The following article is an opinion piece and may not represent the views or opinions of Biff Bam Pop!’s contributors or editorial staff. It might, but it might not.
They call people like me, hardcore fans of All Elite Wrestling, “sickos.” More accurately, we call ourselves sickos. It fits. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen, we want it darker.
We will enthusiastically discuss our favorite performers and storylines. If you ask one of us about our favorite AEW matches, then you should brew a pot of coffee and take a seat. You’re gonna be there a while. You want to find a sicko in a crowd? Yell “Cowboy Shit” and see who responds. We appreciate the technical skill of the performers. There’s some old-school violence for us old ECW and WCW fans (before it all went to hell in a McMahon basket), even if we have to watch it through half-shut, wincing eyes. AEW is the wrestling company for us.
AEW has been in existence for almost six years now, and it has finally hit its stride. It has rebounded from the CM Punk incident, survived the loss of Cody Rhodes, and overcome the cancellation of one of its regular television programs. Booking is solid, long-term creative storytelling is in full effect, and the company’s decision to run smaller arenas for their weekly shows has paid off in ticket sales and overwhelming crowd energy.
From my perspective, it’s a good time to be a sicko.
But as AEW prepares for one of its biggest events of the year, the All Out pay-per-view, a few things should be ironed out. At times, the company seems to trip over its own bootlaces. Taken one at a time, these things may not seem big. Look at them all together, and the issues are noticeable. Here’s my stark confession of the day.
I’m baffled.
The Times, They Are A-Changin’
All Out was originally scheduled to take place at 8:00 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, the 20th. Nighttime pay-per-views are standard in the industry, so that time slot wasn’t a shock. No, the surprise came on September 3, when AEW shifted All Out‘s start time to 3:00 PM. That’s a full five hours earlier. Imagine you’re flying into town for the show, or you have to pick up someone at the airport before driving to the venue. Those five missing hours are enough to screw up anyone’s travel plans. Fans were upset, and rightfully so.
To be fair, AEW’s pay-per-views usually run about five or six hours, including the pre-show. That’s nothing if you’re a sicko, but for anyone else, that length of time challenges your endurance and your bladder capacity. In that respect, an afternoon show makes sense. You’re finished by 8:00 or 9:00 at night, you grab a late dinner, and still have time to decompress before hitting the hay. If you want to get crazy, you stay up a little while longer and watch the post-event media scrum.
However, it’s probably not a coincidence that WWE, AEW’s main competitor, scheduled its inaugural Wrestlepalooza pay-per-view in Indianapolis on the same night and at the same time as All Out. WWE has been counter-programming AEW as of late, changing its event times to go head-to-head with AEW shows. Tell me WWE sees AEW as a threat without telling me WWE sees AEW as a threat.
Rescheduling All Out was a controversial move, certainly inconvenient for those planning to attend in person. Even though AEW’s television ratings have seen a recent upswing, it may not be enough to confidently take on the sports entertainment juggernaut that is WWE.
But if not now, when? Even if AEW got trounced in buy rate numbers by WWE, it would show that underdog AEW isn’t afraid of the Big Guys, taking on the establishment and showcasing its greatest strength: wrestling. AEW must stand its ground, shake the top rope, and not back down.
I Heard It on the X
WWE is a MAGA-run company. They don’t hide it, so don’t get pissy in the comments. President Donald Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame. Linda McMahon, the wife of former WWE leader Vince McMahon, is the United States Secretary of Education. Triple H is part of a White House physical fitness committee. Look: this isn’t a judgment call on the company, but we’ve seen the reciprocal scratching of backs.
Friends, the US is a flaming brown paper bag filled with sheep poop right now. Much of that messiness can be blamed on social media, specifically X, formerly known as Twitter. Company president Elon Musk has infused X with the artificial intelligence program, Grok, which doesn’t always answer questions with neutrality or honesty. Musk himself has said questionable things that could lead one to believe he is a racist, misogynistic, shit-stirrer who won’t shut up about right-wing politics. It’s like if your uncle got drunk on prison gin, snorted a bunch of amyl nitrate, and then made the entire world listen to his thoughts on eugenics.
So why is AEW, which wears its left-leaning politics on its sleeve, showing messages from X during matches? AEW has built a reputation for being an inclusive company. Gay, queer, and trans wrestlers are integral parts of the roster, and they actually get screen time. They hold titles. When Nyla Rose joined AEW, she became the first openly transgender wrestler to sign a contract with a major American wrestling company. Rose went on to become AEW’s second Women’s World Champion. LGBTQIA workers are an integral part of AEW. Displaying posts from X, which is overwhelmingly non-inclusive, feels like a pump kick to the throat of marginalized communities, many of whom left X because of constant harassment, threats, and abuse.
Even AEW’s current World Men’s Heavyweight Champion, “Hangman” Adam Page, noped out of X to post about plants on another social media network, Bluesky. How come AEW audiences don’t get to see posts about Adam Page from the social network Adam Page uses?
Wrestling has a wide audience, and fans love to talk about the sport on social media, regardless of platform. But if you’re going to force people to see posts from a social media network, don’t exclusively use the one that has gone out of its way to hurt your audience. We’re sickos, not sycophants.
Author’s Note: On Wednesday’s Dynamite/Collision combination show, September to Remember, viewers were shown social media posts from X and Threads, an alternate social media network spun off from Instagram. Instagram and Threads are owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Meta and its largest shareholder. I don’t use Threads, so I can’t say if it is more inclusive than X. I contend that AEW should show posts from all relevant social media platforms or show none at all. The methods of representation are as important as the representation itself.
TV Party
When it was announced that AEW programming would be simulcast on HBO MAX, I was ecstatic because I thought the show would be presented without commercials. As usually happens when I experience ecstasy, I was misinformed. Even though Dynamite and Collision look and sound approximately 973 times better on HBO MAX than they do on cable, we still get advertisements and a jittery stream I need to refresh four or five times per show. [I did the speed test. It’s not my computer.]
Author’s Note: As I watched September to Remember on HBO MAX, I had to refresh the feed three times. When the program switched mid-match from the two-hour-long Dynamite portion to the one-hour-long Collision section, I was shown a static advertisement for All Out for approximately four minutes. There was no smooth transition from one section to the next, and I had to return to the main menu to restart the show. This caused me to miss the ending of a women’s match that was slapping harder than Joan Crawford on a vodka bender. Instructions for how to continue the show would have been appreciated. Even multi-unit physical media sets tell you when to switch discs. It is my fervent hope that other sickos did not have this experience. If I have to restart All Out on Saturday, I will be pissed.
Saturday’s All Out show marks the first time an AEW pay-per-view will be available for purchase on HBO MAX. That is a big deal. You can still order All Out through other cable and satellite providers, but HBO MAX subscribers receive a discounted price. Funny enough, Wrestlepalooza marks the first time WWE pay-per-views will be available on ESPN. Isn’t it weird how things work? The wrestling world is strange to you and me.
HBO MAX already broadcasts AEW’s television shows live and in color (unless Timeless Toni Storm is on screen, in which case it’s black and white, but I digress). There’s also an extensive archive of AEW programming on HBO MAX, both regular series episodes and special events. It’s a crash course for the sickos.
Here’s where it gets weird.
If we go by how AEW has traditionally done things, the pre-show for pay-per-views (Zero Hour, except for the annual Double or Nothing PPV, which has a pre-show called The Buy-In because, you know, gambling) starts 90 minutes before the main card. If you tune into HBO MAX or TNT on standard cable at 2:00 PM that Saturday, you’ll get a special live event called the Tailgate Brawl. That’s great for some consumers, mainly those in North America. However, if you’re a sicko who orders the PPV via a different platform, such as YouTube, you’ll get a pre-taped Zero Hour pre-show.
So, if you’re watching on TNT, HBO MAX, TSN, or AEWPlus (available on platforms like Triller), you’ll get to watch the Tailgate Brawl live. After the shows and the media scrum, you can watch Zero Hour, the other pre-show. That’s two different lead-ins for the same event, but why? Shouldn’t one pre-show across the board be enough to work that “order now” magic?
I understand that the main impetus for lead-in shows is to convince people to purchase the pay-per-views. What I don’t know is the effectiveness of that concept. How many people are swayed by IVPs (informative video packages) or their fear of missing out on an exclusive event? AEW features live matches on its lead-ins, adding an air of urgency to purchase by providing an example of what audiences will see. It’s what AEW star Jon Moxley calls the “beautiful violence of professional wrestling,” and you get it or you don’t.
But the last thing a wrestling company needs to do is confuse its audience. AEW has faced this problem before, particularly during hockey season, when its regularly scheduled programming got bounced around the schedule like a foster kid through state-sponsored homes to accommodate the NHL.
I hold every faith that this whole mess will be explained before All Out. Still, scheduling should be announced to the audience as clearly and as quickly as possible. That goes for pre-shows and special events alike.
Unnecessary disclaimer: I’m not a television production professional. On most days, I’m barely a professional writer. However, it seems that these small problems are knee-jerk reactions to larger issues. Making decisions on the fly is a part of everyday life. But on the scale on which AEW exists, quick turnarounds need to be kept to a minimum. Decisions this company makes affect its fans’ lives, their schedules, and to some extent, their hearts.
Look: I still love the product and I’ll be watching All Out this weekend. On Saturday, you’ll find me sitting down with my wife, who happens to enjoy muttering “Cowboy Shit” under her breath when Adam Page is in the ring, and yelling at my television when people get smacked in the head with aluminum cookie sheets.
I’m not blind to the problems in AEW, but thankfully, that’s not all I see.
There are what, 149 matches booked for All Out? That might be an exaggeration. Jeffery X Martin makes his predictions for match winners, title changes, and who’s gonna bleed in the next installment of Around the Loop!
