10 Things That Didn't Go The Way AEW Wanted

6. The Dark Order Arrives To Crickets

The Butcher The Blade The Bunny Cody Rhodes AEW Dynamite
AEW

The AEW fanbase is typically a smart one, with the vast majority of those fans having plentiful knowledge of grapplers who aren't necessarily mainstream stars. So, when the Super Smash Bros. arrived at Double or Nothing 2019 to crickets, that tells you all you need to know.

That initial silence was followed by a "befuddled" Alex Marvez questioning who this pair was, a disinterested Jim Ross wondering what the f**k was going on, and Excalibur doing his best to talk up this new threat whilst steering clear of outright identifying Player Uno/Evil Uno and Player Dos/Stu Grayson.

Even more telling was that the silence of those in attendance at the MGM Grand on that night was only broken when a "Who are you?" chant started up.

Despite Excalibur doing his best to make the arrival of the Super Smash Bros. feel like a big deal, and despite AEW clearly wanting the duo and their goofy minions to be perceived as a major force, this all fell as flat as a fart in church. Then again, that's something that could be said about a good chunk of those first few months of what would soon become the Dark Order.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.