AEW NEWS - DECEMBER 2025

[Craig H]

Man, I had to go back and rewatch Sting's retirement match this morning for pretty obvious reasons. That match is about as perfect as you can get and about the perfect retirement match you can get for Sting. THAT is how you send a legend out.

[Curt McGirt]

I have to share this so I guess I'll just put it here. This is from a Big Japan review from an old DVDVR I was reading while eating breakfast in front of the laptop and I almost spit out the Ritz Fudge cracker I was having for dessert. It involves Mark Briscoe so that's why it goes here. 

Quote

AWESOME! We get the battle of uncomfortable promos. Fantastik cuts his promo in English, which throws him off completely. It also seems to baffle Ito, who stares at his partner wondering what the hell he is talking about. So totally lost, Ito just laughs a bunch and then mentions something about the Briscoes. The Briscoe Brothers though trump them in the bad promo department as Jay cuts a terrible promo where I saw the must have had to put peanut butter on his gums to get him to move his month. Meanwhile, Marc just stares at the screen with that “I like shiny things” look on his face. It is all topped off with Jay needing to fill time by yelling “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” This is what they call unintentional humor.

EDIT: Oh, and credit to @RIPPA for the good laugh

Edited December 15, 2025 by Curt McGirt

[Dolfan in NYC]

Cassidy is a Unionist?  

Huh. Duly noted. 

[Curt McGirt]

Images of Orange Punches to Catholics in a soccer riot now evoked

[Bustronaut]

13 hours ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

skeet skeet skeet

 

We decided on it early on to keep people from getting overly serious about the new place.

[Technico Support]

20 hours ago, JLowe said:

Bobby Lashley suffered a significant injury and will be out for quite a while

Thanks for this...I was wondering what was up when MVP mentioned, during a Dynamite Diamond promo package, that Lashley was hurt.

 

[HarryArchieGus]

45 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Thanks for this...I was wondering what was up when MVP mentioned, during a Dynamite Diamond promo package, that Lashley was hurt.

 

That was kind of a major AEW moment snuck into a slightly awkward voice over package - an actual injury announcement! So now Lashley won’t just have disappeared with all the speculation that always ensues - especially those who don’t do jobs and are former Titan Sports employees.

Edited December 15, 2025 by HarryArchieGus

[elizium]

7 hours ago, Bustronaut said:

We decided on it early on to keep people from getting overly serious about the new place.

I love when anyone new joins and they immediately pull the "uhhh are we seriously calling them skeets?" routine. Yeah, b, its been 3 years, make your skeets and enjoy it

[NikoBaltimore]

On 12/15/2025 at 11:14 AM, Craig H said:

Man, I had to go back and rewatch Sting's retirement match this morning for pretty obvious reasons. That match is about as perfect as you can get and about the perfect retirement match you can get for Sting. THAT is how you send a legend out.

I find it amusing this was put up during the weekend.  Seeing 75% of the responses says it all.

EDIT: For the record, I am not trying to personally throw shade at WWE fans nor do I really have much of an opinion on it all. I'm just posting the video which if one interprets it a certain way about me then fair enough.

Edited December 16, 2025 by NikoBaltimore

[Craig H]

11 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I find it amusing this was put up during the weekend.  Seeing 75% of the responses says it all.

 

This is why I don't want to hear any shit about Cena needing to be Super Cena in his final run. Instead he was booked like end of career Tony Ferguson.

[Technico Support]

I just re-upped HBO Max and resumed my AEW PPV rewatch.  I'm on DoN 2021 right now.  It's beating a dead horse at this point but holy fuck was JR bad on commentary.  In the Mox & Eddie vs Bucks match, he's repeatedly yelling at Rick Knox to get in there and check Mox's cut.  This is the kind of thing Ross did all the time -- make up another aspect to the story being told, out of thin air, that adds nothing and doesn't actually support the story.  If he's trying to push that bleeding is dangerous and Mox may lose energy, then say that.  Nobody is trying to tell a "Rick Knox -- incompetent official" story, which is what Ross is doing.  The man just makes up his own storylines.

Later, in Sting & Darby vs Men of the Year, Excalibur is telling the story of the Ethan Page/Darby Allin rivalry and JR just cuts him off, mid-sentence, to shout out Page's height and weight.  It's fucking insane.  It's like the man has Tourette's.  Here's Excalibur giving very valuable background, and Okie over here just screams SIX TWO TWO TWENTY FIVE!  Holy fucking shit.  HBO is missing out on a real value add by not giving us the ability to mute JR's commentary on rewatches.  

Edited December 16, 2025 by Technico Support

[twiztor]

12 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Nobody is trying to tell a "Rick Knox -- incompetent official" story

i would argue that Rick Knox has been telling that story himself since he joined AEW. Maybe longer, but AEW was my first exposure to him. And boy howdy, he's sure terrible at reffing tag matches. ENFORCE THE TAG RULES!

[Technico Support]

47 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i would argue that Rick Knox has been telling that story himself since he joined AEW. Maybe longer, but AEW was my first exposure to him. And boy howdy, he's sure terrible at reffing tag matches. ENFORCE THE TAG RULES!

LOOOOOL I knew that was coming when I was writing it

[The Green Meanie]

2 hours ago, twiztor said:

i would argue that Rick Knox has been telling that story himself since he joined AEW. Maybe longer, but AEW was my first exposure to him. And boy howdy, he's sure terrible at reffing tag matches. ENFORCE THE TAG RULES!

I mean, they had floated the idea of Rick Knox: dirty Young Bucks ref several times now, I'm surprised they never pulled the trigger on that.

[AxB]

Jim Ross was always a bad commentator, and always made up his own stories, rather than calling the story the wrestlers themselves were telling (I think the only times he doesn't do this, is when the wrestlers actually give him a heads-up before the match; Either that, or he was the one commentator who actually benefited from Vince's heavy handed micro-management). It's just that for years, his badness was obfuscated by the fact that his co-commentator was Jerry Lawler, who was not just bad, but completely fucking horrible.

But yeah, almost every AEW match he's called features at least one situation where he'll interrupt and shout over Excalibur (or even Tony Schiavone) actually talking about the match, to interject some of his own irrelevant bullshit.

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I find it amusing this was put up during the weekend.  Seeing 75% of the responses says it all.

EDIT: For the record, I am not trying to personally throw shade at WWE fans nor do I really have much of an opinion on it all. I'm just posting the video which if one interprets it a certain way about me then fair enough.

If the idea is that when someone retires you need to put the next guy over, pass the torch, ect. The year long Sting run essentially did that by giving us Darby Allen main eventer.

[Technico Support]

40 minutes ago, AxB said:

Jim Ross was always a bad commentator, and always made up his own stories, rather than calling the story the wrestlers themselves were telling (I think the only times he doesn't do this, is when the wrestlers actually give him a heads-up before the match; Either that, or he was the one commentator who actually benefited from Vince's heavy handed micro-management). It's just that for years, his badness was obfuscated by the fact that his co-commentator was Jerry Lawler, who was not just bad, but completely fucking horrible.

But yeah, almost every AEW match he's called features at least one situation where he'll interrupt and shout over Excalibur (or even Tony Schiavone) actually talking about the match, to interject some of his own irrelevant bullshit.

I will never forget -- this was sometime during the Jacksonville pandemic run -- when it became really obvious JR got a talking to from higher-ups regarding talking about women's physical characteristics, particularly size.  Clearly he was told, "when you feel like talking about a woman being larger than the others, discuss their power instead.  This led to moments where JR's brain did a Microsoft Word-style search and replace in real time, where he described a smaller female wrestler performing moves on a bigger one thusly:  "she's having a hard time lifting...such a...uhhhh...powerful woman!"

As you said, Ross was great in his WWF/E heyday comparatively because he was paired with Lawler and other truly abysmal commentators, and greatly benefited from having Vince holding a short leash.  His role now, as AEW's commentator emeritus, only brought in on special occasions, is the best thing for him.  He actively detracted from AEW's onscreen product as a full time commentator, doing more harm than good.

Edited December 16, 2025 by Technico Support

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 hours ago, AxB said:

Jim Ross was always a bad commentator, and always made up his own stories, rather than calling the story the wrestlers themselves were telling (I think the only times he doesn't do this, is when the wrestlers actually give him a heads-up before the match; Either that, or he was the one commentator who actually benefited from Vince's heavy handed micro-management). It's just that for years, his badness was obfuscated by the fact that his co-commentator was Jerry Lawler, who was not just bad, but completely fucking horrible.

But yeah, almost every AEW match he's called features at least one situation where he'll interrupt and shout over Excalibur (or even Tony Schiavone) actually talking about the match, to interject some of his own irrelevant bullshit.

I think always bad is a bit of a stretch. If you want to say that about Mike Goldberg in MMA/UFC, yeah, I won't fight you on that. Ross, I have to push back on. Later years in WWE? Definitely a YMMV situation. Now? Not even an argument. However, he was very good in Mid South and also very good in JCP. He was hit or miss early on in his WWF run when he was in and out of Vince's doghouse, but once he replaced Vince full time, he was great. However, I would say his secret recipe and what doomed him later on and especially now is he knew the creative so he had a cheat sheet essentially. When you're in creative and/or next to the person in charge of creative which he was for a few decades, he didn't have to make up shit cause he knew what was happening. Therefore, he can thread the needle perfectly and connect stories seamlessly. As a PBP man, he did that expertly for years. He was I say a step below a Jim Lampley or a Barry Tompkins in boxing, and you could see his sports influence with his calling of matches. Did he go overboard with the football and sports analogies and metaphors, of course. But you take the good with the bad.

When you have no clue what the creative actually is, can no longer tell the stories in the fashion they need to be told, and (later on) fall out of love with today's wrestling, you get what you have for the last several years of his career on top of his health issues. He should have stepped away YEARS AGO cause it's terrible comparing what he used to be to what he is now. But hey, I guess for Solie it was his drinking and for JR it's his health along with being out of touch with today's wrestling.

[The Natural]

Enjoy as AEW Dark is back for one night only. Miss this show.

[HarryArchieGus]

19 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I just re-upped HBO Max and resumed my AEW PPV rewatch.  I'm on DoN 2021 right now.  It's beating a dead horse at this point but holy fuck was JR bad on commentary.  In the Mox & Eddie vs Bucks match, he's repeatedly yelling at Rick Knox to get in there and check Mox's cut.  This is the kind of thing Ross did all the time -- make up another aspect to the story being told, out of thin air, that adds nothing and doesn't actually support the story.  If he's trying to push that bleeding is dangerous and Mox may lose energy, then say that.  Nobody is trying to tell a "Rick Knox -- incompetent official" story, which is what Ross is doing.  The man just makes up his own storylines.

Later, in Sting & Darby vs Men of the Year, Excalibur is telling the story of the Ethan Page/Darby Allin rivalry and JR just cuts him off, mid-sentence, to shout out Page's height and weight.  It's fucking insane.  It's like the man has Tourette's.  Here's Excalibur giving very valuable background, and Okie over here just screams SIX TWO TWO TWENTY FIVE!  Holy fucking shit.  HBO is missing out on a real value add by not giving us the ability to mute JR's commentary on rewatches.  

I so long for the day that Wrestling programming provides an Arena/Audience audio option - I'll take Spanish, Japanese, etc. I don't specifically dislike any member of the AEW team, and quite like Nigel and Bryan, but I'm consistently taken out of matches with needless CONSTANT rundowns,  melodramatic oversells and often times needless back stories. The last part includes Excalibur explaining angles when they need time devoted to explanatory videos, host segments etc. I've been watching the shows lately on very low volume to miss these annoyances - especially Schiavone yammering on about moves he's never seen that occured in the match before. 

14 hours ago, AxB said:

Jim Ross was always a bad commentator, and always made up his own stories, rather than calling the story the wrestlers themselves were telling (I think the only times he doesn't do this, is when the wrestlers actually give him a heads-up before the match; Either that, or he was the one commentator who actually benefited from Vince's heavy handed micro-management). It's just that for years, his badness was obfuscated by the fact that his co-commentator was Jerry Lawler, who was not just bad, but completely fucking horrible.

But yeah, almost every AEW match he's called features at least one situation where he'll interrupt and shout over Excalibur (or even Tony Schiavone) actually talking about the match, to interject some of his own irrelevant bullshit.

That last part is what led to the AEW commentators saying the name of the next person to speak which I find as awkward as Jim Ross on commentary in the 2020s.

13 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I think always bad is a bit of a stretch. If you want to say that about Mike Goldberg in MMA/UFC, yeah, I won't fight you on that. Ross, I have to push back on. Later years in WWE? Definitely a YMMV situation. Now? Not even an argument. However, he was very good in Mid South and also very good in JCP. He was hit or miss early on in his WWF run when he was in and out of Vince's doghouse, but once he replaced Vince full time, he was great. However, I would say his secret recipe and what doomed him later on and especially now is he knew the creative so he had a cheat sheet essentially. When you're in creative and/or next to the person in charge of creative which he was for a few decades, he didn't have to make up shit cause he knew what was happening. Therefore, he can thread the needle perfectly and connect stories seamlessly. As a PBP man, he did that expertly for years. He was I say a step below a Jim Lampley or a Barry Tompkins in boxing, and you could see his sports influence with his calling of matches. Did he go overboard with the football and sports analogies and metaphors, of course. But you take the good with the bad.

When you have no clue what the creative actually is, can no longer tell the stories in the fashion they need to be told, and (later on) fall out of love with today's wrestling, you get what you have for the last several years of his career on top of his health issues. He should have stepped away YEARS AGO cause it's terrible comparing what he used to be to what he is now. But hey, I guess for Solie it was his drinking and for JR it's his health along with being out of touch with today's wrestling.

If I hadn't heard his commentary I wouldn't believe that last part. If it is true that he wasn't aware of the creative, why the fuck didn't they bring him up to speed? Force him up to speed? I suspect he was brought up to speed, but forgot the details as soon as he learned them. That's some 'Cowboy Shiz-nit!'

[AxB]

There was that one Rampage or Collision (I think it was a double header), where Jim Ross kept harping on about how Anna Jay was 21 years old. Like, he kept going back to it, as if that was the biggest and most important fact about her. And then after that match Excalibur mentioned that Billie Starkz would be on the next show, and that she was 18 years old, and JR freaked out.

Now, I'm sure they give the commentators notes, because that's literally Alex Marvez's job, to write notes for the commentary teams. So either Ross doesn't read the notes in advance of the match happening, or he does read them, but then forgets them by the time the show starts. Either way, that's the type of shit he'd fire people for when he was WWE talent relations.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

If I hadn't heard his commentary I wouldn't believe that last part. If it is true that he wasn't aware of the creative, why the fuck didn't they bring him up to speed? Force him up to speed? I suspect he was brought up to speed, but forgot the details as soon as he learned them. That's some 'Cowboy Shiz-nit!'

 

1 hour ago, AxB said:

There was that one Rampage or Collision (I think it was a double header), where Jim Ross kept harping on about how Anna Jay was 21 years old. Like, he kept going back to it, as if that was the biggest and most important fact about her. And then after that match Excalibur mentioned that Billie Starkz would be on the next show, and that she was 18 years old, and JR freaked out.

Now, I'm sure they give the commentators notes, because that's literally Alex Marvez's job, to write notes for the commentary teams. So either Ross doesn't read the notes in advance of the match happening, or he does read them, but then forgets them by the time the show starts. Either way, that's the type of shit he'd fire people for when he was WWE talent relations.

Everyone has production meetings so it's not a case of everyone being brought up to speed or notes. He just isn't able to retain or utilize the whatever information given out like he use to. Back in his heyday, he was extremely sharp even with move names and everyone's backgrounds etc and able to put everything in context. If you're a commentator and your mind is sorta gone, that's pretty much it as far as being able to be any good at your job. If you're color commentator, you can fake it like Heenan managed to do on the back end of his WCW run. Play by play commentators cannot get away with it. 

[Technico Support]

3 hours ago, AxB said:

Now, I'm sure they give the commentators notes, because that's literally Alex Marvez's job, to write notes for the commentary teams. So either Ross doesn't read the notes in advance of the match happening, or he does read them, but then forgets them by the time the show starts. Either way, that's the type of shit he'd fire people for when he was WWE talent relations.

Yeah, this speaks to @Elsalvajeloco's point...I find it very hard to believe that AEW doesn't clue commentators in to creative, since enhancing the story being told in the ring and overall is such a major part of their jobs.  As you said, JR probably just ignores them or forgets.  EDIT: nevermind, you clarified!

16 hours ago, The Natural said:

Enjoy as AEW Dark is back for one night only. Miss this show.

This popped up in my feed last night, such a welcome surprise.  I've only seen the first match so far, but Marina Shafir is getting so much better!  I also find her cursing out random fans to be legitimately delightful.  When she walks out she starts yelling at the fans, "yeah?  YEAH?  FUCK YOU!!!"  

Edited December 17, 2025 by Technico Support

[The Natural]

24 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Yeah, this speaks to @Elsalvajeloco's point...I find it very hard to believe that AEW doesn't clue commentators in to creative, since enhancing the story being told in the ring and overall is such a major p[art of their jobs.  As you said, JR probably just ignores them or forgets.  EDIT: nevermind, you clarified!

This popped up in my feed last night, such a welcome surprise.  I've only seen the first match so far, but Marina Shafir is getting so much better!  I also find her cursing out random fans to be legitimately delightful.  When she walks out she starts yelling at the fans, "yeah?  YEAH?  FUCK YOU!!!"  

I have a soft spot for Marina Shafir.

[HarryArchieGus]

1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Everyone has production meetings so it's not a case of everyone being brought up to speed or notes. He just isn't able to retain or utilize the whatever information given out like he use to. Back in his heyday, he was extremely sharp even with move names and everyone's backgrounds etc and able to put everything in context. If you're a commentator and your mind is sorta gone, that's pretty much it as far as being able to be any good at your job. If you're color commentator, you can fake it like Heenan managed to do on the back end of his WCW run. Play by play commentators cannot get away with it. 

Yeah, I’d assume he was in on creative and unable to retain / incredibly lazy and ignorant to the product - as opposed to your original post of him having ‘no clue’ of creative. I’m a huge Heenan fan, but he wasn’t fooling many during that awful later run - not that I disagree that it’s easier to fake color than PBP.