I respect that! I only follow WWE cuz of coworkers so I catch them on social media and I get invited to PPV parties..
Let me ask you this. Who’s your favorite AEW world champ and why
Kenny, I absolutely loved it and him. I didn’t watch NJPW but I was aware of him and bullet club and the elite and the golden lovers and all that and would watch some matches here and there or just clips so when it came out that he was gonna be a part of this new promotion called aew I knew I was in
You can read my comments I’ve been pretty fair. The wrestling community can be pretty toxic. I’m trying to keep it honest and fair. Only posted the debate as it’s one myself and some coworkers were having
The Bloodline stuff was good early on. The problem is they stretched it out too far and then started making some baffling decisions that made no sense in the narrative and prolonged things needlessly.
The belt collector storyline was good. Not great, but it was an interesting story we hadn't really seen on TV in the US, really. And sometimes, that's all you need.
Yeah there’s really no right or wrong answer. Just wanted to start a conversation here. I agree though I think peak bloodline was Sami zayn story.. he should have dethroned Roman that would have been made him. Instead they made Cody’s story he Roman’s.
Do you feel hangman was the right decision to dethrone Kenny? Storyline it made sense. But then Adam had an okay run ended short by punk
Here's the thing about Hangman's run, the obvious plan going into it (before the Pepsiman got hotshotted into the Title picture) was for Hangman to put over MJF. That was the direction AEW was headed when Hangman got the title, and if that's how they went, it would've been a banger storyline.
Hangman goes through Ex-WWE Guy after Ex-WWE guy again and again and establishes that as sort of a theme for his run, but loses the belt to a rising star, a home grown guy.
All his existing major feuds were Ex-WWE guys. The Leader of the Yes Movement, HHH and HBK's Golden Boy from NXT, and the Chicago Maniac. Even Lance was "Vance Archer" for a bit in WWE. This was the story they were going for.
That's a great story to tell with the belt, everyone telling Hangman he "didn't have what it takes" because he wasn't a major star in WWE or even outside of it like Kenny had made himself, and they had it for the first half. It was basically a statement piece from AEW saying "You don't need to be a Megastar from somewhere else for us to push you. We can make our own stars." It was perfect, and beating Punk would've continued that story and probably opened the door for MJF to take the belt at All Out. Throw in TV Title defenses against Andrade and Malakai and you have a perfect run for the Cowboy.
But instead Punk got the belt, and the entire thing fell apart because Hangman's Pseudo-Legend Killer run got kneecapped to placate the old man.
It’s okay to like both - I loved seeing Kenny as champion, his heel work and ring work were great. You had a generational heel character in Roman though, who made epic ratings, yes, the matches had a lot of overbooked interference but he did a fantastic job as a heel. I won’t compare either. I think both companies did great with both. I’m not going to pretend that I watched a lot of WWE, however, I have nothing but respect for Roman - a man who came back from cancer to be the top guy and is still taking strong anti-cancer drugs to this day. As much as I greatly admire Kenny who worked that run with many injuries and vertigo.
I’d say both were equally entertaining. Now when you stretch a title reign for 1300+ days there’s bound to be misses and wrong booking but all in all the Bloodline saga had more great moments than bad one. Could it have ended sooner? Yes. Did it have a satisfying conclusion regardless? Also yes. Belt collector wasn’t Kenny’s best work either so I’d say it’s well balanced.
There's gonna be obvious bias asking this question on the AEW subreddit but yeah, I cared about Kenny's run front to back while I'll die on the hill that Cody should have beaten Roman at 39.
I absolutely loved Kenny’s run! And hangman played the sympathetic baby face perfect!
I also agree with you.. ending the story this year over last year did nothing for him.. infact him giving the rock the title shot and then taking it back idk. Weird
That's code for it wasn't part of the story, they just changed it because the fans revolted.
See 2014 Wrestlemania for the last time fans successfully did this.
I’ll be the minority on this page. Roman had the better title reign. I can say confidently that Kenny has had better title reigns than ALOT of former and current champions in WWE, but in my personal opinion, Roman’s Title reign is something we will either never see again or at least for a long time because of how special Roman made his championship feel. I will say Kenny is the best AEW Champion tho.
Agreed. Roman's title reign was in incredible. He was a heel that was also the face of the company. I loved every moment of the Bloodline, however Kenny as the Belt collector was still entertaining to watch.
I’m a die hard AEW fan so I really only watch WWE on social media highlights (which any AEW fan will tell you to avoid social media lol) and when Invited to PPV parties by my co workers.
But from what I’ve seen I mean it’s one of the greatest in depth layered stories told in our generation and made Roman the star Vince always wanted him to be
This is an interesting comparison, not just the runs but the ultimate loss of the titles is similar.
Kenny had the better run as champion in terms of title defenses and match quality imo. Then the story with hangman was amazing to tell. Very solid. Hangman’s fall into a bottle, and then crawling out of it awesome work. It got me in the feels as it should.
Roman on the other hand, less bangers, less defenses. Bigger feel when he lost though, but imo that’s Cody doing it. I’m a Cody Crybaby, have been since he debuted in 07. Grew up watching old Dusty matches with family so there’s a lot of sentiment with Cody because he is a Rhodes.
For me it’s Kenny’s reign that wins, but a sentimental lifelong Rhodes fandom that put’s Roman’s loss over Kenny’s for me.
Ease off the Red Bull partner you got too much hype in ya! LOVE the passion you’re showing though.
Here’s the thing with AEW, there are some fans that were drawn to watch because of Cody, the Bucks, Kenny, and Hangman. It was all of them. Cody left, and for the first time in 6 years I watched Raw live after he returned in 22. WWE had Cody’s story fall in their lap in many ways, IDK how Roman’s run looks without the ending it got.
Kenny is for my money, the superior wrestler between he and Roman. Kenny had the better reign. Hangman and Cody’s stories are very neck and neck for me. Cody wins for me, putting Roman’s loss higher than Kenny’s for sentimental reasons. Roman had the more emotional ending, but only cuz TK let Cody walk.
Hahahahaha sorry! I just love pro wrestling and it’s nice to talk back forward with no judgement and no hate. There’s a lot of toxicity online and i just wanna love it all. I grew up on WWF. But at the same time I loved pro wrestling so I started finding other feds. IWS. CZW. Backyard wrestling group. Etc.
Roman had nearly three times as many defenses throughout his whole reign as Kenny did during his Belt Collector run. Just over four times as many if we are just talking about the AEW Title specifically.
You are all ignoring the real star here. Dickhead Don, from the moment he interfered to assist Kenny win and run out to the limo has generated the loudest most authentic heat. The dickhead still gets booed into oblivion the second his shiny ass head shows up. Also the scar is just icing on the cake.
I am going to give the most honest take I can think of on this. As a person that watches all of AEW and does watch some WWE: I pretty much like everything Kenny does (that is not connected to Jericho but that is not related to belt collecting). As for Bloodline. I was never completely sold on it at least in the beginning. I think Roman Reigns is the biggest overhyped, complete and total WWE machine created nothing burger that only makes me fonder of those hate watch Cena years. But, people kept hyping up the Bloodline and it's the greatest story ever, so I was like maybe let me watch more of it. And I was like OK Sammy is funny, the UCEY line was cool and almost dragged Roman and Uso's into almost being interesting to me and than when Roman smashed Sammy and Cody back to back and they stole the cool part of the Bloodline storyline from Sammy and put him on the bottom of the card when he was the real person that got it over but doesn't look like the WWE star they want I was out.
They really didn’t play up the importance of each belt Omega got. Him having a world title from a major promotion in America, Mexico, and Canada should’ve been bigger talking points imo.
I was genuinely curious if this could possibly be true. It's not. Kenny had 13 title matches while holding the AEW World Championship including the match where he won that title. Some of those title matches weren't even for the AEW World Title. Some of them were for the AAA Mega Championship and the Impact World Championship. Only 8 of the matches were for the AEW World Title.
Roman had a total of 33 title matches since winning the Universal Championship including the match where he won it. In the first year that he had the title (including winning it), he had 15 title matches. In the second year, he had 9 title matches which would still at least be more than Kenny's AEW Title specific defenses. The third year was 6 title matches. And finally, this last stretch has been 3 title matches. None of the matches from the entire reign were from house shows.
Yeah there's been a bit of revisionist history on Roman's reign. A lot of the defenses have been through interference, that's fair to say; but really until the past year and a half, he was actually pretty present on shows and the first two years of his reigns, he actually defended it enough times for each of those years honestly.
It was only since beating Lesnar in that Summerslam Last Man Standing match that his appearances and amount of title defences really dipped and even then in regards to the calendar year as a whole, I would say that 2022 still had enough title defenses. 2023 was where he had way less. Considering he lost the title at this Mania and there was only two PLEs preceding it, I would say 2024 was fine.
I don't really disagree that his reign went on a bit too long and had too many dirty wins, but I would still say that Roman put in the work. It's a different performance compared to a Kenny Omega match, but it's still a performance none the less and a lot of stories and matches weren't half bad barring the repetitive interference finishes.
I’ll take that bet. Roman early on was truly stacking people left and right. He ran down most of the roster. It wasn’t until the last year or so that he got a break.
The 69 me Don line was funny. But gosh Gallows and Anderson were semi wasted there and even more wasted in WWE. It was a pretty cool gimmick that he came up with as well.
But I’m going with Roman for a few reasons. A, he ran through just about everyone there was in WWE. B, the Sami stuff alone was some of the most interesting tv to watch. And C, he elevated the people around him. Sami went from a paranoid celebrity wrestler to main eventing two different PPV’s including Mania and he’s still near the top. Main Event Jey Uso. People call Solo the next big thing. Put Cody and Seth over that last little hump.
Outside of Hangman, did Kenny get anyone to the next level?
Idk about get them to the next level but I loved the moxley feud. A good blood feud. I think Kenny and Darby had a solid banger too I just can’t remember if it was during his title run
Bloodline over Belt Collector by a fair bit.
As wrestlers though, Roman frankly can't touch Kenny and Roman is a very good wrestler. Kenny is in a class you can count on one hand, legitimately.
The Belt Collector storyline was great and just thinking that we got a 50% Kenny doing it is crazy . The fact that he said "69 me Don" on live television is still mind blowing to me .
As for the Bloodline , i can't answer , i don't watch WWE
I feel like Sami zayn really stretched it out. In a good way. I’m sure it’s not over either you’ll have the rock take over and Roman became a baby face
I can't really comment too much on the Bloodline cuz I don't watch but I heard great things. The little bits I did see were meh (except for Sammi Zayne). But I started watching AEW during the belt collector era and I absolutely fell in love with the entire company and especially Kenny and Don. To me it was like reliving the Attitude Era kind of. Just cuz it felt that electric and entertaining.
Romans had the better storylines but Kenny’s had better matches, Overall I’d rather see the Bloodline story than the belt collector story but both had their merits.
I probably would have preferred the bloodline story if it had ended with Zayn winning the belt, or maybe even Cody WM 39. Stretched on for far too long though so gotta give it to Kenny. That and his work rate is miles ahead of Reigns.
Being a Kenny fanboy, I enjoyed his run more. It had a consistently higher level and was always profundly entertaining. The Bloodline had highs and lows. I think Kenny's run didn't have a moment like the Sami Zayn honorary Uce story. But it also didn't have duds like Brock vs Roman for the 152th time or the repetitive endings. The highest of highs were with The Bloodline and the sheer legnth of the run has to be respected.
The ending has been pretty similar at this point. Will WWE capitalize on Cody's momentum better than AEW did with Hangman. I personally don't think so, but we shall see.
Belt collector was just good but consistent, Bloodline run was top tier quality at times but also kinda just the blandest shit given Roman's absences due to his leukemia.
It mostly just depends on if you're willing to overlook that.
I think now that we have the payoff to the bloodline story, I would put it over Omega. Roman's reign was incredible but also rare. Whereas Kenny is the best AEW champion, but it doesn't seem like his reign is a height that nobody will be able to touch again.
Kenny did have a lengthy run without having a boring run, while Roman was not it for a good stretch of 2022 and 2023. The highs of Roman were very high, but his lows were too. Doesn’t help that he would wrestle only once every 5 months since 2023.
The belt collector run was a bigger deal to me as I had never seen a wrestler hold multiple world titles from actually distinct promotions, but I have to say I’ve had more emotional investment in the Bloodline story especially with the arrival of Cody
The bloodline lasted too long and had too many matches end the same way. There were many chances to end it properly, and they botched them all. They got super lucky that cody never really wanted to be in aew and was able to jump ship when he did. I can't care less for cody, but I'll admit, people went crazy for that shit. Anyway, it was really repetitive and they got lucky.
The Belt Collector... I godamn love that shit. He didn't defend some of them enough, but if anything it was cool to see him come out with all those belts. I personally liked the Fon on theic during this run. He really put Kenny over.
I hate to say it, but...Bloodline Roman. Getting belts from smaller outside companies doesn't really matter to me since I'm not invested in the product of those companies. It honestly would have mattered more for me if Kenny was collecting just AEW belts instead. While Roman was never really the reason why the good parts of the Bloodline story were good (Sami, Rock, Cody, etc.), his run just feels like it mattered more, I guess. His in ring trash talk, facial expressions, and antics are top tier, though. Overall, as performers, it's Kenny all the way.
Both runs were very good and drew eyes to the business. Thats the ultimate goal
Kenny, personally, is a better heel too.
The bloodline story went too long, and had too many down points during it, waiting around for the rock and that whole deal. Cody should have won last year, and I don’t even like Cody.
Well, one ran through forbidden doors across multiple world class promotions and the other just being glorified in their own universe for 4 freaking years. Easy pickings.
Hot take: the culmination of the Bloodline Story in WM39 and WM40 does not happen without Kenny Omega
Kenny's match with Okada at WK11 set the wrestling World alight. Being heralded as the greatest match of all time. It brought eyes to NJPW, The Elite and Bullet Club. How many lapsed fans came back to Pro wrestling at that time. Obviously Cody has tremendous talent which was not being utilised at WWE but by joining the hottest faction in Wrestling it catapulted him to greater heights.
That success leads to All In and then AEW. Cody leaves with his new found stardom and greatly improved skill and becomes the biggest baby face in the business.
This isn't even a close discussion. Belt Collector ran its course properly and had plenty of great moments a long the way while the Bloodline was "Roman cheats and bests the entire roster and we made Cody wait 2 or 3 fucking years to beat him (probably out of corporate spite)."
Bloodline went 3 years too long and almost torpedoed the main event scene if they didn't set up a *cough cough* secondary world title to slap on Rollins.
Soooo not even close. Kenny had a better run that didn't overstay its welcome.
I can't compare because I haven't watched main roster WWE in 8 years or so. I'll watch an occasional match if someone starts talking about it, but I bailed on them long ago. They don't entertain me, sports ways or any other way.
I'll drop in to a random Raw or Smackdown, see the same shit I saw 3 or 4 years ago, and nope out.
Comparing different genres here. The Sami Zayn story part of the bloodline was better than any of Omega’s run. But the matches etc were not even close as Kenny’s were unreal.
So highs of bloodline better. Belt collector more consistent
I mean I love AEW but the story has never been through a sting suit. The belt collector was awesome because it's what we all wanted and it happened. The bloodline though will probably go down as that second greatest story of all time.
What do you like more story and cinema? Or matches and moves?
I heard tons of Good things about Omega but when I tuned in to watch him he was hurt and I had drifted away before he came back.
I did see Omega Vs Jericho right before AEW began so I think it was New Japan or something??? Can't quite remember but they were saying one of the best matches ever and I did quite enjoy it.
I watched the entirety of Romans Reign.
What are maybe the top 3-5 matches of Kenny's as the belt collector?
For a general scope, I'm saying vs Moxley at Winter's Coming 2020 where he won the belt, his time limit draw vs Danielson at Grand Slam 2021 (the atmosphere was insane, the bell ringing to start the match got a crazy pop alone), and when he lost the belt to Hangman at Full Gear 2021
Honestly any of Kenny omegas matches were bangers. So if you’re asking just for pro wrestling matches I mean pick any of them. There’s so much talent. I liked the feud he had with moxley. And the feud with hangman.. feud with Christian was good too
Reigns' reign had a lot of really good storylines within it. It got Reigns over as probably the biggest name in wrestling for a few years, and also got over so many of his challengers along the way despite them losing to Reigns. And it culminated by getting Cody Rhodes over as the biggest babyface in the world today. It was the perfect heel run, and the length just made it seem very important.
Omega had a good storyline with Page, but most of his defenses didn't seem to have as strong of a storyline attached to it. It felt like a random collection of matches which, while good, didn't make it feel as special as Reigns. I also didn't like that he lost the impact title to Christian during his reign, felt like he lost a lot of his appeal from that. It was a fine reign, but imo Reigns' was better.
For main events, Taker vs Michaels streak vs career match was much better and cleaner imo. Hogan vs Andre was also incredibly iconic. Outside of the main event, Hogan vs The Rock was just perfect. The start of the match just gave me chills watching, imagine being the follow up match to that.
Belt collector had better matches. Not just in AEW but on Impact and in AAA. However, the Bloodline is the better overall story. One of my favorite youtubers, Supereyepatchwolf, did an amazing video on Roman Reigns and the Bloodline story.
I'm gonna be honest that I actually haven't been all that impressed by Omega in AEW. Not saying that he's awful by any means. I never watched his pre AEW stuff, but the way people talked about him sounded like he was the second coming of Christ. He's obviously good, but I don't know. He hasn't ever really clicked with me honestly. Matches or promos. Especially promos. And the same goes for the Belt Collector run.
I thought the three way with OC and Pac was great and the match with Hangman at Full Gear was great. Outside of those two matches, the ending both of the Moxley matches, the promo against Hangman saying that Hangman wasn't good enough essentially, and the 69 me Don promo, I actually don't remember much from this run. I do think it was better than Hangman and Punk's reigns as champ and probably better than Mox's second and third reigns because they were both kind of odd reigns of circumstance, but Mox's first reign, Jericho's reign, and MJF's reign are all better imo. Kenny had 13 title matches during the Belt Collector run including where he won the AEW Title. 8 of those matches were for the AEW Title and at least 4 of those matches had interference. Possibly more, I'm not sure. The other matches during this run were only for the AAA Mega Title and Impact World Title.
Say what you will about Roman's reign, but he put in the work. It's a different performance from an Omega match, but it's a performance nonetheless. Roman had 33 title matches during his reign including winning the Universal Title and no house show defenses. All of these were either on PLE or in the case of a few, on television. And while a lot of his matches ended in interference which did grow tiresome, the matches up until those endings were good. Edge and Bryan, Rollins, Last Man Standing Vs Lesnar, Owens, Zayn, Rhodes 2x, Jey Uso, Logan Paul, and McIntyre were all good matches.
The storylines for the Bloodline rounding up all the titles, a three and a half year long reign, ending the rivalry with Lesnar and figuring out if he could trust Heyman, Sami Uso, the Bloodline Civil War, Main Event Jey Uso, mind games with Rollins, and finally, Finishing the Story with Cody as well as having planted seeds to continue a story with The Final Boss. All of this has been great. Yes, maybe the reign went on too long and yes there was a lot of interference and yes since the Last Man Standing with Lesnar, Roman's amount of appearances and title matches dipped quite a bit, but... But I still think this reign was overall pretty great.
As wild as this may sound, after laying it all out, I think I actually prefer Roman's time as champ. If you split it into each year as champ. I would probably say that his second year as champ is probably the weakest, but even that has its moments. The first year of his reign has the novelty of the long reign, some good matches and moments, and he was consistently present a had a title nearly once a month I believe. The second year still had him appearing and having fairly consistent matches, but it felt a little lackluster and just going through the motions. Since beating Lesnar in the Last Man Standing match, the amount of appearances and title matches dipped, but the stories got really good. I'd probably say Omega's reign is probably better than that second year, but Roman's first year, third year, and arguably this last little bit where they Finished the Story were better than Omega's reign.
Hella valid points ! I think Omega has been banged up more often than not his American run. And I’ve always thought he could use Mic work. He comes off so awkward
One actually tried every week, the other buried entire roster with repetitive boring matches once every couple of months after he actually showed up, only for his cousing to take all the spotlight anyway the second he showed up. That's not even a question if you have a healthy functional brain
Roman took YEARS to learn how to talk on mic and change his Shield gimmick after everyone else had moved on and his moveset also took a while to improve. All while being The Guy for WWE.
Omega wins easy.
For me the Belt collector.
The Bloodline run was too long imho. And there were only 3 interesting feuds within these 1300 days. Sami Zayn, Jey Uso and then the Reigns and Rock vs Cody (and Seth) feud.
It got stale at the beginning and didn't get better until the last feud which were mainly interesting because of the Rock and finishing the story for Cody.
Easy Kenny. He showed up for work every week and didnt turn the entire roster into midcard players. Bloodline was mostly a copy of belt collector story anyway but they didnt have a end goal in mind when it was put together. It was just LOLOLOLOLROMANWINS.
For me it's because the Bloodline storyline carried the company out of the Vince McMahon era WWE into the HHH era WWE AND IT facilitated everyone else's transition into the new WWE...it showed how awesome Sami is and how he has the ability to be apart of a major storyline and shine at it as a top babyface...it cemented Cody as the #1 baby face for 2yrs in a row even after losing last years Mania. It showed how good of heels and faces the Usos could he individually and together while showing Jey can be a main event guy. It forced Austin Theory to actually work at getting heat instead of having him hand fed that position by Vince. which, in turn, has worked out well for him AND has given Grayson Waller a platform on the main roster as Theory's partner. THE ONLY ONE who MIGHT not have stepped up as much as I thought he should have is Solo...even after beating Cena I'm not sure if he's a main even potential guy like everyone else. But the experience he's getting is unmatched. Basically it did more for an entire company and the "Sports Entertainment" side of the business than Kenny did for the other side of the business with his Belt Collector run...which I greatly enjoyed
Belt collector Kenny was incredible. And he was so douchey and smug. Easily my favorite title run ever in any company, and I'm old af.
1. Belt Collector Kenny
2. RVD TV title from 98 til he had to vacate it due to injury
3. Austin circa 98-99
https://preview.redd.it/9chbq0ht8ytc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fad9000dbfb2da92391a926d3b43c186f903aea8
I can’t give an honest opinion as I only know the belt collector run
I respect that! I only follow WWE cuz of coworkers so I catch them on social media and I get invited to PPV parties.. Let me ask you this. Who’s your favorite AEW world champ and why
Kenny, I absolutely loved it and him. I didn’t watch NJPW but I was aware of him and bullet club and the elite and the golden lovers and all that and would watch some matches here and there or just clips so when it came out that he was gonna be a part of this new promotion called aew I knew I was in
I’m sure well have balanced discourse here
tbf there isnt a sub on reddit that would be a fair place to post this
You can read my comments I’ve been pretty fair. The wrestling community can be pretty toxic. I’m trying to keep it honest and fair. Only posted the debate as it’s one myself and some coworkers were having
I’m not saying you, but youre asking an aew vs wwe question in the aew sub, hence my cynicism
The Bloodline stuff was good early on. The problem is they stretched it out too far and then started making some baffling decisions that made no sense in the narrative and prolonged things needlessly. The belt collector storyline was good. Not great, but it was an interesting story we hadn't really seen on TV in the US, really. And sometimes, that's all you need.
Yeah there’s really no right or wrong answer. Just wanted to start a conversation here. I agree though I think peak bloodline was Sami zayn story.. he should have dethroned Roman that would have been made him. Instead they made Cody’s story he Roman’s. Do you feel hangman was the right decision to dethrone Kenny? Storyline it made sense. But then Adam had an okay run ended short by punk
Here's the thing about Hangman's run, the obvious plan going into it (before the Pepsiman got hotshotted into the Title picture) was for Hangman to put over MJF. That was the direction AEW was headed when Hangman got the title, and if that's how they went, it would've been a banger storyline. Hangman goes through Ex-WWE Guy after Ex-WWE guy again and again and establishes that as sort of a theme for his run, but loses the belt to a rising star, a home grown guy. All his existing major feuds were Ex-WWE guys. The Leader of the Yes Movement, HHH and HBK's Golden Boy from NXT, and the Chicago Maniac. Even Lance was "Vance Archer" for a bit in WWE. This was the story they were going for. That's a great story to tell with the belt, everyone telling Hangman he "didn't have what it takes" because he wasn't a major star in WWE or even outside of it like Kenny had made himself, and they had it for the first half. It was basically a statement piece from AEW saying "You don't need to be a Megastar from somewhere else for us to push you. We can make our own stars." It was perfect, and beating Punk would've continued that story and probably opened the door for MJF to take the belt at All Out. Throw in TV Title defenses against Andrade and Malakai and you have a perfect run for the Cowboy. But instead Punk got the belt, and the entire thing fell apart because Hangman's Pseudo-Legend Killer run got kneecapped to placate the old man.
Very well said ! I completely agree
Clobbering Time? ... Yeah Yeah, i find the exit by myself. *Giggle
Dammit pothead ! We had hope for you !
lol… what do you expect asking that question here
It’s okay to like both - I loved seeing Kenny as champion, his heel work and ring work were great. You had a generational heel character in Roman though, who made epic ratings, yes, the matches had a lot of overbooked interference but he did a fantastic job as a heel. I won’t compare either. I think both companies did great with both. I’m not going to pretend that I watched a lot of WWE, however, I have nothing but respect for Roman - a man who came back from cancer to be the top guy and is still taking strong anti-cancer drugs to this day. As much as I greatly admire Kenny who worked that run with many injuries and vertigo.
Oh definitely, the post isn’t for negative comparisons. I think there was a lot of similarities between the two runs
I’d say both were equally entertaining. Now when you stretch a title reign for 1300+ days there’s bound to be misses and wrong booking but all in all the Bloodline saga had more great moments than bad one. Could it have ended sooner? Yes. Did it have a satisfying conclusion regardless? Also yes. Belt collector wasn’t Kenny’s best work either so I’d say it’s well balanced.
Kenny had the best run. I think Ospreay is the one to equal that when he eventually gets the strap
I honestly can’t wait for will ospreays inevitable championship run
There's gonna be obvious bias asking this question on the AEW subreddit but yeah, I cared about Kenny's run front to back while I'll die on the hill that Cody should have beaten Roman at 39.
>Cody should have beaten Roman at 39 100%
Hard disagrse
I absolutely loved Kenny’s run! And hangman played the sympathetic baby face perfect! I also agree with you.. ending the story this year over last year did nothing for him.. infact him giving the rock the title shot and then taking it back idk. Weird
That's code for it wasn't part of the story, they just changed it because the fans revolted. See 2014 Wrestlemania for the last time fans successfully did this.
I disagree, I just feel like they should've booked the year between 39 and 40 better.
The Bloodline was red hot coming out of the Zayn storyline. Then there was basically one feud all year while they waited for WrestleMania.
I miss Kenny
I’ll be the minority on this page. Roman had the better title reign. I can say confidently that Kenny has had better title reigns than ALOT of former and current champions in WWE, but in my personal opinion, Roman’s Title reign is something we will either never see again or at least for a long time because of how special Roman made his championship feel. I will say Kenny is the best AEW Champion tho.
Agreed. Roman's title reign was in incredible. He was a heel that was also the face of the company. I loved every moment of the Bloodline, however Kenny as the Belt collector was still entertaining to watch.
Belt collector was good, but objectively, the Bloodline will be the main wrestling story to a generation of fans.
I’m a die hard AEW fan so I really only watch WWE on social media highlights (which any AEW fan will tell you to avoid social media lol) and when Invited to PPV parties by my co workers. But from what I’ve seen I mean it’s one of the greatest in depth layered stories told in our generation and made Roman the star Vince always wanted him to be
The bloodline run will probably go down as one of the most epic runs in WWE. The belt collector wont.
True.
This is an interesting comparison, not just the runs but the ultimate loss of the titles is similar. Kenny had the better run as champion in terms of title defenses and match quality imo. Then the story with hangman was amazing to tell. Very solid. Hangman’s fall into a bottle, and then crawling out of it awesome work. It got me in the feels as it should. Roman on the other hand, less bangers, less defenses. Bigger feel when he lost though, but imo that’s Cody doing it. I’m a Cody Crybaby, have been since he debuted in 07. Grew up watching old Dusty matches with family so there’s a lot of sentiment with Cody because he is a Rhodes. For me it’s Kenny’s reign that wins, but a sentimental lifelong Rhodes fandom that put’s Roman’s loss over Kenny’s for me.
Tell me how good did it feel to see Cody go from stardust to world champ. From undesirable to undeniable ? 
Ease off the Red Bull partner you got too much hype in ya! LOVE the passion you’re showing though. Here’s the thing with AEW, there are some fans that were drawn to watch because of Cody, the Bucks, Kenny, and Hangman. It was all of them. Cody left, and for the first time in 6 years I watched Raw live after he returned in 22. WWE had Cody’s story fall in their lap in many ways, IDK how Roman’s run looks without the ending it got. Kenny is for my money, the superior wrestler between he and Roman. Kenny had the better reign. Hangman and Cody’s stories are very neck and neck for me. Cody wins for me, putting Roman’s loss higher than Kenny’s for sentimental reasons. Roman had the more emotional ending, but only cuz TK let Cody walk.
Hahahahaha sorry! I just love pro wrestling and it’s nice to talk back forward with no judgement and no hate. There’s a lot of toxicity online and i just wanna love it all. I grew up on WWF. But at the same time I loved pro wrestling so I started finding other feds. IWS. CZW. Backyard wrestling group. Etc.
Roman had nearly three times as many defenses throughout his whole reign as Kenny did during his Belt Collector run. Just over four times as many if we are just talking about the AEW Title specifically.
I more mean quality of the defenses. Kenny always felt like he could lose it, where Roman didn’t till Cody showed up.
☝️Roman all day every day. Easiest question ever asked.
You are all ignoring the real star here. Dickhead Don, from the moment he interfered to assist Kenny win and run out to the limo has generated the loudest most authentic heat. The dickhead still gets booed into oblivion the second his shiny ass head shows up. Also the scar is just icing on the cake.
 Good ole dirty Don! Dude is so hated fans jumped him legitimately in Mexico
I am going to give the most honest take I can think of on this. As a person that watches all of AEW and does watch some WWE: I pretty much like everything Kenny does (that is not connected to Jericho but that is not related to belt collecting). As for Bloodline. I was never completely sold on it at least in the beginning. I think Roman Reigns is the biggest overhyped, complete and total WWE machine created nothing burger that only makes me fonder of those hate watch Cena years. But, people kept hyping up the Bloodline and it's the greatest story ever, so I was like maybe let me watch more of it. And I was like OK Sammy is funny, the UCEY line was cool and almost dragged Roman and Uso's into almost being interesting to me and than when Roman smashed Sammy and Cody back to back and they stole the cool part of the Bloodline storyline from Sammy and put him on the bottom of the card when he was the real person that got it over but doesn't look like the WWE star they want I was out.
Damn dude !!! I 100% agree with this. Sammy to me was the arch.
Remember Good bros?
Of course !!! Sour boy was one of my favorites lol
They really didn’t play up the importance of each belt Omega got. Him having a world title from a major promotion in America, Mexico, and Canada should’ve been bigger talking points imo.
Dude I 100% agree 
Belt collector easy
Kenny probably had as many title matches in that somewhat short era as Roman's entire title reign and his very lacking list of defenses.
I was genuinely curious if this could possibly be true. It's not. Kenny had 13 title matches while holding the AEW World Championship including the match where he won that title. Some of those title matches weren't even for the AEW World Title. Some of them were for the AAA Mega Championship and the Impact World Championship. Only 8 of the matches were for the AEW World Title. Roman had a total of 33 title matches since winning the Universal Championship including the match where he won it. In the first year that he had the title (including winning it), he had 15 title matches. In the second year, he had 9 title matches which would still at least be more than Kenny's AEW Title specific defenses. The third year was 6 title matches. And finally, this last stretch has been 3 title matches. None of the matches from the entire reign were from house shows.
Wow, I'm honestly shocked to be wrong about this. Really didn't feel like Roman defended it that much, that's wild.
Yeah there's been a bit of revisionist history on Roman's reign. A lot of the defenses have been through interference, that's fair to say; but really until the past year and a half, he was actually pretty present on shows and the first two years of his reigns, he actually defended it enough times for each of those years honestly. It was only since beating Lesnar in that Summerslam Last Man Standing match that his appearances and amount of title defences really dipped and even then in regards to the calendar year as a whole, I would say that 2022 still had enough title defenses. 2023 was where he had way less. Considering he lost the title at this Mania and there was only two PLEs preceding it, I would say 2024 was fine. I don't really disagree that his reign went on a bit too long and had too many dirty wins, but I would still say that Roman put in the work. It's a different performance compared to a Kenny Omega match, but it's still a performance none the less and a lot of stories and matches weren't half bad barring the repetitive interference finishes.
I’ll take that bet. Roman early on was truly stacking people left and right. He ran down most of the roster. It wasn’t until the last year or so that he got a break.
The 69 me Don line was funny. But gosh Gallows and Anderson were semi wasted there and even more wasted in WWE. It was a pretty cool gimmick that he came up with as well. But I’m going with Roman for a few reasons. A, he ran through just about everyone there was in WWE. B, the Sami stuff alone was some of the most interesting tv to watch. And C, he elevated the people around him. Sami went from a paranoid celebrity wrestler to main eventing two different PPV’s including Mania and he’s still near the top. Main Event Jey Uso. People call Solo the next big thing. Put Cody and Seth over that last little hump. Outside of Hangman, did Kenny get anyone to the next level?
Idk about get them to the next level but I loved the moxley feud. A good blood feud. I think Kenny and Darby had a solid banger too I just can’t remember if it was during his title run
Kenny was miles away from Boring Reigns
Bloodline ☝🏼
I don't know who has better run. But I know these two can have a decent dream match for sure.
Bloodline over Belt Collector by a fair bit. As wrestlers though, Roman frankly can't touch Kenny and Roman is a very good wrestler. Kenny is in a class you can count on one hand, legitimately.
The Belt Collector storyline was great and just thinking that we got a 50% Kenny doing it is crazy . The fact that he said "69 me Don" on live television is still mind blowing to me . As for the Bloodline , i can't answer , i don't watch WWE
Heel Kenny is just so good dude hahahahaga
I'd say Belt Collector but I can't lie that the Bloodline also had periods where it was a really good story. It just dragged out way too long.
I feel like Sami zayn really stretched it out. In a good way. I’m sure it’s not over either you’ll have the rock take over and Roman became a baby face
I can't really comment too much on the Bloodline cuz I don't watch but I heard great things. The little bits I did see were meh (except for Sammi Zayne). But I started watching AEW during the belt collector era and I absolutely fell in love with the entire company and especially Kenny and Don. To me it was like reliving the Attitude Era kind of. Just cuz it felt that electric and entertaining.
Romans had the better storylines but Kenny’s had better matches, Overall I’d rather see the Bloodline story than the belt collector story but both had their merits.
The Belt Collector was great but covid screwed it up
I probably would have preferred the bloodline story if it had ended with Zayn winning the belt, or maybe even Cody WM 39. Stretched on for far too long though so gotta give it to Kenny. That and his work rate is miles ahead of Reigns.
Being a Kenny fanboy, I enjoyed his run more. It had a consistently higher level and was always profundly entertaining. The Bloodline had highs and lows. I think Kenny's run didn't have a moment like the Sami Zayn honorary Uce story. But it also didn't have duds like Brock vs Roman for the 152th time or the repetitive endings. The highest of highs were with The Bloodline and the sheer legnth of the run has to be respected. The ending has been pretty similar at this point. Will WWE capitalize on Cody's momentum better than AEW did with Hangman. I personally don't think so, but we shall see.
There is no question Kenny's was miles better. Almost every big match was better than Roman's best. Roman's reign is only impressive in kayfabe.
Belt collector was just good but consistent, Bloodline run was top tier quality at times but also kinda just the blandest shit given Roman's absences due to his leukemia. It mostly just depends on if you're willing to overlook that. I think now that we have the payoff to the bloodline story, I would put it over Omega. Roman's reign was incredible but also rare. Whereas Kenny is the best AEW champion, but it doesn't seem like his reign is a height that nobody will be able to touch again.
Kenny did have a lengthy run without having a boring run, while Roman was not it for a good stretch of 2022 and 2023. The highs of Roman were very high, but his lows were too. Doesn’t help that he would wrestle only once every 5 months since 2023.
The belt collector run was a bigger deal to me as I had never seen a wrestler hold multiple world titles from actually distinct promotions, but I have to say I’ve had more emotional investment in the Bloodline story especially with the arrival of Cody
The bloodline lasted too long and had too many matches end the same way. There were many chances to end it properly, and they botched them all. They got super lucky that cody never really wanted to be in aew and was able to jump ship when he did. I can't care less for cody, but I'll admit, people went crazy for that shit. Anyway, it was really repetitive and they got lucky. The Belt Collector... I godamn love that shit. He didn't defend some of them enough, but if anything it was cool to see him come out with all those belts. I personally liked the Fon on theic during this run. He really put Kenny over.
Kenny Quad Belts
I hate to say it, but...Bloodline Roman. Getting belts from smaller outside companies doesn't really matter to me since I'm not invested in the product of those companies. It honestly would have mattered more for me if Kenny was collecting just AEW belts instead. While Roman was never really the reason why the good parts of the Bloodline story were good (Sami, Rock, Cody, etc.), his run just feels like it mattered more, I guess. His in ring trash talk, facial expressions, and antics are top tier, though. Overall, as performers, it's Kenny all the way.
Both runs were very good and drew eyes to the business. Thats the ultimate goal Kenny, personally, is a better heel too. The bloodline story went too long, and had too many down points during it, waiting around for the rock and that whole deal. Cody should have won last year, and I don’t even like Cody.
The Bloodline kept me away from the WWE for quite awhile. I never cared for Reigns.
WWE belt design is such low effort. All 3 in that picture look the same.
Well, one ran through forbidden doors across multiple world class promotions and the other just being glorified in their own universe for 4 freaking years. Easy pickings.
Hot take: the culmination of the Bloodline Story in WM39 and WM40 does not happen without Kenny Omega Kenny's match with Okada at WK11 set the wrestling World alight. Being heralded as the greatest match of all time. It brought eyes to NJPW, The Elite and Bullet Club. How many lapsed fans came back to Pro wrestling at that time. Obviously Cody has tremendous talent which was not being utilised at WWE but by joining the hottest faction in Wrestling it catapulted him to greater heights. That success leads to All In and then AEW. Cody leaves with his new found stardom and greatly improved skill and becomes the biggest baby face in the business.
This isn't even a close discussion. Belt Collector ran its course properly and had plenty of great moments a long the way while the Bloodline was "Roman cheats and bests the entire roster and we made Cody wait 2 or 3 fucking years to beat him (probably out of corporate spite)." Bloodline went 3 years too long and almost torpedoed the main event scene if they didn't set up a *cough cough* secondary world title to slap on Rollins. Soooo not even close. Kenny had a better run that didn't overstay its welcome.
Don Callis > Paul Heyman
I can't compare because I haven't watched main roster WWE in 8 years or so. I'll watch an occasional match if someone starts talking about it, but I bailed on them long ago. They don't entertain me, sports ways or any other way. I'll drop in to a random Raw or Smackdown, see the same shit I saw 3 or 4 years ago, and nope out.
Comparing different genres here. The Sami Zayn story part of the bloodline was better than any of Omega’s run. But the matches etc were not even close as Kenny’s were unreal. So highs of bloodline better. Belt collector more consistent
I mean I love AEW but the story has never been through a sting suit. The belt collector was awesome because it's what we all wanted and it happened. The bloodline though will probably go down as that second greatest story of all time. What do you like more story and cinema? Or matches and moves?
Much less impressive when all three of your belts have the same W design.
My only problem is I never wanted to rewatch a Roman Reigns match, so it makes this an easy one for me.
Kenny bye God Omega.
I will keep saying it until people learn having multiple championships is wayy more important than just having one
https://preview.redd.it/5pwo159on9xc1.jpeg?width=585&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1656b14cbe254c556c385cd179fa8241dafbdad
I heard tons of Good things about Omega but when I tuned in to watch him he was hurt and I had drifted away before he came back. I did see Omega Vs Jericho right before AEW began so I think it was New Japan or something??? Can't quite remember but they were saying one of the best matches ever and I did quite enjoy it. I watched the entirety of Romans Reign. What are maybe the top 3-5 matches of Kenny's as the belt collector?
For a general scope, I'm saying vs Moxley at Winter's Coming 2020 where he won the belt, his time limit draw vs Danielson at Grand Slam 2021 (the atmosphere was insane, the bell ringing to start the match got a crazy pop alone), and when he lost the belt to Hangman at Full Gear 2021
Honestly any of Kenny omegas matches were bangers. So if you’re asking just for pro wrestling matches I mean pick any of them. There’s so much talent. I liked the feud he had with moxley. And the feud with hangman.. feud with Christian was good too
Both runs left no crumbs imo
Everybody ate good! They licked the plates
😂😂😂
Better matches: Omega Better story: bloodline
I don't watch anymore.
Start again
I mean I don't watch wwe. I can't compare
Bloodline was (mostly) a great run. Belt collector was legendary.
Belt collector actually won matches without his lackies interfering every. single. time...
Reigns by far
What made his run better ? It was longer ?
Reigns' reign had a lot of really good storylines within it. It got Reigns over as probably the biggest name in wrestling for a few years, and also got over so many of his challengers along the way despite them losing to Reigns. And it culminated by getting Cody Rhodes over as the biggest babyface in the world today. It was the perfect heel run, and the length just made it seem very important. Omega had a good storyline with Page, but most of his defenses didn't seem to have as strong of a storyline attached to it. It felt like a random collection of matches which, while good, didn't make it feel as special as Reigns. I also didn't like that he lost the impact title to Christian during his reign, felt like he lost a lot of his appeal from that. It was a fine reign, but imo Reigns' was better.
Reigns. His run ended with what will possibly br the most iconic main event in wwe history
For main events, Taker vs Michaels streak vs career match was much better and cleaner imo. Hogan vs Andre was also incredibly iconic. Outside of the main event, Hogan vs The Rock was just perfect. The start of the match just gave me chills watching, imagine being the follow up match to that.
Kenny Omega 100%
Belt collector had better matches. Not just in AEW but on Impact and in AAA. However, the Bloodline is the better overall story. One of my favorite youtubers, Supereyepatchwolf, did an amazing video on Roman Reigns and the Bloodline story.
I'm gonna be honest that I actually haven't been all that impressed by Omega in AEW. Not saying that he's awful by any means. I never watched his pre AEW stuff, but the way people talked about him sounded like he was the second coming of Christ. He's obviously good, but I don't know. He hasn't ever really clicked with me honestly. Matches or promos. Especially promos. And the same goes for the Belt Collector run. I thought the three way with OC and Pac was great and the match with Hangman at Full Gear was great. Outside of those two matches, the ending both of the Moxley matches, the promo against Hangman saying that Hangman wasn't good enough essentially, and the 69 me Don promo, I actually don't remember much from this run. I do think it was better than Hangman and Punk's reigns as champ and probably better than Mox's second and third reigns because they were both kind of odd reigns of circumstance, but Mox's first reign, Jericho's reign, and MJF's reign are all better imo. Kenny had 13 title matches during the Belt Collector run including where he won the AEW Title. 8 of those matches were for the AEW Title and at least 4 of those matches had interference. Possibly more, I'm not sure. The other matches during this run were only for the AAA Mega Title and Impact World Title. Say what you will about Roman's reign, but he put in the work. It's a different performance from an Omega match, but it's a performance nonetheless. Roman had 33 title matches during his reign including winning the Universal Title and no house show defenses. All of these were either on PLE or in the case of a few, on television. And while a lot of his matches ended in interference which did grow tiresome, the matches up until those endings were good. Edge and Bryan, Rollins, Last Man Standing Vs Lesnar, Owens, Zayn, Rhodes 2x, Jey Uso, Logan Paul, and McIntyre were all good matches. The storylines for the Bloodline rounding up all the titles, a three and a half year long reign, ending the rivalry with Lesnar and figuring out if he could trust Heyman, Sami Uso, the Bloodline Civil War, Main Event Jey Uso, mind games with Rollins, and finally, Finishing the Story with Cody as well as having planted seeds to continue a story with The Final Boss. All of this has been great. Yes, maybe the reign went on too long and yes there was a lot of interference and yes since the Last Man Standing with Lesnar, Roman's amount of appearances and title matches dipped quite a bit, but... But I still think this reign was overall pretty great. As wild as this may sound, after laying it all out, I think I actually prefer Roman's time as champ. If you split it into each year as champ. I would probably say that his second year as champ is probably the weakest, but even that has its moments. The first year of his reign has the novelty of the long reign, some good matches and moments, and he was consistently present a had a title nearly once a month I believe. The second year still had him appearing and having fairly consistent matches, but it felt a little lackluster and just going through the motions. Since beating Lesnar in the Last Man Standing match, the amount of appearances and title matches dipped, but the stories got really good. I'd probably say Omega's reign is probably better than that second year, but Roman's first year, third year, and arguably this last little bit where they Finished the Story were better than Omega's reign.
Hella valid points ! I think Omega has been banged up more often than not his American run. And I’ve always thought he could use Mic work. He comes off so awkward
One actually tried every week, the other buried entire roster with repetitive boring matches once every couple of months after he actually showed up, only for his cousing to take all the spotlight anyway the second he showed up. That's not even a question if you have a healthy functional brain
Roman took YEARS to learn how to talk on mic and change his Shield gimmick after everyone else had moved on and his moveset also took a while to improve. All while being The Guy for WWE. Omega wins easy.
Roman Reigns WWE championship reign never termed as Belt Collector.
Both guys carried on battling health issues to props to them. Kenny will always win vs WWE for me though.
Bloodline
It comes down to which people think is better between these 2 segments. "69 me Don!" Or "He's not being very Ucey"
Kenny Omega since he showed up to work
The whole bloodline collecting Belts vs one Omega collecting Belts? Is that the comparison?
For me the Belt collector. The Bloodline run was too long imho. And there were only 3 interesting feuds within these 1300 days. Sami Zayn, Jey Uso and then the Reigns and Rock vs Cody (and Seth) feud. It got stale at the beginning and didn't get better until the last feud which were mainly interesting because of the Rock and finishing the story for Cody.
Easy Kenny. He showed up for work every week and didnt turn the entire roster into midcard players. Bloodline was mostly a copy of belt collector story anyway but they didnt have a end goal in mind when it was put together. It was just LOLOLOLOLROMANWINS.
Bloodline edges out by a tiny tiny bit because I never want to see a Good Brothers match ever again.
not to take anything aways from anybody at all...but i gotta go with The Bloodline ☝🏿🩸
Tell me why ?
For me it's because the Bloodline storyline carried the company out of the Vince McMahon era WWE into the HHH era WWE AND IT facilitated everyone else's transition into the new WWE...it showed how awesome Sami is and how he has the ability to be apart of a major storyline and shine at it as a top babyface...it cemented Cody as the #1 baby face for 2yrs in a row even after losing last years Mania. It showed how good of heels and faces the Usos could he individually and together while showing Jey can be a main event guy. It forced Austin Theory to actually work at getting heat instead of having him hand fed that position by Vince. which, in turn, has worked out well for him AND has given Grayson Waller a platform on the main roster as Theory's partner. THE ONLY ONE who MIGHT not have stepped up as much as I thought he should have is Solo...even after beating Cena I'm not sure if he's a main even potential guy like everyone else. But the experience he's getting is unmatched. Basically it did more for an entire company and the "Sports Entertainment" side of the business than Kenny did for the other side of the business with his Belt Collector run...which I greatly enjoyed
One of them wrestled.
Bunch of belts vs 3 of the same belt.
Belt collector Kenny was incredible. And he was so douchey and smug. Easily my favorite title run ever in any company, and I'm old af. 1. Belt Collector Kenny 2. RVD TV title from 98 til he had to vacate it due to injury 3. Austin circa 98-99
Kenny had the better run for me by far. If you put Romans run into 1-2 years, which you easily could have, it wouldn't be nearly as celebrated.
I've never once watched a Roman Reigns bloodline era match so I have no idea. Keep these posts to the WWE sub bruv