On the latest episode of Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy, the AEW star talked about the state of AEW and why it’s cooled off. You can check out some highlights below:
On AEW cooling off: “I feel like the company has cooled off a little bit… I would say I feel like there’s just a lot going on right now. I feel like you need two or three main things, and that’s the focus of the shows. But there’s a lot going on. I feel like there’s been discourse. Once the Punk thing happened back at Brawl Out, that caused a lot — that was very problematic for the company. Like, I wish that could have been nipped in the bud, stopped right there, and never gone any further. And AEW’s no longer — I mean, they’re not in the honeymoon phase right now. You know, that’s kind of over. People loved what they are doing. But that honeymoon phase is over. Of course, that was definitely going to happen. No doubt, you know. And AEW earned a lot of goodwill over the first few years, especially during the pandemic and being a different alternative to WWE, whatever else. But I think through some of the stuff with Punk and the Bucks, and the fights and the backstage stuff, and Jungle Boy — all this stuff. This hurt some of that goodwill. And I feel like that probably deterred some people from their support of the company at the end of the day. I mean, that’s my honest take on it.”
On there being a lot going on with AEW: “I mean Will Ospreay, who is incredible, one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever seen. You have Will Osprey shows up. Boom! It’s a big deal. I feel like that is something that should have just been talked about for four to six weeks. Directly after that, Okada. Boom! Okada is a big star. Still a lot of the people here in America are probably familiarizing themselves with him, obviously. Especially a more ‘casual fan’ if you know if you understand my idea of the AEW casual fan, people in America that might not follow New Japan Pro Wrestling. So he shows up the next week, and I feel like that should have been a big deal that, for four to six weeks we should have really highlighted him. That should have been what everybody was talking about.
“The week after that, boom! Mercedes Mone showed up, and that could have been another big deal for four to six weeks. That’s what I’m saying when a lot is going on. You had jammed a lot of stuff on the program and into the viewer’s eyes. And I feel like these events could have been longer and taken more time to develop, and really highlight how big of a deal it is to get this huge superstar to AEW. And whenever I say there’s a lot going on, I feel like that’s what I mean.”
On the criticism around AEW’s attendance and the like: “It’s one of those things. AEW is paramount to the health and success of the pro wrestling industry. And if you’re one of those people online that is, you know, an AEW hater who like wants AEW to fail. You want them to go out of business, you love to post the pictures of their low attendances, you love to dunk on them all the time? You’re not helping, you know. You aren’t a pro wrestling fan if that is what you are doing, or that is what you believe in. Because AEW makes pro wrestling better. It allows people who might not be at WWE to have another option, a place they can go to. And Tony Khan f**king loves wrestling, and he’s very passionate about it. And he is doing the best he can with what he has to work with. And you can never blame him for not being passionate, or for not trying because he is always trying.
“Is he perfect? No, of course not. And during the course of this episode, you said like — you know, this is not a slam dunk on AEW. No, not at all. I mean like, it’s an honest conversation. And I think it’s things that are out there. And still at the end of the day, they’re always doing a great number of viewers on TV. They’re in the top five shows every single night. Once again, even if they don’t sell out an arena there are more tickets in that arena then you’re gonna see it any other wrestling company sans WWE. So they’re still a success. And they have this huge roster, they put out these kick-ass matches and they changed the industry. They will go down and in the books saying that they changed the course of history by starting AEW and starting this whole movement right now. Just don’t don’t hate on AEW. Don’t hate on WWE. Don’t hate on anything. The people on social media are the absolute worst. The people that go on there just to troll people, to hate on people, to just disrespect people. Just let people live their lives. Worry about what you have going on in your life. I’m sure it is much more important than it is trying to slam dunk on AEW or WWE or whatever the f**k you’re trying to slam dunk on. Worry about your own self.”
On AEW’s future: “I mean, it’s not going to be doom and gloom. They’re going to re-sign, they’re going to have TV coming up. I mean, they do too good of numbers not to. It is a sought-after product, and people watch it. And it’s still extremely popular, right? It — as you said, it’s been around for a while. Maybe some of the shiny new toy elements have rubbed off. Maybe there’s been a couple of things that maybe they can work on going forward to build up more goodwill towards fans or whatever. But AEW is going to be around. And that’s a good thing. That’s a positive thing. And everybody should be cheering that on, and they should be celebrating that AEW is here and it’s going to be around.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
