PARKS’S TAKE: Are all the heel beatdowns on Dynamite one of the key reasons for the downturn in enthusiasm for the product?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: AEW Dynamite was replete with heel beatdowns.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with getting heat on heels. The more heat a heel gets, the more hot the crowd gets for the babyface to eventually overcome them. But the heel heat segments lose value and steam when it’s done so often.

Dynamite last night started off with two segments in a row that featured heel beatdowns after the match.

First, the Don Callis Family took out Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega following Ospreay’s victory over Brian Cage. All this happened AFTER it was established that Omega had been taken out backstage just a few minutes earlier.

Then it was the Death Riders’ turn, costing Jeff Jarrett his match against Claudio Castagnoli. MJF, another heel, picked Jarrett’s bones and got in a shot after the Riders were done with him.

Later on, we had another Death Riders attack segment, this time on Jay White, though babyfaces Adam Copeland and FTR eventually made the save.

You can tell, especially last night, what the domination of heels does to a live crowd, as Huntsville seemed to wear out quickly from all the negative energy brought by heels getting the upper hand.

It reminds some longtime fans of the not-so-glory days of the NWO, when it seemed like every episode of WCW Nitro would end with the black-and-white spray painting the group’s letters on some poor sap in the middle of the ring. Eventually, it got so repetitive that it no longer worked to get heat on the heels. AEW may not be there yet, but they’re certainly approaching the line.

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Looking at at AEW’s most recent PPV results, they’ve almost always been heavy on heel wins. The only babyface to win at Worlds End last month was Ospreay, and that was in the opener. Two-thirds of the winners at Full Gear in November were heels. And it goes on like this.

There are a lot of reasons for AEW’s downturn in television ratings and attendance. The focus on heels, and how often it seems like they get the better of babyfaces, as well as the repeated post-match beat-downs, has to be one of the reasons.

Perhaps eventually, the babyfaces will win the war, but if it takes too long to get there, will anyone care? Right now, if you’re an AEW fan looking for hope from the babyface roster, it’s too often difficult to find.