Jonathan Coachman doesn’t think wrestling fans should need a ten-year memory to understand why a match is happening. After AEW announced Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship at All Out, Coachman argued that the company skipped an important part of the process: actually explaining why viewers should be getting that match right now.
While speaking on 2 Count Tuesday, the discussion started with the way Ospreay vs. Moxley was announced. JD questioned why AEW didn’t spend the episode building toward the reveal through interactions between the two men, instead putting them together before the match graphic appeared on the screen.
“And then Ospreay is standing there with Jon Moxley and all of a sudden on the big screen we see Ospreay, Moxley, world title match, All Out in Chicago at the NOW Arena. And I’m saying to myself, what a weird way to start a world title program between two guys who obviously have history with each other. And what a weird way to announce a match.”
That led Coachman to a bigger problem he sees in wrestling. Promotions know their hardcore audience remembers years of storylines, matches and history, but he doesn’t believe they should book television as though everybody watching has that same knowledge.
“This is why you can’t get caught up in your core fan base.”
Coachman wasn’t singling AEW out as the only company guilty of it either. He pointed to WWE bringing up history involving Roman Reigns from roughly a decade ago as another example of wrestling expecting viewers to immediately remember something they may have watched years earlier.
“And what I mean by that is they assume everybody that watches AEW [watches] every single show because WWE does it too. They just did it with Roman and… like 10 years ago. ‘Oh, you all remember 10 years ago.’ No, we don’t.”
For Coachman, that becomes a problem when a company is trying to reach beyond the people who already watch everything. A casual viewer shouldn’t need years of wrestling knowledge to figure out why the world champion suddenly has his next challenger.
“And you should try to be getting the casual fan. That’s how you grow.”
He believes that growth also translates directly into money. Instead of expecting fans to fill in the blanks themselves, Coachman wants promotions to give them enough backstory on television for the match to make sense on its own.
“That’s how you make more money. So to get to the casual fan, what do you got to do? You got to explain and give me a backstory as to why this makes sense.”
Coachman’s issues with the Ospreay-Moxley announcement didn’t stop there. He also believes AEW’s refusal to establish a regular authority figure leaves the company without someone who can naturally explain why major matches are being made.
“Number two, I will also say this is why you need an authoritative figure. Tony Khan refuses. He doesn’t want one. You need somebody running your world. Every single organization has a CEO, has a GM, has a something.”
In Coachman’s mind, that person could have been used to connect the dots. Moxley or Ospreay could walk into the authority figure’s office, explain what they wanted and give viewers an actual reason for the championship match.
“If you had that for Dynamite, then you would have somebody you could have Moxley walk in or a pretape with Will Ospreay saying, ‘Listen, I need to make a name for myself. And to do that, I need to take on a guy blah blah blah blah blah.’”
There was still one fairly important question left after all of that: why does Moxley get the championship match in the first place? Coachman wanted to know what Moxley had actually done to earn a shot at Ospreay.
“And third, what did Jon Moxley do to earn a world championship match? Did he win a match? Did he win a tournament? Did he win anything?”
JD pointed out that Moxley is the Continental Champion and recently defeated AR Fox. None of that changed Coachman’s basic problem with how AEW presented the title match.
“Make it make sense.”
Coachman isn’t arguing that Ospreay and Moxley don’t have history or that the match shouldn’t happen. His problem is expecting viewers to do the homework themselves. If AEW wants people outside its core audience to care about a world title match, he believes the television show needs to tell them why they should.
Do you agree with Jonathan Coachman that AEW expects fans to remember too much history, or do Ospreay and Moxley already have enough history to make the All Out match work? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
