Tony Khan has been praised in the past for the way he books the AEW product by having plans laid out months in advance, unlike WWE for many years with Vince McMahon making changes to the shows the day of the event taking place.
There have been countless stories of McMahon ripping up the script hours before the show goes live. However, the changes to creative or lack of decision-making have been lacking in All Elite Wrestling as of late.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted creative has been finalized later than usual as of late, leading to talent being frustrated as a result.
“So much of the stuff is if you follow AEW, a lot of the stuff is being decided at much later periods than previous. Guys are getting their information on what they’re doing later and decisions are being made later. So that’s just how it is. I mean, there’s time on the day of the show when you don’t even know. It’s almost like we talk about WWE, which is also very frustrating for talent. It’s like a lot of the guys have a lot of input on what they’re doing. So they’re doing stuff, but they don’t really know a long-term direction. So they’re doing stuff, and they’re coming up with ideas. But when you don’t really know exactly the long-term direction, then you’re kind of like coming up with ideas week by week, too, but you don’t know where the ultimate thing is. And maybe the ultimate thing hasn’t even been decided. So that’s one of the reasons that the shows are like the shows last week.”
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