AEW NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2025

[Bustronaut]

12 hours ago, Ramo2653 said:

As a live long Wisconsinite but living in Milwaukee, I thought I didn't say it until I was moving past someone and did it and then realized I do it all the time. Dating transplants that move here is always an adventure.

Is it pronounced "oop" or "ope" (like hope without the H)

I grew up in Northern WI and nobody said that until a few years ago.

Edited September 4 by Bustronaut
typo

[Zimbra]

1 hour ago, Bustronaut said:

Is it pronounced "oop" or "ope" (like hope without the H)

I grew up in Northern WI and nobody said that until a few years ago.

The latter.

It's a Norwegian thing, who mostly settled in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin so maybe didn't make the jump up there where the Germans and Dutch were.

[Sublime]

The Finnish folks of northern Michigan and Minnesota say it too. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

I enjoyed the ECW Arena residency (2300) but Tony has coasted a little bit with the storytelling and I think that cost him.  The ratings for these past two weeks have not been good at all.  I know some of you hate ratings talk and I do too but it had to be mentioned because I feel like he has been coasting some with no major stories for Toni Storm or Mercedes and nothing confirmed for where Hangman is headed (Dan Callis Family but who?).  Doesn't help at all that Swerve and Ospreay are injured. 

[Peck]

On 9/3/2025 at 6:07 PM, Casey said:

Also Zero Hour is gone (for this show only?) and the pre-show will be on HBO Max and TNT. It's at 2PM EST and it's called Saturday Tailgate Brawl.

SRS says there will be an alternate preshow for non-Max folks.

This part is just me guessing but I think the Max one will have matches while the alternate one will not. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

I might topple over from laughter.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z35mtGzBYeM

[tbarrie]

2 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I enjoyed the ECW Arena residency (2300) but Tony has coasted a little bit with the storytelling and I think that cost him.  The ratings for these past two weeks have not been good at all.  I know some of you hate ratings talk and I do too but it had to be mentioned because I feel like he has been coasting some with no major stories for Toni Storm or Mercedes and nothing confirmed for where Hangman is headed (Dan Callis Family but who?).  Doesn't help at all that Swerve and Ospreay are injured. 

Whom Hangman faces at All Out is an interesting question. Unless I'm forgetting somebody, the only Callis family members who are plausible PPV world title challengers are Okada, Fletcher, and Takeshita. But something seems off about Takeshita challenging for two different world titles within a month (or so) of each other. And Mark Briscoe has been trying to earn a title shot at Fletcher, and I have to assume he'll eventually do so (though I doubt he's beating Takeshita on Saturday); presumably that match will then happen at All Out.

So I guess that leaves Okada? Sure, let's put Okada down as my guess.

[SovietShooter]

My fear is we are getting a multi-man match. Something like Takeshita vs Okada vs Hangman. 

[Casey]

I'm gonna predict Briscoe versus Fletcher is on a Dynamite episode before All Out. Kyle wins, and then challenges Hangman for All Out. At that point, it's two people that Kyle would've taken out that are near and dear to Hangman. Okada/Takeshita/whoever versus The Opps for the Trios titles, furthering the Takeshita & Okada tension and probably the Hook story as well.

Two weeks to go and no challenger for Toni yet, but I'm assuming this all-star tag on Collision sets it up (probably Bayne like @Niners Fan in CT theorized a few weeks ago?)

You can have Fletcher/Hangman as the World title match on a show like this because I'm assuming Cope & Christian versus FTR are the main event for this because Canada.

[tbarrie]

52 minutes ago, Casey said:

I'm gonna predict Briscoe versus Fletcher is on a Dynamite episode before All Out. Kyle wins, and then challenges Hangman for All Out.

There are only two Dynamites left before All Out, though. Unless Briscoe does in fact beat Takeshita this Saturday, that doesn't leave a lot of time for Briscoe to earn his title shot, take it, and lose, all before the PPV. I mean, it can be done, but you'd pretty much have to leave the men's world title match up in the air until the last Dynamite before the show.

[username]

1 hour ago, tbarrie said:

But something seems off about Takeshita challenging for two different world titles within a month (or so) of each other.

If Takeshita is not winning the IWGP title I think there's like 80% odds he'll do a notable job in AEW before the match takes place. For whatever reason TK is often rather old school when it comes to things like that.

[Casey]

Just now, tbarrie said:

There are only two Dynamites left before All Out, though. Unless Briscoe does in fact beat Takeshita this Saturday, that doesn't leave a lot of time for Briscoe to earn his title shot, take it, and lose, all before the PPV. I mean, it can be done, but you'd pretty much have to leave the men's world title match up in the air until the last Dynamite before the show.

• Briscoe beats Takeshita this Saturday, match is immediately announced for 9/10
• Fletcher beats Briscoe, challenges Hangman after the match

OR

• Fletcher & Callis challenge him in their segment that's on Collision this weekend, Briscoe still wins and gets his TNT title match on Dynamite next week

Guys, this is always how a Hangman title run goes. He's infinitely better as the guy chasing the title. When he wins the title, it's all pretty lackluster after that.

[Craig H]

4 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I might topple over from laughter.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z35mtGzBYeM

I wanted to throw something. Dave is becoming more and more unlistenable. I've made plenty of excuses for Dave in the past, but at this point, I might just cancel my subscription. The longer version of this on the show is even more frustrating. Of note:

- Dave now insists the number of hardcore fans that buy every AEW PPV is 15,000 people.
- Bryan actually doesn't know how Dave comes up with the numbers he comes up with, but Dave says he has a system and it's accurate and apparently it's so secret even Bryan doesn't know.
- Later on when talking about WWE PPV numbers, Dave goes on a tangent about how WWE and Peacock lie about viewership numbers. When asked by Bryan why even report or talking about the numbers if they're just making them up, Dave tells Bryan that what he reports are the correct numbers because he gets them from the hour by hour numbers that WWE and Peacock report. Bryan goes back to the words that just came out of Dave's mouth that they make the numbers up so why would the hourly numbers not be made up and Dave's response is basically, "because, uh uh uh, they, you know, they just, uh, they can't, you uh, you know, you can't make up hourly numbers." And the whole thing is essentially a dissection of Dave's horseshit reporting on numbers or what drives them and it's being done by his friend Bryan. 

Bryan also sounded like he really has had it with Dave interrupting him all the time and he sounds even more frustrated that Dave is just making shit up. I think their common connection will be the stuff they enjoy outside of wrestling and that they've been friends for as long as they have been and they both clearly enjoy watching wrestling. I don't think WOR will end or anything, it just sounds like one friend is kind of annoyed with another, but not enough to not be friends anymore.

[tbarrie]

9 minutes ago, Casey said:

• Briscoe beats Takeshita this Saturday, match is immediately announced for 9/10
• Fletcher beats Briscoe, challenges Hangman after the match

OR

• Fletcher & Callis challenge him in their segment that's on Collision this weekend, Briscoe still wins and gets his TNT title match on Dynamite next week

Unless I'm misreading, both of your scenarios involve Briscoe beating Takeshita. I said it would be hard to squeeze everything in unless Briscoe manages to do that.

And I can't see Briscoe beating Takeshita. Takeshita just won the G1 and is challenging for NJPW's world title next month. Jobbing him to an (admittedly extremely popular) upper-midcard guy at this point seems like it would be a giant middle finger to New Japan. As far as I can tell, AEW is serious about maintaining a good working relationship with them.

9 minutes ago, Casey said:

Guys, this is always how a Hangman title run goes. He's infinitely better as the guy chasing the title. When he wins the title, it's all pretty lackluster after that.

"Always"? Has Hangman had a half dozen or so reigns that I've forgotten about or something?

[Casey]

AEW literally just had the IWGP champion work a competitive match with an announcer. I mean. I'm sure you or others will defend that somehow, but at the end of the day it's still a full time announcer challenging for the IWGP title and he held his own despite working only a 5 matches before this.

Even if Briscoe loses, you can still just do the Fletcher & Callis talking segment and have them challenge Hangman off the back of what Kyle did to Omega on Dynamite. Kyle/Hangman has more juice to it right now just based off that, than some three way match.

And you can be cheeky about it all you want, but Hangman's first reign was mediocre. It's okay if you don't want to admit that Hangman is one of those guys that's booked way better as the face chasing a heel champion versus being the face with the title.

[The Natural]

4 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I might topple over from laughter.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z35mtGzBYeM

 

21 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I wanted to throw something. Dave is becoming more and more unlistenable. I've made plenty of excuses for Dave in the past, but at this point, I might just cancel my subscription. The longer version of this on the show is even more frustrating. Of note:

- Dave now insists the number of hardcore fans that buy every AEW PPV is 15,000 people.
- Bryan actually doesn't know how Dave comes up with the numbers he comes up with, but Dave says he has a system and it's accurate and apparently it's so secret even Bryan doesn't know.
- Later on when talking about WWE PPV numbers, Dave goes on a tangent about how WWE and Peacock lie about viewership numbers. When asked by Bryan why even report or talking about the numbers if they're just making them up, Dave tells Bryan that what he reports are the correct numbers because he gets them from the hour by hour numbers that WWE and Peacock report. Bryan goes back to the words that just came out of Dave's mouth that they make the numbers up so why would the hourly numbers not be made up and Dave's response is basically, "because, uh uh uh, they, you know, they just, uh, they can't, you uh, you know, you can't make up hourly numbers." And the whole thing is essentially a dissection of Dave's horseshit reporting on numbers or what drives them and it's being done by his friend Bryan. 

Bryan also sounded like he really has had it with Dave interrupting him all the time and he sounds even more frustrated that Dave is just making shit up. I think their common connection will be the stuff they enjoy outside of wrestling and that they've been friends for as long as they have been and they both clearly enjoy watching wrestling. I don't think WOR will end or anything, it just sounds like one friend is kind of annoyed with another, but not enough to not be friends anymore.

The interruptions are frustrating as fuck from Meltzer.

[HarryArchieGus]

17 hours ago, Casey said:

Two weeks to go and no challenger for Toni yet, but I'm assuming this all-star tag on Collision sets it up (probably Bayne like @Niners Fan in CT theorized a few weeks ago?)

They were surely always coming back to Bayne vs. Toni, and this prediction seems likely. A little uninspired, but not against it. They really need to start getting some ladies going underneath. It doesn't feel like anybody is really breaking out of the Triangle of Madness vs random ladies weekly TV feud, but I would certainly be interested in Thekla vs Toni for the PPV. Despite it being a microwave warm up job. Mark Briscoe over Takeshita on Saturday due to something involving Okada. Briscoe vs. Fletcher and Okada vs. Takeshita for All Out. MJF still has an open contract. I'm guessing (yet another) heat angle Wednesday to warm up MJF vs Page for the PPV.  

[SovietShooter]

MJF is working the big Mask vs Title match against Mistico at CMLL's Anniversary show on the Friday night before All Out. Not impossible to make both shows by any means, but my guess is that he is not on the PPV. 

[StevieNippz]

4 way match with Hanger vs Don Callis Family. That way Takeshita doesn't have to eat a pin and they can sew more discontent between him and Okada. I don't love it but Hangman could come out looking strong winning a basically 3 on 1 match. I thought it was gonna be Hanger/Omega vs The Bucks again but I don't see Kenny coming back so fast after the beatdown. 

 

Dynamite and Collision are coming within 3 hours of me in October but I don't know if I have it in me to make the drive. I'm going to see Weird Al in Tampa at the end of the month so that might expel all my going-out energy. Chimel can't get me free seats anymore but prices look pretty reasonable. If I can convince someone else to drive I'll definitely try and go to one of them. I wish they'd come to SW Florida more often. Dynamite 200 in Tampa was packed and rowdy and they still haven't come back. I doubt they're ever gonna come to Fort Myers again but I would selfishly love that

[Go2Sleep]

I could see some practical benefits to AEW moving the start time up, but it doesn't seem like it plays well to the base. The time switch hurts the hardcore fans who make plans to attend live or go to a watch party, but the worst thing by far is that it makes the company look weak. No matter what Tony says, the move screams "Yeah WWE has better draws (Punk being front and center for this show is an even bigger kick in the nuts) and more people probably want to watch their show." Can't imagine it's very confidence-inspiring for the talent either. WWE was the company looking desperate throwing together a last-minute show, emptying some big barrels to try to compete with AEW's Backlash, yet AEW lets them off the hook by running scared at the last minute.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Punk has nothing to do with it.  Yes, AJ Lee is back and they will have the mixed tag but if it wasn't John Cena on his retirement tour against Brock Lesnar who just returned I don't think Tony would have shifted anything around.  Punk has been in WWE for a couple years now and AEW has had more profitable years without him. 

[DreamBroken]

7 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

They were surely always coming back to Bayne vs. Toni, and this prediction seems likely. A little uninspired, but not against it. They really need to start getting some ladies going underneath. It doesn't feel like anybody is really breaking out of the Triangle of Madness vs random ladies weekly TV feud, but I would certainly be interested in Thekla vs Toni for the PPV. Despite it being a microwave warm up job. Mark Briscoe over Takeshita on Saturday due to something involving Okada. Briscoe vs. Fletcher and Okada vs. Takeshita for All Out. MJF still has an open contract. I'm guessing (yet another) heat angle Wednesday to warm up MJF vs Page for the PPV.  

Thekla was my thought as well after laying out Toni and the Triangle of Madness standing tall on last Collision. 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Not for this next show, but they need to run Toni against Marina. Toni in the orbit of the Death Riders would be amazing. They could do a triple threat with Stat too if they don't have faith in Marina being able to carry her side of things.

[Craig H]

I think the problem with Toni is that she is too over. I think anyone that goes over her that isn't Mone or Statlander or Willow or, well, WINDSAAAAH (as she seems to be getting more and more over) is going to be a disappointment. Honorable mention to Harley because she still rules. They have just given no character for Bayne and she hasn't really helped herself much either. 

Thekla, Julia, and Skye are all doing their own thing and none of them are close to being at Toni's level. Toni and Hangman are at a different stratosphere compared to a lot of the roster. Mone on the other feels like she could be beaten by quite a few women and I'd buy it.

My ultimate dream scenario would be something like Stat and Willow both winning TBS and World titles the same night and then hug in the ring like Benoit and Eddie did at WM 20. 

[Craig H]

Marina is so fucking bad. She's pretty fortunate to have been in the Mr. Hughes/911 role in the Death Riders. If she could work at all then doing her vs Willow is a no brainer, or even Marina vs Statlander, but they're staying away from that with a 10 foot pole. It feels like there is zero confidence Marina could put on a decent match with anyone. The only way it probably works if she just gets her ass beat for about 5 minutes and then gets pinned.