I think you nailed it. AEW is trying to do too many inside jokes, and basically trying to create a "meme" brand where everything can be trivialized and laughed at. Chuck and Trent getting driven to the arena by Chuck's mom is funny but is very limiting in terms of character elevation - something that Breezango suffers from too. Even the Hangman Page "drinking" bit is just meme stuff. The Bucks are all about the memes.
I honestly don't know who would be best to come in and do some script/story/character adjustments and set them on a focused path. My brain still keeps going back to Ryan Ward if he was available - simply because of the quality of Smackdown during that 2016 run. It felt fresh, focused, and matches had a big stakes feel.
I really hope Tony Khan isn't writing scripts because I am confident he is the kind of dude to laugh at his own jokes and wants to see it play out on TV. Him and the creative team should work with the wrestlers to suggest their own character directions and work those into palpable storylines that constrains craziness or non-sensical. I have a feeling MJF probably has a ton of suggestions for his character and runs it by Tony/Cody all the time. His character seems to be on the best trajectory forward.
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