The BIZARRE Build To AEW Grand Slam And A Match 15 Years In The Making 

TK is not a booker. He is a matchmaker. He knew he wanted to have this match but had no idea how to tell a coherent story to get it from point A to point B. This is not the 1st time, not by a long shot. To give TK some kind of praise, I think he would do really well with boxing or mma fights.

I think a lot of hardcore AEW fans greatly underestimate the barrier to entry for new fans trying to get into the show. A lot of things (ex: random New Japan wrestlers getting TV time without any build) are done without any context and you’re just expected to know what’s happening. And these fans say “you can just google it”, and while that’s technically true, no new/casual fan wants to do HW just to be able to get into a show

That’s the biggest issue that AEW has right now. If you’re a new viewer coming in you’re expected to know months or even years of backstory or buildup for a feud, they present you everything without context and they expect you to seek it out on your own.

After 5 years, I finally figured out Tony’s booking philosophy. It’s basically just My GM Mode or My Universe Mode that’s always set to simulation with little involvement. No seriously, think about it. There’s no consistency with heel and face turns which is why they keep happening almost constantly, having big matches on random episodes of Dynamite instead of PPV’s that have little to no proper build up, having start and stop storylines every week instead of letting them develop, random makeshift tag teams and wrestlers put together as factions with no staying power whatsoever. It all makes sense…

If Nigel went to Tony khan and wanted the match, why didn't he ask for a title match? Everyone else and their mother is given random title matches for no reason. Why not him too? I don't know anything at all about Nigels wrestling. This match had so much interest but now I couldn't care less, the build was completely lazy and unless they have a rematch, the match it self is useless

For someone that watched wrestling since a kid in the late 80s in Atlanta Georgia....Tony's Booking makes me think all the the great bookers and those that was just trying to book...Obviously Tony's a long time fan of wrestling. . I can respect that.. But he is very hit or miss.....

Bryan Alvarez claims Tony Khan said There's no such thing as long term booking anymore, it's week to week.

I'm looking forward to AEW grand slam tomorrow but my issue is why are we getting bryan danielson vs nigel McGuinness on free TV instead of building it for a PPV because you would think a big match like this would be suited for a ppv and not given away on free TV other than the ratings being down how does that make sense?

TK's booking is all over the place. He really needs some help

Them rushing this match unnecessarily has Dave Meltzer written all over it. He probably told Tony to do this due to low ticket sales. When him and Bryan were reviewing the show last week, Bryan pointed out how fucking stupid it is for them to do a segment earlier in the show, where mox essentially said Bryan is out for Arther ashe and challenged Darby for his shot when later on they announced the Nigel and Danielson match for Arther ashe. Dave simply responded with a "hhm, that's ..interesting". This was clearly bad booking and he didn't criticize it at all. Yeah if anyone keeps claiming that Dave is actually impartial and isn't Biased when it comes to AEW, please go touch some grass

Its almost like TK simply cares about matches he would like to see but has zero idea how to actually book said matches.

Imagine promoting the Last Man Standing match between Braun Strowman vs Bronson Reed for the next Raw without the build up for weeks just one promo there from both wrestlers but no face to face confrontation: people would go "okey, a bathroom break" but now with the constant brawls they're gonna be "woah make it the main event!!" 😅

This is one thing I've always liked about Solo, no stone goes unturned with him. we've seen him rip on WWE many-a time over the years but he keeps that same energy for AEW when they do something stupid as well as other promotions who do stupid things. He literally calls everything right down the middle, no sides 💯

Agree with 99 percent of this. Would have loved for SCSA to be at the build… but at the end of the day all he said to say was “I’ll be there” he’s Stone Cold.

Just say Tony sucks at this. Why is that so hard?

Even if you forget everything else, it makes Nigel look like a punk. 15 years and the only time he challenges him is when he's sidelined? Not to mention, to anyone who doesn't know the history, the announcer challenged the world champion? What a 🤡 show. Ha.

Let’s be honest, this whole match is happening because folks at WrestIetalk jokingly suggested Nigel v Bryan could happen because of their previous history. TK obviously watches these shows and picked up on that lol

If someone tells me ‘just google it’ im gonna assume the show sucks and the fans suck.

Pretty much rushed it

Haven’t watched the video yet. But I get the fact they rushed a rematch that would be 15 years since the last one on Thursday but holy fuck this sucks

AEW needs a new booker

A shit effort by AEW at booking... nothing new there then

The booking of this company is completely bullcrap

Never heard Solomonsrer sound so pissed about AEW and I get it, the show’s been lame for the months, the booking is crap. I’ve gone grand slam every year since it started and I passed it up this year even though I can get tickets for 25 bucks. Tony Khan books for the sickos, good for him. i ain’t one. I bought tickets for saturday night’s main event instead

All of this wreaks of a man that is desperate to pump up his ratings. This is why I have a hard time buying into this new TV deal talk. Tony Khan is throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. He's making matches just to make matches, longevity be damned. As long as it's names he considers big and nostalgia-sploitation, he's gonna book whatever he thinks will pop a number.

I don’t think the match is going to happen at Grandslam. I think the story is Nigel McGuinness is challenging Bryan Danielson because he knows Danielson won’t show up because he still can’t compete kayfabe wise in order to get more heat on McGuinness when the match does happen.

Solo TESTIFY! My Brotha! TESTIFY!

The build up is weak because there will barely be a match.Bryan will come out and then get his ass beat again as Nigel joins the BCC. Which leads to Bryan dropping the belt to injury and a tournament happening. Which eventually leads to Nigel v Bryan at All In

The majority of AEW’s problem are very simple and it comes down to Tony Khan is NOT a booker and until they get a creative team and a lead booker with experience in the role nothing will change.

Even if we couldn't get a promo battle we should've at least gotten a promo from Nigel talikg about how in he and Bryan had one of the great rivalries ever. How in 09 they both left ROH as indie legends; then Bryan would go on the biggest stage and became an even greater legend. While Nigel went to a smaller stage, had his career fixle out and end prematurely. That it eats him alive seeing Bryan have all the success that misfortune costed he himself. It's such an easy story to tell that I write the promo myself, and im shocked Tony didn't do that.

I've been watching wrestling pretty much since I learned how to walk. My mom was a huge fan and she got me into it at an early age. I know Bryan and McGuiness because of WWE. I am a huge AEW fan. But I have ZERO CONTEXT to the history between them in ROH. Tony dropped the ball here.

I'm an AEW mark and I can agree that this is junk. They are now competing with MLW and the NWA. Not WWE, NXT, or TNA. SMH

Chris Jericho has spent 5 years trying to convince us he’s a master of long term storytelling and all I can say is maybe it was good having someone pulling him by the reigns for the 25 years before this

AEW is on life support right now! I know the AEW fans are in denial but man AEW it’s in a bad shape and it’s not a good thing, it’s not good for wrestling for AEW to be down right now. I hope they can turn the corner

It was probably best that Nigel and Bryan didn't have a face to face promo segment. You can't have Bryan just show up and ignore Moxley putting a plastic bag over his head and the BCC betrayal to have a back and forth promo segment with Nigel. He has to stay out till we see what happens at Grand Slam. Besides we don't know how the match would go or if it would happen at all. They could book Bryan entrance to play over and over after Nigel is in the ring waiting.. just to show Bryan laid out with Claudio, PAC, and Marina standing over him. Moxley could be redeemed for the indisposed comments by saying to Bryan, "you just won't stay down will you? Don't worry, after I'm done with Darby tonight, at Wrestle dream, i will make sure you stay down for good when i take that world heavyweight championship from you"

Oh no, a good match on TV! Whatever shall we do😭

Couldn’t agree more.

My issue is less the lack of build and more the lack of confirmation if there will even be a match. I could understand limited promotion if you're not even sure both guys will make it to the match. But in that case, there should be a backup plan in place. Maybe someone from BCC could confront Nigel and tell him to stay away from the champ because he's their prey, and that could lead to a definite match. Or Nigel could blame BCC for putting his dream match at risk.

The “Google it” crowd is just the old “BTE” crowd but with a new coat of paint. Present your product on your multi-million dollar live television shows. That’s what it’s there for. Jesus.

Solomonster lives near Grand Slam. Is he going? If not why not?

The match between Danielson and Nigel shouldn’t have happened, the ref started counting reached six and stopped when Bryan’s music hit, he should have continued counting until he reached 10 or Danielson was actually in the ring . He should have been counted out

The build to this match is on “suffering succotash” levels. Nah he’s not in shape to defend his title but here’s ur match Nigel! And why isn’t Darby storyline pissed that he can’t get his title shot but Bryan may show up and do something else?

It's also weird that there's no Bryan involvement, no promos or even video promos from home. Feels one-sided, especially since as much as Nigel mentions Bryan, Bryan never seems to acknowledge him at all. I just hope this is not a one off and they do at least a PPV match if not multiple matches.

Hear me out a way to fix this is have it be a tag team match between Danielson/Darby vs Moxley/Nigel. If Moxley and Nigel win they both respectfully get titles matches. And it gives us a tease of Danielson vs Nigel a bit

Remember when AEW fans said to "just watch the wrestling"? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

At home we are debating to get rid of our AEW subscription. Their program just doesn´t keep us engaged. To keep us around they need more of really good promo´s like Nigells on Colision and far less meaningless, overbooked, meandering matches per episode.

I was watching the other day and trying to get what is going on is just pointless as you can easily just be like meh why bother but you can't do this on every show as I now feel like why bother watching. Each time the story is dumb or they do stupid stuff to me it says they think the punters are thick and do not deserve good stories etc.

If nothing else, we at least got ONE S-Tier promo from Nigel out of it. But yeah, a lot left on the table with this. Imagine WWE giving a 2 week hype for Punk/Rollins and only getting a single good promo out of it. "But at least the match will be good, right..."

I dont think the match happens I think Nigel & BCC ambush Danielson with Nigel becoming a member

I hope Bryan doesn't show, fuels Nigels anger and gives them a chance to do promos

AEW is destroying themselves and it's sad to see as a fan of wrestling. This entire card is so disorganized. Top to bottom

It’s not 15 years in the making if Daniel Bryan had nothing to do with Nigel until this since 2009. If it was in the making this woulda been hinted at and built up during that timespan. This is the first time in 15 years that this match has happened or been booked but, it’s not 15 years in the making.

I stopped watching two weeks ago. Good riddance.

Too much is happening at the same time.

great show

good video

This is one of the reason why I'm watching the NXT under Shawn Michaels over AEW under Tony Khan. Shawn Michaels knows the audience. We use to say Vince McMahon caters to an audience of One, now Tony Khan caters to an Audience of One group only.

Word on the street is Bill Watts is working on a time machine so he can take Tony back to LA in the 80s and make some real money

How is AEW the same company that gave us Punk vs. MJF?

Tony Khan mind is literally stuck in the 6th grade and hasn’t got passed it

The past two years have been a giant exposé on Tony Khan’s ability, or lack thereof, to book. He’s terrible at it.

I sigh deeply SMH

Doodoo build in all honesty

Moves and spots>>>Characters and personality. Duh.

Poor Kate from Fightful 😂

"BIG MATCH" to who?? Those damn sickos haha 😂😂 What a waste of a card and time🗑 This made Darby Allin and Jon Moxley look like dumbasses. Why not just do Bryan vs Mox vs Darby? Aewful wrestling at its finest lol 😆

Everybody needs to quit griping on AEW not booking outside the nerd bubble he books for himself for his real life action figures it’s never gonna be more than it is anyone who says that it will be as crazy! It’s a great place for men and women to make a lot of money and that’s the only positive thing about it! I will say it was OK to try to get to know all the new people and new faces at the beginning of the company five years ago but they continue to bring new people in and do nothing with them. There’s nothing. I don’t care either way because they don’t get more than about 10 minutes of my life each week. It’s not worth any more time than that and that’s probably give it a few extra minutes then I should. I’m not a straight up WWE guy I like to watch wrestling., aew is a joke, they will always be around because the nerd has daddy’s money! I don’t care that one place is bigger than or better than the other which their matches are better I don’t care. I just want AEW to be worth watching. Because it’s not. I’ll never expect to be on wwe level and again I’m not a wwe nerd either! But at least they’re bearable to watch!

To say something positive. I think if nothing else AEW understands how to book vets. Throwing JJ as a body with name recognition to beat for hangman on his way to his next feud. Nothing to complain there.

AEW F the Haters Just sthu enjoy wrestling no matter who you like

aew > wwe triple h era

Jesus stop being such a mark dude..

Anti aew channel

11:55 Basically TK does not believe in foreplay

People especially “critics” go from “they don’t know how much time they have with Bryan” to “oh why not build it up , why take all the fun”… 20 mins of bitching and complaining .. gooooooood god … it’s like the View bitching about Trump … we get it , you don’t like AEW .. okay cool but how about you just let other enjoy it .. sheesh ..

The AEW elitists bout have a fit over this 😂😂😂