This week in Wrestling: Week 34 in 2025

August 23, 2025

Brian Damage

There has been some chatter from fans that TNA is the new #2 promotion in wrestling. Their attendance has grown considerably in the last few months. It seems that TNA’s working agreement with WWE (Namely NXT) has proven successful. This despite criticism from some that Trick Williams and Jacy Jayne (Both NXT wrestlers) hold the top two TNA titles.

As much as I admire TNA’s resiliency as a promotion over the years, I do not agree that TNA is the number 2 wrestling company out there. For starters, their television deal as it currently airs on AXS TV is not widely seen across the country. Secondly, despite their momentum as an organization, TNA always seemed to be a place a wrestler goes as a steppingstone to join WWE or AEW. It isn’t a place where many plant their flag so to speak and make TNA their permanent home.

WWE and AEW don’t really have that problem. While I am personally happy to see TNA grow and thrive lately, AEW is still the rightful number two company in all of pro wrestling, and it is hard to debate. AEW currently has the much better TV deal, and have an owner worth billions, who isn’t afraid to spend the money to compete with WWE. Granted, AEW is still a minor threat to WWE right this minute but should still be seen as the second top promotion out of every organization out there.

AAA just ran their signature event called Triplemania last Saturday and whether you were a fan of the show or not…it shattered all sorts of records for the Mexican company now owned by WWE. Millions watched the show live while millions of others watched clips of the event via YouTube. It has been reported that this year’s Triplemania card was the most watched event in AAA history.

“Dirty Dom” Mysterio has become a full-fledged star within the wrestling scene. Meanwhile, the dynamic El Hijo del Vikingo is one of the most hated luchadors on AAA’s roster despite being a babyface. It’s said that many AAA fans resent Vikingo becoming the Mega champion dethroning Alberto El Patron, who subsequently was fired from the promotion. It was probably a WWE decision that fans resented and took it out on Vikingo unfortunately.

Meanwhile over at New Japan, AEW wrestler Konosuke Takeshita defeated Evil to win the 2025 G1 tournament. It wasn’t exactly met with happiness from New Japan fans with many complaining that an AEW wrestler should not have won New Japan’s biggest tournament. The general consensus is that AEW has way too much influence with New Japan booking as of late.

Some reports have longtime New Japan booker Gedo resigning from that position. While I am not sure if that was confirmed, Gedo was one of the main reasons for New Japan’s success over the years. Granted, the company lost a great deal of talent …mainly to AEW…Gedo was still a driving force behind the scenes creatively.

Photo Gallery

Ricky Steamboat’s Wrestlemania III paycheck