No Time to Celebrate: AEW Needs Heels Now
This Wednesday, Hangman Adam Page is going to walk out to the ring live on AEW Dynamite and give a victory speech. It's going to be a moment of catharsis for many AEW fans. After a lengthy and rocky, to say the least, championship from Jon Moxley, it feels like there's once again wind behind the pro wrestling promotion's sails. Fans deserve this moment. AEW deserves this moment. It’s the end of a dark period in AEW, going all the way back to when CM Punk's assault on the Young Bucks stunted positivity and excitement for the company for years.
Once Hangman finishes his speech, however, there's no time to celebrate. It's not just that pro wrestling doesn't get time to sit back and relax. It's that AEW has work to do. Despite the excitement surrounding Hangman's championship victory, AEW's momentum is tenuous. A lot of effort went into the build for All In, leaving AEW to scramble to prepare for August's Forbidden Door PPV and beyond. But, perhaps more than any other issue facing the company, AEW desperately needs new heels.
This Wednesday, Hangman Adam Page is going to walk out to the ring and give a speech, and once he's done or perhaps by the end of the show we'll have some idea for who his next opponent will be. What his next storyline is. The problem with that, however, is the lack of choices. Knowing AEW, it's likely that Hangman's feud with Moxley and the Death Riders isn't over yet. This aligns with past AEW booking issues regarding wheel spinning, as Tony Khan struggles to let go of finished stories and commit to new directions. The alternative, as set up at All In, is MJF. MJF continues to be the "top heel" of AEW in terms of TV time and booking prominence. But as fans know, Tony Khan's booking favoritism for MJF has been a major contributor to why AEW's struggled to regain momentum over the past several years — his storylines haven't delivered, his matches have underwhelmed. Even so, MJF and more Moxley are the two most likely paths forward for Hangman Adam Page. And that's not great.
What AEW should do, needs to do, is establish and pursue new heels within the promotion. With a beloved champion newly crowned, it is the perfect time to inject something fresh into the other side of this binary. There were opportunities to do that at All In. Ricochet could have won the battle royale rather than MJF. The faces involved in Hangman's match could have hinted at heel turns. Anything, really. But that didn't happen. Which means that if AEW wants to make Hangman's run reinvigorating like the build to his All In match was, there's work to be done on Dynamite. That's if AEW is genuinely interested in moving forward rather than backward — which there's no guarantee of.
Don’t forget, Hangman Adam Page also won the AEW World Championship in 2022 in spectacular fashion, capping off a years-long storyline and ending AEW’s most successful championship and champion of all time, Kenny Omega. Tony Khan never gave Hangman a chance to thrive after he won the belt, though. He focused instead on MJF and CM Punk, which we can now all look back on as a clearly incorrect decision. Keep that decision in mind come Wednesday. Does AEW make its path forward about Hangman Adam Page and the fresh, new opportunities he can create for AEW’s next generation of heels? Or has AEW learned little, and we’re still living in MJF and the Death Riders’ world with Hangman along for the ride?
With all of us, yet again, just along for the ride.
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Thanks everyone for reading this short newsletter! I had some strong feelings on the direction of AEW coming out of AEW and figured this was the best place to share them. Y’all subscribed for this kind of stuff, after all! Sorry that it has been so long since the last email. I’m going to try and do shorter newsletter/thought pieces going forward rather than long ones. That should be more manageable. Hope everyone had a great time with All In! Take care!
-modernmarks