- 3 months ago
Cancelled PPV matches, backstage chaos, and other things Tony Khan doesn't want you to think about.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Whether it involved icons performing rather embarrassing bumps, top stars refusing to play
00:06ball, or the organization not doing what was right on the night, there have been a number of shocking,
00:12awkward, or humiliating incidents the AEW presidents would prefer you to forget ever
00:17happened. But they all very much did, so let's talk about them. I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture
00:23Wrestling, and here are 10 things Tony Khan wants you to forget about AEW.
00:2810. The Controversial Exit While the likes of Cody Rhodes and Jade Cargill
00:33seemingly left AEW on good terms, the same could not be said for some of the other talents that
00:38ultimately left TK's organization. Take Big Swole, for example. In the wake of leaving the company in
00:44November 2021, the wrestler claimed on her call-in show that the reason she didn't re-sign with AEW
00:50was down to the fact the promotion lacked structure or diversity. And how did the
00:55billionaire boss respond? By defending the company's diversity on Twitter, before bizarrely
01:00telling the world he let go of Swole because he didn't think her wrestling was good enough.
01:04Very nice. Then you have Ivelisse, who took to social media to accuse a coach of mistreatment
01:10and claim Thunder Rosa. Her opponent, during that infamous September 10, 2020 Dynamite encounter,
01:15slandered her name after her release in April 2021.
01:18And lastly, you have the latest controversial All Elite exit Khan would like to move on from
01:24Sharpish. That being CM Punk's firing in September post All In 2023 Backstage Madness.
01:30Releases and exits happen in wrestling, but these are just a few of the uglier departures the AEW
01:36president would like his fans to forget about as swiftly as possible.
01:409. The Worst Punches In Wrestling
01:42What should have been a moment that forced the All Elite audience to take this new villainous Dark
01:46Order unit seriously, towards the end of the December 18, 2019 Dynamite soon turned into one
01:52of the most embarrassing beatdowns in wrestling history. And we were only two months into weekly
01:57All Elite programming. Lovely.
01:59After SCU's Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky had got the better of the Young Bucks,
02:04a bunch of non-exactly intimidating creepers surrounded the ring as silly purple lighting washed
02:09over the teams. The crowd were already pretty unimpressed by the lame and uninspiring attack about 30
02:14seconds in. And not even the arrival of Kenny Omega and Cody and Dustin Rhodes could shoot some
02:20excitement into the flat brawl. Then it happened. One of the unknown massed attackers began throwing
02:25the sort of dreadful right hands that accidentally added fuel to the all-amateurs wrestling fires.
02:31The shots missed Dustin by a country mile. Even four years later, you'll struggle to find a more
02:36embarrassing All Elite angle, or anyone in the company referencing this terrible TV conclusion.
02:41Number 8. Many a botched debut. It does seem that for every marvellous All Elite arrival,
02:47Tony Khan finds a way to completely drop the ball with a new face in his company on night one.
02:52There was that time AEW introduced a brand new giant into the mix in the form of the massive
02:57Satnam Singh, by blacking out the arena and throwing the lights back up to the sound of cricket
03:01as the big lad deck Samoa Joe. Andrade El Idolo experienced a similarly underwhelming first night
03:08on Dynamite back in June 2021, awkwardly showing up as Vicky Guerrero's new client. And that lasted
03:13long, didn't it? Remember when Matt Seidel popped up at All In 2020 as the Casino Battle Royale's
03:18Joker? Well, TK probably hopes you don't. His slipping star press debut was just about overshadowed
03:24by another awful fall on the night. Oh, we'll get there. Cries of who are you as the Butcher and
03:29the Blade crawled into the AEW system. And Miro showing up as a video game obsessed best man,
03:35are also just a few of the other times Tony got it badly wrong with an AEW newbie.
03:40Now, I've got a quick question for you. What has been your favourite AEW debut of all time?
03:45Let me know in the comments section right down below.
03:47Number 7. MJF has left the building.
03:50Admittedly, it does seem like AEW are finally finding a way to fold this real-life drama into
03:54a storyline, with Wardlow finally realising MJF was the person responsible for destroying all the
04:00momentum he'd built up heading into Double or Nothing 2022. However, that still doesn't change
04:05the fact that the controversial events that set the stage for Maxwell Jacob Friedman's
04:09explosive dynamite pipe bomb and summer hiatus last year are the sort of awkward moments TK
04:14wishes never happened. Before Maxwell decided to shockingly no-show a meet-and-greet on Double
04:19or Nothing weekend, the star was said to have butted heads with his boss over his contract
04:24when compared to the deals handed to other top stars in the company. Sure, Khan was ultimately
04:28able to convince Friedman to get in the ring at the pay-per-view and put his former bodyguard
04:32over, and he even managed to get a viral work-shoot promo out of the salt of the earth before he
04:37eventually made an epic all-out return. But the fact Maxwell had to no-show a fan event to
04:42eventually score himself the raise he deserved, being put on more than $1 million a year according
04:48to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, wasn't the best look.
04:52Number 6. The terrible mattress bump. This entry isn't taking anything away from the very real
04:57physical punishment each and every performer likely experiences whenever they decide to step in
05:02between the ropes, or enter a cage on this occasion, and a company doing all they can to protect their
05:07workers when they're trying to execute outrageous spots should be saluted. However, if you can't pull
05:12off a jaw-dropping moment safely without it looking like a bloke simply jumping off his wardrobe and
05:16onto his bed, the wise call would probably be to just move on and try something else, or maybe just
05:21not film it in close-up. Sadly though, Chris Jericho, MJF, and Tony Khan clearly didn't get those
05:26memos. Feeling they absolutely needed to chuckle a champion off of the blood and gut structure for
05:31the story they were telling back in 2021, the company created a landing area that would ensure
05:36a safe fall for the veteran. The only problem was that the way the climactic fall was shot made the
05:41entire impact zone look like little more than a crash mat, some empty boxes, and a bit of pretend
05:46cardboard steel, which is exactly what it was. The idea was to fool fans into believing Jericho had just
05:52been mercilessly sent to his doom. But the way AEW decided to stupidly film this brave fall
05:58completely undermined what had been a pretty brutal match up to that point.
06:02Number 5. All of the non-punk elite backstage drama
06:05Away from all of the backstage mayhem involving Phil Brooks and the elite in AEW,
06:10oh don't worry we'll get there, there have been a number of other rather regrettable behind-the-scenes
06:14incidents that have grabbed the wrong sort of headlines over the last few years in particular too.
06:19Sammy Guevara's high-profile altercations with Eddie Kingston and Andrade El Idolo last year
06:24definitely rank as two of the more embarrassing examples of TK struggling to keep the drama in
06:29house. And for the longest time, the real-life heat between various talented performers within
06:34the all-elite women's roster was actually more intriguing than the stories they were telling
06:38on screen. For comparison, it's rare to hear of any huge blow-ups going on in the locker room over
06:44in the world of sports entertainment, whereas AEW seemingly couldn't go a week without a star
06:48firing a shot at their colleague before clashing backstage in 2022 alone. Khan will likely be
06:54praying the punker's collision with Jack Perriatt all in 2023 sits as the last moment of behind-the-curtain
07:00madness for some time now. Or maybe he'll just book Guevara vs. Kingston for the banter in 2024
07:05and invite even more hilarious chaos.
07:08Number 4. The All Out 2020 Matt Hardy Incident
07:11The four that took the attention away from Matt Seidel's awkward arrival at All Out 2020 is a moment that
07:16should have taught the company a rather painful lesson. As Matt Hardy went to war with Sammy Guevara
07:22that night in a broken rules match, the pair eventually found themselves on top of a scissor
07:26lift backstage. Not quite hitting a spear off the machine in the way they had planned though,
07:31Hardy ended up being very much broken when the back of his head smacked off the concrete floor.
07:36Hardy was clearly not fit to continue, but instead of calling off a match that fans weren't exactly
07:40desperate to see conclude anyway, the veteran was allowed to complete the contest,
07:44and AEW received a justifiable amount of backlash for their failure to properly intervene.
07:49Luckily, the company did respond quickly when Hangman Adam Page was knocked out in his match
07:53against Jon Moxley a few years later. But the poor way they handled the latter's recent concussion on
07:59Dynamite proves that there's still some room for serious improvements when it comes to wrestler safety
08:03in these sort of scary situations.
08:06Number 3. Dan Lambert and Brandi Rhodes Dreadful Dynamite Promo
08:10The days of Dan Lambert shooting from the hip on the AEW roster feel like a lifetime ago,
08:15and that's probably how Tony Khan would prefer it to stay.
08:18Now there were a few highlights in there for sure, like that time he took a nasty Lance Archer
08:22blackout in the summer of 2021. But whoever decided it would be a good idea to throw the
08:27American top team founder into a promo battle with Brandi Rhodes should have really been the
08:32one on the receiving end of the Murderhawk Monsters finisher. Both figures were generating all kinds of
08:36go-away heat at the time, with not a single soul in Chicago wanting to sit through the
08:41unlikable pair's shots and kayfabe-killing retorts. It was uncomfortable to watch, offensive at times,
08:47and was all seemingly done to welcome back a Paige Van Zant, who ultimately ended up doing
08:51very little of note, after the heelish Lambert mate beat up, er, another heel. It was yet another
08:56low in the consistently ugly Lambert era of All Elite Wrestling, and a mess the company won't be
09:01inviting you to relive on YouTube anytime soon. Number 2. Pac and Adam Page's cancelled Double
09:07or Nothing 2019 fight. AEW's first ever press conference in early 2019 brought with it the
09:12announcement of two rather exciting new additions to the ever-growing roster. The Elite's Hangman
09:17Adam Page and the Bastard Pac. The studs ultimately ended up coming face-to-face during that very event,
09:23leading to a hotly anticipated match between the lads being scheduled for the inaugural Double or
09:28Nothing pay-per-view. What should have been one of the first of many mouth-watering All Elite
09:32blockbuster fights, however, soon turned into one of the company's earliest awkward moments.
09:36It also led to a piece of company history TK would no doubt love to erase if given the chance.
09:41With Pac reportedly not being happy to do the J.O.B. for the Hangman, due to him being the Open
09:46the Dreamgate champion for Dragon Gate at the time, the bout was eventually pulled from AEW's first
09:51pay-per-view event. Those creative differences then resulted in the first official match in All Elite
09:56history actually going down on a WrestleGate Pro show over in the UK and ending in a DQ. You'll
10:02love to see it. Number 1. Brawlout and the Punk Saga that Followed
10:06Watching the punker swing a sledgehammer at his workplace repeatedly during All Out 2022's
10:11infamous press conference was surreal. But perhaps even crazier was the sight of Tony Khan helplessly
10:17sitting on and allowing the best in the world to shoot from the hip at his EVPs and biggest stars as
10:22he munched muffins with a ripped up triceps. This was merely the beginning of an AEW changing evening
10:27however, as the Elite and Punk would clash backstage not long after, leading to Khan having to suspend
10:33All Involved and strip them of their gold. A terrible situation, one that could have possibly been solved
10:38by demanding All Involved sit down in a room and settle their differences, only got more toxic in the
10:43months that followed. Khan's attempts to keep his top star and the lads who helped him start this
10:48apparent revolution happy by keeping them as far away from one another as humanly possible did
10:52not work out. And that failure to take decisive action earlier kept the company under a dark cloud
10:58for much of 2023, before Punk's controversial exit in September. TK will want his fans to remember
11:042023 as the year he crammed tens of thousands into Wembley and debuted another weekly two-hour TV show,
11:10not as the year he failed to handle a Punk saga that threatened to undo all of the elite work
11:15that had come before it. I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Wrestling, cheers for not forgetting
11:19to watch this video today, and hopefully we will see you very very soon. Bye bye!
Comments