not going to. The WWE audience still loves him, so he has plenty of mileage—for now.

DISLIKE: Not too crazy about the idea that Saudi Arabia might get a WrestleMania or Royal Rumble. Sportswashing is disgusting and I've never been a fan of WWE's partnership with Saudi Arabia. I'm definitely not a fan of the Kingdom getting one of WWE's two storied super card events. For a company that is trying to show fans that it is cleaning up its act, continuing to do business in the name of state propaganda is unsettling. But investors love it (because of the windfall), so my opinion doesn't matter that much.

Observations:

OBSERVATION: Pro wrestling is scripted entertainment and I'm not giving it a pass. I'm a guy that values story over in-ring action. I got to a point where I am so accustomed to solid in-ring action across every promotion I pay attention to, I've become exclusively interested in what more can a promotion can offer to me as a viewer in presenting their fictional universe. That means I am looking for promotions to push more nuanced storylines, showcase stronger character work, and adopt a level of discipline in its TV offerings that is on par with other examples of scripted television. Pro wrestling is over the top and ridiculous by nature, but its still fiction. I am still going to hold it to the same standard as other TV shows.

OBSERVATION: I'm not second guessing Cody Rhodes being champion; I am second guessing the timing. With Roman Reigns off to film a movie, I'm not sure if this would have made a difference, but my biggest concern about Rhodes is admittedly coming to fruition.

Leading up to WrestleMania, you may remember my assertion that Rhodes was not as deep of a TV character as Roman Reigns and he certainly is not in the echelon of The Rock. I argued that SummerSlam would have been the better time for Rhodes to "finish his story" because while many of you were deeply invested in a fairy tale ending, I analyzed things from the peripherals: the TV surrounding Rhodes had not been all that great in the past year, and it only improved during Wrestlemania season because of The Rock's involvement.

I felt that WWE needed more time to build Rhodes as a TV character that was on par with Reigns. Extending "the story" four more months would have not hurt Rhodes as a merchandise seller or a crowd-pleasing babyface. His standing would have not have been damaged whatsoever. However, WWE opted to "pivot" and hey, that main event was damn sure entertaining.

However, the TV surrounding Rhodes since then has been middling at most. As the company's top champion—and presumably its main character—he should be at the focal point of the strongest storylines in the company. In reality, he's not even among the company's 5 most compelling characters. As I said before and I'll say it again: it is not Rhodes' fault.

OBSERVATION: AEW's ratings are terrible, but they are not alarming. AEW is not going to get canceled anytime soon. All of AEW's TV offerings are still comfortably in the top 30 on a regular basis. The company may be doing fairly strong on streaming media. There have been no reports whatsoever of Warner Bros Discovery being unhappy with the promotion. However, what AEW has going on now is not a winner. Broadcasts lack real urgency; the content is at times entertaining, but mostly very shallow; and AEW brass still does not understand that great matches does not automatically mean great television. I would think AEW would get this after 5 years, but alas.

OBSERVATION: If I can be very honest here: AEW is just bad. It is not good. And I say this as someone that was really a big supporter of AEW and consistently bought every one of their pay-per-views for 4 years.

There are a handful of things that are redeemable about AEW, but if I am being frank, the sum of good parts does not make a great whole. Five years into their existence and the company is still really tacky at television.

Some of you that are die-hard supporters of AEW and look, I am not knocking your support of the promotion. If you are an ardent fan of AEW, then I'm all for it. I think AEW is good for the industry. I think AEW is good for pro wrestling fans. But it doesn't change the fact that the company's content is often sloppy, undisciplined, and lacking structure.

Pro wrestling is a performance art, but more importantly, it is a television genre that borrows a lot from other forms of scripted television. AEW wants to be the "pro wrestling" company—great. But the company has to prove that it has far more to offer its audience than just "great" wrestling matches.

Any promotion that's on television needs to focus on being the best television show possible; perhaps more so than being just a great wrestling show. Good promo segments and good wrestling matches does not automatically equal good television. The roster may include Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, Mercedes Moné, and Adam Copeland, but AEW as a whole has not taken any meaningful step forward; if anything, AEW has stagnated as the company has not mounted any real response to WWE's enormous improvement of their programming.

So what does AEW do? Well one thing AEW boss Tony Khan could admit is that he needs to get better at television. I mean, sure cord cutting and NBA/NHL playoffs may be a factor, but it doesn't fully explain why there has been a precipitous drop in interest. It comes down to the same issue that WWE use to have: falling behind contemporaneous standards in scripted television, where today's TV audiences are seeking more nuance, depth, and detail.

Like I said above, pro wrestling does not have an excuse: it's also a form of scripted entertainment. And all the great workrate matches and cool Toni Storm promos is not going to change reality: AEW is weak at television and it's driving off fans. Maybe it is at the point that Khan should seriously consider giving up the "pencil" (at least for weekly television).