XIV uses 2000's WWF format to book AEW Dynamite.

[XIV]

Following on from my column on lessons learned from watching every major show the WWF put out in the year 2000, I was challenged to put this together as a format for a modern show.

So, a couple of things before we get into it.

I did this based off AEW's current roster for Dynamite and what I know of current goings on. I'm at a slight disadvantage in that I haven't watched a single episode of Dynamite in about two months BUT, I've seen highlights and the like so I've tried to keep the show in keeping where I can. But this is about using the format of 2000's WWF and applying it now, not necessarily the actual booking of the matches and angles.

Note: Times for each segment are in MM:SS format



Show open
Stage fireworks and pan the crowds before cutting to the announcers. Announcers introduce themselves and welcome viewers, state where the show is taking place, push it as an exciting night, then run down following matches set for the show. 3 title matches. The Acclaimed vs The Gunn Club for the Tag Team Championships (mention that GC beat FTR on last show). Hikaru Shida vs Jade Cargill (mention unbeaten streak, mention Shida being ex-champion). Powerhouse Hobbs vs Samoa Joe (put Hobbs over as a genuine threat for the title). The Elite vs Death Triangle #6 (mention current score, match types, mention that it could be level tonight and lead to #7). Mention that we're due to hear from MJF as soon as he arrives.
01:30

Segment
Promo segment: Jericho Appreciation Society in the ring. Generally putting themselves over, talk about Jericho's ROH title reign and how he will get it back, but when he chooses to, everyone's mugging to the crowd, talk about their recent events. Have Menard & Parker take over and talk about being the best tag team but not being allowed to show it. Say they want competition tonight. Pause for a 7 or 8 seconds. FTR enter, FTR offer up the challenge for a tag team match tonight. JAS accept.
06:00

Segment
Match: Darby Allin vs Wardlow. Pre-match, 30 second promo by Wardlow saying that he wants to get back into the TNT Title Hunt and it starts by facing a former TNT Champion. Wardlow goes over clean. Announcers to tie MJF appearance in with phrases like "What will Wardlow's former Employer MJF will have to say when he gets here" push this narrative.
06:30

Segment
5 seconds each of Samoa Joe & Powerhouse Hobbs backstage, walking to the ring. Have the announcers announce it as next!
00:10

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Match: Powerhouse Hobbs vs Samoa Joe for the TNT Championship. Joe goes over.
08:30

Segment
Camera cuts to Tony Shiavone waiting in the back for MJF's arrival. No sign yet, announcers point this out.
00:15

Segment
Interview: Renee Paquette w/ The Gunn Club. Gunn Club to put over their win over FTR last week and how they'll win tonight. Cut to The Acclaimed w/Daddy Ass pumping each other up leaving their dressing room. Announcers to push that match as "next".
02:00

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Match: The Acclaimed w/Daddy Ass vs The Gunn Club. Acclaimed do their usual rap stuff. The Gunn Club to get loads of early offense, taunt the crowd, be cocky and distract themselves by doing things for Billy Gunn's attention. This will cost them. Acclaimed go over clean. At low points during match, tie MJF in because of GC's affiliation with The Firm, speak about MJF's arrival and what this may mean for the Championship & AEW.
13:30

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Interview: Alex Marvez w/ FTR. Have FTR admit they've had a few tough breaks in matches, but tonight is the night to put things right. Cut short promo on Menard & Parker. About 1.5 mins into promo, Jake Hager & Sammy Guevara take both out with chairs and a quick 5/10 second assault and leave laughing. Announcers to wonder what this means for their match later tonight.
01:45

Segment
Cut to announcers who move on to recap the first hour and look ahead to the second hour's matches (The Elite vs Death Triangle is the main event, Hikaru Shida vs Jade Cargill for the TBS title, we'll hear from the Blackpool Combat Club and we're still awaiting the arrival of MJF.
01:00

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Match: Jade Cargill vs Hikaru Shida. Cargill cuts 30 second promo pre-match. She's beaten former World champions before and she's going to do it again tonight. Cargill goes over. Power beats speed match.
06:30

Segment
Interview: Renee Paquette w/Saraya near a monitor where they've just seen the previous match. Renee to ask what's next type of interview, Saraya hints that she's capable of beating either Cargill or going after the World Title, but that's she's taking her time.
01:30

Segment
Sit down interview: 3 members of Blackpool Combat Club lightly discuss recent events, deciding whether or not they're going to continue as a group or go their own separate ways. Leave this open ended, but strongly hint at unity.
03:50

Segment
Cut to a break with announcers saying that they've heard FTR have insisted the match with 2.0 goes ahead, and that match will be next.
00:10

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Match: FTR vs 2.0. FTR continue selling the chair shots from earlier. 2.0 go over with the pin coming with either assistance or feet on the ropes, roll up with tights etc. Announcers now state that FTR have been beaten their last 4 matches.
08:00

Segment
MJF arrives in a limo, Tony Shiavone has been waiting all night for him. MJF gets out of the limo puts the belt over his shoulder. Tony asks a question but MJF blows him off. Announcers push to commercial wondering what he's going to say tonight. 01:30

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Video package summing up the previous matches in the best of 7 series between the Elite & Death Triangle. Announcers to push to commercials stating that the main event, is coming up.
02:30

Segment
Entrances for The Elite vs Death Triangle
02:00

Commercials 04:00

Segment
Match: The Elite vs Death Triangle #6. Falls Count Anywhere. Have 18 minutes, go nuts. Elite go over to level the score. Push when match #7 will be and what match type this will be.
18:00

Segment
Promo: MJF's music cuts over The Elite's and he walks past all of them as he goes to the ring casually and paying little attention to anyone he walks by. He's more important. Cuts promo about getting here when he feels like it and that the fans should appreciate what precious minutes he's willing to give them. Put over beating Ricky Starks, being AEW Champion is easy for someone like him because he's better than the whole locker room and you know it. MJF to state that he's sent Mox packing, he's sent Regal into irrelevancy and now Starks is at the back of the line he doesn't know who's next... to be cut off by Ricky Starks who goes all the way to the ring. Ricky wants another shot, MJF isn't interested, trade insults until Starks hits a nerve and have MJF hit Ricky with the Diamond Ring and leaves. We got off the air with announcers saying "it isn't over between these two" and the two staring at other while MJF retreats.
06:30

Show Ends after 01:59:40

[XIV]

Now let me break some of my thinking down...

Everyone gets promo time
Well, not everyone, but in my format, we got promos from Jericho Appreciation Society, Wardlow, Gunn Club, FTR, Jade Cargill, Saraya, Blackpool Combat Club, MJF & Ricky Starks.

There's enough promo time for everyone without giving people who cannot talk too long to mess it up. Jade Cargill & Wardlow need no more than 30 seconds to get their intentions across, use longer interviews for the FTRs and BCCs but even they're capped at 2 or 3 minutes. The biggest interview segment was the opener which set up a big match for the night itself and the "off the cuff" promo by the World Champion.

The in use roster is smaller
More difficult to do in the landscape of current AEW, but I scoured the roster page and looked at who I could reasonably use without making the show feel too crowded. That being said, I still used a lot of guys. I've left a few out, but I don't think the show would lose viewers as a result. But there's people I get the chance to would use if I was booking a few weeks worth (such as Jamie Hayter, Private Party & Hook).

There was a reason behind most matches
Reasons for matches I booked:
Darby Allin vs Wardlow.
Giving Wardlow 30 second promo time was enough for him to say that this match with a former TNT Champion is to get him back on that path towards the title.

Powerhouse Hobbs vs Samoa Joe
Cold match here, but booked for the title.

The Acclaimed vs Gunn Club
Announcer's pushed Gunn Club's recent win over FTR as catalyst for this match, but gave GC just under 2 minutes of promo time to get cocky about it and put themselves over for the match.

Jade Cargill vs Hikaru Shida
Giving Jade Cargill a 30 second promo about beating a former women's champion to prove she is perfectly capable presents this match as Jade having one eye on the world title, while winning it for Shida would be huge also because of that unbeaten streak.

FTR vs 2.0
The "call-out" followed by FTR's promo around recent losses, along with the "weakening" by Hager & Guevara give 2.0 a clear edge, winning it for them is about pushing up the pecking order, towards tag team gold as per their section of the JAS promo. Winning it FTR is about rebuilding and going forward but the backstage attack gives them a bit of an out for losing (while simultaneously building heat).

Elite vs Death Triangle
No promos as they're all terrible at them but a comprehensive 2 minute or so video package summing up the finishes and some highlights of the previous matches give this a bigger match feel and it's number 6 of a possible 7. Titles on the line.

The running thread
MJF segments get massive hits on Youtube and are often some of the most watched segments. Keep people guessing about when he's going to be about and do his thing. Yes I chose to do it right at the end here, but you could do it anywhere within hour 2 if you've got a good enough main event, you can keep the viewers that want to see him. I kept it basic, advertising him discussing what's next for the World Title or even "who's next" sort of thing. He and Ricky are magic on the mic and should definitely continue the feud so that's why I've put them together here.

In conclusion

I've stuck as true as I can to the format I've watched recently in WWF's 2000 programming, I've broken it down into these headlines, just as I did in my general review for that year.

I'm not saying it's perfect, I've never booked a show before, I've never written a television format before, so this is going to be quite rudimentary, but there's no adverts during any of the matches, there's clear instruction before each commercial exactly what's coming next (I do cut to commercial between entrances and the first bell for the main event however).

The main event is the longest match on the card, just as it should be and if the other matches are shorter, there's often a reason such as FTR losing quicker due to the chair shots from earlier in the night and a bit of cheating by 2.0, Gunn Club being too cocky and distracted by their father etc.

I'd be interested to hear why people think this type of format absolutely wouldn't work in today's wrestling world.

[Big Red Machine]

I like the smoothness of it. I really like that you have thought out how to naturally tie matches and segments into the later thing you want to plug.

As for why it won't work... I just couldn't get over the match times. Creating reasons for things to be kept short is a good tool, but if you do it too often, it starts to feel like you're creating excuses to protect people, and the angles start to lose their effectiveness.

The time that really jumped out at me was Wardlow vs. Darby. With Darby in particular, a key part of his character is his resilience. If he is losing, he needs the match to go longer (and to take his crazy bumps) because if he is losing in six minutes and getting offense in for two of those, he doesn't feel special the way a character like his needs to in order to work.

I also cringed a bit at Shida losing so quickly. Even to an undefeated "monster" like Jade, I think that's just too fast for a former world champion to lose. Only the most monstrous of monsters at the peak of their push should beat a former world champion that quickly. Otherwise it just devalues the title if former champions will lose in six or seven minutes on a regular basis (which will have to happen eventually).

I would also be curious to see how your approach deals with someone when you start cycling them down card ad start cycling someone else up.

[XIV]

I like the smoothness of it. I really like that you have thought out how to naturally tie matches and segments into the later thing you want to plug.

As for why it won't work... I just couldn't get over the match times. Creating reasons for things to be kept short is a good tool, but if you do it too often, it starts to feel like you're creating excuses to protect people, and the angles start to lose their effectiveness.

The time that really jumped out at me was Wardlow vs. Darby. With Darby in particular, a key part of his character is his resilience. If he is losing, he needs the match to go longer (and to take his crazy bumps) because if he is losing in six minutes and getting offense in for two of those, he doesn't feel special the way a character like his needs to in order to work.

I also cringed a bit at Shida losing so quickly. Even to an undefeated "monster" like Jade, I think that's just too fast for a former world champion to lose. Only the most monstrous of monsters at the peak of their push should beat a former world champion that quickly. Otherwise it just devalues the title if former champions will lose in six or seven minutes on a regular basis (which will have to happen eventually).

I would also be curious to see how your approach deals with someone when you start cycling them down card ad start cycling someone else up.

One of the things I found very difficult was in fact balancing everything around not putting wrestling during the commercials and keeping them relatively evenly spread apart, it is remarkably difficult. Now I hear what you're saying about shorter matches. I think Cargill work as beating Shida quick because she is ultimately a heel and could use one of her "baddies" to get the job done or something like that and is on her way up the card, so for me this works without damaging Shida. I do get what you're saying about Darby, much like I have with the FTR match, I should have written in a better reason for Darby to lose this quick if this was to happen. But think that the next week, Darby would be in the 18 minute match slot and somebody else would do a 6 and a half minute match instead. I also did lean into Wardlow also being on his way up the card and having major motivation. But I accept you have to write solid reasons for some shorter matches, particularly where "upper card" wrestlers are concerned.

[Big Red Machine]

I like the smoothness of it. I really like that you have thought out how to naturally tie matches and segments into the later thing you want to plug.

As for why it won't work... I just couldn't get over the match times. Creating reasons for things to be kept short is a good tool, but if you do it too often, it starts to feel like you're creating excuses to protect people, and the angles start to lose their effectiveness.

The time that really jumped out at me was Wardlow vs. Darby. With Darby in particular, a key part of his character is his resilience. If he is losing, he needs the match to go longer (and to take his crazy bumps) because if he is losing in six minutes and getting offense in for two of those, he doesn't feel special the way a character like his needs to in order to work.

I also cringed a bit at Shida losing so quickly. Even to an undefeated "monster" like Jade, I think that's just too fast for a former world champion to lose. Only the most monstrous of monsters at the peak of their push should beat a former world champion that quickly. Otherwise it just devalues the title if former champions will lose in six or seven minutes on a regular basis (which will have to happen eventually).

I would also be curious to see how your approach deals with someone when you start cycling them down card ad start cycling someone else up.

One of the things I found very difficult was in fact balancing everything around not putting wrestling during the commercials and keeping them relatively evenly spread apart, it is remarkably difficult. Now I hear what you're saying about shorter matches. I think Cargill work as beating Shida quick because she is ultimately a heel and could use one of her "baddies" to get the job done or something like that and is on her way up the card, so for me this works without damaging Shida. I do get what you're saying about Darby, much like I have with the FTR match, I should have written in a better reason for Darby to lose this quick if this was to happen. But think that the next week, Darby would be in the 18 minute match slot and somebody else would do a 6 and a half minute match instead. I also did lean into Wardlow also being on his way up the card and having major motivation. But I accept you have to write solid reasons for some shorter matches, particularly where "upper card" wrestlers are concerned.

I think the split-screen commercials (not sure if you guys get that in the UK) negate the issue of not wrestling during breaks. While some sports would never have action during a commercial, others (mostly long races of various sorts, where creating an artificial stop would be a problem and also would ruin the idea of world records) do.

I'll also argue against the idea of Jade being on her way "up the card." That's what she should feel like, but she really doesn't. For most of this year, she has felt quite stagnant in her spot. It's not quite like Cody where she feels like she's in her own little world, removed from everyone else, but it's kind of like that.


Out of curiosity, have you seen the early EVOLVE stuff where Gabe tried to do this (though his goal seemed to be to make things feel shootier by changing the style towards that direction a bit and removing some of the kicking out of massive head-drops and having guys hold out in submissions for long periods of time)?

[XIV]

I like the smoothness of it. I really like that you have thought out how to naturally tie matches and segments into the later thing you want to plug.

As for why it won't work... I just couldn't get over the match times. Creating reasons for things to be kept short is a good tool, but if you do it too often, it starts to feel like you're creating excuses to protect people, and the angles start to lose their effectiveness.

The time that really jumped out at me was Wardlow vs. Darby. With Darby in particular, a key part of his character is his resilience. If he is losing, he needs the match to go longer (and to take his crazy bumps) because if he is losing in six minutes and getting offense in for two of those, he doesn't feel special the way a character like his needs to in order to work.

I also cringed a bit at Shida losing so quickly. Even to an undefeated "monster" like Jade, I think that's just too fast for a former world champion to lose. Only the most monstrous of monsters at the peak of their push should beat a former world champion that quickly. Otherwise it just devalues the title if former champions will lose in six or seven minutes on a regular basis (which will have to happen eventually).

I would also be curious to see how your approach deals with someone when you start cycling them down card ad start cycling someone else up.

One of the things I found very difficult was in fact balancing everything around not putting wrestling during the commercials and keeping them relatively evenly spread apart, it is remarkably difficult. Now I hear what you're saying about shorter matches. I think Cargill work as beating Shida quick because she is ultimately a heel and could use one of her "baddies" to get the job done or something like that and is on her way up the card, so for me this works without damaging Shida. I do get what you're saying about Darby, much like I have with the FTR match, I should have written in a better reason for Darby to lose this quick if this was to happen. But think that the next week, Darby would be in the 18 minute match slot and somebody else would do a 6 and a half minute match instead. I also did lean into Wardlow also being on his way up the card and having major motivation. But I accept you have to write solid reasons for some shorter matches, particularly where "upper card" wrestlers are concerned.

I think the split-screen commercials (not sure if you guys get that in the UK) negate the issue of not wrestling during breaks. While some sports would never have action during a commercial, others (mostly long races of various sorts, where creating an artificial stop would be a problem and also would ruin the idea of world records) do.

I'll also argue against the idea of Jade being on her way "up the card." That's what she should feel like, but she really doesn't. For most of this year, she has felt quite stagnant in her spot. It's not quite like Cody where she feels like she's in her own little world, removed from everyone else, but it's kind of like that.


Out of curiosity, have you seen the early EVOLVE stuff where Gabe tried to do this (though his goal seemed to be to make things feel shootier by changing the style towards that direction a bit and removing some of the kicking out of massive head-drops and having guys hold out in submissions for long periods of time)?

We don't get split commercials no, plus we're also on a delay (Dynamite airs on Friday nights here), we seem to get less breaks here as once or twice a show it just fades out as if its going to a break and then fades back in.

When I put Jade in the position of going up the card, that's where I would position her in order to get her moving, I agree that she is stagnant as hell and the whole undefeated streak actually doesn't seem to mean anything and has none of that Goldberg charm (or even the Kurt Angle streak from 2000!). I definitely feel like I understand what you mean by Cody. Jade in any normal world would have had a world title shot by now, but she just seems to exist outside that picture, but it hasn't felt like it's been done in a properly organic way.

My knowledge on EVOLVE is relatively sketchy, not a promotion that ever featured heavily on my radar, but seemingly worth trying to check out?

I was also watching a couple more shows (I'm into early 2001 now) and I realised how they managed to make matches feel shorter but also do so without discrediting wrestlers. This was done through 2 methods. F*ck finishes, it was the era where loads began to happen, but just occasionally, wrestlers with submissions would snatch it in out of nowhere or completely random out of nowhere roll-ups. Now whilst you can't end everyone's matches this way, you could easily do one of these a show and no-one would negatively notice (unless you chose to do this on a big match that people were anticipating something significant)

[Big Red Machine]

My knowledge on EVOLVE is relatively sketchy, not a promotion that ever featured heavily on my radar, but seemingly worth trying to check out?

I was also watching a couple more shows (I'm into early 2001 now) and I realised how they managed to make matches feel shorter but also do so without discrediting wrestlers. This was done through 2 methods. F*ck finishes, it was the era where loads began to happen, but just occasionally, wrestlers with submissions would snatch it in out of nowhere or completely random out of nowhere roll-ups. Now whilst you can't end everyone's matches this way, you could easily do one of these a show and no-one would negatively notice (unless you chose to do this on a big match that people were anticipating something significant)

Early EVOLVE is a very interesting watch. Gabe was clearly trying to be very different from everything else in as many ways as possible. I'm not totally sure if the shorter matches were intended to help the "this is a real sport/shootier" feel or if the other stuff was intended to make things feel different enough that the shorter matches would be more acceptable (or maybe it was both), but it's the best example I can come up with of a promotion booking the way you suggest.

EVOLVE also did do some of the "submission guy catches a submission and it's over" stuff. That kind of finish is one of those things that I think you have to be a little careful with, because it comes across as odd if a submission finisher always gets a win right away in matches lower on the card, but in a match higher on the card, it doesn't.