Why Wrestling Rules After It Admits It Totally Sucks

AEW's lowest ebb came before the aforementioned phantom fists to the bit of canvas next to Matt Jackson's face. The Nightmare Collective were a stable led by Brandi Rhodes that featured women's wrestling icon Awesome Kong, women's wrestling virtual unknown Mel, and (in an Excalibur call that rightfully became a meme at his and the company's expense) "Japanese Deathmatch Wrestling Legend Dr. Luther".

The story that brought such a random cast of characters was barely there, but what was explained was the naffest thing on the show anyway. Their matches were nothing memorable, and the matches they interfered in were made worse by their presence. A lousy act coupled with the stuttering Dark Order painted a picture of a brand without clear creative direction from the top. A top that, in this case at least, included one of the key players. And good too, because Rhodes took most of the credit for dropping the idea freezing cold after critics got louder by the week.

As she put it speaking to Wrestling Observer Live in early 2020, "I didn’t feel it. I started to notice audience members were on the same page as me, I was starting to feel like ‘I’m not really understanding this’ or some things that are happening are happening too quickly for people to really keep up with this or it was a nice idea but we don’t have the time to explain it how people want to explain it so I think a big misconception is AEW made changes, not at all, I did. 100% because if I’m going to do something I want to be happy with it, and I was not happy with it. I was not happy with me in it I wasn’t happy with other people as far as how they were being portrayed and perceived…"

Did Shawn Spears or Tully Blanchard think as little of how things were going for them up to last month? It certainly felt like it in last week's energetic bounce back.

CON'T...