How AEW Did The Impossible

AEW persisted with the faction, and reimagined it as part of Tony Khan's period of introspection over the Christmas break. The originally planned leader, Marty Scurll, opted to re-sign with Ring Of Honor, necessitating a rethink. AEW teased the arrival of an 'Exalted One' in January, and subsequently embarked on an inspired viral marketing campaign assisted by Evil Uno in glorious, mischievous form.

This was really, really well done, in that the red herrings were plentiful and balanced perfectly. ECW legend Raven, himself a societal outcast character, appeared in the Dynamite crowd. AEW penned acrostic poems on social media spelling out the name 'Matt Hardy'. Text was hidden within text on social media. "Sitting in a dead tree," read one such post. Collaborating simultaneously, Matt Hardy released an entry in his YouTube series sat on a wooden throne. This was also a line in the nursery rhyme 'Three Chartreuse Buzzards' - a very subtle hint towards Brodie Lee.

And Brodie Lee it was, as revealed on the March 18 Dynamite. Wild as it is now, given the shocking success that the stable has become, this felt snake-bit at the time. That episode was meant to emanate from Brodie's hometown of Rochester, New York, to all but guarantee the monster pop. That pop did not materialise in the empty Daily's Place AEW had to resort to amid the ongoing global situation.

"You're not the first out of touch old man to not believe in me," Lee said to Christopher Daniels, in what was either an inspired line or, even better, an inspired storyline to arrive at it. On the following episode, to much controversy, the now 'Mr. Brodie Lee' sent up Vince McMahon by becoming a steak-eating corporate bully pitching a conniption fit at the sneezing of a subordinate. This was funny, cathartic, and looking at it generously, what happens to people when they crave power: they wield it by insidiously becoming the establishment.

CONT'D...(4 of 6)