AEW hot take: The company is in danger of making mistakes creatively

While watching AEW Dynamite this past Wednesday, there was a brief mention of AEW celebrating an anniversary in a few months. The joy quickly turned into worry since it has been almost three years, and AEW seems to be stuck creatively.

AEW has taken pride in letting wrestlers take control. While that has benefits for some competitors like Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, and Nyla Rose to name a few, the company is in danger of repeating an old mistake that made fans sour on WWE.

AEW is in danger of making major mistakes creatively.

While watching the most recent episode of Dynamite, something seemed a little off. As a fan of the product, it brings some concerns about the direction of the company creatively. There were a few moments that brought us concern about the future that all of us hope AEW can turn around.

MJF whipping Wardlow 10 times felt like a repeat in history happening. This was the same method that MJF used a while ago on Cody Rhodes. Is this going to be the norm every so often, where MJF resorts to the same playbook?

MJF himself has resorted to repetitive tactics to some degree and it now has become noticeable. It may spell trouble in more ways than one as MJF looks to move forward with this rivalry. He is so talented and can speak circles around anyone, but if the material is stale, it doesn’t matter.

It’s understandable that AEW wants to give a degree of power to the wrestlers without overstepping, but now, it seems that there is a slump. The number one rule of creativity is that sometimes there are good ideas and sometimes there are bad ideas on either side, but it’s a team effort to bring it all together.

The other issue of utilizing the same formula happened during Chris Jericho’s segment. Jericho may call himself the wizard, but that segment was far from magical as he resorted to cheap shots at the Blackpool Combat Club, specifically William Regal and Jon Moxley’s, personal lives.

Seriously, didn’t WWE do that with CM Punk and Jeff Hardy already? Didn’t R-Truth already have a similar storyline in WWE? The point is that it’s outdated and shows a lack of creativity in resorting to personal life attacks.

When fans see Jericho or certain other superstars, they know to expect a cheap personal shot or something that doesn’t work out as they hoped. That predictability is like watching a horror film that may have a good direction, but uses the same cliches that may ruin the experience.

Even though there isn’t a creative team scrambling to please the big boss in AEW, there certainly is a scramble to step it up and hope for a better reaction. This is especially true when a creative decision misses the mark.

In all major companies, there have been times when superstars had a degree of creative freedom, but just because a superstar likes it, doesn’t mean fans will react positively to it. That fine line of what’s entertaining for just a few or many more tends to be hard to decipher.

Whether it’s something small like entrance music that doesn’t make sense for their character, or it seems their character is all over the place with no sign of focus, the entertainment aspect kicks in real fast when superstars need that help to kick it up the next level.

Some wrestlers have mastered this art and don’t need help, but other wrestlers do and are stuck on a wheel, whether it’s them showing on AEW Dynamite with stalled stories or elements missing that leave a large void that desperately needs to be filled.

What can AEW do in the future?

Having a creative team is not an Easy-Bake solution, because fans have witnessed what happens when there is a creative team. That said, there needs to be structure and harmony that brings it all together while staying true to identity.

It’s not to say they need a full-on creative team with a whole layout, but having a creative consultant as a third brain, focus groups, pitching, and one-on-one help with wrestlers who aren’t fully involved to help keep the merchandise fresh will be imperative.

This will help bring fresh ideas that will keep flowing and it won’t be a repeat for stars and a stalemate for other stars. This way, they would have a fresh perspective when it’s another person or group of people involved to help the storylines and star building process.

It will ultimately help avoid situations similar to what was seen on AEW Dynamite recently, where it seems to be a cycle. Some fans of the product have already taken notice of the issue and it could get worse the longer AEW remains an active company.

Will everything be perfect with more creative input? Absolutely not, but it will add to the proverbial infrastructure of AEW and make it so the company has actual direction creatively for their stars and storylines.

They have some of the most talented wrestlers in the world, and it makes absolutely zero sense for such big personalities to not have good direction.

The solution would solve so many of AEW programming woes and bring it all together with a creative harmony to truly give fans something they have never seen before. All fans want is the best wrestling and entertainment, so far the wrestling side has been great, but the entertainment side has lagged.

Hopefully, AEW will address these issues and, honestly, they can’t go wrong with a multitude of solutions to the problem. AEW had a good start creatively, but as always, there is room for improvement and that room for improvement is much wider than initially expected.