>Like, maybe I wouldn't be quite as annoyed with it if they
>hadn't wasted Sammy's reign. But the guy only got four title
>defenses (Fish, Ethan Page, Jay Lethal, and Tony Nese). Mostly
>he got tied in that stupid fucking American Top Team angle.
>
>It would have also alleviated some annoyance if Cody had just
>bitten the bullet on gone full heel with it. But they tried to
>make it a feel good moment by having Dustin, Brandi, and the
>Nightmare Factory hit the ring immediately to celebrate and
>then have David Crockett present him with the title. And now
>that they've brought back Lambert and have been setting up
>plugging in Cody to the angle, it seems like another attempt
>of "They'll have to cheer Cody now! no will want to see Top
>Team Guys win the title!"
>
>FOH. Even if you want to take the title off Sammy, this fed
>has plenty of other guys who could take the title and showcase
>their skills with it.

Yep. This is a sneaky important moment for them. If the deal isn’t an eventually ‘revealed’ heel turn, they’re going to be stuck trying to do the WWE ‘this guy is POLARIZING! Isn’t this awesome!? We love that you’re reacting!’ thing. That would be icky for me especially when that POLARIZING character wins so much that you have no choice but to deal with that character eating up a lot of energy in the room on every show. And then the crowd is damn near fighting with the booking more than enjoying the show. AEW has mostly avoided that pit so far. Once you’re in that with marks who don’t know they’re marks cuz they know real names, good luck to wrestling company. We shall see.

Besides that, title reigns are tough. If one person has a title forever, it can get kind of stale, especially if that title’s reigns are long all the time. If you change champs ‘too much’, you’re ‘hotshotting’ and the roster loses out that way. An occasional 80s style ‘lose a belt then win it back within a few months’ thing doesn’t bother me much depending on how it’s done. And if you change champs every time a crowd doesn’t give crazy heat to the champ, you could be punishing a rassler when the booking of the show is the true issue. And AEW has the issue of CM Punk being a ‘don’t need the title’ character who is still the most over guy on the roster. I wanna see what they do.