AEW Worlds End review: A company at a crossroads

Following the end of Worlds End, the final AEW pay-per-view of the year, I can tell you one thing for sure: AEW is changing, and I can’t say it’s for the better.

The hometown hero MJF lost to Samoa Joe in what ended up being a pretty good heel vs. babyface attempting to overcome the odds match until the finish, where MJF passed out from the coquina clutch. Not only did the finish come off as flat, but it felt like right out of WWE’s playbook where the hometown hero almost always loses. Then the big reveal happened: Adam Cole ended up being the devil with Roderick Strong, The Kingdom, and Wardlow all being his minions. They destroyed MJF to end the show.

I’m not sure what the future is of this angle is because both of the key players are injured, and the likelihood of a singles match between MJF and Adam Cole happening anytime soon is small. Plus, the build towards the eventual reveal did not feel all that hot. By the end, it felt like a story that went on and on until we finally got the underwhelming payoff, and now we can finally move on.

I mentioned this in last month’s review but the last thing AEW needs to be at this moment in time is to now all of a sudden do WWE’s greatest hits that always got people upset. People lost interest in WWE over doing things like this too many times over and over and over again. Much can be forgiven if you have a card that ends up having tons of great matches like Full Gear, which had an incomprehensible show-long angle but at least had a ton of great matches. But Worlds End ended up being one of the weaker shows AEW has put out to date and one of the first misses the company has put out since its inception in 2019.

Here is the rest of the card:

• The Continental Classic finals was the one thing on the show that actually felt like AEW, not AEW trying to do low-rent WWE. This was a great, hard-hitting match with Eddie Kingston, the perennial favorite in AEW, scoring the big win to become the first Continental Crown winner. This was definitely the highlight of the show, and the Continental Classic as a whole was a big positive on all of AEW’s programming for the last month. Too bad it’s over now.
• Adam Copeland and Christian Cage turned this show around with a really good no DQ match for the TNT Championship until the swerve at the end. I thought we would see a TNT title change here, and we did! Then we didn’t as Killswitch gave his title shot to Christian, who immediately cashed it in and pinned Copeland with a spear. This was right out of WWE on a show that had ended with another heat-seeking ending. My guess is they’ll do a third match but at this point, I’m looking for reasons to care.
• The TBS Championship match was really bad. Abadon and Julia Hart did stuff in front of a crowd that just didn’t care. It did not help that what they did was not that compelling. Then Skye Blue ran in and attacked Abadon. Then Julia Hart won with a moonsault where she landed on her feet. I cannot say I am into the spooky time nonsense that’s seeped its way into AEW. Another bad WWE hallmark.
• The second eight man tag of the night seemed all over the place. I think it got better towards the end, but some parts just felt real clunky. No one felt like they were on the same page And the real story of the match is the crowd completely turning on Chris Jericho given the recent accusations that surfaced over the weekend (I will not get into them here). The wrong match to do in front of the wrong crowd at the wrong time.
• I liked the match between Dustin Rhodes and Swerve Strickland but I am not really sure why they did the concrete angle before the match. I guess it was to give Rhodes an out for a loss but I didn’t think it was needed. At this point I am not sure we will ever get Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee.
• Toni Storm defeating Riho was significantly better than last month’s match. I think Storm needs to find the right balance between doing the ha ha for this gimmick and having great matches. With rumors of Jamie Hayter making her return soon hopefully we’ll get something compelling in this division.
• You won’t believe this, but Andrade lost to Miro after CJ Perry turned on him. Match was fine, good even, but nothing memorable. This wouldn’t have been a shocking finish even if Andrade wasn’t leaving the company. I’m not sure what you do with Miro as he seems to be a hard person to book for.
• Eight man opener featuring the participants of the Continental Classic was fantastic, probably the second best match on the show. This illustrated everything I like about that tournament, with Daniel Garcia getting in the win after spending most of the tournament losing. This and the finals later in the show was a nice bow on the present that was the C2.
• FTW rules between Wheeler Yuta and Hook was a fine weapons match, but nothing special. This didn’t have any heat for whatever reason. Yuta even did a heel promo before the match running down the local sports teams for easy heat, and no one bit.
• I didn’t think the battle royal was all that good. AEW battle royals lately haven’t been that great because they put out a bunch of people you know aren’t winning, then they put out one person who is definitely winning (Killswitch) who then goes on to win the match. Wasn’t that compelling.

And that’s Worlds End, a middling show that didn’t really give me any encouragement for AEW as we head into the new year. Good times don’t last forever, I guess. But with Sting’s retirement coming in a few months, I think they’ll try and make Revolution a special show.