These Brilliant AEW Success Stories Should Have SUCKED
4. The Kingdom
The Kingdom didn't ask for the air of indifference that accompanied their arrival in the Tony Khan universe in 2022, but wrestlers associated with Ring Of Honor have unfairly carried that with them by default. Especially when it felt as though the inclusion of ROH's existing world was actively damaging the pristine quality of AEW's television output.
But Matt Taven and Mike Bennett have maximised their minutes since being folded into the ongoing Roderick Strong-Adam Cole-MJF drama, propping up the preposterous Strong as he allegedly fights through unprecedented poor neck health and his complex feelings of upset and betrayal.
There's a glorious transparency to their act too - it's as though they're fully aware of what Roddy's up to, but more than willing to hitch themselves to his wagon if it gets them closer to the tag gold currently held by MJF and his injured partner Adam Cole. Regardless of how the friendship triangle pans out for the key players, it feels increasingly like Taven and Bennett will get what they're after, if renewed prominence in 2023 wasn't exactly that.