AEW President Tony Khan has revealed that he is “re-evaluating” the rankings system the company has used since its beginnings in 2019.
When AEW formed in 2019, one of the major things it wanted to achieve was to make sure wins and losses would matter. This was to add to the ‘real sports’ feel of the promotion.
With that in mind, it developed a ranking system based on match results that would, in theory, see stars climb the rankings to achieve title matches.
However, the system has not been without controversy with the nature of pro wrestling meaning that sometimes rankings were ignored as other storylines took precedence.
Many fans point to the fact that FTR has been the top-ranked tag team for several months as well as being AAA, IWGP, and ROH Tag Team Champions, yet has been overlooked time and again for another AEW Tag Team Title shot.
It was reported in September that there would be less emphasis on the rankings and this has been evident with them not having been updated since late August.
In an interview with ComicBook, AEW President Tony Khan explained that there hasn’t been an update because of the “fluid” situation in recent weeks.
“I haven’t updated [the rankings] lately because I think so much has been fluid, coming out of the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions in particular.
However, he went on to say that he is in the process of re-evaluating the system and could bring the rankings back in the near future.
“It’s a fluid situation coming out of Grand Slam, and I think now I’m re-evaluating it and quite possibly could bring them back soon.”
Tony Khan also discussed how there have been other changes which seem to have led to better ratings in recent weeks.
“[We’ve] certainly made a lot of changes for the better that led to our best ratings of the year in many ways because we really zoned in and have had, I think, a lot of our best shows in recent months.”
After several months of turmoil around the main event scene resulting from injuries and then the now-infamous backstage brawl between CM Punk and The Elite, it appears that things are settling down in the company with Jon Moxley now in his third reign as AEW World Champion.
Whether this more stable situation will lead to Tony Khan reinstating the rankings system, however, remains to be seen.