10 Times AEW Turned Trash Into Treasure
5. "69 Me, Don!"
The difference between AEW and WWE's biggest disasters is that WWE deemed those disasters a good idea.
Hell In A Cell 2019 Vs. Revolution 2021: both were excruciatingly humiliating for the respective companies, but at least the finish to the Exploding Barbed Wire Death match wasn't the actual idea. The idea was to have Eddie Kingston save Jon Moxley from a raging inferno and build what constituted as a mega-pop in the 50% capacity Daily's Place era when the new coolest tag team in the world made their heroic, badass return.
Instead, as a result of a horrendous production snafu, the odd sparkler rained a few puffs of pyro onto the two men. It was either heartbreaking or very funny, depending on your perspective, but AEW's response was so incredible that it was almost a good thing that a $50 pay-per-view was ruined.
Kenny Omega and Don Callis reenacted the scene on the subsequent Dynamite to take the piss out of Eddie; after Kenny implored Don to "69 me!", nothing happened. Kenny's "Did I blow up?" deadpan was outstanding. The idea was to revel in the humiliation, to fictionalise it and give the babyface team cause to assault the Elite in multiple piss-funny buddy movie action set-pieces.
Without the sh*tty Revolution finish, you wouldn't have been able to watch Nick Jackson squawk in fear, like a bird, at the threat of Mox and Eddie out for revenge: