10 Times AEW Were Moments From Disaster

4. The Fallout From The 18th December 2019 AEW Dynamite

Daniel Garcia
AEW FITE TV

The Dark Order decimating The Elite despite a bunch of masked creepers having neither the credibility nor fan investment to handle the role reflected a fairly rapid loss of momentum early AEW suffered in December 2019.

In conjunction with then-rival broadcast NXT having the best run of a doomed Wednesday Night War, episodes of Dynamite felt like they were careering off the rails rather than speeding down a track that had been carefully laid down from the off. The Dark Order/Elite segment was emblematic of the issues - issues Tony Khan identified as being due too many cooks spoiling the broth.

As 2020 dawned, Khan assumed full creative control (with concessions made to talents case-by-case) and rapidly righted the ship. Ahead of the pandemic skewing everything (more on that elsewhere), his vision quickly resulted in one of the finest runs in the company's short history.

The changes occurred so quickly that they highlighted how far the "elite" standard had fallen in such a short time.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett