10 Times AEW Got Into Serious Trouble
1. When "The Dark Order Angle" Happened
Not something that drew a b*llocking from Warner, per se, the December 18, 2019 Dynamite did land AEW in a different sort of trouble.
The show itself wasn't terrible, but something was just...off about the entire promotion. While it was at the **** level, even the Kenny Omega and Hangman Page Vs. Lucha Bros. opener, affected by a risible Fénix botch in which he somehow conspired to hit a cutter on nobody, was the worst possible match those four talents could have worked. Darby Allin, in a decent match versus the Butcher and the Blade alongside Cody Rhodes, found his feet tangled in the ropes when attempting his suicide dive. Recent episodes of the show, savaged critically for two separate but equally dire flirtations with the supernatural, seemed to affect the confidence of all who appeared on it.
The SCU Vs. Young Bucks main event was actually a terrific sprint that will always go overlooked, because the post-match angle was such a catastrophe; mere weeks after Matt Jackson cheekily buried the finish to WWE Hell In A Cell, he took part in a scene that almost mirrored it.
Just as the Fiend had drawn "blood" from the throat of Seth Rollins, Matt Jackson chomped down on a condom to sell something similar from Evil Uno. This, after Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes had sold an attack from overzealous "Creepers" who hadn't a clue what they were doing.
It was the culmination of a depressing, flat and laughable direction.
And, had Tony Khan not disbanded a booking committee in disarray and saved the show with his incredible self-penned January 1, 2020 ep, AEW might not have secured the rights fee with which its medium-term future was secured.
Those ratings were falling, but the unopposed show capitalised by drawing back the disenchanted with a fantastic, restorative Dynamite.