10 AEW Moments You Totally Don't Remember
Wardlow Schwarzenegger.
But it's barely been two years!
Aye, but much of that timeframe overlapped into 2020, the longest, weirdest, most omni-f*cked year in multiple generations.
Much has happened.
When Dynamite first launched, everybody wondered where the promos were. Beyond Cody's seminal Full Gear go-home sell-job, most storyline developments were folded into those excellent "all hell breaks loose" show-closing brawls. Now, Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston and MJF create magic on the stick every Wednesday night. What did AEW do with that time in October?
Oh, yeah: AEW promoted lengthy Women's division matches that people didn't want until they went shorter.
When Dynamite first launched, its tag team product proved divisive; some were thrilled by the pulsating, heart-pounding bangers. Others wondered why AEW bothered to attach a tag rope to the ring. Now, with FTR reigning as World Champions, a contrarian set has emerged to claim it's now boring and samey.
The more thing change...
AEW has evolved from a card of action with only brief post-match comments to a deft, interconnected universe that has won the Wednesday Night War as a constantly moving beast of episodic pro wrestling television.
It...wasn't always like that.
10. Wardlow's Introductory Vignette
The dreaded 'All Petite Wrestling' patter - which is so much worse now that it is conclusively untrue - wasn't not warranted in mid-to-late 2019.
At All Out, a vignette was shown heralding the arrival of a 'Wardlow': an elusive hoss. This was omni-inexplicable. The upstart sports-adjacent promotion with no developmental system had just signed a new talent that had escaped the radar of even the ultra-hardcore fringes of the online fandom. The initial presentation of the character was jarring; framed in a scene that radiated '80s energy, Wardlow, complete with a Terminator-style scar and mandatory hot babe, beat the sh*t out of loads of people at once.
This wasn't so much a use of the forbidden invisible camera as an embrace of the ARRI Alexa. It was strange, and a bit too Zack Snyder to resonate as the outsize cartoon it was intended to be. It resonated as a drab, gritty reboot of an old school Fed vignette.
Wardlow rules now, which is reassuring; whatever this was was subsequently dropped, and Wardlow instead debuted as MJF's heavy in what was a far better story shot through the lens of pro wrestling. h
His monster aura steadily built with brutal economy, Wardlow has become a cult figure with immense breakout potential as a throwback badass.