"WWE continued to cozy up to authoritarians both domestically and abroad. They botched John Cena's retirement tour. They broke barriers in how much advertisement-laden downtime can fill a major show. They stuck their hands into puppet promotions like TNA in the States and AAA in Mexico. And they continued to be something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe of wrestling: a corporate colossus where beautiful stars subordinate their talents to a bland, lifeless synergy where every artistic choice is made by looking at a balance sheet."
"Khan runs the No. 2 promotion All Elite Wrestling, and he is a freakishly obsessive nerd whose challenger brand really does reflect his particular creative sensibilities-even if they've started to wear thin on me. AEW's 2025 felt like a holding pattern. Their TV seemed less essential than ever, and their attendance numbers were rarely remarkable, but they proved they can still deliver on the big events."
"This was the year I got sick of what I would call the "banger" match, which is AEW's bread and butter. The banger match, more or less, is when the story of a contest is "two evenly matched athletic competitors do increasingly insane moves to each other until eventually one of them doesn't kick out." The goal of the match is not to get the spectators invested in one particular result, but to overwhelm them with fireworks until they're chanting "quo"
WWE continued to cozy up to authoritarians both domestically and abroad. They botched John Cena's retirement tour and stretched major shows with advertisement-laden downtime. WWE intervened in puppet promotions like TNA in the United States and AAA in Mexico. The company operated like a corporate colossus, prioritizing balance-sheet-driven choices over performers' creativity. Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling maintained a distinct creative ethos, but AEW in 2025 felt like a holding pattern with less-essential TV and modest attendance. AEW still delivered big events, yet the promotion needs fresh inspiration. The 'banger' match formula grew wearisome as a primary storytelling device.
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