The TV viewer number for AEW “Dynamite” was down 15.1 percent this week, with “Dynamite” having the bad luck of going up against an all-time classic Game 4 of the NBA Finals being the excuse.
I wonder if there’s also a factor of June being a bad month for AEW fans because of the dumb gimmick pay-per-view that the month’s programming is leading into.
I was a fan, initially, of the “Forbidden Door” concept, which puts AEW talents into matchups with talents from likes of New Japan, Stardom and CMLL.
The problem is: Tony Khan has so successfully raided the other promoters’ rosters for their best talents that, basically, who ‘dey got that any of us want to see?
It used to be the allure of, Okada! Shibata! Mistico! Ospreay!
Now they’re all All Elite.
The current IWGP champ is a guy named Yota Tsuji whose name I had to look up, he’s so unknown to me.
Tsuji beat somebody I have seen once named Callum Newman yesterday at the New Japan “Dominion” show, which used to give us Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega, but that was when Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega were signed with New Japan.
I’ll still be interested in whatever the Zach Sabre Jr. match is for “Forbidden Door,” just because Zack Sabre Jr. matches are different than any other – but then, you can only watch so many Zack Sabre Jr. matches before they start to look alike.
I hope he stays in Japan, basically – because otherwise, I’d have no interest in “Forbidden Door.”
This time around, looks like we’re getting ZSJ vs. Omega, which should be fun, watching Omega getting tied up like a pretzel for 20 minutes, before stealing the win.
The only other “Forbidden Door” concept match in the works at the moment is Thekla defending the AEW women’s belt against Starlight Kid, which has a nice storyline backdrop, with her kayfabe firing from Stardom last year.
Aside from that, it’s Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland in one Owen Hart tourney final, a women’s final that we can presume will match up Mercedes Mone and Athena, and a throwaway six-on-six match meant to set up a future MJF-Mark Briscoe title match, which, yawn.
I mean, I’ll tune in, because even with the lack of interesting stories going in, Khan always pulls off an entertaining show when it comes to his pay-per-views.
But do I need to tune in each week to see the interesting stories meant to get us there?
The Finals are over; the new all-night gas station is starting to lose its luster.
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Chris Graham
