I think I actually wrote something similar to this not too long ago, and I certainly wrote about a similar situation in the fall of last year, AEW packing its own schedule to the point where the pay-per-views, you know, the big events that you build to every month, just get forgotten about.

AEW Worlds End 2025 is set to take place on December 27. At the time of writing, the show is just over two weeks away, and the big selling point of that show is the finals of the 2025 Continental Classic, as was the case last year as well. Now we won’t know the final four until closer to the show given the tournament format of the Continental Classic, so we can let that slide. What I can’t let slide is that, outside of the C2, there is nothing announced for the show, and no one has any idea what will be on it, which doesn’t seem to be a good strategy in my book.

Think back to last year and the road to AEW WrestleDream 2024. There was a three-week span where Grand Slam, the Fifth Anniversary of “AEW Dynamite,” and Title Tuesday happened one week after another. All of those shows ended up being built up more than the pay-per-view they were designed to be hyping up, and that feels like what’s been happening and what’s going to happen in the coming weeks. The C2 always dominates airtime around this time of year for AEW, but tonight’s show was loaded, the shows in Cardiff and Manchester are full of great matches, and then AEW goes back to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the conclusion of the Blue and Gold Leagues in the C2. That’s all well and good, putting on big matches on TV, but your TV is meant to build to your pay-per-views, that’s literally how wrestling has worked for decades, not the other way around.

Mark Briscoe vs. Daniel Garcia for the AEW TNT Championship. FTR vs. The Bang Bang Gang for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. The first in-ring reunion of The Elite since 2023. All of that is happening in the UK and not at Worlds End, and while the fans in Cardiff and Manchester will be eating good, the fans who have bought tickets for Worlds End are probably thinking “What have I bought tickets for?” Not to mention Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page teaming up for the first time, the final of the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship tournament, and a literal AEW Men’s World Championship match on tonight’s show. Yes, it might be nitpicky, but Worlds End feels like the least of AEW’s concerns right now.

Written by Sam Palmer