These Brilliant AEW Success Stories Should Have SUCKED
6. The Butcher & The Blade
The Butcher and The Blade will perhaps never ascend to a point where they can believably challenge for or hold the AEW Tag Team Championships, but the levels they have risen above can't be forgotten. And won't be, as long as their 2019 Dynamite debut remains easily accessible.
In terms of starts to life as part of the new wrestling revolution, theirs was one of the very worst. One of several acts at that time to get the lights on/lights off debut despite live crowds not necessarily knowing who they were and reacting accordingly, The Butcher & The Blade as MJF's Cody-hating mercenaries was a good idea on paper that bombed in practice.
They were...a lot all at once, with the work not particularly sparkling and a strange aesthetic veering a little too close to putting-a-hat-on-a-hat than putting-a-beating-on-an-ass. All in good time, as it turned out. Valuable assets during a beloved pandemic period (more on that later) for the company, the pair went from cult hits to TV regulars and purpose-serving gatekeepers for challengers on the rise.
Their lowkey presence in 2023 is strictly due to roster bloat rather than any sort of dip in form. A profiled programme doesn't exactly look like it's around the nearest corner, but the next hilarious promo is only ever - at worst - a Rampage away.