OUT OF BOUNDS: ROH Dynamite! (And something about AEW, I guess?) 

In the winter of 2017, I had a crush on Timothee Chalamet (Still do. HMU.), and I was ecstatic to see “Call Me By Your Name,” which had just expanded to 114 theaters the week before. I spent the whole day buzzing about it. I downloaded a subtitling app on my phone, met my friend Tobi at Steak ‘N’ Shake, and together we made our way to a glorious theater in a town far bigger than my own. By the time I got to that absolute palace of a cineplex with a chandelier in the lobby, bordello-red carpet on the floor, and the nostalgic smell of popcorn in the air, every inch of my body was fully ready to experience the Oscar-nominated film “Call Me By Your Name.”

They were sold out. Instead, we got tickets to see “The Shape of Water.” As a result, I had a thoroughly disappointing time. Don’t get me wrong, “The Shape of Water” is a good film. Actually, strike that; it’s a great film. The darn thing was nominated for thirteen Oscars, and it won Best Picture, but the point is that even the greatest product in the world can be a disappointment if you’ve shown up to see something else.

Have you ever picked up a glass of orange juice, took a fish-sized gulp, and discovered it was milk? It feels weird, doesn’t it? It doesn’t feel weird because you hate milk; you might love milk. It feels weird because it wasn’t what you were expecting. It’s like turning on the radio to set a romantic mood and forgetting the last thing you listened to was Rob Zombie. It’s like watching a funny movie after hearing devastating news. It’s like sitting down to an episode of AEW and watching ROH.

Again, don’t get me wrong. Much like “The Shape of Water,” Ring of Honor is a good company. Actually, strike that; it’s a great company. However, tuning into AEW Dynamite and seeing it dominated by Ring of Honor storylines feels like ordering the steak and getting the fish. If I wanted fish, I would have gone to a seafood restaurant or a drag show, not Ruth’s Chris.

Now, the words “dominated by” might seem like a strong turn of phrase, but it feels terrifyingly accurate. Ring of Honor is “dominating” much of AEW’s programming. On Oct. 5, I kept a tally of how many times the words “Ring of Honor” or the letters “ROH” were mentioned, and I compared them to how many times the words “All Elite Wrestling” and the letters “AEW” were mentioned. (Full disclosure: I did not count graphics or the physical appearance of title belts for either company.) During the course of the program, AEW was referenced 43 times. Even considering that they have to plug upcoming events, reset the show at the top of the hour, and welcome us back from commercial breaks, that’s still a lot of times, but it wasn’t as many times as Ring of Honor was mentioned. ROH was mentioned a staggering 58 times. I didn’t even count mentions of “The Code of Honor,” but if I had, that would’ve pulled the number of mentions up to 66!

That’s not sustainable, and I’m not the only person who thinks that. On Oct 4 of 2022, Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post wrote an editorial titled “AEW Can’t Keep Going On Like This.” While I’m loathed to quote a news outlet with such a poor “Factual Reporting” score on MediaBiasFactCheck.com, I still found Staszewski’s commentary compelling and accurate. In the article, Staszewski asks, “The two (ROH and AEW) can’t be married this closely forever, can they?” He points out how ROH is draining time away from AEW programming in the likely hopes that ROH will someday get a TV show of its own, but what happens if it doesn’t?

According to Staszewski, there are now a total of 15 titles that can appear during AEW’s three hours of weekly programming. That number presented by Staszewski stuck in my mind long after reading his article because, if used to its fullest, that’s a title every 12 minutes. Titles are supposed to be special, but things that happen every 12 minutes aren’t special. Birthday cake is special, but if I was offered a slice of birthday cake every 12 minutes, birthday cake would become the bane of my life and my waistline.

It is my sincere hope that Ring of Honor will get its own TV show and soon. That would solve a lot of AEW’s problems. However, if it does get its own TV show, Tony Khan should not be the head booker. Attention is a finite thing, and some weeks I feel like I can see the outer edges of Tony Khan’s attention fraying in real time.

For me, the last “epic” AEW PPV was Revolution 2022. While Double or Nothing 2022 and All Out 2022 were good, they lacked the focus and long-term storytelling that previous AEW PPVs relied on. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Khan announced his purchase of Ring of Honor a mere four days before AEW’s last “epic” PPV because it was around that same time that Khan’s attention span got sliced up three ways. One slice of Khan’s mental pie chart went to Ring of Honor, one slice went to AEW, and one slice piefaced unsuspecting casual fans with a New Japan partnership that gave birth to the Forbidden Door PPV, which still sounds like the name of a NSFW subreddit.

When Khan focused solely on telling stories within AEW, he was good — extremely good. All Out 2021 was heralded by many as the best PPV since WrestleMania 17, and interestingly enough, WrestleMania 17 was heralded by many as a “pinnacle” event that just so happened to take place days after the acquisition of a major company. Maybe there’s a lesson there. WrestleMania 17 marked the beginning of a long, slow slide for WWE.

I don’t want AEW to “slide.” I want AEW to be good again – extremely good again. I believe it can be. That’s why I’m writing this column. AEW is a beautiful intricate thing that wasn’t supposed to happen but somehow did. It’s a company that defied the odds, created an alternative in a monopolized market, embraced in-ring action over glossy presentation, and sold kick-ass wrestling t-shirts. AEW should be sustained at all costs – even if it means jettisoning ROH.

I’m not a hater; I’m not an internet troll; I’m not even a journalist. I am a fan. I’m a huge, impassioned, unashamed wrestling fan, and in many ways, I’m also AEW’s key demographic — and not just age-wise. I’m a lapsed viewer who loves the indie scene and believes there is a wider wrestling audience chomping at the bits for a more mature product. I’m not writing this editorial out of hate for AEW; I’m writing it out of love for AEW. I’m writing it because I think someone like Tony Khan is smart enough to tell the difference between advice that comes from a place of disdain versus advice that comes from the heart.

Khan is a smart man. He is smart enough to know that adding a million explosions to a movie doesn’t make you a good director; it makes you Michael Bay. He’s smart enough to know that adding every ingredient in the kitchen doesn’t make you a good cook; it makes you me. And he’s smart enough to know that if someone orders AEW but gets a heaping helping of Ring of Honor, they’re not going to appreciate what’s on their plate. Papa John’s doesn’t belong at Red Lobster, Cardi B. doesn’t belong on a Phoebe Bridgers’ album, and 15 titles don’t belong on three hours of weekly TV.

To quote Staszewski, “AEW can’t keep going on like this.” To quote “The Shape of Water,” “I don’t want an intricate beautiful thing destroyed!” and to quote Timothee Chalamet, “Who is that creep peeping into my window, and why is he wearing a kick-ass wrestling t-shirt?”

(David Bryant’s totally normal amount of selfies can be found on his Instagram account @IamDavidBryant, and his many, many Wordle scores can be found on his Twitter account, which is also @IamDavidBryant because David Bryant is not good at naming things. He previously covered AEW Dark for PWTorch.)