10 MORE Storylines AEW Dropped Cold

Tony Khan more often than not adheres strictly to continuity.

PAC Vs. Orange Cassidy was a consistent narrative thread for well over two years. While the cheating aspect was a bit much as it drew to a conclusion - particularly since Khan has ran this sort of thing into the ground across the entire card in 2022 - it made perfect sense in the context of its own story.

Initially, at Revolution 2020, PAC was disgusted that the irreverent slacker would even dare challenge him. It was no challenge. Over time, as Cassidy worked his rival out across various interactions, PAC grew desperate. He later tried to cheat Cassidy out of the All-Atlantic title at Grand Slam because he sensed this, and the crowd, encouraged to sense it too, got fully behind the quest and made waves of noise at the awesome final showdown in Toronto years after PAC first laughed in Cassidy's face.

The Elite tell stories that are almost unprecedented in their intricate continuity. MJF Vs. CM Punk was so rich that the first rejected handshake had so much heft, in retrospect, when the story fully unfolded.

The company is even faithful to storylines that developed in other promotions, even when it was a far better idea to simply ignore Malakai Black's disastrous WWE main roster run.

All of which makes it disappointing - and surprising - when certain developments just go away...

Matt Hardy and Orange Cassidy feuded in the otherwise awesome AEW summer of 2021. Cassidy first defeated Hardy on August 25 in a very uneven effort.

Matt Hardy putting his hands in his pockets to reveal that he had loads of money stashed in them: silly but good character work.

Matt Hardy getting his face busted open the hard way, all for the sake of what, generously, was a gentleman's three: not good at all.

This somehow warranted a sequel, before which Matt indicated that he wanted to cut Cassidy's hair. This was made obvious when he took to brandishing a pair of scissors with a great big gurn on his face. To build interest in that, Cassidy defeated Jack Evans in a Hair Vs. Hair match on the September 29 Rampage, which was a prelude to...a Lumberjack match between Cassidy and Hardy on the November 12 Rampage, Jesus Christ.

If there was any interest in Cassidy Vs. Hardy II, and the roman numerals piss take indicates not, there certainly wasn't 79 days later. Technically, maybe, the Orange Cassidy Vs. Hardy Family Office feud was possibly concluded when Orange and Tomohiro Ishii defeated the Butcher and the Blade on November 17, but not really.

Orange Cassidy and Matt Hardy went 50/50 in a Hair Vs. Hair feud that ended in a Lumberjack match with only Jack Evans losing his locks. That legitimately reads like a match result from the infamous 'New York Rules' edition of WCW Thunder.