How much money is too much to watch great wrestling?

 All Elite Wrestling’s Full Gear pay-per-view is coming up this weekend. It’s the company’s sixth big pay-to-watch show in about six months, meaning WB or company owner Tony Khan unfortunately decided to make the switch to monthly PPVs just in time for the product to show cracks. Booking has been weak, crowds tend to be quiet and are thinning out week after week, and rematches on big shows are becoming the norm.

Since the end of May we’ve watched WrestleDream, All Out, All In, Forbidden Door, and Double or Nothing, and with Full Gear this weekend that’s around $300, not counting the cable bills to keep up with the weekly product on TNT and TBS. 

Now, let’s be clear – the matches on every one of those shows were great, maybe even fifty bucks great, and I would have kept the cable regardless because I really enjoy both AEW’s shows on TNT and TBS and WWE’s Raw and SmackDown. AND AEW feels like it's getting back on track, with some good storylines and interesting dovetailing bits of narrative. But even with these amazing matches on these unexpectedly great cards, something’s gotta give. 

Rumors were circulating around the time of the All In / All Out back to back weekends that WB slash HBO Max was getting into the wrestling game, and maybe Tony leaned into that hope in scheduling two big pay-per-views over two weekends. That gamble didn’t work out in the long run, but both shows got decent buy rates and had some really spectacular matches, including the last AEW appearances of both C.M. Punk and “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry at All In.

But at what point will wrestling fans say enough is enough? How much are we willing to spend to watch pro wrestling? World Wrestling Entertainment, usually portrayed (rightly) as the big bad villain in the wrestling business, has been using the monthly subscription model for years now, first with its own WWE Network, and now partnered up with Peacock. I’ve often thought I would simply stop watching the Fed’s monthly PPVs if they ever went back to the current AEW model, and would simply tune in for the big events – WrestleMania, SummerSlam, the Royal Rumble. 

But AEW doesn’t really separate its big shows from its missable monthly shows. Now that the company has upped its output, one might think the original quarterly shows – Revolution, Double or Nothing, All Out, and Full Gear – would be the tentpoles. But given the way every show is booked like a dream match is expected, and given the way wrestlers perform on PPV for AEW, it’s hard to know what will be missable, if anything.

What are our options, then? Pay $600 a year for the privilege of watching more wrestling? Turn to pirated streams? Or simply ignore some shows to preserve one’s integrity, sanity, and financial stability? If we’ve learned one thing from pro wrestling, it’s that contraction is never an option – consider how many times the “RAW should go back to two hours” argument comes up. If AEW doesn’t come up with a solution, and soon, fans are going to end up missing big storyline events and amazing matches because of greed and aggressive expansion. Nobody wants that.

We Watched Some Wrestling!

Or, the part where we talk about some of the best matches we watched this week

AEW Dynamite featured some great action, but that sponsored street fight was way better than it had any right to be. Kota Ibushi riding a bike and whacking guys with a pipe before getting brutally knocked off with a Brian Cage lariat? AMAZING. Powerhouse Hobbs picking up all 400 pounds of the former Big Show, Paul Wight, and heaving the big man onto a waiting car hood? BONKERS. Kenny Omega effortlessly getting Brian Cage, a giant in his own right, into a One Winged Angel for the victory? PRETTY COOL. 

The women’s match on Dynamite was no slouch, either! Red Velvet and Skye Blue really put a great match together, even getting a “this is awesome” chant out of the normally disillusioned crowd. Good on them! Skye got the hard-earned win, and she’ll be part of the triple threat match for the TBS Championship that also features Julia Hart and champ Kris Statlander.

A Soap Opera With More Suplexes and Less Violence

Or, the part where we talk about the storylines in AEW and WWE.

Over in WWE, we FINALLY got the Drew McIntyre heel turn we’ve been waiting for! Drew has been leaning bad for a while, although to be fair the big guy made some good points about how quickly other performers have forgiven Jey Uso, a guy who actively sabotaged main event matches, including Drew’s, for months. He really didn’t “turn” on anyone, per se – at the end of RAW’s main event, Drew hit Jey with a Claymore kick outside the ring, giving the Judgment Day the opportunity to retain their championship.

I’m looking forward to a Drew heel/morally ambiguous run. He’s needed an edge for a while, and I feel like WWE has done a good job of teasing out a perfectly justifiable lack of patience by the big man. He knows Jey isn’t to be trusted, and he in particular hasn’t been given a reason to change his mind. 

AEW’s Dynamite featured a fantastic go-home promo by Hangman Adam Page. Forced into a “no physical violence” stipulation, Hanger grabbed a mic and went off on home-invader Swerve Strickland, getting into some personal stuff before threatening to steal the weed Prince Nana buys from high schoolers after AEW shows. That match is gonna be great – we’ll talk about that more in the Full Gear preview – and I really don’t know who I think is winning. Swerve has been amazing, Hanger has been amazing, and they both could really use the win to continue their momentum. 

Closing Up Shop

Or, the part where we talk about what's next, and tearfully part ways for now

So, going forward, I’m hoping to make the Friday blog a regular occurrence. But, with pay-per-views and premium live events also filling many weekends, I’ll make a point to preview those as well, just separately. I’ve already been working on the preview for Full Gear, but I’d like to watch the THREE HOURS OF PROGRAMMING that AEW has set up for tonight before I publish anything, so that’ll be up tomorrow. 

I also have some ideas for some regular segments that I’ll be adding to the … column? Newsletter? Blog? We’ll Remember Some Guys, and I’d love to do a mailbag thing, but that’ll mean I need questions, and readers. If you have a question, by all means ask it in the comments section, or tweet (X?) me @elosopequeno. I’m also on Instagram at letswatchsomewrestling, which I’ll link below and I promise I’ll try to use more, and I even have a Facebook page if that’s your style.

But for now, that’s gonna be it! I’ll have that Full Gear preview up tomorrow, and we’ve got a full week of wrestling coming up, what with the usual Raw, NXT, Dynamite, SmackDown, Rampage, and Collision shows PLUS Survivor Series next weekend! We are re-recommitted to the blog, and we’ll see if my particular brand of positive criticism is enough to get us over with new readers. Enjoy the wrestling, and we’ll see you here next week!