10 Awesome Wrestling Things To Be Thankful For Right Now
8. The Death RIders Save AEW from The Elite Angle's Flop
Earlier in 2024, the story of The Elite taking over AEW and feuding with Tony Khan and some of his supporters started off with a bang, but quickly fell into a nosedive.
Kenny Omega's time away from the ring due to diverticulitis was a severe blow to the angle, every grouping of random stars to fight against The Young Bucks, Jack Perry and Kazuchika Okada came across like it was missing something, and within no time, there was nowhere for the story to go, even though it hadn't reached a proper conclusion.
Thankfully, AEW pivoted and effectively did a 2.0 version of this takeover story by having Blackpool Combat Club turn into The Death Riders, once more going back to the well of "Jon Moxley will save us from this unfortunate situation" that appears to be a reliable AEW trope.
It isn't perfect, but having Moxley and his crew run amok over the roster has established them as definitive top heels, set up fan favorites like Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy to be the guys to climb that mountain to overcome them, and could even be setting the stage for The Elite to return as babyfaces to round out that angle.
At this point, Moxley is the definitive best champion AEW has ever had, and when the time comes for him to put over someone (likely Allin), it will be a huge deal.