AEW: All Access

You're kidding yourself if you think this show is truly an "unscripted, peel back the curtain look at places cameras were never allowed to go." It's still very much reliant on characters and storylines just like "normal" pro wrestling programming. But that shouldn't be a turnoff; if you've even heard of this show, let alone are watching it, you probably like characters and storylines in traditional pro wrestling programming.

It's mostly focused on two of AEW's "power couples" - Sammy Guevara/Tay Melo, and Adam Cole/Britt Baker, with some additional appearances by people they wrestle or interact with backstage. Case in point to how this show is still about characters and storylines is the episode involving Ruby Soho. Do I feel the personal animosity between her and Tay is invented from whole cloth? No. I'm sure they genuinely don't get along. But what *is* invented for the show is stuff like Ruby asking her point-blank whether Tay giving her a broken nose was an accident. But even though they don't get along, they still do business with one another. (Do you have to get along with all of your coworkers?)

The best parts of the show are the ones that lean the heaviest into genuine realism, like Adam Cole (alternatively referred to and addressed by his legal name Austin) getting medical clearance to return to the ring, or Sammy getting a visit from his mom at a Dynamite event.

So is it truly an incisive documentary by a filmmaker eager to uncover hidden secrets? Not a chance. But is it fun? Sure it is.

Ok I'm not against reality tv, I also like wrestling however with wrestling having pre determined outcomes and realistically still needing kayfabe, for me this either needed to be 100% straight up real or not exist and it's just really fake, with some people specifically who are clearly trying way too hard to seem "nice guys"

Also AEW are the fans also concussed? Why do you put the names up so often, once on first appearance and maybe in the second half but it was constant, was it really just to show how many jobs Tiny Con does behind the scenes?

Ok for anyone who likes reality tv shows but isn't into the wrestling as much then a bit of a spoiler, AEW was built on promises it broke very quickly, it was an alternative to WWE because it was going to do XY and Z differently but did exactly what tna, wcw and others did and became just a lite version, it's arguably built 1 home grown guy in 4 years, it has no success, there are popular guys but in terms of real success, only 1. The company can't do storylines, takes healthy people off tv for months, let's others rot and truthfully let's too many people do what they want and are now stuck with a poor cartoonish product that'll never ever be anything but a second option. Sadly any promise it had long dissolved and this show was another reason why it's a joke.

There's a YouTube series which does this kinda stuff, but I can see why they wanted to make it, however there's no professionalism, throwing shade at thunder Rosa, acting like her injury isn't real, just came across really nasty, Rosa looked 50 in her shots, not a great look for the women, Brit seems nice, but truthfully none of these women have any presence or realty worth outside Hayter.

The fact they don't mention punk seems immature, they throw away tv gold just because they know they're wrong and a lot of this fake drama has been manufactured. Matt jackson is vile, false and not one thing he says seems genuine, considers retiring after 2 months out? Drama queen, come back and do your circus dance routines, bucks, Guevara etc aren't wrestlers they're glorified acrobats who help each other to do flips, nothing about what they do is wrestling. Matt makes my skin crawl, awful human, eventually the truth will come out about these silly weak man children.

Guevara came across better but he's not likeable and him and Tay sadly havd go away heat, they didn't need to change Tay so acting like it had to happen was stupid but both are vain and need attention, Guevara is not a world champ calibre guy, if he gets a belt it's an embarrassment. Adam cole is a nice guy but his appearance is a slap in the face to real wrestlers, his fake stupidity here for drama came across so fake, none of it was landing. It'll appear to the same fans who flood AEW shows and ruin them by cheering everyone and creating dead atmospheres.

Whilst this company pushes people like bucks, Yuta,Garcia, Andretti,starks, white and juice it'll always be a joke, not even TNA level. Shame, such a waste. Clueless owner, poor choices, this show visibly showing people who are in programs being friendly is so stupid, nearly as bad as monster heels on toy hunts.

This makes total divas look Oscar worthy.

Title says it all. Seems like the brunt of this show revolves around those 4, which is odd for a couple of reasons. First, there's a huge roster and in the 5 episodes at the time of this review, we haven't seen most of the roster other than the match vignettes. There are some wrestlers that talk behind the scenes but it's mostly these 4. Another reason why it's odd is because they are two couples where one is mostly universally liked and the other couple is despised. While this is supposed to be behind the scenes where, I'm assuming it's not supposed to be scripted like actual wrestling, it feels like a lot of it is. There are some parts where Tay comes off as a complete selfish person and it would be unfortunate for Sammy if that wasn't kayfabe. I get they're unlikeable but Sammy comes off as a nice guy away from the ring and tay is just... someone I imagine tay really being. Again, I hope that part is part of a script because Sammy is in for a world of hurt otherwise.

I've seen every episode of dynamite, bought every single ppv, and have been to shows so I do have some experience with this company. I just don't know if this is show is beneficial or detrimental to the overall aew lineage.