10 AEW Moments In 2023 That Made No Sense

2023 has been a crazy year in professional wrestling, and certainly for AEW. Backstage fights leading to firings, the most tickets sold for a professional wrestling event ever in AEW All In London, reported declining morale across the board, and countless match of the year candidates made for an up and down year for Tony Khan’s company.

10 AEW Wrestlers Who Need To Improve In 2024

Some AEW wrestlers need to step up their game in 2024 so they can maintain their relevance!

Not everything has been entirely smooth sailing, that's for sure, and not everything both on and off screen entirely made sense. Whether it be poor writing or things outside of their control, there have been some nonsensical happenings across the year for AEW.

10 Darby Allin Forgiving AR Fox For His Betrayal

Everyone Looked Foolish In This Storyline

AR Fox joined Swerve Strickland and attacked his friends
Darby Allin quickly forgave AR Fox for his actions

AR Fox turned heel in 2023, joining the Mogul Embassy and finding a new spark for himself. He betrayed his long-time friend Darby Allin, and would even unleash one of the most brutal assaults ever seen in AEW on Nick Wayne and Allin.

However, Swerve Strickland would dump Fox out of the Embassy just a matter of weeks later (due to some legit backstage heat) leading to Fox very quickly turning babyface again. In a baffling moment, Allin would forgive Fox despite being bloodied up by him not long before. It made Allin look like a complete fool and made zero sense.

9 Jack Perry Trying To Retire The FTW Championship

This Contradicted Jack Perry’s Motivations

Jack Perry failed to win the AEW & IWGP World Titles
Perry defeated Hook to win the FTW Championship

Jack Perry’s AEW heel turn came about due to his desperation to be a champion, but suffered setbacks. He turned his attention to the FTW Championship for the purpose of getting his hands on a title. However, when he won the belt, he decided it wasn’t important and tried to retire the gold.

This didn’t make much sense, because why would he have then wasted his time trying to win it? A better direction would’ve been Perry acting as though it was the most prestigious prize in wrestling, but the direction AEW went in contradicted Perry’s reasoning for going after it in the first place. Perry has struggled this year, and this hasn't helped.

8 Kris Statlander Upsetting Jade Cargill

Statlander’s Win Felt Cheap

Kris Statlander returned from injury and instantly won the TBS Championship
Jade Cargill’s undefeated run ended with an asterisk

After Jade Cargill defended the TBS Title against Taya Valkyrie, an open challenge was issued and answered by Kris Statlander. In under a minute, Statlander beat Cargill and ended her record-breaking reign and undefeated streak.

Cargill, given her dominance, shouldn’t have lost so quickly, and additionally to see AEW not making a big story out of Cargill’s streak ending was a complete failure. Statlander returning and then building up to a big loss would’ve been far more beneficial and would’ve made way more sense from a business perspective.

7 Flip-Flopping AEW Women’s World Title

There Have Been Many Short Reigns

Saraya & Hikaru Shida has short reigns
None of these transitional reigns made much sense

The AEW Women’s World Title scene has been a mess in 2023. Even since Jamie Hayter was forced to lose it through injury, it led to a whole load of short reigns, transitional runs, and a lack of direction.

10 Recent AEW Moments That Have Already Aged Poorly

While these recent moments were supposed to be important for AEW, they've already aged poorly.

Hikaru Shida won the belt on two occasions in 2023, both times for a short spell which felt pointless, and in between Saraya scored a brief time with the belt too. Her reign was only done to give the hometown UK fans at All In a nice moment. In terms of storytelling and consistency, the hot potato reigns made little sense.

6 Samoa Joe Shaking MJF’s Hand

Samoa Joe Showing MJF Respect Didn’t Make Sense

MJF cheated his way to a win against Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe’s handshake didn’t lead to a babyface turn

At AEW Grand Slam, MJF defended the AEW World Title against Samoa Joe thanks to interference from Adam Cole and some cheating. Instead of being furious, Joe shook MJF’s hand after the match.

To make things even more odd, Joe’s character didn’t change, and instead he was still incensed on dethroning MJF and winning the title. Shaking MJF’s hand made no sense in terms of Joe’s gimmick and his direction in the aftermath.

5 Alliance Between QT Marshall & Powerhouse Hobbs

Powerhouse Hobbs Did Not Benefit From QTV

QT Marshall helped Hobbs win the TNT Championship
The QTV gimmick was vastly different from Hobbs’ character

During a TNT Title match against Wardlow earlier this year, Powerhouse Hobbs won the gold thanks to interference from QT Marshall. AEW did explain this alliance but they did so in a way that wasn’t overly convincing.

Hobbs joined the QTV act, which was a stark contrast to the more serious nature of Hobbs with all the over-the-top acting, jokes, and whatnot. The alliance made no sense and it was universally hated by fans who wanted Hobbs doing something different.

4 Dropping Keith Lee Vs. Swerve Strickland

Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland Have Never Had A Singles Match In AEW

AEW had built this feud for months and months
There was no reason to not book a singles match between these two

At the back end of 2022, the tag team of Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee came to an end, the pair engaged in a feud. In 2023, Keith Lee returned after a brutal attack, kick starting this rivalry back into motion. However, the feud was stop-start for a while, and was then dropped.

One could argue that AEW wanted to keep both men strong, but Lee has been so poorly booked that a loss to Strickland wouldn’t have made a difference to his momentum. It made little sense for AEW to abandon all the work they’d done to build to this singles encounter, only to never pull the trigger.

3 Chris Jericho Defeating Konosuke Takeshita

A Needless Loss For A Strongly Booked Wrestler

Konosuke Takeshita had been on a strong winning streak
Jericho pointlessly defeated Takeshita in a singles match

This technically wasn’t an “AEW” moment, but it carried on an AEW feud in the DDT promotion. Takeshita had picked up some big wins over Kenny Omega, and looked unstoppable in truth. However, he took on Jericho back in his home promotion of DDT and lost.

This was obviously an AEW booking call, but it was one that made no sense. It was hardly mentioned on AEW programming, but Takeshita has had no momentum ever since.

2 Sabu Joining Forces With Adam Cole

Sabu’s Appearance In AEW Was Very Random

Adam Cole recruited Sabu to help in a feud with Chris Jericho
Sabu’s AEW cameo was fleeting and pointless

Adam Cole was outnumbered in his feud with Chris Jericho, so he brought Sabu to the occasion to even the odds. Sabu and Cole have no connection, and the history between Jericho and Sabu isn’t exactly rich.

10 Current AEW Wrestlers Who Will Be In WWE By 2025

Which AEW wrestler is likely to follow Cody Rhodes and Jade Cargill to WWE before the year 2025?

Sabu was supposed to be an enforcer for their match, but instead hit a big table splash and was never seen again. His cameo in AEW will go down as one of the most random ever.

1 Skye Blue & Willow Nightingale’s Reactions To The Mist

The Poison Mist Lore In AEW Is All Over The Place

Different people react differently to the poison mist
AEW don’t seem to know what this mist is supposed to do

The poison mist in AEW has an inconsistent lore. Julia Hart turned to the dark side, and after she “misted” both Willow Nightingale and Skye Blue, they looked to be going the same way.

Nightingale fought off this dark power, though Blue became more serious. However, she didn’t go all the way, remaining a babyface and refusing to join Hart. This poses the question of why they bothered using the mist anyway, since the effects of it don’t make sense.