While AEW's weekly shows are often criticized and the declining ratings have become alarming to most, their pay-per-views are almost always praised. According to Tommy Dreamer on "Busted Open Radio," the recent Full Gear pay-per-view did even more this time to set the tone for the promotion going forward.
"Full Gear removed that stink," Dreamer opined, specifically pointing to the main event of the show. "If I see steps for progression, I'm okay with it. If it's a total like: Wow they just let me down again? I'm like 'What the hell just happened?' Because that's what used to happen in TNA." Dreamer then recalled specifically how, years ago, the promotion decided to not put the TNA World Championship on Bobby Roode, and that the fans literally walked out on the show -- which he was in attendance for. Dreamer then noted that this was the moment where TNA began to go downhill before Scott D'Amore stepped in.
"How do you say Full Gear wasn't successful?" Dreamer pointed out, further noting that the weekly shows drive the PPVs, and if the shows are terrible, the PPVs should be terrible as well. "Here's what I'm trying to get to: if you can see the definitive 'What happened in AEW?' CM Punk stuff, that's where it all started to crumble." Dreamer further noted that leaks further contributed to the issues AEW faces, and suggested that management should have micromanaged a lot more but at the end of the day, it's impossible to make all fans and wrestlers happy.