10 Shocking Aftermaths Of Wrestling Matches You Don't Remember
8. Awful Dark Order Beatdown Forces Tony Khan's Hand
The December 18th 2019 edition of AEW Dynamite was to the last of the year, and thus stood to serve as something of reflection point for the first few months of All Elite Wrestling's output at large.
In that respect and many others, it couldn't have gone much worse.
Having otherwise controlled the viewership and demographics for most of the Wednesday Night War up to that point, AEW surrendered both for the first time to an NXT brand that felt at its most vital in some time. The black-and-gold brand had built well off the momentum of an inclusion in the Survivor Series mix, and a show headlined by Rhea Ripley finally dethroning Shayna Baszler was everything both the loyal NXT fans and channel-hoppers wanted to see.
Over on TNT, they were given a muddled show with only flashes of the brilliance AEW would somehow later find in the pandemic-riddled 2020. A Dynamite headlined by an only-okay SCU/Young Bucks match was made worse by a risible beatdown by The Dark Order that saw phantom punches miss Dustin Rhodes' head by a foot and Matt Jackson have blood pulled from his insides by hand.
This was enough for Tony Khan, who allegedly took firmer control of creative operations from there. On screen, the storyline asked if The Elite were still The Elite at all. In ring, they proved while letting somebody else get on with painting the bigger picture.