A Hollywood Producer Has the Recipe That Could Save AEW

AEW's ratings are in the gutters, and it's going to take some creative thinking to save them. Award Nominated writer and producer Joshua Hale Fialkov has some big Idas and harsh criticisms to help turn their fortunes around.
Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Emmy Award nominated writer of television shows including Netfltix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, Afro Samurai: Resurrection, Young Justice, and Chicago Med. His graphic novels have been nominated for the Eisner and Harvey Awards and have been featured on The NY Times Bestsellers list dozens of times. More than a half dozen of his properties have been developed for film and television, and he's in active development on an animated series right now. Plus he really, really love wrestling. Wrestling with Stories takes Joshua's unique perspective into the world of Professional Wrestling.
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/ @wrestlingwithstory

[@thefuturist8864]

AEW need to cut around 1/3 of their roster. They could do this charitably, such as waiving no-compete clauses and allowing wrestlers to keep their names and themes. They need fewer wrestlers on their roster, and they need to focus on telling meaningful and/or fun stories with them.

[@hector4470]

Agreed they currently have over 200 wrestlers on their roster it’s honestly too much. They need to focus on the best of the best and let others who haven’t established themselves go on the independents or with other companies like TNA.

[@user-bc9mv8oc9k]

It's not just a cut, they seem to have no sense for who "fits" in the story they're trying to tell or who can appeal/isn't wildly off-putting to a wider audience; prime example-casting the bucks as Hall and Nash and jack perry as Hogan in their NWO rehash...or "clown world order" as it's known. Similarly, who gets cast as the "comic relief" of the group one step above Cutler?...F*cking Okada!!! The biggest Japanese babyface of the last 10 years and they bring him in...as a comedy heel...Remember when TK thought "The best friends; explode!" was gonna be the next hot thing and that needed to be pushed as the semi-main/main-event across all 3 shows for a couple of months, 'cuz heel Trent was gonna be a new headliner apparently?!?....Orange Cassidy opening literally every show in a grinding 20 minute+ match for about 4 months straight...The "pay off" to the Brochacos/Devil story line wasssss....roddy strong and the f*cking Kingdom...Do you get what I mean? No one has fond memories of "The Sopranos" if you replace Gandolfini with Kevin James...😂

[@christopheraaron8299]

The only ratings Tony cares about are Dave Meltzer's star ratings.

[@jim-elliott]

Wrestling needs less Hollywood influence, not more. The mistake is treating wrestling like episodic TV, which it isn't. Wrestling thrives on raw athleticism, genuine rivalries, and engaging storytelling that comes from the ring, not from Hollywood scripts. Injecting more Hollywood elements dilutes the essence of what makes wrestling unique and captivating. The focus should be on elevating the talent, creating compelling in-ring action, and respecting the rich history of the sport-not trying to turn it into a second-rate TV drama.

[@EmmettXIV]

How dare you give constructive criticism for AEW and the wrestling business. Seriously, you do make fair points on where AEW can improve. They sure don't lack the talent or wrestling but they do lack the build and storylines of it. I see AEW is taking this advice that has been said before and implementing it more. The Toni Storm and Mariah May story has been great and that heel turn by Mariah on Toni was really well done. MJF also showing his true colors again and his feud with Will Osprey has also been good.

[@WrestlingwithStory]

@@EmmettXIV I think if I was more inflammatory I’d probably have more views. ;)

[@ishmael802]

Focus on creating new fresh stars. Its like the Dick Wolf said when he casted Law & Order. You need to cast people that look like stars. I hate to say this but alot of the ROH and indie ppl they bleed into some of the shows don’t have the aura. Also they need to develop wrestlers there who appeal to different fanbases. Rush is clearly a bankable Latino Wrestler to run in the West Coast. Kyle fletcher can appeal to to teenage girls. And Takeshita and Aminata got star potential.

[@hezekiahthomas837]

Nothing but facts as an aew fan all these points were valid and well presented. Not just " aew is sinking and dead"

[@Filmation77]

ok these are actually fair critques cause . wwe trolls talk about there's no stories, with AEW theres too many angles just on Dynamite and you can spread out these stories to Collision and Rampage and make them Brand Specific stores , but here's where Mr Fialkov isn't watching , AEW's ratings are not Free Falling ,they're maintaing but not GROWING. and also remember Tony Khan just hired Jennifer Pepperman from WWE and R.D. Evans from TNA. and AEW has garnered one of it's biggest reactions online with the 9- months in the making heel turn of Mariah May on Toni Storm which was a rip on the Movie "All About Eve" ,but the Men's side has been Meh. but you're asking AEW to be more WWE-ish which only worked ONCE in Wrestling History and even THAT Company ,WCW, is Gone.

[@WrestlingwithStory]

@@Filmation77 I actually made a whole video about the Toni Storm angle. ;)

[@SandMan1998]

Overlapping stories*

[@ajalv9915]

AEW needs to stop having the Dark Blue lighting on the audience, better zoom in camera angles, better camera picture quality makes the wrestler look grey color rather than tan. Where is the story producer from WWE and why she is not making story lines. Also too many signs of AEW cut it down and use signs of the show. If the Bucks are in charge of production they haven’t done a good job. Hire a WBD producer and production manager.

[@garyballard4657]

A lil more Skye Blue or Anna Jay could pop the ratings a bit

[@markv1274]

The fact that Joshua likes your comment only underscores that fact that Joshua is a comic book writer and not a wrestling promoter.

[@garyballard4657]

@@markv1274 what you don't like The Queen Slayer or the ever evolving Skye Blue? ...I said what I said btw I collect comics too all the X-Books are coming out this month (lots of Wolverines) ROH Death Before Dishonor was freaking awesome glad Paul Wights back.

[@showtime1235]

everyone can give their advice to aew but at the end of the day they are just an alternative as long as wwe keeps maintaining its momentum aew won’t be more popular it’s not that deep

[@FOF275]

Another issue not mentioned here is their production value. AEW is not a tiny company, but it feels like it 'cause it's so much worse than WWE be it the lighting, camera work, sound design, and so on. They don't need to be on par with WWE or even surpass them, but they need more polish so it's not off-putting for new viewers

[@WrestlingwithStory]

@@FOF275 it’s definitely not the same quality as WWE but if’s not that far off. It wouldn’t take much to get there. Especially if you compare it to say, TNA or NWA where it’s miles and miles different.

[@JaySriRam963]

AEW NEEDS DEVELOPMENT IN EVERYTHING FROM JUST LIGHTING TO PROPER MANAGEMENT AND STORYTELLING. RANDOM MATCHES DON'T NEED TO BE THERE.

[@DWtechfan]

All of these are great ideas but unfortunately, Tony Khan is the biggest obstacle to AEW being a success. He just doesn’t get it and he likely never will.

[@chrischar9428]

Remove khan from booking. Use wrestlers and not cosplayers. BOOM

[@WrestlingwithStory]

@@chrischar9428 who are you referring to?

[@markv1274]

@@WrestlingwithStory Joshua, if you can't figure out that Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness is teeming with cosplayers masquerading as wrestlers, that says it all.

[@juanfierro7365]

Sorry. You can't fix INDY wrestling.

[@DanielGarcia-us7tf]

AEW needs better marketing like making commercials to promote their shows on different channels.

[@WrestlingwithStory]

Yeah - their marketing definitely needs work. They just don’t have the same machine behind them that WWE does.

[@markv1274]

@@WrestlingwithStory Joshua: see above. Marketing means nothing when the product itself is garbage. I could open a business that sells excrement sandwiches. Yes, literal excrement in between two slices of bread, gastronomic Russian roulette. I could have a saturation level of promotion, advertising during the Super Bowl, billboards for miles--think the business will work? This is the difference between me and you, Joshua: you're a member of Team Tony, I've worked in sales--yet you don't *need* to work in sales in order to see what I see, just some common sense and a step outside the Echo Chamber. The real problems with Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness have been pointed out in posts that I've made elsewhere in this comments section. Take time to read them and feel free to admit that someone has valid beliefs not covered in your video.

[@Shannon-tm7ek]

WWE has, since the Vince jr. takeover 40 years of history,full of "legends" and "moments" and "legacies" that give their belts more value and give them a boost when they need it and have swallowed up ECW, WCW and AWA along with THEIR histories.That, plus state of the art production with media and corporate tie-ins built over decades gives them an enormous leg up with casual fans, who they train to hate AEW with using subtle methods, almost like a political organization. Very formidable, and people like to side with "winners". I think AEW needs to ignore WWE and form an equivalent to "WWE Universe", and do a brand split to give the characters a sharper focus and motivation.

[@mdjcsmith]

These suggestions remind me a lot of how AEW used to be in it's early days. Cliffhanger stuff that left you in suspense and anticipation for what was coming up next week, hankering for more. We've seen a bit of that coming back recently so, onwards and upwards. 👍👍👍

[@Keepinspirin]

I remember those days if they were doing more of that I would consider watching the show but Nah it still suxs No storytelling is boring

[@markv1274]

@@Keepinspirin In nearly 40 years of watching wrestling, I have never heard a non-fan say, "I don't watch wrestling because there are no stories". Why do non-fans matter? Answer: they are your prospective future fans. In furtherance of the above, I have never heard a fan say, "I became interested in wrestling because of the stories". A good story is all fine and dandy, yet when you make stories the focus, people just go back to watching 'Days of Our Lives'.

[@metalmouth7499]

Stop giving these wrestlers the freedoms they have . Stop listening to these Indy wrestling marks that work for him . And these little guys with no physical builds . Story telling..

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

Why don't AEW shut down Bischoff and Cornette because they have made an entire income from encouraging and spreading negativity about AEW. So has Konan and Kevin Nash and Booker.😅 They breed trolls and AEW clickbaters that troll every youtube site that mentions AEW 😢

[@WrestlingwithStory]

I think the best way to do that is to succeed. Hopefully they fix some of the legitimate problems and turn around their ratings - success has a great habit of shutting up the doubters.

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

@@WrestlingwithStory If you look at the youtube channels mentioned they are actually marketing their ideas to people who like to jump on the social media negative band wagon. It's almost tribal. Cornette said he would close his channel if AEW renewed their Warner contract. At one point he said he wouldn't stop tormenting Tony until he ended up leaving the business. When I brought this up in his comments as being entirely irresponsible, he sent me a message saying he would hunt me down.

[@bomberdomme7308]

Delusional take. As one of the lost former viewers who loved AEW from its beginning till last year... I rather would say if AEW does create something good than you also hear praising of those segments from Cornette and Last like for the MJF Osprey fight... That again got me after I was really heavily annoyed with the direction of the product for the last year for the first time to watch it... And I switched off after it as soon as Chris Jericho with his more and more bad acting was on the show. I'm not hating AEW in general I'm hating what several guys there have become and how they don't change that shit. Or fans make statement about they get entertained by the cringe... i like wrestling when it wants to be better than reality tv bullshit... when it tells in the environment of wrestling show a general good story...And it's fans like you on top that are annoying...who can't stand any amount of criticism despite the large numbers of fans like me, that AEW actively has driven away since they tried to have been for the most a NJPW 2.0 show + bad story telling, missing follow ups missing long term booking. Best feud AEW ever had was for me still the MJF CM Punk feud.. despite all later drama with CM Punk... Nothing ever again, not even Punk now in WWE made me feel as much for wrestling ever again like this master piece of a feud has, because the story of a bullied fan wich became a wrestler and his child hood hero wich didn't hold up to his expectations, while one the other hand the bullied kid behaves like a bullying jerk now as well... would be in any environment a good story but it perfectly fitted to a wrestling show.... When ever I show non wrestling fans this feud they get what is good about it and start to have interest in it. Story's on that level is despite all hate between aew fans and CM Punk is still something the product is missing.

[@eduardoromanmartinez2579]

😂😂😂😂

[@paulwatson3025]

One thing that will make aew way better is stop focusing on wwe so much and be your own promotion with better storylines. They have the talent but need to utilize that talent with better writing and using miro, starks etc and quick dripping the ball in people a month after they debut or get over/hot. I want them to succeed so it'll be like before with two quality shows you wanna watch every minute of

[@sampleoffers1978]

Help has to be sought, can't be imposed. aew can pull 300k and still be top rated on cable, they're not motivated. Jericho, the Bucks, Jeff Jarret are a little funny but audience will drift because we don't care. The brands that hold audience, aew doesn't want steering ship, just passengers. That's a little mysterious but it's their unstable familiar continuity...in maybe bad way, or worse.

[@DundaMifflin]

You're supposed to say 'It's great!'

[@alexg585]

Interesting video good job but at first i thought I was watching reviewtechusa channel.

[@TheDivineFeminine16]

I thought this video would be some BS but this is legit great criticism!

[@WrestlingwithStory]

@@TheDivineFeminine16 thanks for watching! Hope you give a sub and and a share!

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

Wwe uses "kayfabe ". They have exposed viewers to this for so many years they have fans so invested, those fans can't accept anything else. Even if wwe wrestlers move to AEW the fans won't necessarily follow but Tony seems to think they will. Wcw basically emulated wwe so was successful. Wwe Condition fans to like big and aggressive male wrestlers. Wwe fans that don't watch other companies are conditioned to only like wwe no matter how long they run the same angle ( bloodline). So yes wwe fans will accept AEW wrestlers like Jade and Ethan Page and even crossovers like TNA/NXT ,because they are literally conditioned to accept anything wwe wants them to and reject everything it doesn't 😢 Jim Cornette described this as wwe drone fans who expect one third wrestling and two thirds talking and advertising. They accept smaller and smaller rosters with less and less creative options to come up with reasons for them to fight each other. NXT wrestlers usually unfortunately end up on the wwe scrapheap regardless of their success. AEW does need the production and marketing approach to survive in the American climate dominated by WWE but they continue to also not promote people like Wardlow,kill switch Hobbs and Archer who could attract the less ardent WWE fans. Are AEW losing fans or just losing out to the WWE machine???😢

[@adamdeyton4953]

@Billy2-pg3zj nah Ive watched other companies before njpw was okay the biggest thing going for them was a knock off nwo and dx Okada has always sucked though fmw was decent onita did some decent things then Mexican wrestling to many botches on the moves with everybody waiting to catch each other the indy scene here is what gcw knock off czw blood loses interest after a while and means nothing the last decent one there was Tremont it's not that we don't watch other stuff it's just most people that watch wwe like stories that lead up to the match. Matches just to have matches is boring as hell

[@jeremyrounds6821]

This analysis is right on. Get it showed u in my feed. Following all the storylines is AEW is challenging often and that hurts my interest but I agree the in-ring action is top notch.

[@unhelpfulcomplaint4434]

I'm a new subscriber loved the channel

[@szczesciejestkoloruczarneg749]

NECK STRONG!

[@DonKeibals2]

YES! To all of this!

[@schizzo8959]

WWE must see tv? I almost pissed my pants hearing that.

[@theevn7]

Good video

[@markv1274]

Joshua, you're looking at this from the perspective of a hardcore AEW follower. The problem is that AEW fans inhabit an echo chamber, and therefore they are out of touch with the 99.9 per cent of people who don't care for wrestling. When people talk about why they stopped watching wrestling, or why they've never watched wrestling, the storylines (or lack thereof) are *never* mentioned--so throw any nonsense about Wrestling Needs Stories out the window. Stories will develop organically and with little effort if the right ingredients are in place. What are those ingredients? Well, Joshua, you should know this, yet you didn't mention it in your video: *CHARACTERS!* Take, for example, Lord Steven Regal, the chauvinistic British aristocrat. No need to force a story: in a roster crammed with American characters, in a show that played before a largely working class crowd, Regal had instant heat with practically every babyface on the roster as well as the fans. The thing is that Regal entered WCW as a humble babyface with no title ahead of his given name, yet he was very quickly repackaged as a British snob, and the gimmick worked. Now consider Regal as 'The Man's Man' in the WWF. It didn't work. Why would it? Regal was presented as a hard-working lumberjack who expressed typically manly virtues. That's a big part of wrestling's traditional male working class audience. Why would the fans boo him? So, Regal went to a character much closer to the one that he played in WCW. The little British flags on his desk, a picture of The Queen on the wall of his office, and so on. Even if you'd never seen the WWF before, you *knew* who his character was meant to be. Once you have characters, you can get them to do *INTERVIEWS!* Speak to lapsed fans, Joshua. I have. Those lapsed fans remember the *INTERVIEWS!* They remember a diminutive announcer being caught between two massive wrestlers who wanted to smack the living daylights out of each other. *That's* what people remember. Am I disregarding the matches themselves? No. Yet let's talk about the matches in AEW. They suck. The recent Kazuchika Okada vs Ultimo Guerrero match was atrocious--and no, don't blame Guerrero being forced to wear an ill-fitting mask. Okada's own work was dreadful. The matches in AEW deserve their own post. PS: I want to clarify something about stories in wrestling. Yes, you *can* have stories in wrestling, yet I don't think they're necessary. I don't think "Wrestle A wants to beat up Wrestler B due to a misunderstanding" is really a story, it's a premise to a match. People don't watch wrestling for stories.

[@ScurvyOtto]

How am I supposed to stay engaged when you've edited in different camera angles and close(r) ups? This ain't a movie Mr. Producer, you don't need all that crap if you're just talking. Goodbye-

[@Humuculero]

This was before this week's dynamite and the Osprey - MJF. FEW of AEW's fans like BS storylines like WWE has. These storylines bore the hardcore wrestling fans. AEW of late has been upgrading it's story lines. The critique here is very poignant. I hope TK gets the message and performs accordingly.

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

5 years in business, in wrestling, in America. Amazing achievement 😅

[@markv1274]

Not when your Daddy is a billionaire and buys you your very own train set for Christmas each year.

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

@@markv1274 now when your wife's daddy is a billionaire and gives you every title under the sun and then your given the company. Your name is ...

[@BePatient888]

You did it. You discovered the secret sauce to get views from the IWC tribal fans - AEW content.. I mean, NEGATIVE CONTENT about AEW! But if you watch this AEW, it's actually constructive advise from a person who sounds reasonable and well thought out. I honestly discovered your channel through this video, because YT's algorithm doesn't offer reasonable AEW channels. Just Cornette clones. Thanks for this video and keep up the thoughtful criticisms and reviews!

[@markv1274]

It's not well-thought at all. Amazing how Joshua only responds to comments that shine his arse. Attempt to constructively disagree? Joshua doesn't want to read it. Some of my posts are lengthy, yet they take far less time to read than it does to watch Joshua's video. I'd rather Joshua be an abrasive prick towards Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness, whilst having some intelligent ideas, as opposed to being all pseudo-civilised whilst tossing softballs at a company that he cannot be truly objective about. (I say "pseudo-civilised" because I've scratched the surface enough times with these types to know what lies beneath. When you have someone *this* passionate about AEW, whilst being so blind to reality, and therefore dismissive of alternative viewpoints, it doesn't take much to set the person off.) Joshua fails to mention one of the biggest problems with the company: the wrestling sucks. Joshua says that wrestling needs AEW. No, it doesn't. Joshua thinks that AEW as competition is good for WWE. AEW is *no* competition for WWE. Yet let's enter the land of unicorns and pregnant men and pretend that AEW is competitive with WWE. Joshua operates from this foolish notion that if AEW didn't exist, WWE would have no competition. Wrong: WWE would *still* have competition from the NFL, Major League Baseball, and whatever crap is playing on Netflix this week. WWE is in the *entertainment* business. WWE's competition isn't just other wrestling shows, it's entertainment in general. Jim Barnett had a virtual monopoly on wrestling in Australia in the 1960s. I don't know of any other wrestling outfit at the time in Oz. Barnett was the only wrestling promoter who had television in Australia in those days. A number two promotion wasn't necessary to drive Barnett's business. At the time, Barnett had the biggest wrestling territory in the world. The man had at least an entire *country* as his territory. One promotion was enough. People just wanted wrestling. They didn't need 192 more wrestling options in order for the original wrestling to be good. Please, stop this nonsense that wrestling needs AEW. It's just a whole heap of Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness. I wanted the company to succeed when it first appeared, yet I worked out very quickly that a lunatic with a fat bankroll was running the asylum. Time to deflate the tyres on this tiresome nonsense. Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness can disappear, then maybe Tony Schiavone can go back to his job at Starbucks.

[@BePatient888]

@@markv1274 Full disclosure: I didn't read all that because you don't need to read all that to know that it's a rant by a stan. AEW, WWE... they make scripted, fictional TV shows. You don't like the AEW TV show. fine. This content creator (with less than 1K subs right now) does. You just helped his engagement numbers, BTW.

[@DMForever1]

I think that nobody could disagree with any of your takes. Unfortunately the people that will will disagree are the hardcore AEW fans themselves

[@markv1274]

I disagree with his video, not so much for what it says, but more for what it *doesn't* say. I'm not a hardcore AEW fan, by the way. Not a fan of Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness, nor do I care for WWE. Joshua has a habit of missing the obvious, and the most obvious thing about Absolutely Embarrassing Woefulness is that the wrestling is horrendous. Joshua doesn't want to admit that.

[@mw2424]

Hollywood? Really? That woke shit will just drive the nail in the coffin

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

There are no stories in wwe apart from the bloodline and Cody. The bloodline has been used to death and Cody is really a non event. Aew focuses on the matches Tony wants . If Tony cut his roster to a minimum and used the same story over and over he would mimic wwe. The wwe recipe favours the profit over the wrestlers . Aew has a recipe that focuses on wwe cast offs and under using the talent like wardow.

[@WrestlingwithStory]

So - which one do you like? 😜

[@adamdeyton4953]

Stories are punk and drew liv morgan rhea and Dom the wyatts those are all stories they have right now la knight going after the us championship not just the bloodline and cody

[@WrestlingwithStory]

@@adamdeyton4953 yeah. Complaining about a lack of stories on WWE is like complaining about a lack of water in the ocean.

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

@@adamdeyton4953 These are the traditional grudge matches wwe have always used. They may contain different people but they are always about concocted revenge and grudges . Usually the feud ends after one or more matches and they slot someone else into grudge and revenge matches. They may have different reasons for the matches but they are not stories.

[@Billy2-pg3zj]

@@WrestlingwithStory Grudge and revenge matches for shallow reasons arnt storylines.