AEW's massive week: Forbidden Door fallout, MJF defends against Briscoe, and a streaming service?

[GoldbergFan]

WWE is not the only company having a moment. AEW came out of Forbidden Door into a loaded Dynamite this week, with MJF defending the world title against Mark Briscoe in the main event and the show built around his championship. Add Jay White returning at Forbidden Door after fifteen months away and Hikaru Shida winning the TBS title in the Survival of the Fittest match, and the roster suddenly feels deep again

The business story might matter more than any match though. Tony Khan has been out explaining his motivation for launching the MyAEW streaming service, including whether video libraries end up on it. Every wrestling company becoming its own broadcaster is the direction of travel, and where those tape libraries live determines who owns wrestling history

Ospreay talk deserves its own paragraph, back from a career threatening injury last year and now slated to main event All In London, which he openly calls his crowning achievement. Whatever your company allegiance, that comeback arc is the feelgood story of the summer

So the AEW corner of the board gets the floor. Is MJF's reign delivering, was Forbidden Door's cross company format better this year or wearing thin, and does anyone actually want another streaming subscription, even for wrestling?

[HitmanMarcus94]

MJF's reign is the best sustained character work in wrestling right now and half this board will not see it because it says AEW on the banner

[Dom0]

The reign is good, the shows around it are still a lottery. One incredible segment, one baffling one, every single week, it is the AEW constant

[Quarry92]

Jay White back after fifteen months is the pickup that quietly fixes the upper card. The man makes everyone he works with look better

[Distant Sienna]

Forbidden Door answer, the format is still special BECAUSE it is annual. The day they run cross company matches monthly is the day the magic invoice comes due

[Stephen24]

Nobody wants another subscription and everybody will buy the wrestling one, we are a captive market and Khan knows it. See also, every PPV we swore we would skip

[Cheeky Shaun]

The tape library point is the real story in this whole thread. Whoever streams the history owns the nostalgia pipeline, and nostalgia is wrestling's most reliable product

[BlackWidow]

Shida winning Survival of the Fittest was my result of the week, one of the most consistent hands in the division finally back with gold

[Sigma]

Ospreay main eventing All In after what happened to him last year is the kind of story you cannot write. Sport is fake, the comeback is not

[Richard_36]

Grumpy corner checking in, a streaming service before fixing the weekly show's pacing is classic cart before horse. The product IS the retention strategy