By David G. Firestone
We need to talk about AEW. I’ve talked about them before, but every time I think they’ve hit rock bottom, Tony Khan buys a much more powerful jackhammer. I seriously don’t get how and why they do the stuff they do. While I’m used to most of AEW’s baffling moves, I have to talk about two recent events.
Let’s start with AEW Grand Slam Australia. AEW fucked this event up so many different ways, that it was almost impossible for fans, both in the arena, and watching on television, to take it seriously. How have AEW failed thee, let me count the ways.
Let’s start with the venue:
-February 15, 2025-Grand Slam Australia is announced. Tickets were on sale, with Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, with a listed capacity of over 52,500, listed as the venue.
-November 25, 2025-Due to “low ticket sales,” Grand Slam Australia is moved to Brisbane Entertainment Centre, with a listed capacity of 13,500.
Making things even more confusing is the nature of the telecast. Was the event a pay-per-view, or was it a special episode of Collision? AEW never made this clear during the announcement. Then it was announced that this was an episode of Collision, aired on tape delay. Once it was clear that this was just another episode of Collision, fans weren’t happy. When asking Tony Khan about this, he said that since the live event would have aired at 3:30 AM ET in the US, most fans might not have bought the event, which, to be fair, isn’t unreasonable.
Then it was announced that the event would air after the NBA All-Stars Skill Competition on TNT. This was met with aggravation from fans, but there was a silver lining to this. WWE NXT held their annual NXT Vengeance Day event, which was much better than Grand Slam Australia. If Grand Slam Australia had aired at its normal time, it would have done a horrific TV rating. History has shown that when Collision goes up against WWE it loses a LOT of viewers. It still didn’t do great, but it was better.
The fan experience apparently left a lot to be desired. Apparently, there was only one merchandise stand and it sold out very quickly, as they didn’t bring near enough merchandise for all of the fans. How this mistake could happen is anybody’s guess, but it’s clear they wanted to keep transportation costs down. That’s clear because of the big controversy that came out of the event.
Where both fans and wrestlers were both upset was the ring they used. For a company that spends money like water, they couldn’t be bothered to bring their own ring, so they rented a ring for the event. AEW uses 20 foot by 20 foot square rings, and this one was either 16 feet by 16 feet, or 18 feet by 18 feet, depending on who you ask. This was not a good ring either. The ring aprons AEW brought didn’t fit, and the posts were bent. To top that off, this ring was really bouncy, and apparently didn’t have enough padding. Buddy Matthews rolled his ankle during his entrance.
Now, with all of these issues, fans would have been forgiving if the matches were good. This is AEW, so that didn’t happen. Here are the results for the event. Wrestlers who are either from Australia or New Zealand will be marked with a “+”
1-Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega defeated Don Callis Family (Kyle Fletcher+ and Konosuke Takeshita) (with Mark Davis) by pinfall.
2-Mercedes Moné (c) defeated Harley Cameron+ by pinfall-Singles match for the AEW TBS Championship
3-Death Riders (Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli) (with Marina Shafir) defeated Cope and Jay White+ by technical submission-Brisbane Brawl
4-Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Buddy Matthews+ by pinfall-Singles match for the AEW Continental Championship
5-“Timeless” Toni Storm (with Luther) defeated Mariah May (c) by pinfall-Singles match for the AEW Women’s World Championship
Notice a pattern? Yup, every match had at one wrestler from either New Zealand or Australia, and four out of five lost their match. The worst was Mercedes Moné and Harley Cameron. The lead up to this was great as Harley Cameron is a talented singer and ventriloquist, and made a puppet out of Mercedes Moné, who was more entertaining than the real Mercedes Moné. However Harley never stood a chance, as Mercedes Moné is a spoiled, selfish, egotistical bitch who doesn’t care about anyone but herself. We heard stories about her when she was Sasha Banks in WWE.
All in all, Grand Slam Australia had a lot of potential, but was driven into the ground by bad matches, and bad logistics. Australian AEW fans felt cheated, and I don’t blame them. Now, you would think going back to normal operations would at least help, but, being AEW, they couldn’t help fucking things up even more.
At the upcoming AEW Revolution pay-per-view, there is a scheduled match for the AEW International Championship, AKA the AEW All-Atlantic Championship, AKA the AEW Who Gives A Shit Championship. On the February 19 episode of AEW Dynamite, there was a Number One Contenders match for the International Championship between Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong. This sets up the championship match between Cassidy and Konosuke Takeshita for the International Championship the February 26 episode of AEW Dynamite. Since Konosuke Takeshita won that match, he goes on to face Kenny Omega at Revolution.
If this series of events doesn’t make sense to you, don’t feel bad. Nobody else can figure it out either. Rather than have Kenny Omega face Orange Cassidy on February 26, with the winner facing Konosuke Takeshita at Revolution, there are two championship matches, one setting up the other. Why? What sense does this make? Please, explain this to me! Are matches that determine the top condenser for a pay-per-view match really so out of vogue? It just makes no sense, but it is AEW after all.
Next Week, I discuss an AEW lawsuit.
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