AEW: Making the case for more tournaments on Dynamite

In order to make AEW Dynamite more compelling and make up for only doing four PPVs a year, AEW needs more large tournaments.

With the conclusion of the thrilling tag tournament a few weeks back and the ‘Diamond Ring’ ordeal that saw MJF become someone you want to punch in the face even more, AEW are left with no pay-per-view in sight and a few less reasons for people to tune in on a weekly basis.

Executive Vice-President Cody Rhodes has recently reiterated that AEW will be sticking to four pay-per-views a year. Part of what made the first few weeks of Dynamite better was not only the aforementioned tag tourney but also the brilliant buildup to the Cody/Jericho and Omega/Moxley matches.

Let’s face it, the past three episodes of Dynamite haven’t necessarily been the most exciting aside from the Jericho versus Scorpio Sky foreshadowing.

While AEW are still doing a banner job with long-term booking, building up proper angles, and making us care about these characters; it feels like the formulaic nature of it all could be detrimental to the quality everyone has heralded AEW for.

For me, the ‘Jericho Celebration’ was one of the least inspired segments since ‘Dynamite’ kicked off in October. Yes, Jeri-Goat will make for a hot selling piece of merchandise on Pro Wrestling Tees but this is exactly the type of content I wasn’t expecting.

As far as the ‘Diamond Ring’ ordeal goes, it manifested out of a mini battle royal and into a less than exciting tilt between MJF and Adam Page. It didn’t take a genius to figure out they’d have Friedman walking around with a pinky ring so he can gloat and do his usual heel shtick.

The problem with that is aside from telling us it was worth $40,000, there wasn’t much to fight for. While forty large is nothing to scoff at, how’s that going to help the victor progress to the top of the AEW rankings? What’s really at stake aside from a ring?–which is traditionally offered to champions in North American sports after a grueling eight-month season.

I love DDP but that’s not going to give me a reason to tune in every week.

Let’s keep in mind that there’s bound to be an eventual mid-card title tournament in the foreseeable future. An actual ‘Intercontinental’ style belt where the titleholder is likely working towards a shot at the world championship. A workhorse belt held by a wrestler who commands respect in the locker room and in the ring.

Until that happens, AEW should consider introducing yearly tournaments–similar to what New Japan and other organizations do with the Super Juniors, Tag League, and G1.

Alright, I can hear some of you neckbeards clamoring already, settle down will ya?

Having structured yearly tournaments allows the organization to not only put on more matches that mean something–since the narrative regarding win streaks and losses is omnipresent–it also allows the new league to build more rivalries.

Similar to what we saw with SCU and the Lucha Bros during the tag tournament where Pentagon Jr. dropped Christopher Daniels on his head which unfortunately didn’t manifest into anything substantial aside from Daniels cosplaying as Penta at ‘Full Gear’.

On top of that, it continues to showcase the young talent on the AEW roster like it did for Private Party during the tag team tournament. If we’re taking it one step further, a tournament would frankly do wonders for an oft-forgotten women’s division.

The mere prospect of Bea Priestley facing off against Kris Statlander for a shot at the Women’s title–and the right to throw Riho all over the ring–is exciting, to say the least.

Most importantly, they help effectively fill out the buffer episodes of ‘Dynamite’ following a big pay-per-view and help kick-start new rivalries while continuing to rotate the talent between ‘Dark’ and ‘Dynamite’–as they’ve done perfectly so far.

A good portion of AEW fans are familiar with the characters because they discovered them during their respective runs in Japan. Which means seeing Darby Allin standing in the ring with a trophy twice his size wouldn’t be weird at all.

Considering AEW’s desire to stick with four big pay-per-views a year, the addition of four big tournaments which can happen exclusively on ‘Dynamite’ will likely bring more balance to what is already a very balanced product.