14 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (Dec 4)

1. Stepping On Toes

Brandi Rhodes and Awesome Kong's hair-collecting spree continued as they plucked a planted volunteer from the audience and snipped her ponytail, adding her to the newly-named Nightmare Collective moments after Kris Statlander failed to give an answer as the duo demanded she pledged her allegiance.

The execution was okay. Brandi is a decent promo, Kong projects menace, and Rhodes' promo at least shed light on their characters, with AEW's Chief Brand Officer claiming she and her charge were doing a job nobody else wanted. That's fine.

Said performances weren't the problem: the narrative was.

This Nightmare Collective gimmick actively steps on The Dark Order's toes. At a time when AEW are trying to rebuild Grayson and Evil Uno, they're running a very, very similar act with Brandi and Kong, who are now roaming All Elite Wrestling looking for pledges. This undermines what they're doing with The Dark Order at a vital time in that duo's run and while upcoming weeks will likely bring greater differentiation, it's a Down for now.