AEW closed out a rough week of television that left crowds in Ohio underwhelmed, with one columnist breaking down who rose and who faded across the promotion's latest broadcasts. The assessment frames Thekla as the clearest positive in a women's division that has lost considerable star power since Toni Storm's exit and the introduction of the AEW Women's Tag Team Titles.

Thekla Stands Out in the Women's Division

Thekla has been one of the few consistent bright spots during that stretch. She has remained believable as a loudmouth, badass champion through the transition period. Her presence has also generated interest in Forbidden Door, a pay-per-view that typically draws a lukewarm reaction at best from this observer.

Thekla's storyline heading into Forbidden Door pairs her with Stardom, a direction that has elevated her profile and made her feel like a bigger star on the AEW side. The question raised in the review is direct: where would the AEW Women's Division be without Thekla carrying that weight right now?

Jericho and Tommaso Ciampa Opening Falls Flat

Part of the reason AEW Dynamite felt flat was attributed to the crowd, but the show's opening segment with Chris Jericho and Tommaso Ciampa did not help. None of it worked for the reviewer. The segment was compared to WWE circa 2015 in tone and presentation.

Even when Jericho snapped and told Ciampa that the sport is important to him, the moment failed to move the audience. It was positioned as a crowd reaction beat meant to draw an "oooooo" or a pop, and it fell flat again.

Ciampa has been all over the place since arriving in AEW. He delivers promos that sound like a babyface while clearly playing a heel. Over a two-week stretch, his alignment appeared to flip from heel to face and back to heel again. Coupled with Jericho not getting over since his return, the feud between the two does not work in its current form.

Runner Up: The Bang Bang Gang

The Bang Bang Gang landed as another miss for the week. Their Collision promo was singled out again for criticism. It was not clever. It was not funny. It also carried the same WWE circa 2015 energy that defined the Jericho-Ciampa criticism.

Additional Wrestling Coverage From the Week

The same roundup pointed to several other wrestling features and podcasts tied to the June 14 through June 17 window:

• WWE Rising Stars and Fading Stars: Oba Rules, Cargill Loses Her Wig, Knext-Level Knight, Trip Williams Stumbles, Zaria in the Zone, Nonexistent Nakamura
• WWE Raw Hits and Misses (6/15): The Bloodline storyline is overly complicated, The Vision's pitch to Je'Von has no context, plus Gable vs. Rusev, Sky vs. Rodriguez
• TNA Feud Tracker: Mike Santana-Eric Young, Mustafa Ali vs. KC Navaro, Elijah vs. Mr. Elegance, The System vs. Aichner and Slater, Eleghance Brand vs. Undead Realm
• Free Podcast 6/17, PWTorch Dailycast, PWT Talks NXT: Wells and Lindberg discuss Nattie vs. Jaida Parker, Vice and Grey vs. Zaria and Jordan, Naraku inviting Tony D'Angelo to a meeting, more (57 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/16, WKPWP Flagship: Keller and Powell discuss Summerslam main event options, Ospreay, Callis Family, Jericho plus Gino Hernandez biography author interview (174 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/16, WKPWP WWE Raw Post-Show, 5 Yrs Ago (6-14-2021): Keller and Hazelwood with lots of rants, nobody's likeable, final HIAC hype, Bliss wrestles, live callers, emails (136 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/16, PWTorch Dailycast, Destination Impact with Zac and JB (Debut Episode): What Mike Santana's expiring contract means for the future of TNA and the TNA World Title, and who are the next crop of TNA talent to ascend? (98 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/15, WKPWP after Raw: Keller and Weigle talk Oba Femi vs. Dominik and whether Oba winning KOTR is inevitable, Bloodline drama, LA Knight, Bron-Seth, Charlotte, more (139 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/15, WKPWP 15 Yrs Ago Livecasts: Keller, Powell, and Mitchell on Foley, Tough Enough, Raw, WCW vs. TNA more dysfunctional, Beer Money, Michael Cole, McMahon's slap, Dreamer-TNA, more (184 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/15, PWTorch Dailycast, Worse or Better (Episode 10, Commentary Commentary): Steph and Josh discuss and compare the commentary and commentators over the last few decades (126 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/14, WKPWP AEW Dynamite Post-Show, 5 Yrs Ago: Keller with AEW Double or Nothing On-Site Correspondent discussing experience for first full live crowd since pandemic (174 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/14, WKPWP Flagship from 10 Yrs Ago: Keller and Powell with Raw analysis, MITB predictions, Styles-Cena, TNA Slammiversary, Roster Split, WWE heel depth, TNA Hall of Fame (139 min.)
• Free Podcast 6/14, PWTorch Dailycast, Best of PWTorch Livecast: Jay Lethal joins Ryan and Tyler to talk about 18 months of being a pro wrestler during the pandemic, being ROH centerpiece, more (126 min.)

The Ohio crowd week drew hope that the following broadcast cycle would bring a stronger atmosphere. For now, Thekla's Forbidden Door build and the struggles of the Jericho-Ciampa program and Bang Bang Gang promo defined the latest AEW television snapshot.