The Cons of the AEW Rankings Returning

Throughout 2023, I remember reading on various social media posts and forum threads other fans saying: “Bring back the rankings”.

This felt like shorthand as much for the creative period of AEW that was facilitated by the rankings than just for the rankings themselves. There are plenty of benefits and positives to the rankings. These I’ve covered elsewhere.

Yet there were flaws before. There are also different issues now to then that hopefully, AEW Creative has already planned to address.

The AEW World Champion @SamoaJoe sets the stage as the rankings return to #AEWDynamite

We are LIVE on @TBSNetwork pic.twitter.com/t90h2FLYEu

— AEW on TV (@AEWonTV) January 25, 2024

The Limitations of Structure  

The beauty of the rankings was that they gave a firm structure to AEW programming. The rankings made it obvious the big narrative for all wrestlers is to win matches, climb the rankings, and become/remain a champion.

Nevertheless, the rankings are just an outline. If AEW were a picture, the rankings would be the outlines. The color that fills in the gaps, that grabs the audience, needs to be provided by the creative and the wrestlers.

As I discuss in the benefits, the rankings provide clarity, and logic and are simple in showing fans how wrestling works in AEW. Careful thought, planning, and adaptability will be needed to fill in the gaps because creative, as any fantasy booker can only dream, is easy until it clashes with reality.

Rankings Can’t Absolve Overusing Tropes

Tony Khan as a booker is a wrestling fan and this shows in his booking. However, Khan tends to be repetitive and over-rely on tropes that at first please the fans, but then become shortcut measures to progress storylines or book matches.

Overuse and excess of tropes can lead to diminishing returns. There were six tournaments in 2023, with mixed success, various champions issuing open challenges, and undefeated streaks, and the “Forbidden Door” has devolved into a revolving door.

Khan might find new tropes to use repeatedly within the ranking system. Or he relies on old tropes because there are difficulties finding time to give each wrestler clear storylines or character development.

Using a trope alone can have diminishing returns for wrestlers’ auras. Jade Cargill’s low-threat and squash defenses became routine and dull.

HOOK’s holding pattern made him a utility player in 2023 for other wrestler’s stories. Each time Wardlow’s has returned to an undefeated streak, it has felt like a photocopy of the previous run. Overreliance draws attention to what might be lacking.

Mismanaging Storylines

Alternatively, AEW might build investable storylines but mismanage them due to other factors. SCU’s final run for the tag team championships featured the rankings. SCU went undefeated on their quest to win the AEW Tag Team Championships from their friends/rivals The Young Bucks.

Problematically, their matches featured on Dark more than Dynamite, and events on Dark were rarely spoken about. The storyline wasn’t advanced regularly week-to-week.

When the match final happened, the match overcame the booking, as it often can in AEW. Although, a good match that helped cement The Bucks as tyrants (mimicking Shawn Michael’s “I’m sorry”) had its post-match scene cut away from.

The emotional moment of two tag team partners, friends who would never team together again rushed. Blink and you missed it. The emotional moment was stolen.

Spotlighting Problem

The AEW roster is a buffet of varied phenomenal wrestlers of all styles. Many wrestlers have been world champions or main event contenders in other companies from WWE to New Japan to AAA and ROH.

Some fans feel that X wrestler deserves better. Y wrestlers should be in the main event more. Z wrestler needs to be booked weekly. The problem is there are only so many spots across five hours of weekly TV. Only so many people can be spotlighted at one time.

The rankings are not going to satisfy everyone because not everyone can be a world champion or top of the card all the time. Let along numbers two, three, four, and five on the rankings each week.

AEW can continue a rotation pattern with wrestlers, with some serving as a challenger of the week or month, but whether this pleases everyone, wrestlers or fans is debatable.

Someone Has to Lose

Connected to the latter problem is that eventually, someone must lose for another to ascend. When you have a roster of stars, they can’t all win all the time.

The rankings create a situation where a clear pecking order is created and displayed to the fans. Wrestling is an ego-driven business. Some wrestlers, like their fans, might not be happy with not being given the chance or opportunity to get what they think they could achieve.

Contrastingly, there are ways to book wrestlers that protect their aura. AEW has been able to do this at times with various wrestlers. Think Jon Moxley forcing Taz to throw in the towel for Brian Cage when Mox threatened to rip his surgically repaired pec off the bone. In the short term, it helped keep Cage looking strong in defeat.

Then again, Cage slipped down the card and has not been near the main event since.

The wrestling market is a healthy place. If someone doesn’t like AEW, there are other places to work. Part of this is the problem that fans assume they know what wrestlers think and want (something I covered in how and why wrestlers ascend).

If someone like Brian Cage is happy making money and his position on the card, it’s his life. If he wants to ascend, there are ways.

There Are More Championships Now

Compared to 2022, there are now, excluding the World Championship and ROH championships, there are three men’s singles championships.

How will the rankings work for each championship? If the singles rankings apply to all male championships, you end up in a situation where four of the top five are given title opportunities. If so, how is it determined which contender challenges for each title?

What if there are separate rankings for each title to make it easier? That simultaneously creates a scenario where fifteen top wrestlers could be eligible for a title opportunity while all the championships feel samey. And how do wrestlers change between divisions in a way that doesn’t feel like they lose and join the back of another que?

There are ways the creative team can still make each championship feel special and distinct or there is the risk the belts become homogenous.

Exposing Flaws in Divisions

In the case of the AEW Trios and AEW Tag Team Divisions, both have seen better days. On the one hand, short-term AEW can rebuild both and make the competition between teams for their spot. The problem is this will take time and distributing effort to this area.

Khan will also need to dedicate time to storylines and character development beyond the championship contenders to prepare and make fans care about the next challengers, and the challengers after that. Otherwise, the divisions will end up in a position where it is just a rotation of title defenses.

AEW can rejuvenate these divisions or expose them as paper-thin.

Just Ignoring They Exist

When the rankings were on the way out, the AEW Tag Team rankings became the butt of a reoccurring joke. FTR was top of the rankings for what felt like an eternity. The Top Guys were enjoying an excellent form and, on a run, where they captured tag team gold in ROH, New Japan, and AAA.

Tony Khan kept FTR out of the AEW title picture to put the tag straps on The Acclaimed due to a selection headache. With the two most over-tag teams, one critically applauded and the other the biggest merchandise sellers, rightly, Tony did not want to kill two golden geese.

Rather than instead of finding another creative solution to the problem, ignoring the rankings was the easiest answer. In doing this it undermined the system that was built into the foundations of the company.

If history were to repeat itself, then what was the purpose of bringing the rankings back?

Disparity: The Men’s and Women’s Divisions  

To date, Dynamite has not featured more than one woman’s match. Both Rampage (more frequently) and Collison have featured two women’s matches on a show.

Yet the latter is not a regular occurrence. The Royal Rumble is this weekend and there are two women’s matches booked. Is this to spotlight the women or to fill time when viewership is likely to be lower?

Without Dark and Dark Elevation, there can be no more padding of the stats. The numbers will reveal the disparity in rep between the men’s and women’s competitors.

AEW has historically underused its women’s division. Maybe the AEW rankings will force a positive change towards parity between the men’s and women’s ranks.

Or, pessimistically, creative will prioritize time and attention to the men’s divisions. Giving male wrestlers more time for squash or short competitive matches to build up the male contenders while leaving the women in a holding pattern of one match and maybe two segments a show.

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