10 Things You Somehow Missed In AEW
3. The Dark Order's Super Sly Numbering System
In the Dark Order, every member is identified by a number.
Evil Uno, naturally, is 1. His tag partner Stu Grayson is 2. The first "proper" recruits, John Silver and Alex Reynolds, were allocated 4 and 3 respectively. Alan Angels was given 5, and, for the purposes of wordplay, Preston Vance became 10 (Pres-ten).
Curiously, during the April 2020 closed-set QT Marshall gym tapings enforced by stay-at-home orders, two unknowns were promoted as 8 and 9. While 8 was revealed to be Alan Angels, he was working anonymously at the time as part of a double shift. You'll remember his second gig; it signalled the sad end of Kenny Omega's illustrious career.
Why weren't these two anonymous Order members presented as 6 and 7? What happened to the chronology?
As was revealed deeper into the year - in a storyline that was sensibly abandoned, since the heel recruitment gimmick was untenable for the stable following the tragic passing of Mr. Brodie Lee - the number 7 had been reserved for Dustin Rhodes.
They reserved it for the wildly, wonderfully geeky purpose of a LOLWCW reference, which was presumably meant to function as a taunt before Dustin kicked their ass in vengeance.