10 Times AEW Turned Trash Into Treasure
3. The Perception Of The Elite (And Indeed All Elite Wrestling)
Tony Khan was faced with a crisis over the 2019 holiday season.
His December 18 AEW Dynamite episode was a disaster; the awful supernatural Dark Order act - or more accurately, the "creeper" underlings - had battered Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes and failed to batter Dustin Rhodes by a good foot and a half. The whiffed punches were isolated on social media as a video emblematic of the extent to which the promotion at large had missed the mark. The gothic am-dram vibe was nowhere near the exhilaration and deep emotion elicited at Double Or Nothing.
The thing is, episodic wrestling doesn't end. He had to keep going, but how?
He had nearly ruined more than one top star and formed part of a booking committee with them.
Khan made the decision to oversee the creative process and restore the vibe, and did so with a booking masterstroke. He penned a happy ending and a cliffhanger on the same show: the incredible, instant return to form that was the unopposed January 1 Homecoming special. Khan recognised the perception of the Elite, in a bid to reassure fans that he knew what they were thinking of and fretting over, and posed a question at the start of the broadcast:
Are the Elite still the Elite?
He answered it by having Cody Rhodes go over Darby Allin and Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks go over PAC and the Lucha Bros. in two awesome bookends. He reminded the audience that the Elite were incredible wrestlers and winners. This was necessary, but it didn't compel fans into watching the week after.
Hangman Page is the main character of AEW, and the protagonist rode into and saved the show: shunted to commentary, he entered a comedic meme-friendly masterclass of a performance that drove the power of the cliffhanger.
The Elite were still elite wrestlers, but the faction wasn't whole: Hanger's potential exit from the stable was a tremendous cliffhanger that ultimately led to the greatest tag team match ever.