All Elite Wrestling’s 2025 Identity Crisis
After a strong 2024 with memorable moments, AEW is still doing some great work. Portions of the show, however, seem to have lost what attached fans to the promotion and reprioritization is needed.
Talking about All Elite Wrestling in recent years has felt a bit like a minefield. On one side, you have the most unreasonable criticism that you have ever seen, and on another you have a group that defends their favorite promotion with a positivity that can sometimes reach toxic levels. There’s a middle ground that can be found, of course, and most people land in that space. But that is rarely amplified due to how social media works.
The fact of the matter is that AEW had a solid 2024 despite the difficulties of the years prior. Backstage conflict seemed low. The company added three major stars in Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Mone. After what seemed like 200 years of rumors, they finally made it official and got a healthy rights increase from Warner Bros Discovery. They nailed the retirement of two big time stars in Bryan Danielson and Sting. They had some of the best matches ever (Bryan Danielson and Will Ospreay, I love you), and put on some of the most well received shows of the year. The Continental Classic solidified that tournament as important in the greater wrestling landscape.
This makes it all the more interesting that in 2025, the company appears to be going through a bit of an identity crisis. Nothing underlines this like the beginning and ending of the most recent episode of Dynamite.
The show started out with one of the most memorable segments in a while, in which Will Ospreay reached out to bitter enemy Kenny Omega in an attempt to make amends. Omega seemed extremely resistant. But after a very long, and thrilling, brawl in which the two wrestlers fought with their long-time nemeses The Don Callis Family, they decided to forget about the past and team up against a common enemy. It’s a very simple storyline that worked phenomenally, with the crowd completely invested by the end.
This, in my opinion, is what the best wrestling companies do well. Rivals turned begrudging teammates isn’t exactly unique across media (Goku and Vegeta being my favorite iconic example). But the best wrestling stories take something basic and due to the strength of the characters involved, raise the stakes, generate meaning for the fans, and create more complexity for the stories.
It makes it all the more glaring when other major stories miss the boat. The show ended with another babyface (this time, Adam Copeland) having a match against a member of Jon Moxley’s Death Riders faction (this time, Pac) ending with a post-match attack.
A lot has been said about this storyline, anchored by Moxley’s fourth reign as AEW World Champion. The story itself is an interesting one on its face. Moxley sees AEW wrestlers as too complacent and not fit to see the title, much less hold it. He took out Bryan Danielson because everyone was walking on eggshells around the former champion due to his injuries. Moxley is also one of AEW’s most beloved characters, regardless of whether he’s a babyface or a heel, and he has had no problem leading the company in the past. This was a great start to what could have been a company defining feud.
In this case, however, the way this story is laid out is letting the fans down. On screen, it has been presented as Moxley and the Death Riders vs. AEW. Faces have talked about fighting for the soul of the company and what it means to them. The problem here is that the fans don’t buy it. They like AEW, sure, but they don’t want to see AEW saved - they know the company isn’t going anywhere. They want to see a wrestler prove that they are capable enough to hold the title and run the company. The manner in which the storyline is presented seems to be at odds with the motivation of both the heroes and the villains in the story.
Unlike with Kenny and Will, AEW hasn’t seemed eager to raise the personal stakes or upend the status quo of this particular story, especially in 2025. Moxley has always been at his best with a mic in his hand, across from his opponent. His feuds with Hangman Adam Page in 2023 (leading to a bigger feud with The Elite) and Kenny Omega before that were largely praised by the fans. And that’s because they were built on those very personal stakes for both competitors.
Instead of doing that, AEW appears to be kicking the tires. Too many shows end with the Death Riders attacking a wrestler or their faction with everyone else hopeless to stop them. It’s fine in a vacuum, but there’s not a solid foundation to make fans really care. You can only watch the same thing so many times.
It’s worth noting that the segments for this angle do appear to have strong performances on social media (regularly getting the most views on YouTube). I’m not sure how AEW views those metrics internally, so it’s entirely possible they think they’re doing the right thing. But creatively, it does feel at odds with AEW’s history of great feuds, especially in the main event.
Darby Allin is widely speculated/reported to be the one to take the title from Moxley but he’s climbing Mount Everest and won’t return until after the climbing season ends. I’m not sure what the answer is for this angle, but it does feel like a change is needed sooner or the promotion will continue to feel like a company at odds with itself.