Ranking Every AEW Surprise Debut From Worst To Best

6. The Good Brothers

Jon Moxley
AEW

AEW started 2021 with a bang. Well, technically, a smash. A two-night New Year's Smash, to be precise.

For the first of these nights, the main event had Kenny Omega successfully defending the AEW World Championship against Rey Fenix. Not content with simply getting the 1-2-3, Omega, at the behest of Don Callis, was intent on ending Fenix's career. That was, of course, until Jon Moxley came out for the barbwire bat-assisted save.

In terms of shockers, though, Mox's attack on the Best Bout Machine was cut short thanks to the surprise arrival of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, aka the Good Brothers.

Having IMPACT Wrestling stars appear on AEW programming itself was a major deal, let alone the reigning AEW Tag Team Champions (complete with their belts!). Even more goosebumps-inducing than that, New Year's Smash Night 1 would go off the air with Kenny, Machine Gun, Big LG and the Young Bucks all posing in a familiar Too Sweet way.

To those who love their wrestling to have a sprinkling of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Bullet Club, this was the stuff of pants-tightening dreams.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.