4 Gripes of WWE and AEW's Booking Trends in 2025

There has been more good than bad, creatively speaking, in WWE and AEW in 2025.

What started as a bumpy ride for both companies has smoothed out a bit, with the latter experiencing a renaissance of sorts and the biggest company in the industry still doing huge numbers at the box office.

That does not mean there have not been a few hiccups that continue to permeate the products and have drawn frustration from their fans.

From inconsistent creative due to stop-start pushes to abruptly dropped stories and booking for the social media moments, these are four gripes over the current state of WWE and All Elite Wrestling booking trends this year.

There are few things worse than introducing storylines that take time and creative energy to introduce and convince fans to invest in, only to drop them with little to no warning.

Both WWE and AEW have been guilty of this in 2025.

In March, WWE executed one of the greatest heel turns in pro wrestling history when John Cena betrayed Cody Rhodes and sold his soul to The Rock.

By August, amid lackluster creative, the absence of The Final Boss, and a fanbase that wanted nothing to do with booking their hero as a villain in his retirement tour, WWE dropped the heel turn, allowing Cena to return to his babyface ways in time for one of the best matches of the year: versus Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam.

Triple H and Co. were not the only ones guilty of this booking gaffe in 2025, though.

AEW spent weeks telling the story of MJF attempting to join The Hurt Syndicate. He campaigned for the approval of MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley so fans were invested in his quest to belong again when he eventually joined the group.

Then, by the first Wednesday of August, that story was abruptly dropped when MJF was informed he was no longer welcome in the faction.

It was a sudden change in direction, and while The Salt of the Earth returning to his purer heel ways in time to feud with "Hangman" Adam Page over the AEW World Championship is probably for the better, one can't help but feel cheated creatively by the decision to pivot as suddenly as it did.

Triple H likes to sit at press conferences and on reality shows, condescendingly stating that no one—including fans and media—has a clue where WWE is headed creatively.

In 2025, it hasn't always felt like he has, either.

Unlike the first two years of his creative administration, this year has felt like a mishmash of creative ideas thrown at the screen with few long-term programs to speak of.

Whereas 2023 and 2024 brought well-planned, expansive storylines that sucked fans in and had them eagerly anticipating the next chapter in any one of them, this year has been marred by a lack of focus creatively.

The WWE chief content officer's baby, the Cena heel turn, failed miserably when it became clear the driving force behind it, The Rock's Final Boss character, would not be available and there was no clear follow-up to speak of.

Add to that no real plans to make Jey Uso look like a competent world champion despite a WrestleMania 41 victory over Gunther, no long-term vision for WWE women's champion Tiffany Stratton despite letting her beat everyone from Charlotte Flair to Trish Stratus, and the creative castration of The Wyatt Sicks despite an unforgettable debut a year ago, and you have plenty of instances of stories and Superstars fizzling out because there was nothing in place beyond their signature wins or introductions.

It is a trend WWE must reverse because Triple H has been a booker who has operated at his best when he knew the end of the story he was booking and worked backwards rather than piecing together creative from week to week and hoping for the best, which is far too often what the shows in 2025 have felt like.

Since losing to Mark Briscoe on the April 23 episode of Dynamite, Ricochet has compiled a 10-3 win-loss record in AEW.

So, how can anyone accuse Tony Khan and the creative team of starting and stopping his push considering how often The One and Only has been on television and won? Easily.

Earlier this year, following a heel turn that made him one of the most detestable wrestlers in the company, Ricochet feuded with Swerve Strickland in a program that elevated his star and had some believing the former WWE star was a legitimate contender for the AEW World Championship.

He did the best mic work of his career, brought the high-flying style that dazzled fans, and embraced his heel persona to great effect. Even after losing to Strickland at Revolution last March, he remained in high-profile spots, even teaming with Kazuchika Okada and The Young Bucks to defeat Kenny Omega, Mark Briscoe, "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight.

As his feud with Briscoe advanced, one could not help but feel Ricochet took a step backward. With all due respect to Briscoe and the quality matches and angles that they delivered, The One and Only had lost all of the momentum he had previously enjoyed and settled into a midcard spot in the promotion.

Even with the sparkling win-loss record and a Dynamite main event match against Briscoe on July 30, it is impossible not to feel as though AEW failed to capitalize on Ricochet's push and stellar performances as the summer draws to a close.

Over in WWE, the same could be said for Ludwig Kaiser, who was a staple of Raw and looked to be forging a path for himself by way of strong performances against Sheamus, Bron Breakker and Penta. He even competed against CM Punk on a few live events.

Then, he disappeared from television, relegated to the two-minute promos that air for Netflix subscribers with no ads during any given episode of Raw.

While he has re-emerged and thrived as the latest incarnation of El Grande Americano following Chad Gable's injury, it took the Olympian's misfortune for the German to get there.

The New Day is another act that underwent a phenomenal heel turn and then saw their push extinguished as The Judgment Day's Finn Balor and JD McDonagh defeated them for the tag team titles.

Now, they reside in the middle of the card on Monday nights, still drawing heat but not the nuclear level they did following their betrayal of former teammate Big E in December 2024.

Arguably the most annoying element of WWE's creative approach in 2025 is its tendency to book for the moment.

Yes, it is reflective of the era when moments are immortalized on social media, where buzz and trending is an important indicator of how relevant any company or league is at any given point.

Still, it often leads to disjointed narratives and one-off moments that happen for no other reason than to spike interest in a product that may not have been as hot as the company desired leading up to it.

Take The Rock and rapper Travis Scott's appearance at Elimination Chamber and their role in Cena's heel turn at the show. The Final Boss had not been seen on television since the Netflix debut of Raw when he was decidedly out of character. Yet, when the company needed some buzz for the March 1 show, it turned to him and a world renowned star of the music industry to help make the Cena turn as effective as possible.

Social media buzzed, the wrestling world watched in awe, and the follow-up was...woeful. That there was no real reason for the turn other than to spark surprise and chatter became evident quickly and even more obvious when The Final Boss, the man to whom Cena sold his soul, could not be bothered to pop back up and legitimize the moment by explaining why and how that alliance happened.

Instead, we got Scott slowly sauntering to the ring at WrestleMania 41, interfering on behalf of Cena, and ruining the biggest main event of the year as a half-assed connection to that moment.

Then came SummerSlam and the return of Brock Lesnar, a moment that popped the crowd but has not been followed up on in any measurable way. That it wasn't exactly a return anyone asked for did not help matters.

WWE has been trending in this direction for years as it, rightfully, recognizes the power of social media on its product. They are not necessarily wrong for it, either. It would be foolish for the company not to understand the significant role the various forms of media play in the consumption of its product.

As we saw with the enormous boom in business and interest in pro wrestling entering WrestleMania 40, though, the industry has and always will be at its best and hottest when fans are given the opportunity to invest in a long-term story that has a clear payoff.

Cody Rhodes' journey to the WWE Championship and the four-year odyssey that was The Bloodline to that point proved as much.

So, while WWE should continue utilizing social media to its benefit, and booking for the moment is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it has its place, the company must look at the bigger picture and continue to ensure the overarching story is the endgame and not an afterthought.