Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
One of the hottest topics this week has been the criticism from some that at All Out, AEW went too far with Bryan Danielson being choked out with a plastic bag and the hypodermic needle and chair shot to the head that Swerve Strickland suffered in the main event.
This criticism has come from various sides—be it parts of the fandom saying All Elite Wrestling has deviated too far from its original source concept and is becoming a glorified hardcore indie promotion, to people in the industry calling it crass or outright dangerous. In fact, there’s even a Change.org petition demanding the “termination of AEW programming due to disturbing and harmful content”, stating that this is unacceptable content unsuitable for children, calling out issues with content beyond just these three spots.
My question for you today is “Do you think AEW has gone too far? Or is this all being blown out of proportion?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
Before everyone jumps at me in the comments and thinks that I’m somehow complaining about this, let me already cut straight to the point and say that for the most part, I’m fine with this. You won’t see me acting like Helen Lovejoy tearfully pleading “Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children?!!?!”
However, I can see where some of the criticism does have an argument. As usual with many things in this world, I don’t think this is an entirely black and white discussion with zero wiggle room where one side is 100% right and the other is 100% wrong—for many different reasons.
I’m in that weird middle ground where I love some of the car crash style wrestling matches out there, but I think there’s a time and place for everything, and a limit of what is acceptable, versus what is just foolish.
For instance, Mick Foley is one of my top 5 favorites of all time, and even though I acknowledge how insanely dangerous his Hell in a Cell 1998 match was, it’s still one of my favorite segments in pro wrestling history. I’ll mark out more for a brutal spot than I will for a 3 minute extended “let me chop you and you can chop me” session, for sure. On the other hand, I look at these indie promotions where people are smashing light tubes and bleeding excessively and I shake my head at them, wondering how they could be so stupid.
I also acknowledge that I am not a pro wrestler, have never been, and never will step in the ring. Therefore, I do not know as much as those within the industry when they talk about the safety precautions. Anything that is NOT safe ultimately does register to me as something that shouldn’t be done, as the rule of cool does not trump the repercussions. If there is indeed no way for AEW to have rigged the chair shot in a safe method, and all parties just willingly risked giving Swerve Strickland some brain damage, then no, I’d rather them not have done that. But since I don’t know those things in and out, I’m also willing to assume they might have set that up in a way where it was indeed safe to do.
Assuming that is the case, I see nothing wrong with blurring the line. Making fans think that it wasn’t safe, but it actually being safe, is the same suspension of disbelief we all apply constantly to pro wrestling, down to the punches and kicks. Effectively, what’s the harm in saying Wendy Choo hit Jordynne Grace with a “loaded pillow” when you don’t see anything in it, and you’re just supposed to pretend, knowing that it was legitimately just a super soft pillow? I’m sure Grace is fine from that, and I’ll play along.
I do worry about the plastic bag spot, though, for “don’t try this at home” reasons. Yes, people could take a chair and hit someone over the head to try to replicate that spot, but that’s less likely to happen in comparison to some kid potentially taking a plastic bag, wrapping that around another kid’s head, and unintentionally strangling them. The hypodermic needle spot doesn’t register to me as an issue on that front because if a kid has access to needles, unsupervised, that parent is already doing a terrible job as it is and watching AEW isn’t the thing that is suddenly going to be what sets them down a bad path. A plastic bag is so innocuous that I could see someone doing this as a gag, thinking it’s harmless, only to regret it.
Was any of this necessary? No. Was it cool? I think so, if not just because it was different. It’s certainly become major talking points, which is part of the goal AEW was aiming for, albeit I’m sure Tony Khan wasn’t looking to get so much flak for it.
AEW tweeted out “Due to the graphic nature of the attack on Bryan Danielson, we will not be sharing the footage. AEW does not condone such actions.” I find that kind of funny considering the next thing was the “unsanctioned” match and that is the excuse for the level of violence in that one. Granted, I think that’s a somewhat logical idea, but having them back-to-back kind of lessened the impact for my own personal tastes. Had just one of these happened, I think it would have meant even more, and they could have saved the other for another time. Maybe the Danielson angle should have happened on Dynamite, as there wasn’t much of a reason (in my mind) to HAVE to do this turn on the pay-per-view.
But that also brings up a question of whether or not AEW will show any of these three acts in clips on Dynamite tonight—hence this being today’s question. If they don’t show it, it will mean that the company folded to the criticism, acknowledging that maybe, they pushed the limit a little too much. On the contrary, if they show any of it, that will be a sign they think this is perfectly fine, and everyone’s just too soft.
Obviously, if sponsors have any issues, then AEW needs to do the fiscally responsible thing and cater to them, to an extent. But I’m more of the opinion that this isn’t going to make them lose any fans in the grand scheme of things. Sadly, I also think it isn’t particularly going to make them win over any new fans, either. It seems the most hardcore AEW aficionados really just want to see Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay wrestle for 30 minutes doing a series of maneuvers while they yell out “this is wrestling” and anything shy of that is a departure they don’t like, while on the other side, the most hardcore anti-AEW fans out there will find fault in absolutely anything just because those are the initials of the company, and if WWE or another promotion did the exact same thing, there’d be no issues. IE, how many people have been clamoring for the end of the PG era, and when this happens, they get all uppity over it? You can’t have it both ways without looking like a hypocrite.
When push comes to shove—or, when needle comes to cheek, or bag/chair goes to head—I think the people most upset about this need to calm down, but if it’s too problematic, they have every right not to watch anymore. Likewise, I think the people who say this isn’t the AEW they signed up for when the company was created have every right to call attention to that whenever they see fit, and I don’t disagree with them when it comes to things like the removal of the rankings and the more WWE-style booking at times, but I would point them toward nearly everything Darby Allin has done since day 1 and say “Are you sure they haven’t pushed some of the boundaries from the start?”
Like most things in pro wrestling, I think most of the loudest chatter out there is from people who need to take 3 deep breaths, step outside of their bubble, and come back to this after a few days before acting like it is the biggest thing to ever happen in the industry.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
