AEW: The Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti love angle isn’t working

A lot of content that AEW presents each week goes over well with the fans. Just last week, two hotly contested matchups, one on Dynamite and the other on Rampage, are early frontrunners for Match of the Year. But that doesn’t mean everything works. After a few weeks of trying, the budding storyline that has pushed the Tay Conti and Sammy Guevara’s real-life relationship to the screen isn’t going over so well. With the direction it is heading, the creative minds behind AEW should cut and run while they can.

In AEW’s brief history, there have been a few moments when on screen presentation didn’t quite hit the mark. One of the biggest strengths the company has shown is that they are capable of course-correcting, rather than staying on the course that isn’t having the impact anticipated. “Hangman” Adam Page’s early presentation, and the first iteration of The Dark Order are examples of moments where the company made a calculated change for the better. If this angle with Sammy, Tay, and Dan Lambert doesn’t change, then it needs to go away entirely.

No one should be surprised that AEW fans aren’t keen on the real-life love angle coming to their television screen. Everything about this booking feels disjointed from the rest of the show. It’s like Guevara and Conti were slapped into this position to replace Cody and Brandi Rhodes after their exits from the promotion. Lambert needed a couple to feud with so he can continue to denigrate women on television every week, so let’s use Conti and Guevara. Just as much of the Rhodes involvement felt separate from everything else on AEW television, this storyline feels starkly different from the rest of the shows.

What’s worse is this angle is overshadowing Scorpio Sky’s presentation as champion. Fans pushed for his singles run since the start of AEW and for a moment it looked like the time has come. Unfortunately, he’s saddled with being a part of this angle that isn’t central to him being a well-booked champion like the others that held this title. It would be unfortunate to see fans turn against his run as a champion due to the overall disdain for this angle.

There’s something about putting real-life relationships on-screen that doesn’t work within professional wrestling or sports entertainment. AEW specializes in putting the former ahead of the latter, that’s why it’s so cringy to watch Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti try to convince the viewers they are cool because they have sex. Hopefully, AEW will take a moment to recess this angle as it has already cut into the momentum that some were riding.