Why Wrestling Rules After It Admits It Totally Sucks

And they've been here before.

The Dark Order have been divisive to the point of controversy since AEW first launched. Their lights off/lights on surprise debut was a grand misfire that the company inexplicably repeated over and over again, only heaping more sh*t on the original as if it invented the form. NXT's pre-Christmas 2019 product was excellent, but it was made even better by what their direct competition were sharting out at the top of the card. A masked Dark Order minion raining down punches on Matt Jackson in a flat closing segment brought the company's honeymoon period to dispiriting conclusion and chased The Young Bucks off Twitter completely.

In (eventual) response, they rethought the entire thing. Twice. Steering away from the paranormal-adjacent bullsh*t of why these moronic evil-doers were doing their evil deeds, the stable was reimagined as a positivity cult with a TechBro at the top. The vignettes were sensational, but the aesthetic and direction needed work. Enter the "Exalted One" Brodie Lee. Or not really, because the jury's still out on the whole thing despite a superb AEW Championship match with Jon Moxley. His work's decent, his gear's less so, and he's never wrestled in front of a proper crowd, but the whole thing's been a baby step back towards sanity and sense. Like families raiding the remainder of the fridge before just buying new, they have tried - and continue to try - to bin what stinks and refresh and reheat what can be salvaged.

And none of it was ever as stale as the Nightmare Collective anyway.

CONT'D...