5 Things AEW can do to improve in the company's second year on TNT
The fact that All Elite Wrestling is even around is a success in and of itself. AEW provided a home for many wrestlers, as an alternative to big promotions like the WWE, IMPACT or NJPW. While those promotions have stemmed the tide, the likes of Ring of Honor, Major League Wrestling and other independent promotions have seen a slight loss of their performers.
AEW is one of the companies that has been able to operate through the pandemic rather than being forced to stop all activities. IMPACT has also been able to continue while ROH and MLW have not been able to.
Even though it's been around since the beginning of 2019, AEW Dynamite, their weekly TV show, will become a year old this October. While simply having a product for TV is a success, there are still some areas where AEW could improve. The match quality is usually pretty good and any time Chris Jericho, Britt Baker or MJF cut promos is a plus.
But like every promotion, AEW has some work to do to get better. Whether it involves the characters, storylines or structuring of matches themselves, AEW can get even better by making a few changes. Here are five alterations that could help AEW improve in its second year on TNT.
#5 Tweak some characters, be consistent with others
A lot of what AEW has been forced to do in 2020 has been dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic. They've been able to continue with Dynamite each week, but like every other wrestling company, they've only been able to use talent in their state, or those that have been able to travel to it.
International talents, like all of the Joshi women and the likes of the Lucha Brothers, were unavailable due to travel restrictions. Some of those factors led AEW to release both Bea Priestley and Sadie Gibbs. Both women were working in Japan, but Gibbs had only been shown backstage a few times and was rarely ever used. Simply using some characters that have returned will do wonders as absence sometimes makes us miss or forget them.
Another thing involves tweaking some characters to maintain consistency. Brandi Rhodes appears to be a heel during most of her matches and promos but is a face when she accompanies Cody to the ring. Keeping her on one side or the other would make things flow more smoothly. Cody has previously said that he doesn't want heels and faces set in stone, but the dynamic makes things a lot easier.
Joey Janela is the "Bad Boy" but he hasn't been used much during his time in AEW. All he's done is lose big matches to Lance Archer and Jon Moxley and feud over his girlfriend. Maybe they could make him a heel loose canon after he is done hanging with Sonny Kiss. Small changes to characters or consistency when someone shows up on TV more than once would help the flow of Dynamite.