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Since the days World Championship Wrestling imploded and Vince McMahon bought them up, there was never a viable alternative to World Wrestling Entertainment. TNA/IMPACT constantly tripped over itself whenever it tried to take a step forward and shows like Lucha Underground were too niche for their own good. Then in 2019, All Elite Wrestling stepped in. A wrestling promotion that wasn’t afraid to be about wrestling. A place where the tag team division could thrive. Where storylines could make sense and not be made out of a dozen rematches filled with disqualifications and no contests. A place where a large dinosaur man can chokeslam a ghoul in clown makeup. A place where awesome wrestlers can have awesome wrestling matches. I’ve been releasing AEW primers every now and then, but as the last one was so outdated that Collision was just starting up and CM Punk was still on the roster, it’s probably time for a new one. Reading all this poo poo isn’t by any means necessary to one’s enjoyment of the product, but it makes for some good sports education. Plus I’m just addicted to giant writing projects.  AEW’S SHOWS AEW has three main shows. On Wednesday night, there’s Dynamite, the two-hour main show on TBS. Friday night gives us the 1-hour Rampage on TNT, which isn’t nearly as important, but usually has some fun matches thrown in. Collision, the newest one, is a two-hour show, which airs on TNT on Saturday night. It’s somewhere in-between the other two, usually solid, and has more emphasis on in-ring stuff. Expect to see a 30-40 minute FTR match as the main event. Then there’s Ring of Honor, AEW’s sibling promotion, which streams on Honor Club on Thursday nights. There’s also Being the Dark Order, formerly known as Being the Elite. Once a silly travel vlog from the Young Bucks, it has since become a weekly comedy show starring jobber stable the Dark Order and their friends. Also funny is Hey! (EW), a weekly interview show hosted by RJ City on AEW's YouTube channel. In terms of PPVs, AEW had about five, but have since started releasing more and more. In 2023, they had Revolution (March), Double or Nothing (May), AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door (June), All In (August), All Out (September), WrestleDream (October), Full Gear (November), and Worlds End (December). 2024 is introducing Dynasty in April. Hopefully some kind of streaming deal will help make this more economically viable for the fans.  AEW’S CHAMPIONSHIPS (as of 3/10/24) AEW World Champion: Samoa Joe AEW International Champion: Roderick Strong TNT Champion: Christian Cage AEW Continental Champion: Eddie Kingston The International and TNT championships are more comparable to WWE’s Intercontinental/United States championships. The Continental title is a triple crown that includes the Ring of Honor World Championship and NJPW’s Strong Openweight Championship. It’s meant to be a title to be defended across all three brands. AEW Women’s World Champion: Toni Storm TBS Champion: Julia Hart The TBS Championship is the secondary title. Initially, it was a vehicle to put some shine on Jade Cargill while keeping her out of the AEW Women’s World Championship picture. AEW Tag Team Champions: Vacant (previously Sting and Darby Allin) AEW Trios Champions: The Acclaimed (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Billy Gunn) There’s also the FTW Championship, held by Hook, though that is not an officially recognized title belt. It’s more of a vanity title that found a life of its own.  AEW SPECIALTY MATCHES Lights Out: A fancy way to say that it’s a no-DQ match that will happen at the end of the show. In-storyline, the match is not sanctioned by AEW and the results do not officially count towards the wrestlers’ win-loss records. Casino Battle Royal: A 21-person/tag team Royal Rumble. Everyone picks a playing card prior to the show. Every few minutes, a different set of wrestlers who drew certain suits would enter in clusters. Whoever drew the joker card would come in alone at #21. Casino Ladder Match: A ladder match with staggered entries, like a Royal Rumble. While coming out later makes you fresher, it’s also possible that somebody else might win the match before you have a chance to enter. Blood & Guts: Basically WarGames with a different name. Two teams of five will compete in a double ring with a roofed cage around it. Every few minutes a new entrant would go into the cage. Once everyone had entered, the match continues until somebody submits. Stadium Stampede/Anarchy in the Arena: A team vs. team brawl through an entire football stadium and the adjacent parts of the building. Or just the arena in general. Goes on until somebody gets pinned. Usually gets really bizarre.  THE HISTORY OF AEW Once upon a time, somebody on Twitter asked wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer if anyone non-WWE could ever sell out a 10,000 person arena. Meltzer said no, but Cody Rhodes of the Bullet Club offshoot team the Elite decided to take that bet. A big wrestling show collaboration happened between promotions like Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, National Wrestling Association, and so on. All In happened on September 1, 2018 and it was a major success. WWE needed a creative shot in the arm and was very close to signing the Elite guys in response to All In, but there was another player out of nowhere. Tony Khan, the billionaire son of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, wanted to start his own major wrestling promotion and saw All In as an avenue of making that happen. He talked the Elite and various others into signing with him (including huge get Chris Jericho!) and getting on the ground floor. And so, on January 1, 2019, the Young Bucks’ goofball travel vlog Being the Elite did an episode that formally announced a new PPV event called Double or Nothing, as the logo appeared on all of their phones. Hangman Adam Page was confused, as his showed something different. It was the logo for All Elite Wrestling. There was plenty of skepticism about the promotion early on, calling it nothing more than a glorified t-shirt company. As if it was going to be no different than Jeff Jarrett’s hilarious Global Force Wrestling venture. Hell, all they had to promote their first PPV was a bunch of YouTube updates, including episodes of BTE. But shortly before Double or Nothing happened in May, it was announced that the promotion would start airing weekly on TNT in September. This was huge. Then Double or Nothing was a hit show with plenty of great word of mouth, ending with the surprise appearance of Jon Moxley, formerly WWE’s Dean Ambrose. While storylines were built up via YouTube content, AEW spent the next few months with two free-in-the-US PPVS (Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen, respectively) and a major PPV All Out. AEW Dynamite started airing on Wednesdays on TNT. WWE moved their developmental show NXT from Tuesday to Wednesday to counter-program it, but ultimately lost the war and went back to Tuesdays. This would actually have huge ramifications for WWE in general, namely the relationship between Vince McMahon and Triple H, which in turn would affect AEW via osmosis. Shortly after Dynamite started airing, they started a Tuesday YouTube show called AEW Dark that featured some lesser matches. While top stars would regularly appear on it, it was mostly a place for squash matches and throwaway stuff so named wrestlers could build up their win-loss records. Years later, a second version of this called AEW Dark Elevation would start airing on Mondays. It was all worth checking out purely for the hilarious commentary. AEW had plenty of momentum, especially after AEW Revolution in February 2020. Unfortunately... COVID happened. The pandemic disrupted much of the company, but not completely. They still had a home arena in Jacksonville and spent much of the next couple years doing shows there. They started out with only a third of the roster available and had to figure themselves out from there. The audience was initially replaced with just wrestlers booing and cheering. Eventually, fans were allowed in, but had to be masked and separated. AEW got by just fine, but the real news was what was going on at WWE. Despite huge profits, Vince McMahon and new right-hand man Nick Khan (no relation) started just firing people left and right. A RIDICULOUS amount of people were being let go due to very unnecessary budget cuts. AEW sucked up a lot of those names, but refused plenty of others. While morale was down in the gutter at WWE, AEW was becoming the safe haven for wrestlers who needed an alternative. The problem was that AEW was starting to get a bit too full. They were overflowing with talent. Luckily, Turner really dug them and gave them a second show. On Friday nights, AEW Rampage would air. Making it such a big deal was that the second show was the site for CM Punk’s grand return to wrestling after leaving WWE seven years earlier. After Punk came big names like Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. Co-founder Cody Rhodes, meanwhile, skipped into the sunset and gambled on a well-paid WWE return. In March 2022, Tony Khan announced that he bought Ring of Honor. The promotion, which represented the apex of in-ring excellence in North America, had its status usurped by AEW and was destroyed by the pandemic. Tony now had it as a sister promotion to AEW with its own PPVs. Unfortunately, this meant promoting ROH titles and talent on AEW TV, which was already overstuffed and the whole thing started to get out of hand. Eventually, ROH would get its own weekly show on Honor Club, the online streaming service. Sadly, no TV for this promotion, but the lack of television formatting (ie. timing, commercials, ratings) has made it easier for Tony to book around. Speaking of other promotions, one thing that set AEW apart from WWE was their ability to work alongside other wrestling companies. NWA and IMPACT were regularly involved in crossover storylines and matches. The real holy grail was NJPW, which was soured due to their previous working relationship with ROH and the rough bad blood between them and the Elite. Regardless, wounds were healed and when NJPW wrestler KENTA made a surprise appearance for a few AEW shows, people were shocked as “the forbidden door” had been cracked open. The two companies would then collaborate on a joint PPV called Forbidden Door, which happened on June 22, 2022. Due to various AEW wrestler injuries and what seemed like disinterest from certain NJPW talent, the line-up was not as epic as hoped. Luckily, the show delivered and is considered one of the greatest AEW PPVs ever, giving way to an amazing 2023 follow-up. The AEW train got derailed when it came time for All Out 2022. During the post-show press conference, CM Punk proceeded to badmouth various people on the roster due to perceived slights and it culminated in a backstage brawl involving him and the Elite. Everyone involved was suspended and since Punk suffered an injury in his PPV match, he was going to be gone for a while regardless. His status in the company was up in the air for a while. This incident really screwed up a lot of plans and AEW fumbled around for several months, trying to get back on track. While the shows were still good, AEW lost plenty of momentum. This wasn't helped by WWE getting its audience back, quality be damned. But there was still definitely gas in the tank for AEW. Tony Khan announced that All In would finally return (the first show was technically ROH-owned, but since Tony bought ROH...) and that it would take place at Wembley Stadium. The tickets flew without a single match announced. A new show was announced for Saturdays called AEW Collision. While Rampage lost its importance over time, Collision would be AEW’s other main show. It was also a place to showcase more of the overstuffed roster, including the return of CM Punk. As part of this agreement, all the AEW non-PPVs must be under the Turner umbrella. That meant the cancellation of Dark and Dark Elevation. All In and its follow up All Out (a week apart) were successes outside of a major backstage brawl between CM Punk and Jack Perry that got Punk fired. Since then, the product has continued on and while Collision continues to be a worthwhile show, it rarely feels quite as important as Dynamite. With the combination of an all-timer show with Revolution 2024, some major signings, and a new coat of paint over the branding, it feels like AEW is hitting on all cylinders all over again. Well, at least as of early March.  HOW’S THE AEW VIDEO GAME? Do you mean the casino app, the GM simulator, or that weird thing where everyone looks like a bored Seth MacFarlane character? Oh, you mean AEW Fight Forever! The game is... a mixed bag. The intent of the game was to make a spiritual successor to WWF No Mercy, considered the best wrestling game ever. After years of development, it finally came out. The good news was that the gameplay is fantastic and really does feel like an updated No Mercy. Too bad about everything else. The graphics are low-quality, which isn’t world-ending. The game just does not have much content in there, both in terms of match types and single player stuff. The create-a-wrestler is especially bad, giving you so few options that it feels utterly pointless. Worst of all is the post-launch roster. At first, there were DLC packs for a couple wrestlers and some extra minigames. Then there was a free Stadium Stampede battle royale mode. Good start. Then they started coming out with fewer wrestlers while charging an excessive amount. The most damning is how they released Toni Storm by herself and she didn’t even have her current and popular gimmick. Hell, Samoa Joe isn’t in the game and he’s the loving champion! It could have been a big deal with some better updates, but here we are. Now you can buy it on the cheap.  AEW TIMELINES AEW has started putting together lengthy one-video collections of storylines and matches for the sake of hyping upcoming events. It’s like getting a DVD set and losing the last disc because these videos are supposed to lead to the endgame (ie. releasing a collection of all the Continental Classic matches to hype up the finals, meaning it features everything BUT the finals). There’s some great stuff in there. AEW Dynamite Moments in 2019-2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MGz4iJsCUg AEW Dynamite Moments in 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cro01TDioR4 AEW Dynamite Moments in 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4LX-jvYoik AEW Dynamite Moments in 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN1ImahWV34 How MJF and Adam Cole Became BFFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukWjq30GTfo Orange Cassidy’s International Championship Defenses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAm22Y7mZso Christian Cage’s Amazing Heel Promos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh1HaCni6vE Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOmSoypBXDA The Relationship Between Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlw6wiDoOuo Darby Allin vs. Christian Cage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEK-YaX7YNw The Rift Between Ortiz and Santana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAut9hYpzD4 MJF’s Title Run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qId3gkvFcBo Samoa Joe as ROH TV Champion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnWtx1XjIk Hangman Adam Page and Texas Death Matches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtmF8EmydgE The Birth of Timeless Toni Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-TEaNgy1jQ MJF vs. Jay White https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RISdAdpKIn8 The Evolution of Julia Hart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZg8HMK656U Adam Copeland vs. Christian Cage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pap7Jhl7xZ8 The Continental Classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV-DRnjamZA FTR vs. House of Black https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88BC1eIW23k The Rise of Hook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ud-ufxYyw4 Top Flight vs. Young Bucks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH0FbUWkQY4 Sting in AEW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlfCMoj4YDM Kazuchika Okada in AEW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78xj6IQ9lFo AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmWkeKEm2sE A Collection of Violent Women's Matches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IMU4xsp9jQ
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 THE MEN’S ROSTER  Samoa Joe: As of this writing, he’s the AEW World Champion and he’s what you’d want out of your company's champion. Dangerous, experienced, overly confident, and just well-rounded. A believable final boss if ever there was one. He's also a murder clown on Peacock!  MJF: Maxwell Jacob Friedman was once Cody Rhodes’ protégé, but everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before he stabbed Cody in the back. MJF is a slimy piece of poo poo who gradually moved up the ranks of AEW until becoming champion. Over time, it became more apparent that his terrible behavior was a coping mechanism and he gradually turned face while explaining that he was “our scumbag.” Unfortunately, the tail end of his title run wasn’t handled too well and the company is better now that he’s taking a break due to injury. He’s currently off the roster page due to his kayfabe tendency to claim that he was possibly leaving AEW for WWE once his contract expired.     The Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta): Put together by William Regal (who then slipped out of the company the moment Triple H was back in power in WWE), the idea was for Danielson and Moxley to work together to mold the future of wrestling. Then Claudio joined. So far, after all this time, they just have one student in Wheeler Yuta. The team’s alignment changes by the minute, but the main thing to know is that Moxley is the ace of AEW and Danielson is on his way out of wrestling, using his last year to have as many dream matches as possible before he forces himself to hang it up.    The Elite (Matthew Jackson, Nicholas Jackson, Kazuchika Okada): The Young Bucks are considered maybe the best tag team in the world, but are also hated by quite a bit of online wrestling fans. Recently, they embraced their criticisms by playing themselves up as shithead manager types. They have since kicked out former friends Hangman Page and Kenny Omega from the group and replaced them with Okada, Japan’s biggest star who just signed with AEW.  Kenny Omega: Former leader of the Elite and “The Best Bout Machine.” A tremendous dork who is arguably the best wrestler in the world. Unfortunately, he’s out due to diverticulitis, but that gives him more time to play Street Fighter.  Hangman Adam Page: On-and-off-again member of the Elite and adorable cowboy man. Was, for a time, the protagonist of AEW. Now he’s crazy and has a mustache. Gets blamed for CM Punk going insane.  Chris Jericho: Old rocker who has been trying to make the best of his twilight years. Fun sing-along theme song. Has a tendency to feud with his opponents for excessively too long, killing everyone’s interest in said opponent. Is a shithead in real life, but the extremes to which are only speculated.      The Undisputed Kingdom (Adam Cole, Wardlow, Roderick Strong, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett): Revealed from the ashes of a story with MJF that was starting to hurt the product, Adam Cole is the evil leader of a team of guys who are going to...rule AEW? Get their titles? I don’t know. Cole is injured, Wardlow is a prime muscle man whose momentum has been screwed up a few times, and the other guys are talented, generic white dudes who maybe spent too long as a comedy act to be taken seriously. Cole and MJF are injured as of this writing, so the story and this faction are just kind of there.      Mogul Embassy (Swerve Strickland, Prince Nana, Brian Cage, Bishop Kaun, Toa Liona): Group of dudes managed by Prince Nana, who are vicious enough to complement Nana’s silly dancing. Brian Cage is a muscle golem who really embraces nerd poo poo like Wolverine and Max Thunder from Streets of Rage 2. The leader and current big deal is Swerve Strickland, who is kind of a sinister psychopath with a strange sense of honor, who is beloved by the fans despite being an unapologetic villain.     The Don Callis Family (Konosuke Takeshita, Will Ospreay, Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle Fletcher): Don Callis was once Kenny Omega’s mentor. Now he runs his own group of top talent, usually hindered by being stuck in endless feuds with Omega and/or Chris Jericho. While all members have endless potential, Ospreay is considered to be one of AEW’s biggest signings in a while.  Darby Allin: Sting’s protégé and artistic daredevil who likes to skateboard and do high-flying stunts that will surely take years off his career.  Eddie Kingston: Down-to-earth “King of the Bums” who likes to test himself and get in brutal strike-fests with his opponents. Chaotically violent at times, which makes him his own worst enemy.     The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, Nick Wayne, Mother Wayne): Christian likes to make fun of his opponents if and when they have a dead father. Killswitch is a literal dinosaur and used to call himself Luchasaurus. Nick Wayne is a wrestling prodigy who looks up to Christian as a father figure. His mother is there just to get heat from the crowd because how dare they boo a mother!  Adam Copeland: Formerly Edge, he came to AEW to spend the final days of his wrestling career being involved with his real life BFF Christian Cage. Star of the film Money Plane.    Death Triangle (Pac, Penta El Zero M, Rey Fenix): Two lucha brothers called the Lucha Brothers and an angry, wet goblin man are a team, though it’s rare that they’re around long enough to do anything with it. Pac is always either injured or in England and Fenix has been hurt for a while. They all rule, though, and Penta really should be pushed more.   FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood): Two guys who take tag team wrestling extremely seriously. They are very good at it. Dax likes talking about his daughter a lot when trying to make a spirited point.    The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, Billy Gunn): A rapper, his hype man, and their frenemies’ father have been one of AEW’s most popular acts for the past few years. Despite his age, Billy Gunn still looks chiseled and gigantic, but uses his tag partner role to limit his time in the ring.     Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn): An offshoot of NJPW’s big nWo ripoff team, much like the Elite. A fun team of intense goofballs who probably should be higher on the card. Especially White.    Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta): Chuck and Trent are two guys who like to hug and are a staple of the tag division, even if they’re never very successful. Orange was their mascot who ended up becoming a breakout star due to being a trickster god combination of Droopy Dog and Drunken Master. Seems lazy, but he works his rear end off in the ring.     House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, Buddy Matthews, Julia Hart): Spooky death metal team. Malakai likes to spit black mist into people’s faces, which at times corrupts them. He’s possibly too into his own character’s lore. Brody is a tank, Julia is a witch, and Buddy is a great enough wrestler to offset the fact that a guy named “Buddy” is in a violent goth team.  Daniel Garcia: A serious wrestler at odds with his love for dancing like a sports entertainer. Is gradually figuring himself out.  Hook: “The Handsome Devil” is Taz’s stoic son. Man of few words, but he loves eating chips and choking people out.     La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush, Dralistico, Preston Vance, Jose the Assistant): A ruthless Mexican wrestler and his entourage, which includes his shockingly jacked assistant.  Jack Perry: The son of the late Luke Perry and formerly known as “Jungle Boy.” Was partially responsible for CM Punk getting fired from the company and they’ve since played it off like he quit AEW and is now doing stuff in NJPW, calling himself the Scapegoat.  Ricky Starks: Cocky and talented dude who feels like a smaller version of 1998 Rocky Maivia. Unfortunately, he’s rarely used to his full potential and it will probably lead to him going to WWE down the line.  Sammy Guevara: On one hand, Sammy Guevara is skilled and at times incredibly charismatic. He wrestled AEW’s first official match, wrestled the first match on Dynamite, and is considered one of the Four Pillars (along with MJF, Jack Perry, and Darby Allin). The problem with Sammy is that he’s eternally Chris Jericho’s sidekick, he changes alignment more than Big Show, and the guy keeps loving up in real life to the point that he’s constantly being suspended. Andrade El Idolo once tried getting himself fired by slapping Sammy backstage and it didn’t work.  Big Bill: Wrestled as Big Cass in WWE and once helped ruin relations between pre-Khan ROH and NJPW. Is now pretty loving awesome. His heigh still can’t be taught.  Keith Lee: If Beast from the X-Men was a very large, black man with gray hair. In a perfect world, he would be a top guy in the company due to his size, strength, and insane agility. Unfortunately, a lengthy bout with COVID fried him and between that and a knee injury, he’s constantly being derailed.     Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver, Alex Reynolds, Brodie Lee Jr.): A trio of cultists who once followed the late Brodie Lee. Now their leader is the adolescent Brodie Lee Jr. There used to be a ton of members and they also were buddies with Hangman. Now there’s just three and they’re basically lovable idiots who run their own weekly YouTube show.  Mark Briscoe: He and his brother Jay were one of the best tag teams ever, but unfortunately, Jay died in a car accident. Now Mark wrestles in AEW as an endearing and friendly psycho redneck who can wrestle a match like nobody’s business.   Top Flight (Dante Martin and Darius Martin): High-flying brother duo who tend to be injured a lot. Dante always looks like somebody ran over his dog.  Action Andretti: Flippy dude whose main claim to fame is getting an upset on Chris Jericho during his first televised appearance. Hangs out with Top Flight and drinks bottles of water instantly while crushing it in one motion.  Jay Lethal: Solid worker who is overshadowed by the talent in AEW, but makes the most of it.  Jeff Jarrett: A cancer to most promotions, he has somehow been used perfectly in AEW. Won a championship belt based around a Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game in a stupid, stupid match.  Katsuyori Shibata: Kickass Japanese wrestler whose health was in such jeopardy at one point that doctors had to remove his brain during surgery to save him. Somehow, his career has continued, though he’s on hiatus for now due to non-wrestling reasons.  Miro: WWE had a popular Bulgarian monster of a wrestler and ruined him with lots of jobbing and cuck storylines. He went to AEW, where he was a fantastic TNT Champion, then lost and has since been talking about killing God, being at odds with his wife CJ Perry, and being off TV way more than he should be. Presumably, it’s because he doesn’t like losing matches and disagrees with any storyline that doesn’t involve him winning all the time and having marriage issues. It’s reached the point where people are just kind of done with him.  Lance Archer: Managed by the legendary Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Archer is the guy you introduce to give someone a major threat for the sake of thwarting.  Jake Hager: Was the go-to muscle for whenever Chris Jericho ran a stable. Now he’s just a big dude who occasionally enjoys his hat. Is also an Aztec God, but that’s from another promotion.  Matt Menard: “Daddy Magic” is both a father figure to Daniel Garcia and a great commentator. Constantly asking the fans if they know what makes his nipples hard. Cannot blow up the moon, apparently.  Kota Ibushi: Kenny Omega’s best friend, he was once a legendary talent. Unfortunately, by the time AEW signed him, he’s gotten out of shape and tends to make foolish decisions that hurt him more and more.  Brandon Cutler: The Young Bucks’ stooge and camera man. Also the guy behind Being the Elite/Being the Dark Order.  Danhausen: Silly demon man with an obsession with money, teeth, blimps, and saying people's names weird.  Colt Cabana: Shares a bank account with his mother.   The Butcher and the Blade: They are the Butcher and the Blade.  THE WOMEN’S ROSTER   Toni Storm (with Luther): With a whole complicated mess involving Toni Storm being Women’s Champion, but kind of not really, but yes, Toni went from generic face to frustrated and joining Saraya as the Outcasts. She had an obsession with spraypainting opponents, including spraypainting her butt green and then slamming her butt into her enemy’s face. She became champ again, but upon losing, she went completely insane and turned into a 1930s starlet. Now she’s the champion again, but has doubled down on her reality-breaking insanity to the point that she at times appears in black and white.  Dr. Britt Baker DMD: For years, Britt was treated as the main character of AEW’s women’s division even though she’s very middle-of-the-road in the ring. She at least has the character down, using her real-life second job a dentist and incorporating it into her wrestling persona. Has been off TV for a while, self-aware of her overexposure.  Kris Statlander: Kris Statlander was an alien and a member of Best Friends. Then she injured her legs and suddenly wasn’t. Who knows. Regardless, the powerful Statlander is one of the most consistent talents on the roster and is someone you can trust to literally carry her opponent through a match.  Hikaru Shida: Looking like a crime boss who moonlights as a fashion model, Shida kicks so much rear end. She’s kind of like the Bret Hart of AEW in that she’s been able to carry the company through dark times, only to drop the title to whoever they want to push into the forefront. Julia Hart: Julia started as a cheerleader, hanging out with the Varsity Blondes. Then Malakai Black spat black mist into her face and she started the most excruciatingly slow heel turn anyone has ever seen. Once she did finally turn on the Blondes, she joined the House of Black and really started to come into her own. She has since adopted the black mist, both in her matches and as interference for her stable.   Willow Nightingale: Willow is bubbly and cheerful to offset how she is basically a female Juggernaut, able to pounce you into the stratosphere. She is currently acting as Kris Statlander’s buddy, along with their hilarious manager Stokely Hathaway. Stokely constantly wants the two to cheat, but they’re reluctant. Will they change him or will he change one of them? Time will tell.  Saraya: Once known as Paige in WWE, Saraya was kind of a big deal. So much that Florence Pugh starred as her in a movie where she knew the Rock and did other stuff. Paige was a big part of why WWE started treating women wrestlers with more respect, but then messed up her neck so badly that the company would never let her wrestle again and just kept her as an occasional on-air character. She eventually left and joined AEW to much fanfare, but it’s become apparent that mainstream women's wrestling has caught up and surpassed her skill level. Now she’s no longer a big deal unless they're doing a show in England. She also got her brother (who also met the Rock!) a spot on the roster. I honestly can’t tell you what his name is.  Thunder Rosa: Thunder Rosa showed up in AEW as part of an NWA crossover, but soon snuck away onto the AEW roster. She ended up having a couple violent banger matches with Britt Baker, including the one where she won the Women’s Championship. Then things got stupid as there was talk of backstage turmoil that was even referenced on TV. Due to injury, Rosa had to drop the title, then spent like two years healing up. Now she’s back, but she hasn’t really done much yet.  Nyla Rose: Nyla Rose was the original final boss character of the women’s division, becoming its second champion after defeating Riho. Unfortunately, her title run was hurt by COVID, and she soon dropped it to Shida. Nyla has remained a recurring threat throughout the years and while she isn’t on TV much these days, she is an absolute force on Twitter.  Riho: The inaugural champion. Tiny, awesome, sometimes carries a metal pipe. Riho makes the world a better place.  Mariah May: Mariah is Toni Storm’s personal hanger-on. Despite being aligned with Toni for months, it wasn’t until recently that Toni has actually noticed her in any way. Part of this has to do with Mariah borrowing Toni’s old aesthetic as her own. At the moment, Mariah is psyched to be in her idol’s good graces, but Toni’s butler Luther (the death match legend) doesn’t like where this is going.  Ruby Soho: Formerly Ruby Riott in WWE, Ruby has personality, but she constantly sounds like she’s about to break down crying in her promos. The punk rock girl is currently in a romantic storyline with Cool Hand Ang with the two of them treating dating like when two rich people would mail each other chess moves.  Jamie Hayter: Hayter showed up as support for Britt Baker and helped her retain her title a bunch during Baker’s exhausting title reign. Down the line, she became Women’s Champion, which seemed on paper to be reason for Baker to turn on her and create a feud between the two. Instead, Baker was incredibly supportive and they turned face simply on the back of their rival Saraya being so unlikeable. Unfortunately, she had to drop the title to Toni Storm due to a severe injury and has not been seen since.  Skye Blue: Skye got a lot of time on TV due to being a regular jobber and one of Jade Cargill’s usual opponents. She has since gotten pretty popular and has found her niche as Julia Hart’s spooky sidekick.  Anna Jay: Anna has gone from being a magician to joining Dark Order to being one of Chris Jericho’s cronies to threatening to choke out random bystanders. Also likes talking about her rear end, which you would think lead to a Billy Gunn mentorship.  Deonna Purrazzo: A newcomer, Deonna is formerly a close friend to Toni Storm who is disturbed and disappointed in what she’s become. Deonna is from New Jersey, which is enough to base your personality around. I’m from Jersey myself, so I know what I’m talking about over here.  Serena Deeb: Serena is considered a major threat in the ring, but there just isn’t much to talk about with her. She does have an angry soccer mom energy to her and she’s a talented wrestler, but I got nothing else.  Abadon: A freaky zombie (or someone who thinks they’re a zombie) who has been around since early AEW, but sadly doesn’t get enough play. Usually gets a late October appearance to fall back on, but even that’s not a promise.  Athena: Possibly the best worker in the women’s division, Athena is unfortunately treated as DLC to get people to watch ROH. She’s been running the place as Women’s Champion there with PPV main events and the like, but hasn’t shown up in AEW proper in forever.  Emi Sakura: Emi is a veteran who once had a Freddie Mercury gimmick, so when AEW did All In in London, everyone was wishing she would start being on TV again. She wasn’t at All In, but they did put her on TV for a little bit after that. Then they stopped. Assholes.  Harley Cameron: Once an over-the-top member of the ill-fated QTV stable, Harley has since started hanging out with Saraya and being a goofball psycho. Is a pretty talented singer, even though it’s used to frame how much she actually sucks.  Marina Shafir: YOU DON’T KNOW HER! Gavok fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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Mar 11, 2024 02:55
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 AEW ALUMNI There are various wrestlers and managers who have been part of AEW, only to vanish over time. On the upside, it’s usually because Tony Khan lets their contract run out without renewing it, as opposed to WWE just firing someone out of nowhere for random cost-cutting. Unfortunately, Tony is very bad at communicating this info and usually just ghosts his talent until they figure things out. A lot of these names end up being, at the very least, interesting footnotes to AEW’s beginnings. Then there are those like CM Punk, whose story is one of the most fascinating situations in modern wrestling. CODY AND BRANDI RHODES AEW was built on Cody Rhodes’ passion, which makes it so strange to see how things just didn’t work out for him. Not wanting the negative connotiations that come with being a wrestler who is also a booker, Cody put himself in a position where he lost a title shot with the promise that he could never challenge for the AEW World Championship ever again. Then he proceeded to introduce the TNT Championship and won the tournament to crown the inaugural champion. Cody gradually moved away from his Elite buddies and started doing his own thing. His segments felt separate from the rest of AEW, getting the nickname “The Codyverse.” All the while, his wife Brandi started getting involved as an on-air personality in ways that were just plain baffling and unpopular. Her stable of the Nightmare Collective is considered the first major dud in AEW. Cody’s segments and storylines became self-indulgent and hokey, annoying fans who started to boo him. Cody worked his rear end off, but refused to ever turn heel. And so, he moved on from AEW and signed back with WWE. Using the same theme and aesthetic (including his godawful neck tattoo), Cody became wildly popular. The problem was that he constantly got hosed over by WWE’s top brass. At least he appears to be earmarked for a big main event win at WrestleMania 40. Maybe. CM PUNK Getting CM Punk in AEW felt both natural and completely shocking. He was especially excited to be there to reignite his love for wrestling and mix it up with all sorts of new talent. For a long time, everything seemed to be working out great and he had some unforgettable feuds with the likes of Eddie Kingston and MJF. The problem was that Punk saw himself as a all-knowing mentor figure, was easy to piss off, and had issues with former best friend and AEW employee Colt Cabana. This caused a butterfly effect that snowballed into Punk getting into a backstage brawl with the Elite, ruining the company’s momentum, and making the fans lose trust in him (Chicago excluded... sometimes). When Punk came back, he still couldn’t keep himself from acting self-important and losing his cool, leading to his fight with Jack Perry at All In. Punk was fired within days. Punk returned to WWE (the company he claimed nearly killed him) with much fanfare. Legally, he was not allowed to publicly poo poo on AEW, meaning his return promo was completely safe and cookie cutter. Then he got injured on his first televised match. Considering TNA nearly signed him, they dodged a massive bullet. STING During the pandemic, AEW brought in Sting as a huge surprise. So surprising that the network was pissed about it. Sting immediately took brooding rafter-dwelling loner Darby Allin under his wing. As Sting was forced into retirement from the end of his disastrous WWE run, it didn’t look like he had much left to offer at first. He and Darby did a PPV match against Ricky Starks and Brian Cage, but it was a cinematic match. Sometime later, they did a real tag match in front of a crowd and Sting not only showed he wasn’t finished, but he was also pulling off spots ridiculous for a man in his 60s. It was believed that Sting was there to help rein in the reckless Darby, but Darby had a more impactful influence on the Stinger. After a little over three years, Sting had 30 matches, including a stop in Japan for Great Muta’s retirement match. About to turn 65, Sting finally decided it was time to call it a day with a wonderful bout at Revolution 2024 with him and Darby against the Young Bucks. It’s now considered the high bar for a retirement match. JADE CARGILL Introduced as a friend of superhero movie legend Shaq, Jade Cargill was someone AEW saw as a big deal right out the gate. They proceeded to give her a Goldberg push and had her as the inaugural TBS Champion. They just weren’t ready to REALLY go all in on her, meaning she was winning all of her matches, but she wasn’t involved against the major staples of the women’s roster. No matches against Shida or Britt Baker. This caused her to become tiresome, especially since Kris Statlander was being set up to dethrone her and Statlander was off TV for forever due to a leg injury. Jade spun her wheels, had few notable feuds, and did a brief storyline involving Lil Bow Wow that abruptly ended. Statlander finally returned to defeat her twice over and Jade was gone. Jade signed with WWE, who have barely used her, claiming she wasn’t trained right. She has so far only been in the Royal Rumble and introduced herself to people backstage in her wrestling gear despite never actually wrestling otherwise. BRIAN PILLMAN JR. Getting the son of Brian Pillman seemed like a good get. The guy definitely had a good mullet-y look and had potential to really break out. Then time moved on and Pillman Jr. just didn’t find himself. Soon he was overshadowed by much of the roster to the point that he was in a tag team with Griff Garrison and the biggest success of their team was their valet Julia Hart. Pillman tried starting a team with Arn Anderson’s bland son Brock, but that died before anything could happen. Beepee left AEW and signed with WWE, becoming a part of NXT. In pure WWE fashion, they make a big deal about his parentage while changing his name so he’s no longer called Pillman. Wonderful. WILLIAM REGAL Having been fired from WWE, William Regal showed up at an AEW PPV to convince Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley to work together, while acting as their mentor. On that moment, the Blackpool Combat Club was born! Also, CM Punk confronted him backstage and called him a stooge for Triple H. Regal remained leader of the BCC and did a lot of commentary, including how much he wanted to gently caress fellow commentator Excalibur, but it did not last. After having a major role in MJF defeating Moxley for the AEW World Championship, Regal was written off TV very abruptly and awkwardly. As it turned out, with Triple H back in charge at WWE, Regal wanted out. Tony Khan’s mother was in the hospital and Regal allegedly exploited that situation to talk up how he wanted to be working in NXT with his son. Hence, Regal was allowed his release and he went back to WWE. When Tony found out that Regal’s role had nothing to do with working with his son, he noted that that was very interesting. MIKE SANTANA Proud ‘n’ Powerful showed up at All Out 2019 and immediately became Jericho’s cronies. They seemed to be destined for a run at the tag titles. Instead, they were more involved with Jericho than the tag division itself. In reality, members Ortiz and Santana weren’t getting along as Ortiz was complacent in their role and Santana was against it. Santana was preparing to leave AEW, only to succumb to a nasty injury during a Blood ‘n’ Guts match. After the injury healed, Santana returned as a singles wrestler with Ortiz getting in his face about their split. They had a mild blow-off match and then the two each just vanished from TV. Seriously, Santana beat Ortiz on an episode of Rampage and then never appeared again. Then he just waited out his contract. ANDRADE EL IDOLO Lucha hotshot Andrade was a huge deal in NXT, went to the WWE main roster, then did gently caress all. He left and went to AEW. It was a rough start with him getting paired with Vickie Guerrero, who did not jibe with him well. Then he started hanging out with Matt Hardy, which also felt like a waste. Probably his non-in-ring highlight was his intent to buy Darby Allin away from Sting, who he called “Mr. Stink.” When told in an interview that Sting and Darby would not be interested, Andrade simply said, “Okay, how you know?” Injury and other stuff made him an irregular part of the locker room. Despite his ability to have good matches, Andrade never felt like he fit in with AEW. He had a great run in the Continental Classic, but once he was done, he jobbed to Miro and went right back to WWE, where he’s once again just kind of there. MATT AND JEFF HARDY Like too many other wrestlers, Matt Hardy was forced into retirement by WWE, so he jumped to AEW first chance he got. Initially, he played up his whackadoo Broken Matt persona. Then he became a greedy manager who exploited his proteges Private Party. Eventually, he brought his brother Jeff in for some nostalgia stuff. Unfortunately, age has caught up with the brother duo and they were no longer the beloved high fliers of yesteryear. On top of that, Jeff has gotten in trouble with the law and that hurt their standing in the company. They struggled to get screentime and hinted at a big heel turn, but now it looks like their contracts have reached their end. JOEY JANELA Early in AEW, there was a ridiculous three-way hardcore match called the Cracker Barrel Clash. When they ever show footage of it, it’s just Darby Allin smashing a literal barrel because the other two competitors are lost to time for one reason or another. Joey Janela’s deal is that he’s a skeezy hardcore wrestler with no butt. He’s a beloved staple in the indies, so seeing him on the ground floor of AEW was seen as a decent get. His persona also made him the prime candidate to be Jon Moxley’s first AEW opponent as they had a Lights Out match to main event Fyter Fest. Since then, he remained in the midcard and was a regular fixture on Dark. Though he was used in the Street Fighter X AEW t-shirt series where he was paired up against Blanka. Joey started a tag team with Sonny Kiss, but it rarely appeared on TV. They both got pretty badly squashed by Kenny Omega during his heel turn ascent to the title and they never really recovered. Not only did they compete on Dark for the most part afterwards, but they split up and had a pretty great feud. Unfortunately, nobody really watched that part. Joey’s AEW career petered out until his contract expired. FRANKIE KAZARIAN SCU was another perfect early acquisition for AEW. The trio of Scorpio Sky, Christopher Daniels, and Frankie Kazarian were veterans of the industry who were solid in the ring, had a built-in fanbase, and had minimal WWE history. They were also a blast on Being the Elite, especially with Kaz’s Bob Holly impression where he would loudly and intensely scream “DO YA?!” at others after getting the right setup. Kaz and Scorpio Sky then became the company’s inaugural tag team champions after winning a tournament. Though the focus was more on Scorpio with the underlying push to make him the breakout star of the group. And yes, Scorpio is certainly talented, but he’s also a bit on the bland side and AEW’s still struggling to push past that. SCU lost the tag titles to Hangman and Omega, who proceeded to have a title run that left Kaz and Scorpio in the dust. Scorpio quietly left the team, leaving Kaz with Daniels. The two faced the Young Bucks for the tag titles at one point with the caveat that if SCU lost, they would have to forever break up. The Young Bucks cheated to win, which was especially lovely as they had been longtime friends with Kaz and Daniels. Daniels had a heartbreaking mental breakdown on BTE over the realization that his career was all but over while Kaz became righteously pissed off. Kaz became “The Elite Hunter,” a lone vigilante out to kick the poo poo out of the Elite. This was a fantastic new direction for the wrestler, but they never did much with it other than having him go over Brandon Cutler. Otherwise, he got his rear end kicked by the Good Brothers and never amounted to anything. Kaz did briefly feud with Scorpio over the TNT Championship, but it didn’t go anywhere. Instead, Kaz remained on the Dark shows until asking for his release, putting over Takeshita, and going to IMPACT. Apparently, the door is open if he ever wants to return. THE GOOD BROTHERS Technically, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were never officially signed to AEW, but their story is worth mentioning. The two mainstays of the Bullet Club were in WWE with their contracts coming up. The idea was that they were going to go to AEW for the first episode of Dynamite, joining with Chris Jericho in the final minutes. But no, Triple H talked them into re-signing and told them to think about their children as AEW was not a proven force. So they re-signed and were later fired because Nick Khan didn’t like how much they were getting paid. They couldn’t exactly go to AEW because Tony Khan was pretty pissed about their decision to re-sign. Instead, they went to IMPACT and, over time, came to AEW as allies of Don Callis. They helped turn the Young Bucks heel and they became the Super Elite. They showed up a bunch on BTE with Gallows constantly making masturbation jokes while Anderson won the world over with his alter ego Sour Boy. He was the WORST! Eventually, they just stopped showing up on AEW with no fanfare. Then they left IMPACT and went back to WWE. JIMMY HAVOC Jimmy Havoc was nobody’s favorite wrestler, nor was he especially good in the ring to begin with, but he added a unique flavor to the early days of the product as a hardcore wrestler who looked like he was 20 years older than he really was. His deal was that he was obsessed with stapling people and when his brutality got him fined, he would write a check and staple it onto somebody. He never really had a chance to do much other than be one of Kip Sabian’s many tag partners. Speaking Out allegations painted him as a gigantic piece of poo poo and he was rightfully let go because of it. MARKO STUNT While the pairing of Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus was immediately interesting, Jungle Boy’s main tag partner pre-AEW was Marko Stunt. They ended up just making him the third member of the Jurassic Express. Marko’s whole deal is that he looks like he’s like 12 and he’d lean into it by doing the Floss and whatever. There was a Tarzan guy, a dinosaur, and a literal child. Marko was always seen as the weak link of the group, though he was more than capable of doing well in the ring. He did make for a great squash victim against the likes of Lance Archer. They also did a fun segment on Dark where he and Negative One got in a scuffle, suggesting that he would be Negative One’s first opponent down the line when he turns 18. Other than experimenting with a singing gimmick on Dark, that was about it for Marko. He quietly was removed from the Jurassic Express and his contract ended. When Christian Cage turned heel on Jungle Boy, he was able to convince Luchasaurus to listen to him by suggesting the threat that Luchasaurus would be forgotten and discarded like Marko. LEVA BATES Leva Bates found minor stardom in NXT as “Blue Pants,” though she was not actually very good as a wrestler. With a backstage role keeping her around, she was a personality in early AEW based around the idea that she and Peter Avalon both independently came up with the idea of doing a librarian gimmick. They ended up working together with Leva in Avalon’s corner where he lost pretty much all the time. They also proceeded to have a lot of segments of BTE that were entirely skippable. Well, except for the time the Inner Circle jumped Brandon at the end of a BTE, stole his camera, and carried Leva away. People found that part to be in bad taste, but they followed it up perfectly by starting the next week’s “Being the Inner Circle” by having Leva read to the stable like it was a kindergarten class. Leva and Avalon were considered the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of either division, so they of course never did more than a fun Brandon Cutler feud where Avalon and Brandon battled over who would get their first win (it took three matches to find a winner). Leva rather abruptly discovered that she was no longer under contract to do her backstage stuff. JONATHAN GRESHAM Jonathan Gresham is a great talent with a badass pre-fight metal octopus helmet thing he walks to the ring with. With Ring of Honor dying, Gresham seemingly became its final champion. But then Tony Khan bought ROH and Gresham came with it. As this was before ROH had a weekly show again, Gresham mainly showed up on Rampage where he was just kind of there. It’s also worth noting that Gresham is very short and they made sure to do a segment where Satnam Singh confronted him. At the next ROH PPV, the plan was to have Gresham drop the title to Claudio Castagnoli. A disgruntled Gresham came out without his cool helmet, did the job, and left. Also, this was the first match of the show. By that point, he had already asked for his release and was granted it. This became way funnier when word got out that he was heard pointing out his spot in the PWI 500 as for why he should be pushed. Tony Khan was not won over. JACK EVANS Jack Evans “From the Heavens” was a top flippy indie guy who started in 2000s and spent the next couple decades competing around the world. Prior to AEW, he had a wonderful role as a loud little poo poo in Lucha Underground, where he was eventually murdered. He was one of the first to sign with AEW along with his partner Angelico. While a drat good duo, they were soon overshadowed by the company’s stellar tag team division. Eventually, the two got roped into Matt Hardy’s stable and would normally do his dirty work. Angelico got injured and Evans ate poo poo by losing a Hair vs. Hair match against Orange Cassidy after Matt Hardy volunteered him into it. Evans faded away after that and publicly said that his contract was not going to be renewed. He blamed himself for it as he could never bring himself to come up with any ideas worth pitching to Tony Khan. At least he got a pretty sweet Kenny Omega match out of his run. BIG SWOLE As an early AEW signing, Big Swole really stood out during the pandemic. There, she got to feud with a wheelchair-bound Britt Baker in a storyline that kept Britt relevant during her time injured. This led to a pre-taped PPV match at Britt’s dentist office called Tooth and Nail. It was a match that happened. Big Swole took time off due to her struggle with Crohn’s disease, but eventually returned to wrestle regularly on the Dark shows. During that, she feuded with Diamante and defeated her in a Three Strikes match (best two-out-of-three with different gimmicks). Shortly after, she appeared in a women’s Casino Battle Royale match, had one more Dark appearance, and then got dropped. At the time, there was some bad faith criticism online about AEW’s misuse of black talent. It involved a Twitter guy getting paid in literal cheese from WWE. Anyway, Big Swole joined in on that and blamed racism for why she wasn’t pushed or re-signed. While Tony Khan really should have kept his mouth shut, he made sure to tweet to her that he just didn’t think her wrestling was up to snuff. Swole’s complaints then came off as sour grapes when a Twitter exchange showed her complaining that Jade Cargill was getting a push that should have gone to her. Jade called her out on it and Swole immediately backed down. TULLY BLANCHARD As part of Cody’s obsession with old Four Horsemen stuff, Tully was brought in to be Shawn Spears’ manager in the Cody vs. Spears feud. This led to Arn Anderson becoming Cody’s mentor for the rest of Cody’s AEW run. Spears never did all that much as a midcard heel and was involved in an embarrassingly bad PPV match against Dustin Rhodes where Spears got stripped to a pair of underwear that inexplicably had a picture of Tully’s head over the crotch. They tried some storylines where Tully tried to find Spears a new partner and one where Spears started illegally using a loaded glove, but neither went anywhere. As FTR existed as a love letter to Tully and Arn’s days as a tag team, Tully became their manager. This led to the creation of MJF’s Pinnacle, which brought in FTR, Shawn Spears, and Tully. Eventually, he and FTR disagreed with the direction of the tag team as they were turning face and they fired him. Tully became a manager in ROH for a bit until being replaced with Prince Nana. That was it for him. VICKIE AND CHAVO GUERRERO Vickie Guerrero was a perfect heat magnet during her endless WWE run and they decided to see if that would translate to AEW. She was initially paired with Andrade El Idolo, which just did not work. His coolness just did not go with her angry screeching. She was soon replaced with Chavo Guerrero, who only stuck around briefly until interfering in a match against Andrade’s wishes. Chavo was fired in kayfabe and was shocked that Tony Khan had no further use for him in the company. Vickie became Nyla Rose’s manager, which was fine. It did feel really weird when Britt Baker won the women’s championship and they immediately jumped into a heel vs. heel feud. The Nyla/Vickie alliance mostly lent itself to the Dark shows and eventually Vickie’s contract ended. It was good timing for Tony as Vickie was making the absolute worst posts on social media in response to some sexual abuse allegations her daughter was making about Vickie’s current husband. BOBBY FISH This one’s pure schadenfreude. During its heyday, NXT’s most dominant faction was the Undisputed Era, made up of Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong, and Bobby Fish. Cole left because he knew he would be screwed on the main roster. Kyle and Fish were both let go due to unnecessary budget cuts. All three of them came to AEW. Strong wanted out, but had just signed a new WWE contract before the cuts started and was basically stuck. Kyle and Fish were a drat good tag team and helped add some flavor to what was going on with the Elite. Fish also had a somewhat controversial match with CM Punk which involved Punk giving Fish the iggy, also known as the office. No, I will not explain any of that. The iggy/office happened. Deal with it. As Cole and Kyle received their own injuries that left them on the mend for an extended amount of time, that left only Fish. At the same time, Vince McMahon had just stepped down in WWE and Triple H was back in charge. Fish got excited, as his AEW contract was up. He wanted his Undisputed Era buddies to follow him back to WWE. Nobody was interested in doing that. Triple H had no interest in bringing in JUST Bobby Fish. So Fish spent a brief time in IMPACT, where he became known for a promo where upon saying, “I mean, where’s the lie?!” like it was this huge mic drop, there was absolutely zero reaction from the crowd. It’s honestly kind of impressive. LIO RUSH Lio Rush’s AEW run is as bizarre as it is brief. After a run in WWE where his main role was pointing at Bobby Lashley’s rear end, he showed up in the Joker spot for an AEW Casino Battle Royale match. Afterwards, he announced his retirement from wrestling. Then he went back to wrestling almost immediately. Several months later, he signed with AEW. He coerced Dante Martin into letting him represent him in what came off as heelish at first, but then the two had a loving amazing tag match and it looked like Lio was actually a face after all. They did a slightly messy story where it looked like Dante was leaving Lio to instead join Team Taz, but it was all a trick. Then Lio just plain announced that he was done with AEW and his contract was only for three months. He didn’t want to be tied down, so...bye, I guess. IVELISSE I don’t believe Ivelisse was ever officially under contract, but they did give her a lot of work. Under normal circumstances, she would be a great get. She’s solid enough in the ring and could have been a top name in the company down the line. She even won the Women’s Tag Team Cup Tournament alongside Diamante. Unfortunately, Ivelisse has a reputation for being a locker room cancer. Jack Evans claimed he tried to warn people about this, but it fell under deaf ears. Wouldn’t you know it, Ivelisse had a match with Thunder Rosa where she was uncooperative and selling badly to the point that she was more interested in fixing her hair than pretending she was hurt. This heat led to her being let go, where she proceeded to play the victim on Twitter because she is a so-called respected veteran. ALAN ANGELS During the early pandemic era of AEW, Kenny Omega had a match with virtual unknown Alan Angels and proceeded to have a lengthy match with him. People were mad about this because how dare Kenny have a competitive match against some guy? Alan Angels was signed and was soon brought into the Dark Order. In the BTE sketches, Angels became the runt of the litter for the Dark Order. Week after week, they were talking about his ugly, tiny, smelly dick. Except for Anna, as she felt too awkward talking about it, but didn't want to ruin anyone's fun. He’s the one who fell to the wayside the most and although he got to run it back with Kenny at one point, he did little more than random tag matches on the Dark shows. After two years, he chose not to re-sign with AEW and instead went to go prove himself elsewhere. CIMA Representing Oriental Wrestling Entertainment, CIMA was a Japanese veteran wrestler there to help build up AEW in its early days. He was joined by his proteges T-Hawk and Lindaman as #Stronghearts and were staples in the pre-pandemic days of the company. They were even strongly hinting that he would join the Dark Order down the line. Unfortunately, the pandemic put the kibosh on #Stronghearts showing up in AEW. It's surprising that they never brought them back after the fact. FUEGO DEL SOL Fuego was one of several lovable jobber characters on the roster. Initially, he was somebody for heel Sammy Guevara to be patronizing to in the vlogs. Eventually, he showed up on Rampage, where he put up a decent fight against Miro. After the match, Sammy showed up (now a face) and announced that he had an AEW contract for him. Not that Fuego really had much more going on other than seconding Sammy in his own Miro feud and a few weeks where Fuego tried to stand up to the House of Black. His main role became tag matches on the Dark shows along with his partner and son (?) Fuego Dos. Fuego Dos happened to have the exact same body type as Cody Rhodes, but was totally not Cody Rhodes because he didn’t have that awful neck tattoo. Instead, he had something faded there, as if somebody was trying to cover up a tattoo. Regardless, Fuego Dos left AEW around the time that Cody did, so regular Fuego was left hanging. He left for a while for the sake of having surgery. He appeared on social media to cut a passionate promo, but it turns out that was just a desperate attempt to get some attention before his contract came up. TRENCH When Swerve Strickland turned full heel, he found two goons to back him up. One was Parker Boudreaux, who is like a lumpier Brock Lesnar. The other was a Queequeg-looking motherfucker with braided hair and tattoos from head-to-toe. Nicknamed here as “Baseball Mutant,” the newcomer was eventually named Trench and he proceeded to do nothing of note other than stand around and look threatening. See, Parker at least had experience as a wrestler. Trench seemed to be brand new when it came to it. He eventually vanished off TV with little explanation. Months later, he was simply gone from the company’s roster page. I guess the whole thing just wasn’t working out in its early stages. KEVIN KELLY Kevin Kelly was a commentator who was around during the Attitude Era, mainly getting made fun of by the Rock. Then he did commentary in ROH and NJPW for years. He was brought in to commentate Collision, where he was just awful. So awful. As he started getting drowned out by better commentators, he took to social media to complain in a way that poo poo on his occasional replacement Ian Riccaboni while also talking up Qanon. That he did all this on the weekend of Sting’s retirement did him no favors. He was not long for this world after that and vanished from the roster page. Good riddance.  AEW PPVS RANKED VIA CAGEMATCH Here are all the PPVs ranked via Cagematch, the IMDB of wrestling. I’ve included the main events to help identify the shows better. 27) Worlds End 2023 (5.64) – MJF vs. Samoa Joe 26) All Out 2020 (5.71) – Jon Moxley vs. MJF 25) Double or Nothing 2023 (6.59) – Elite vs. Blackpool Combat Club 24) Fight for the Fallen 2019 (6.69) – Cody Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes vs. Young Bucks 23) Revolution 2021 (6.85) – Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega 22) Full Gear 2023 (7.31) – MJF vs. Jay White 21) All Out 2022 (7.49) – Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk 20) Double or Nothing 2022 (7.51) – Hangman Adam Page vs. CM Punk 19) Fyter Fest 2019 (7.63) – Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela 18) All Out 2019 (8.07) – Hangman Adam Page vs. Chris Jericho 17) Full Gear 2019 (8.07) – Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley 16) Double or Nothing 2020 (8.32) – Elite vs. Inner Circle 15) Full Gear 2022 (8.43) – Jon Moxley vs. MJF 14) Revolution 2020 (8.48) – Jon Moxley vs. Chris Jericho 13) Double or Nothing 2021 (8.70) – Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle 12) Full Gear 2020 (8.79) – Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston 11) All In 2023 (8.82) – MJF vs. Adam Cole 10) Forbidden Door 2023 (8.86) – Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada 9) Revolution 2022 (8.87) – Hangman Adam Page vs. Adam Cole 8) Full Gear 2021 (8.99) – Hangman Adam Page vs. Kenny Omega 7) WrestleDream 2023 (9.03) – Darby Allin vs. Christian Cage 6) Double or Nothing 2019 (9.10) – Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho 5) Forbidden Door 2022 (9.21) – Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 4) All Out 2023 (9.21) – Orange Cassidy vs. Jon Moxley 3) Revolution 2023 (9.23) – Bryan Danielson vs. MJF 2) Revolution 2024 (9.44) – Sting and Darby Allin vs. Young Bucks 1) All Out 2021 (9.54) – Christian Cage vs. Kenny Omega Gavok fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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AEW'S BEST MATCHES So for here, I'm taking the AEW-related contents from the various MOTY threads from this subforum from the last several years. These are matches that various PSP posters saw and immediately considered one of the best matches of the year. Keep in mind, we are a very overzealous group and a lot of matches have been nominated. A LOT. I've spaced out and bunched together PPV matches to make the events pop out more. I've also bolded the matches that have been rated five or more stars by Dave Meltzer.  2019 05/25 | Aja Kong, Yuka Sakazaki and Emi Sakura vs. Hikaru Shida, Riho and Ryo Mizunami - AEW Double or Nothing 05/25 | Dustin Rhodes vs. Cody Rhodes - AEW Double or Nothing 05/25 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. The Lucha Bros for the AAA World Tag Team Championship - AEW Double or Nothing 05/25 | Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho - AEW Double or Nothing 06/29 | Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela - AEW Fyter Fest 06/29 | Michael Nakazawa vs. Alex Jebailey - AEW Fyter Fest 06/29 | Cody vs. Darby Allin - AEW Fyter Fest 07/13 | Kenny Omega vs. CIMA - AEW Fight for the Fallen 08/31 | Kenny Omega vs. PAC - AEW ALL OUT 08/31 | Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Joey Janela in a Cracker Barrel Clash - AEW ALL OUT 08/31 | Lucha Brothers (C) vs. The Young Bucks for the AAA Tag Titles - AEW ALL OUT 10/02 | Nyla Rose vs. Riho for the inaugural AEW Women's Title - AEW Dynamite 10/09 | The Young Bucks vs. Private Party - AEW Dynamite 10/15 | Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela in an Unsanctioned Lights Out Match - AEW Dark 10/23 | Private Party vs. Lucha Bros - AEW Dynamite 11/09 | The Young Bucks vs. Proud and Powerful - AEW Full Gear 11/09 | Riho (C) vs. Emi Sakura for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Full Gear 11/09 | Chris Jericho (C) vs. Cody for the AEW Championship - AEW Full Gear 11/09 | Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega in a Lights Out Unsanctioned Match - AEW Full Gear 11/20 | Fenix vs. Nick Jackson - AEW Dynamite 11/20 | Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin - AEW Dynamite 12/04 | Hikaru Shida vs. Kris Statlander - AEW Dynamite  2020 01/01 | The Elite vs. Lucha Bros/Pac - AEW Dynamite 01/15 | Proud 'n' Powerful vs. Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Best Friends vs. The Young Bucks - AEW Dynamite 01/15 | PAC vs. Darby Allin - AEW Dynamite 01/22 | SCU (C) vs. Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 02/05 | The Butcher & The Blade and Lucha Bros vs. Kenny Omega, Hangman Page and the Young Bucks - AEW Dynamite02/12 | Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. SCU for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 02/12 | Riho (C) vs. Nyla Rose for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite 02/19 | Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Lucha Bros for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 02/26 | Kenny Omega vs. PAC in a 30-Minute Iron Man Match - AEW Dynamite 02/29 | Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (C) vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Revolution 02/29 | PAC vs. Orange Cassidy - AEW Revolution 02/29 | Chris Jericho (C) vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW Championship - AEW Revolution 03/25 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Sammy Guevara for the AAA Mega Title - AEW Dynamite 04/01 | Lance Archer vs. Marko Stunt - AEW Dynamite 04/20 | Matt Jackson vs. Nick Jackson in a Falls Count Anywhere Match - Being the Elite Episode 200 04/22 | Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin - AEW Dynamite 04/29 | Best Friends vs. Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian - AEW Dynamite 05/06 | Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy vs. Le Sex Gods - AEW Dynamite 05/23 | Casino Royale Ladder Match - AEW Double or Nothing 2020 05/23 | Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs. MJF - AEW Double or Nothing 2020 05/23 | Nyla Rose (C) vs. Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women's Title - AEW Double or Nothing 2020 05/23 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Mr. Brodie for the AEW Championship - AEW Double or Nothing 2020 05/23 | The Stadium Stampede - AEW Double or Nothing 2020 07/01 | Jurassic Express vs. MJF & WARDLOW - AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 07/01 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Penelope Ford for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 07/01 | Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Best Friends for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 07/08 | FTR & The Young Bucks vs. Lucha Bros & The Butcher and The Blade - AEW Fyter Fest Night 2 07/08 | Orange Cassidy vs. Chris Jericho - AEW Fyter Fest Night 2 07/22 | Cody (C) vs. Eddie Kingston for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 07/22 | The Young Bucks vs. The Butcher & the Blade - AEW Dynamite 08/05 | FTR & The Elite vs. The Dark Order - AEW Dynamite 08/05 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Darby Allin for the AEW Championship - AEW Dynamite 08/22 | Cody (C) vs. Mr. Brodie Lee for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 09/02 | Serena Deeb vs. Thunder Rosa - AEW Dynamite 09/05 | Casino Battle Royale - AEW All Out 09/05 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Thunder Rosa for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW All Out 09/05 | Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. FTR for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW All Out 09/05 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. MJF for the AEW World Championship - AEW All Out 09/16 | Hangman Adam Page vs. Kazarian - AEW Dynamite 09/16 | Best Friends vs. Proud N Powerful in a Parking Lot Fight - AEW Dynamite 10/07 | Brodie Lee (C) vs. Cody in a Dog Collar match for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 10/14 | Cody (C) vs. Orange Cassidy for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 10/14 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Lance Archer for the AEW Championship - AEW Dynamite 10/21 | Ray Fenix vs. Penta El Zero M - AEW Dynamite 10/28 | Wardlow vs. Hangman Adam Page - AEW Dynamite 10/28 | Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon Jr - AEW Dynamite 11/07 | Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Adam Page - AEW Full Gear 11/07 | Orange Cassidy vs. John Silver- AEW Full Gear 11/07 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Nyla Rose for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Full Gear 11/07 | FTR (C) vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Full Gear 11/07 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Eddie Kingston in an I Quit match for the AEW World's Championship - AEW Full Gear 11/18 | Serena Deeb (C) vs. Thunder Rosa for the NWA Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite 12/02 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship - AEW Dynamite 12/30 | Evil Uno, Stu Grayson & Lance Archer vs. Eddie Kingston and The Butcher & The Blade - AEW Dynamite 12/30 | The Good, The Bad and the Hungiee vs. MJF and Proud'n'Powerful - AEW Dynamite  2021 01/06 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Rey Fenix for the AEW World Championship - AEW Dynamite New Year's Smash Night 1 01/13 | Darby Allin (C) vs. Brian Cage for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite New Year's Bash Night 2 01/27 | Jungle Boy vs. Dax Harwood - AEW Dynamite 02/03 | Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa - AEW Dynamite Beach Break 02/03 | Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers vs. Jon Moxley, PAC & Rey Fenix - AEW Dynamite Beach Break 02/10 | Kenny Omega & KENTA vs. Jon Moxley & Lance Archer in a Lights Out match - AEW Dynamite 02/17 | Riho vs. Serena Debb - AEW Dynamite 02/22 | Emi Sakura vs. Yuka Sakazaki - AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament 02/22 | Ryo Mizunami vs. Aja Kong - AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament 02/24 | Nyla Rose vs. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D in the AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament - AEW Dynamite 02/24 | Lance Archer vs. Rey Fenix - AEW Dynamite 02/28 | Hikaru Shida, Mei Suruga and Rin Kadokura vs. Emi Sakura, Veny and Maki Itoh - AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament 02/28 | Yuka Sakazaki vs. Ryo Mizunami - AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament 03/03 | Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet vs. Shaquille O'Neal and Jade Cargill - AEW Dynamite 03/03 | Ryo Mizunami vs. Nyla Rose in the Final of the AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament - AEW Dynamite 03/07 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. Chris Jericho & MJF for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Revolution 03/07 | Casino Tag Team Battle Royale - AEW Revolution 03/07 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Ryo Mizunami for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Revolution 03/07 | Sting & Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage & Ricky Starks in a Street Fight - AEW Revolution 03/07 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch for the AEW Championship - AEW Revolution 03/09 | QT Marshall vs. Feugo del Sol - AEW Dark 03/17 | Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D vs. Thunder Rosa in a Lights Out Match - AEW Dynamite 03/24 | Kenny Omega vs. Matt Sydal - AEW Dynamite 03/24 | Lucha Bros & The Laredo Kid vs. The Young Bucks & Brandon Cutler - AEW Dynamite 03/24 | Darby Allin (C) vs. John Silver for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 03/29 | Ryo Mizunami vs. KiLynn King - AEW Dark Elevation 03/31 | Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers vs. Lucha Bros & Laredo Kid - AEW Dynamite 03/31 | Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy vs. Kip Sabian & Miro in Arcade Anarchy - AEW Dynamite 04/14 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. Rey Fenix & PAC for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 04/21 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Tay Conti for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite 05/05 | The Pinnacle vs. The Inner Circle in a Blood & Guts match - AEW Dynamite 05/12 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. SCU for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 05/12 | Darby Allin (C) vs. Miro for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 05/19 | Serena Deeb (C) vs. Red Velvet for the NWA Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite 05/30 | Serena Deeb (C) vs. Riho for the NWA Women's Championship - AEW Double or Nothing Pre-Show 05/30 | Hangman Adam Page vs. Brian Cage - AEW Double or Nothing 05/30 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Double or Nothing 05/30 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Dr. Britt Baker DMD for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Double or Nothing 05/30 | Darby Allin & Sting vs. Scorpio Sky & All Ego Ethan Page - AEW Double or Nothing 05/30 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. PAC vs. Orange Cassidy for the AEW Championship - AEW Double or Nothing 05/30 | The Inner Circle vs. The Pinnacle in Stadium Stampede 2 - AEW Double or Nothing 06/18 | Orange Cassidy vs. Cezar Bononi - AEW Dynamite 06/26 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Jungle Boy for the AEW World Championship - AEW Dynamite 06/30 | The Young Bucks vs. Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero Miedo - AEW Dynamite 06/30 | MJF vs. Sammy Guevara - AEW Dynamite 07/07 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. Eddie Kingston and Penta El 0 M for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 07/14 | Darby Allin vs. All Ego Ethan Page in a Coffin Match - AEW Dynamite 07/21 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Lance Archer for the IWGP US Championship - AEW Dynamite 07/28 | The Elite (Omega & The Bucks) & The Good Brothers vs. Hangman Page & The Dark Order (Uno, Stu, Reynolds & Silver) in an Elimination Tag match - AEW Dynamite 07/28 | Chris Jericho vs. Nick Gage in a No Rules Except Chris Jericho Can't Get Outside Help match - AEW Dynamite 08/04 | Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black - AEW Dynamite 08/11 | Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Dante Martin & The Sydal Brothers - AEW Dynamite 08/13 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Christian Cage for the Impact World Championship - AEW Rampage 08/18 | 2.0 (Jeff Parker & Matt Lee) vs. Darby Allin & Sting - AEW Dynamite 08/18 | Sammy Guevara vs. Shawn Spears - AEW Dynamite 08/18 | The Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express - AEW Dynamite 08/27 | Lucha Bros vs. Jurassic Express - AEW Rampage 09/01 | FTR vs. Proud 'n' Powerful - AEW Dynamite 09/05 | Miro (C) vs. Eddie Kingston for the TNT Championship - AEW All Out 09/05 | Dr Britt Baker DMD (C) vs. Kris Statlander for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW All Out 09/05 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. The Lucha Bros in a Steel Cage match for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW All Out 09/05 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Christian for the AEW World Championship - AEW All Out 09/10 | Andrade El Idolo vs. PAC - AEW Rampage 09/22 | Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega - AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam 09/29 | Jungle Boy vs. Adam Cole - AEW Dynamite 09/29 | Miro (C) vs. Sammy Guevara for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 10/06 | The Super Kliq (Omega, Cole & The Young Bucks) vs. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage & Jurassic Express - AEW Dynamite 10/06 | PAC, Orange Cassidy, Andrade, Matt Hardy, Lance Archer, Jon Moxley & Hangman Adam Page in a Casino Ladder match - AEW Dynamite 10/15 | Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki - AEW Rampage Buy In 10/22 | PAC vs. Andrade El Idolo - AEW Rampage 10/23 | Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes - AEW Dynamite 10/23 | Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black - AEW Dynamite 10/27 | Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb - AEW Dynamite 10/27 | Dark Order (Uno, Stu, Colt & Silver) vs. The Super Elite (Omega, Cole & The Young Bucks) - AEW Dynamite 10/27 | Sammy Guevara (C) vs. Ethan Page for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 10/29 | Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston - AEW Rampage 11/10 | Dante Martin & Lio Rush vs. Matt Sydal & Lee Moriarty - AEW Dynamite 11/10 | PAC vs. Dax Harwood - AEW Dynamite 11/13 | MJF vs. Darby Allin - AEW Full Gear 11/13 | Lucha Bros (C) vs. FTR for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Full Gear 11/13 | Bryan Danielson vs. Miro - AEW Full Gear 11/13 | Christian Cage & The Jurassic Express vs. The Super Kliq in a Falls Count Anywhere match - AEW Full Gear 11/13 | CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston - AEW Full Gear 11/13 | Inner Circle vs. Men of the Year & American Top Team in a Minneapolis Street Fight- AEW Full Gear 11/13 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World Title - AEW Full Gear 11/24 | Jamie Hayter vs. Thunder Rosa - AEW Dynamite 11/24 | Triangulo de la Muerte & Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black, Andrade El Idolo & FTR - AEW Dynamite 11/26 | Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia - AEW Rampage 12/01 | Andrade El Idolo vs. Cody Rhodes in an Atlanta Street Fight - AEW Dynamite 12/08 | The Young Bucks vs. Chuck Taylor & Rocky Romero - AEW Dynamite 12/08 | Riho vs. Jamie Hayter - AEW Dynamite 12/10 | Lucha Bros (C) vs. FTR for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Rampage 12/10 | Hook vs. Fuego del Sol - AEW Rampage 12/15 | Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW Championship - AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming 12/22 | CM Punk, Darby Allin & Sting vs. MJF & FTR - AEW Dynamite 12/31 | Anna Jay & Tay Conti vs. The Bunny & Penelope Ford in a Street Fight - AEW Rampage  2022 01/05 | Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Title - AEW Dynamite 01/05 | MJF vs. The Captain Shawn Dean - AEW Dynamite 01/08 | Dustin Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara - AEW Battle for the Belts 01/14 | Jurassic Express (C) vs. Dark Order (Silver/Reynolds) for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Rampage 01/26 | Cody Rhodes (C) vs. Sammy Guevara for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite Beach Break 02/02 | CM Punk vs. MJF - AEW Dynamite 02/09 | Isiah Kassidy vs. Keith Lee - AEW Dynamite 02/09 | CM Punk & Jon Moxley vs. FTR - AEW Dynamite 02/09 | Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match for the AEW Championship - AEW Dynamite 02/11 | The Young Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice - AEW Rampage 02/16 | Bryan Danielson vs. Lee Moriarty - AEW Dynamite 02/16 | Sammy Guevara (C) vs. Darby Allin for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 02/18 | Trent? vs. Switchblade Jay White - AEW Rampage 03/04 | Sammy Guevara (C) vs. Darby Allin vs. Andrade El Idolo for the TNT Championship - AEW Rampage 03/06 | House of Black vs. Death Triangle & Erick Redbeard - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Kingston - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Jurassic Express (C) vs. The Young Bucks vs. reDragon for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Face of the Revolution Ladder Match - AEW Revolution 03/06 | CM Punk vs. MJF in a Dog Collar match - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin & Sting vs. Matt Hardy, Andrade El Idolo & Isiah Kassidy - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Adam Cole for the AEW Championship - AEW Revolution 03/16 | Dr. Britt Baker DMD (C) vs. Thunder Rosa in a Steel Cage match for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite St. Patrick's Day Stampede 03/23 | Sting, Darby Allin & The Hardys vs. Andrade Family Office (Private Party/Butcher & Blade) - AEW Dynamite 03/30 | Bryan Danielson vs. Wheeler Yuta - AEW Dynamite 04/06 | FTR (C) vs. The Young Bucks for the ROH and AAA Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 04/08 | Jon Moxley vs. Wheeler Yuta - AEW Rampage 04/13 | Jurassic Express (C) vs. reDRagon for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Dynamite 04/13 | Minoru Suzuki (C) vs. Samoa Joe for the ROH Television Championship - AEW Dynamite 04/15 | Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. Adam Cole for the AEW World Title in a Texas Death Match - AEW Rampage 04/27 | Dax Harwood vs. Cash Wheeler - AEW Dynamite 04/27 | Sammy Guevara (C) vs. Scorpio Sky in a Ladder Match for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 05/04 | Dante Martin vs. Rey Fénix - AEW Dynamite 05/06 | Riho vs. Yuka Sakazaki - AEW Rampage 05/11 | Adam Cole vs. Dax Harwood in the Owen Hart Memorial Tournament Quarterfinal - AEW Dynamite 05/11 | Darby Allin vs. Jeff Hardy in an Anything Goes Match in the Owen Hart Memorial Tournament Quarterfinal - AEW Dynamite 05/18 | Hangman Adam Page vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Dynamite 05/18 | Kyle O'Reilly vs. Fénix in the Owen Hart Memorial Tournament Quarterfinal - AEW Dynamite 05/25 | WARDLOW vs. Shawn Spears in a Steel Cage Match - AEW Dynamite 05/25 | Swerve vs. Jungle Boy vs. Ricky Starks - AEW Dynamite 05/29 | MJF vs. WARDLOW - AEW Double or Nothing 05/29 | Triangulo de la Muerte vs. House of Black - AEW Double or Nothing 05/29 | Thunder Rosa (C) vs. Serena Deeb for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Double or Nothing 05/29 | Blackpool Combat Club, Proud 'n' Powerful & Eddie Kingston vs. The Jericho Appreciation Society in an Anarchy in the Arena Match - AEW Double or Nothing 05/29 | Jurassic Express (C) vs. Team Taz vs. Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Double or Nothing 05/29 | Hangman Adam Page (C) vs. CM Punk for the AEW World Title - AEW Double or Nothing 06/01 | Jon Moxley vs. Daniel Garcia - AEW Dynamite 06/03 | The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros - AEW Rampage 06/08 | Buddy Matthews vs. PAC - AEW Dynamite 06/08 | Jon Moxley vs. Kyle O'Reilly - AEW Dynamite 06/15 | Dax Harwood vs. Will Ospreay - AEW Dynamite 06/15 | Jurassic Express (C) vs. The Young Bucks in a Ladder Match for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Dynamite 06/24 | Andrade El Idolo vs. Rey Fénix - AEW Rampage 06/26 | Swerve in our Glory vs. Suzuki-Gun (Kanemaru & El Desperado) - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | FTR (C) vs. United Empire (GOK & Cobb) (C) vs. Roppongi Vice for the ROH Tag Titles & IWGP Heavyweight Tag Titles - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | Miro vs. PAC vs. Malakai Black vs. Clark Connors for the AEW All Atlantic Title - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | Bullet Club (Bucks & ELP) vs. Dudes With Attitudes (Shingo, Darby, Sting) - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | Thunder Rosa (C) vs. Toni Sofrm for the AEW Women's Championship - 06/26 | Will Ospreay (C) vs. Orange Cassidy for the IWGP United States Championship - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Claudio Castagnoli - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/26 | Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jon Moxley - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/29 | Jericho Appreciation Society vs. Blackpool Combat Club in a Blood & Guts Match - AEW Dynamite 07/08 | Eddie Kingston vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Rampage 07/13 | Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Night 1 07/13 | The Young Bucks (C) vs. Swerve in our Glory vs. Team Taz (Hobbs and Starks) for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Night 1 07/20 | Brody King vs. Darby Allin - AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Night 2 07/23 | Shingo Takagi vs. YOSHI-HASHI - NJPW G1 Climax 32 Night 4 07/23 | Switchblade Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW G1 Climax 32 Night 4 07/27 | Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia - AEW Dynamite 08/10 | Darby Allin vs. Brody King in a Coffin Match - AEW Dynamite Quake at the Lake 08/10 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship - AEW Dynamite Quake at the Lake 08/17 | Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia in a Best 2-out-of-3 Falls Match - AEW Dynamite 08/17 | The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs. La Faccion Ingobernable - AEW Dynamite 08/24 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. CM Punk for the AEW Championship - AEW Dynamite 08/24 | Triangulo de la Muerte vs. The United Empire (Ospreay & Aussie Open) - AEW Dynamite 08/31 | The Elite (Kenny & The Bucks) vs. The United Empire (Ospreay & Aussie Open) - AEW Dynamite 09/04 | Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii - AEW All Out Zero Hour 09/04 | Hangman & The Dark Order vs. The Elite (Kenny & The Bucks) for the AEW Trios Tag Titles - AEW All Out 09/04 | Swerve in our Glory (C) vs. The Acclaimed for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW All Out 09/04 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. CM Punk for the AEW World Championship - AEW All Out 09/07 | Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Adam Page - AEW Dynamite 09/07 | Wheeler Yuta (C) vs. Daniel Garcia for the ROH Pure Title - AEW Dynamite 09/14 | Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho - AEW Dynamite 09/21 | Claudio Castagnoli (C) vs. Chris Jericho for the ROH World Title - AEW Grand Slam 09/21 | Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW World Title - AEW Grand Slam 09/23 | Jungle Boy vs. Rey Fénix - AEW Rampage Grand Slam 09/28 | Chris Jericho (C) vs. Bandido for the ROH World Championship - AEW Dynamite 10/05 | Wheeler Yuta vs. MJF - AEW Dynamite 10/05 | Willow Nightingale, Athena & Toni Storm vs. Jamie Hayter, Serena Deeb & Penelope Ford - AEW Dynamite 10/07 | PAC (C) vs. Trent? for the AEW All Atlantic Title - AEW Battle of the Belts IV 10/10 | Brandon Cutler vs. Serpentico - AEW Dark Elevation 10/12 | PAC (C) vs. Orange Cassidy for the AEW All Atlantic Title - AEW Dynamite 10/26 | FTR vs. Swerve in Our Glory - AEW Dynamite 11/09 | Bryan Danielson vs. Sammy Guevara in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match - AEW Dynamite 11/19 | Eddie Kingston vs. Jun Akiyama - AEW Zero Hour 11/19 | Jungle Boy vs. Luchasaurus in a Cage Match - AEW Full Gear 11/19 | Triangulo de la Muerte (C) vs. The Elite for the AEW Six Man Tag Titles - AEW Full Gear 11/19 | Chris Jericho (C) vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Sammy Guevara for the ROH World Championship - AEW Full Gear 11/19 | Toni Storm (C) vs. Jamie Hayter for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Full Gear 11/19 | The Acclaimed (C) vs. Swerve in our Glory for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Full Gear 11/19 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. MJF for the AEW World Title - AEW Full Gear 11/23 | Triangulo de la Muerte vs. The Elite in Best of 7 Match 2 - AEW Dynamite 11/23 | Chris Jericho (C) vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the ROH World Title - AEW Dynamite 11/30 | Triangulo de la Muerte vs. The Elite in Best of 7 Match 3 - AEW Dynamite 12/07 | Samoa Joe (C) vs. Darby Allin for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 12/07 | The Acclaimed (C) vs. FTR for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Dynamite 12/09 | Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Rampage 12/14 | Chris Jericho vs. Action Andretti - AEW Dynamite 12/21 | Jamie Hayter (C) vs. Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite  2023 01/04 | Samoa Joe (C) vs. Darby Allin for the TNT Title - AEW Dynamite 01/06 | The Acclaimed (C) vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Battle of the Belts 01/11 | Hangman Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley - AEW Dynamite 01/11 | Bryan Danielson vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Dynamite 01/11 | Triangulo de la Muerte (C) vs. The Elite for the AEW Trios Titles in Best of 7 Match 7 (Escalara de la Muerte) - AEW Dynamite 01/13 | Anna Jay & Tay Melo vs. Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale in a Street Fight - AEW Rampage 01/18 | Bryan Danielson vs. Bandido - AEW Dynamite 01/25 | Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal - AEW Dynamite 01/27 | Jamie Hayter vs. Emi Sakura - AEW Rampage 02/01 | Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Adam Page - AEW Dynamite 02/01 | Darby Allin (C) vs. Samoa Joe for the TNT Title - AEW Dynamite 02/08 | MJF vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Dynamite 02/08 | Bryan Danielson vs. RUSH - AEW Dynamite 02/08 | The Elite (C) vs. AR Fox & Top Flight for the AEW Trios Titles - AEW Dynamite 02/22 | Orange Cassidy (C) vs. Wheeler Yuta for the AEW All Atlantic Championship - AEW Dynamite 02/24 | The Young Bucks vs. Aussie Open - AEW Rampage 03/01 | Face of the Revolution Ladder Match - AEW Dynamite 03/05 | Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage in a Final Burial Match - AEW Revolution 03/05 | The Elite (C) vs. The House of Black for the AEW Trios Titles - AEW Revolution 03/05 | Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Adam Page in a Texas Death Match - AEW Revolution 03/05 | MJF (C) vs. Bryan Danielson in an Iron Man Match for the AEW Title - AEW Revolution 03/22 | Kenny Omega vs. El Hijo del Vikingo - AEW Dynamite 04/05 | Jamie Hayter (C) vs. Riho for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite 05/10 | Claudio Castagnoli vs. Fénix - AEW Dynamite 05/10 | Orange Cassidy (C) vs. Daniel Garcia for the AEW All Atlantic Title - AEW Dynamite 05/10 | Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega in a Steel Cage Match - AEW Dynamite 05/17 | Chris Jericho vs. Roderick Strong in a Falls Count Anywhere Match - AEW Dynamite 05/28 | Blackjack Battle Royal for the AEW International Title - AEW Double or Nothing 05/28 | MJF (C) vs. Darby Allin vs. Jungle Boy vs. Sammy Guevara for the AEW World Title - AEW Double or Nothing 05/28 | Blackpool Combat Club (Mox, Danielson, Claudio & Yuta) vs. The Elite (Kenny, Hangman & The Young Bucks) in Anarchy in the Arena - AEW Double or Nothing 06/14 | MJF vs. Adam Cole - AEW Dynamite 06/14 | The Elite (Hangman & The Young Bucks) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Mox, Claudio & Yuta) - AEW Dynamite 06/17 | CM Punk & FTR vs. Samoa Joe & Bullet Club Gold - AEW Collision 06/25 | Orange Cassidy (C) vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the AEW International Title - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/25 | The Elite, Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Blackpool Combat Club, Shota Umino & Konosuke Takeshita - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/25 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Will Ospreay for the IWGP US Championship - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/25 | Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada - AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 06/28 | Jon Moxley vs. Tomohiro Ishii - AEW Dynamite 06/28 | Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Sting & Darby Allin in a Tornado Tag Match - AEW Dynamite 07/08 | FTR vs. Bullet Club Gold (White & Robinson) - AEW Collision 07/15 | FTR (C) vs. Bullet Club Gold (White & Robinson) in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Collision 07/19 | Blackpool Combat Club (Mox, Claudio, Yuta, Takeshita & PAC) vs. The Golden Elite (Kenny, Hangman, The Bucks & Ibushi) in a Blood and Guts match - AEW Dynamite 07/29 | Andrade El Idolo vs. Buddy Matthews in a Ladder Match - AEW Collision 08/02 | Jon Moxley vs. Penta El Zero M vs. Trent? in an Anything Goes Match - AEW Dynamite 08/04 | Blackpool Combat Club (Mox & Claudio) vs. Best Friends in a Parking Lot Brawl - AEW Rampage 08/16 | Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Death Match - AEW Dynamite 08/18 | Rey Fénix vs. Komander - AEW Rampage: Fight for the Fallen 08/27 | FTR (C) vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW All In 08/27 | Blackpool Combat Club & Proud 'n' Powerful vs. Best Friends, Eddie Kingston & Penta in a Stadium Stampede Match - AEW All In 08/27 | Darby Allin & Sting vs. Christian & Swerve Strickland in a Coffin Match - AEW All In 08/27 | MJF (C) vs. Adam Cole for the AEW World Title - AEW All In 09/03 | Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs - AEW All Out 09/03 | Kris Statlander (C) vs. Ruby Soho for the TBS Title - AEW All Out 09/03 | Bryan Danielson vs. Ricky Starks in a Strap Match - AEW All Out 09/03 | Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio & Yuta) - AEW All Out 09/03 | Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW All Out 09/03 | Orange Cassidy (C) vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW International Title - AEW All Out 09/09 | Darby Allin vs. Roderick Strong - AEW Collision 09/20 | Claudio Castagnoli (C) vs. Eddie Kingston (C) for the ROH & New Japan Strong Championships - AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 09/20 | MJF (C) vs. Samoa Joe for the AEW World Title - AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 09/23 | Bryan Danielson vs. Ricky Starks in Texas Death - AEW Collision 10/01 | Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Adam Page - AEW WrestleDream 10/01 | Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - AEW WrestleDream 10/01 | Christian Cage (C) vs. Darby Allin in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match for the TNT Title - AEW WrestleDream 10/01 | Eddie Kingston (C) vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the New Japan STRONG Openweight Title - AEW WrestleDream 10/01 | Kris Statlander (C) vs. Julia Hart for the TBS Title - AEW WrestleDream 10/01 | The Gunns vs. HOOK & Orange Cassidy vs. The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros - AEW WrestleDream 10/01 | Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Will Ospreay & Sammy Guevara - AEW WrestleDream 10/10 | Bryan Danielson vs. Swerve Strickland - AEW Dynamite 10/10 | Hangman Adam Page vs. Switchblade Jay White - AEW Dynamite 10/14 | Christian Cage (C) vs. Bryan Danielson for the TNT Title - AEW Collision 10/28 | MJF (C) vs. Kenny Omega for the AEW World Title - AEW Collision 11/15 | Golden Lovers, Jericho & Paul Wight vs. The Don Callis Family (Takeshita, Hobbs & Fletcher) & Brian Cage in a Like a Dragon Street Fight - AEW Dynamite 11/18 | Kris Statlander (C) vs. Julia Hart vs. Skye Blue for the TBS Title - AEW Full Gear 11/18 | Hangman Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland in Texas Death - AEW Full Gear 11/29 | Mark Briscoe vs. Rush - AEW Dynamite 11/29 | Switchblade Jay White vs. Swerve Strickland - AEW Dynamite 12/02 | Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston - AEW Collision 12/08 | Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia - AEW Rampage 12/16 | Bryan Danielson vs. Brody King - AEW Collision 12/22 | Black Taurus vs. El Hijo del Vikingo - AEW Rampage 12/27 | Jon Moxley vs. Swerve Strickland vs. Switchblade Jay White in the Continental Classic Gold League Final - AEW Dynamite 12/27 | Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston in the Continental Classic Blue League Final - AEW Dynamite 12/30 | Christian Cage (C) vs. Adam Copeland in a No Disqualification Match for the TNT Title - AEW World's End 12/30 | Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley in the Continental Classic Final - AEW World's End  2024 01/03 | Konosuke Takeshita vs. Darby Allin - AEW Dynamite 01/13 | FTR & Daniel Garcia vs. House of Black - AEW Collision 01/13 | Big Bill & Ricky Starks (C) vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara in a Street Fight for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Battle of the Belts 01/17 | Samoa Joe (C) vs. HOOK for the AEW World Title - AEW Dynamite 01/27 | Bryan Danielson vs. Yuji Nagata - AEW Collision 01/27 | House of Black vs. FTR & Daniel Garcia - AEW Collision 02/03 | Bryan Danielson vs. Hechicero - AEW Collision 02/07 | Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Adam Page - AEW Dynamite 02/07 | Ricky Starks & Big Bill (C) vs. Sting & Darby Allin for the AEW Tag Title - AEW Dynamite 02/14 | Orange Cassidy vs. Matt Taven in Texas Death - AEW Dynamite 02/24 | Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Sammy Guevara - AEW Collision 03/03 | Eddie Kingston (C) vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW Continental Crown - AEW Revolution 03/03 | Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Revolution 03/03 | Samoa Joe (C) vs. Hangman Adam Page & Swerve Strickland for the AEW Title - AEW Revolution 03/03 | Sting & Darby Allin (C) vs. Matthew & Nicholas Jackson for the AEW Tag Titles - AEW Revolution 03/06 | Kyle Fletcher vs. Will Ospreay - AEW Dynamite  AEW'S WORST MATCHES From the same threads, here are the few AEW matches considered the absolute worst. Granted, there IS some overlap with the ones on the best list, so your mileage may vary. 2020 01/08 | Riho (C) vs. Kris Statlander for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Dynamite 01/15 | Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander vs. Brandi Rhodes & Mel - AEW Dynamite 02/04 | Mel vs. Hikaru Shida - AEW Dark 02/29 | Dustin Rhodes vs. Jake Hager - AEW Revolution 04/15 | Jon Moxley (C) vs. Jake Hager in a No Holds Barred Empty Arena Match for the AEW Championship - AEW Dynamite 05/12 | Dr. Luther vs. Jimmy Havoc - AEW Dark 08/27 | Big Swole vs. Penelope Ford & Rebel - AEW Dynamite 09/05 | Dr. Britt Baker vs. Big Swole in a Tooth & Nail Match - AEW All Out 09/05 | Casino Battle Royale - AEW All Out 09/05 | Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara - AEW All Out 2021 03/07 | Kenny Omega (C) vs. Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch for the AEW Championship - AEW Revolution 06/18 | Jake Hager vs. WARDLOW in an MMA Steel Cage Match - AEW Dynamite 08/25 | The Gunn Club vs. The Factory - AEW Dynamite 11/12 | Orange Cassidy vs. Matt Hardy in a Lumberjack Match - AEW Rampage 2022 01/05 | Jade Cargill vs. Ruby Soho for the TBS Title - AEW Dynamite 03/06 | Dr. Britt Baker DMD (C) vs. Thunder Rosa for the AEW Women's Championship - AEW Revolution 04/06 | The Hardys vs. The Butcher and The Blade in an Elimination Tables match - AEW Dynamite 04/13 | Marina Shafir vs. Skye Blue - AEW Dynamite 05/29 | Jade Cargill (C) vs. Anna Jay for the TBS Championship - AEW Double or Nothing 07/20 | Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Kingston in a Barbed Wire Everywhere Match - AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Night 2 08/05 | Madison Rayne vs. Leyla Grey - AEW Rampage 09/04 | Casino Ladder Match - AEW All Out 2023 05/28 | Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho in an Unsanctioned Match - AEW Double or Nothing 05/28 | Jamie Hayter (C) vs. Toni Storm for the AEW Women's Title - AEW Double or Nothing 07/26 | Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Taya Valkyrie - AEW Dynamite 08/16 | Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Death Match - AEW Dynamite 08/27 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Saraya vs. Toni Storm for the AEW Women's Title - AEW All In 10/01 | MJF (C) vs. The Righteous for the ROH Tag Titles - AEW WrestleDream Zero Hour 11/18 | Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Toni Storm for the AEW Women's Title - AEW Full Gear 11/18 | MJF (C) vs. Switchblade Jay White for the AEW World Title - AEW Full Gear 12/27 | MJF & Samoa Joe (C) vs. The Devil's Masked Men for the ROH Tag Titles - AEW Dynamite 2024 02/21 | Deonna Purrazzo vs. Madison Rayne - AEW Dynamite Gavok fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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Mar 11, 2024 04:02
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I'm reading every word of this tomorrow. Thanks for the amazing write up!
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Mar 11, 2024 04:43
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This kicks rear end
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Mar 11, 2024 05:17
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Nice list! Is Angelo Parker no longer with AEW?
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Mar 11, 2024 05:24
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Great write-up, really condenses a lot of stuff down. Unfortunately there's a discrepancy in that nowhere is it mentioned that CM Punk got his whole drat weiner and nuts crushed up by a Japanese guy's elbow. Does anyone else remember this? How his dick + balls got flattened up and played a cartoon accordion noise??
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Mar 11, 2024 05:28
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I was gonna say there's no way World's End was worse than All Out 2020, but then I realized I remember absolutely nothing about World's End aside from the main event. That being said, I'm still going to pick All Out 2020 as the worst AEW PPV because of the Matt Hardy stuff. Since this is the primer thread, here's some additional context: Matt Hardy was feuding with Sammy Guevara and they had a "Broken Rules" (aka Last Man Standing) match on the All Out 2020 PPV. The stipulation was that if Matt lost, he'd have to leave AEW. During the match, a backstage table spot went wrong and Matt brained himself on the concrete floor. Dr. Michael Sampson came in to check on Matt, and the match was stopped. After a few minutes of confusion, the match was restarted as Matt was deemed okay to continue. At this point, even Sam Neill in Event Horizon could tell you Matt was in no condition to compete as he was staggering around like a man having no idea where he was, but apparently he was fit enough to finish the match as planned. The finish was Matt throwing Guevara off the top of a scaffold on the stage to get the win. Obviously, that required Matt to climb up there, which was not particularly fun to watch. After the match, Matt was taken to a local medical facility for further evaluation. A lot of viewers, including myself, were very concerned because head injuries can go real bad real fast even if the person initially seems to be fine, which put a huge damper on a show that wasn't exactly top tier to begin with. Eventually, it came out Matt passed all the scans and somehow didn't have a concussion, but he did spend some time on the shelf after this. AEW was deservedly raked over the coals for their handling of the situation, which is still remembered as one of the worst moments (if not the worst) in the promotion's history. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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Mar 11, 2024 06:08
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Oasx posted:Nice list! Is Angelo Parker no longer with AEW? gavok refuses to recognize his and ruby soho's romance.
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Mar 11, 2024 07:00
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also jeff hardy's contract isn't up for a while, only matt's is. theres probably a reason they started to transition him to a singles guy the last few months
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Mar 11, 2024 07:01
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:Great write-up, really condenses a lot of stuff down. Unfortunately there's a discrepancy in that nowhere is it mentioned that CM Punk got his whole drat weiner and nuts crushed up by a Japanese guy's elbow. Does anyone else remember this? How his dick + balls got flattened up and played a cartoon accordion noise?? This after Punk referenced a very old ROH-era prank he pulled during that match. This was in Punk’s second try, and when I still hoped things could work. Oh, Punker  The one point I’d like to bring to the class is that the FITE Feed is Undefeated. Watch an episode of Dynamite or Collision on American TV, and the broadcast will go to picture-in-picture; meanwhile, on international feeds and (especially) the FITE dot TV (now Triller) website and app, the action there is still happening with live commentary. It’s not of the “listen to the announcers talk to the truck” variety, but it is much looser - it’s where Taz’s jokes often started, it’s where the announcers more openly (lovingly) roast each other, and Excalibur makes extremely deep lore or wrestling jokes. It’s where plenty of AEW commentary featured on Botchamania in a good way comes from. The other is the now gone but never forgotten AEW Dark YouTube show, which was referred to as the “Taz and Ex Podcast” for a while. It was the pro wrestling equivalent of baseball radio commentary, where sometimes action interrupts stories.
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Mar 11, 2024 11:34
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Oasx posted:Nice list! Is Angelo Parker no longer with AEW? No, I mentioned him in the Ruby Soho entry in the sense that they will text each other back once every week or two so they can really start moving forward on their potential dating life. I just had nothing else to really talk about with him. Prokhor Zakharov posted:Great write-up, really condenses a lot of stuff down. Unfortunately there's a discrepancy in that nowhere is it mentioned that CM Punk got his whole drat weiner and nuts crushed up by a Japanese guy's elbow. Does anyone else remember this? How his dick + balls got flattened up and played a cartoon accordion noise?? This sounds completely made up and I will only believe it happened if somebody posts proof.
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Mar 11, 2024 12:25
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Mar 11, 2024 12:42
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harperdc posted:
Not only does Triller (formerly Fite) provide the most winning way to watch the live shows, but they have an incredible discounted rate for the PPVs at $15.99. Note: you need to be a AEW Plus member which is 8.99/month but gives you access to every Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision on demand and live. Second note: you'll need a VPN. (likely easier to get than you think)
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Mar 11, 2024 13:02
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Excellent job as always Gavok! HOWEVER!: This should be included in the CM Punk recap area, please edit as soon as you are able, thanks!
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Mar 11, 2024 17:23
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Shawn Spears deserves a write-up in the "guys who were cool for precisely two matches and now are back in WWE like that is going to go well for them" section surely Also I feel like it is worth mentioning that watching pandemic-era Dark episodes can be fascinating ways to learn about interesting indie wrestlers who you will almost certainly never see again. Like the opera jobber lady or the tag team with the world's most interesting-looking men (Capital Vices?)
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Mar 11, 2024 18:39
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AEW was like a island of safety during the pandemic. That feeling will never be replicated but I'll hold it in my heart until I die I imagine.
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Mar 11, 2024 19:05
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Dr. Quarex posted:Like the opera jobber lady please, her name is shaloncé royal she could pop taz like no one else could
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Mar 11, 2024 19:09
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BodyMassageMachine posted:Excellent job as always Gavok!
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Mar 11, 2024 20:31
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There is a shocking lack of information about AEW's greatest active tag team The Outrunners in the primer.
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Mar 11, 2024 23:33
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I’m shocked that we didn’t see Satnam Singh (he tall) or Sonjay Dutt (he annoying)
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Mar 12, 2024 00:20
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Wise Fwom Yo Gwave posted:I’m shocked that we didn’t see Satnam Singh (he tall) or Sonjay Dutt (he annoying) Especially after Excalibur did drop a “well he is the Playa from the Himalayas” about Dutt recently in the Revolution pre-show match
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Mar 12, 2024 06:12
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Dr. Quarex posted:Shawn Spears deserves a write-up in the "guys who were cool for precisely two matches and now are back in WWE like that is going to go well for them" section surely You're right. Here's a quick and dirty attempt at one. Shawn Spears Also known as WWE's Tye Dillinger, Shawn Spears is most notable for being Pinnacle's midcard goon who was a chair pervert with a confusingly cool entrance. However, once that group petered out (as described in the Tully Blanchard section in the proper Alumni section), he just kind of... stopped showing up after a while. Even as a Shawn Spears fan, it made sense. He ran a wrestling school, he had a kid, he had other unfortunate family events come up... He had a lot on his plate, and AEW's roster is deep enough that a solid midcard guy like Spears could not do anything for a while and it's fine. Shawn Spears just didn't have anything to do. ... Until Jay White and Bullet Club Gold debuted in April of 2023, and a returning Shawn Spears was positioned as a potential rival for them. And then quietly stopped being positioned as a potential rival for them, and also quietly stopped showing up at all. Again, it makes sense. His return was cool but wasn't particularly grabbing the audience's attention, and Jay White should be facing cooler people than him. Shawn Spears returned to NXT in March of this year, and... honestly, it's probably for the best. The best use case for him is being a solid hand in a developmental division that helps all the newbies learn what they're doing. Still, I'm going to miss the guy. EDIT: Actually he's still Shawn Spears in NXT, whoops. My fault for not actually paying attention to the weird developmental show. Lurks With Wolves fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Mar 12, 2024 |
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Mar 12, 2024 11:29
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Shard posted:AEW was like a island of safety during the pandemic. That feeling will never be replicated but I'll hold it in my heart until I die I imagine. Seriously, it was a highlight of each week during a really, really, really, really, really hosed up time in the world.
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Mar 12, 2024 11:31
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Gavok posted:Since the days World Championship Wrestling imploded and Vince McMahon bought them up, there was never a viable alternative to World Wrestling Entertainment. TNA/IMPACT constantly tripped over itself whenever it tried to take a step forward and shows like Lucha Underground were too niche for their own good. Gavok posted:
no ty!
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Mar 12, 2024 11:43
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don't get me wrong. excellent op and three replies afterward. i enjoyed them all
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Mar 12, 2024 11:48
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Shard posted:AEW was like a island of safety during the pandemic. That feeling will never be replicated but I'll hold it in my heart until I die I imagine. An island of safety and sanity. Well, sanity for me at least, less so for Excalibur and Taz at 4 am on their 57th match of a 9-hour taping session for Dark. But drat, that was such a great source of joy during an overall terrible, terrible time.
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Mar 12, 2024 20:53
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pandemic dark was the greatest in a very special way that i hope we'll not have to visit ever again
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Mar 12, 2024 21:11
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Running basically all of AEW in one location, and without a crowd so having heels/faces on two different sides of the ring, was an inspired choice. It also led to fun moments like a young lower-card MJF and Shawn Spears gambling on matches.
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Mar 13, 2024 06:00
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graph posted:please, her name is shaloncé royal Taz singing along with her was so wonderfully deranged.
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Mar 13, 2024 18:13
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i only listen to Jim Cornette, never watched a second of aew, so thanks for this now i can put names to faces.
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Mar 14, 2024 00:06
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Ghislaine of YOSPOS posted:i only listen to Jim Cornette My condolences.
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Mar 14, 2024 18:40
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Ghislaine of YOSPOS posted:i only listen to Jim Cornette, never watched a second of aew, so thanks for this now i can put names to faces. lol well we have a containment thread just for you
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Mar 14, 2024 18:45
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Ghislaine of YOSPOS posted:i only listen to Jim Cornette, never watched a second of aew, so thanks for this now i can put names to faces. oh no lol
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Mar 15, 2024 20:25
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Thank you for this! I am going to my first ever wrestling event tonight because my friend needed to offload tickets(long story) and my wife is a massive fan so I might as well get into her interests so this served to give me a lot of info.
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Mar 16, 2024 21:44
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Have a great time! You've lucked into a tremendous card for your first event, please don't hesitate to come back with any questions you might have afterwards. 
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Mar 16, 2024 21:49
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bunnyofdoom posted:Thank you for this! I am going to my first ever wrestling event tonight because my friend needed to offload tickets(long story) and my wife is a massive fan so I might as well get into her interests so this served to give me a lot of info. Congrats on this being your first wrestling show. Danielson/Shibata might have you asking the question “do these guys know it’s fake?”
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Mar 16, 2024 21:58
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bunnyofdoom posted:Thank you for this! I am going to my first ever wrestling event tonight because my friend needed to offload tickets(long story) and my wife is a massive fan so I might as well get into her interests so this served to give me a lot of info. you're going to get a real fun show tonight
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Mar 16, 2024 23:29
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Since not in OP but are ROH wrestling in front of me, who are Queen Amanita and Red Velvet and who should I cheer?
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Mar 17, 2024 00:24
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