Everything you need to know about AEW (August, 2021)
INTRODUCTION
After the unforgettable return of CM Punk to pro-wrestling on August 20, 2021, AEW got a lot of mainstream coverage and a lot of potential new fans watched the product for the first time. As AEW can be a bit overwhelming at times for newcomers, due to the sheer number of people on the roster and stuff to keep track of, I’ve decided to make a full beginners guide to All Elite Wrestling, running down the all the championships, factions and the biggest stars of the company.
This guide is intended for both people who’ve never watched wrestling, and the WWE fans who are perhaps looking to try out something different.
For complete beginners, only thing you need to know to follow this article is “heel = bad guy, babyface (“face” for short) = good guy”. Also don’t look at wrestling as “fixed MMA”, it gives you a wrong idea of what they’re trying to do. If you think of it as any other scripted TV show, or as a live-action theater, it will be much easier to understand how it works. They have their storylines and characters same as any other entertainment product on TV, except the stories are told live thorugh “promos” (speeches) and choreographed wrestling matches. The characters are usually fictionalized versions of the performers’ real selves, much like in reailty shows.
Different than most other wrestling companies, AEW keeps track of every single win and loss, which factors into the title rankings that decide challengers for championships based on their recent track record.
ORIGINS
Long story short, in 2018 a group of NJPW/ROH wrestlers called “The Elite” decided to run the biggest independent show in modern wrestling history called “All In”. A sub-faction of the now legendary wrestling faction “Bullet Club”, the Elite was the hottest thing in wrestling, and consisted of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson), Cody Rhodes and “Hangman” Adam Page. Promoted almost solely through social media and a weekly “Being The Elite” YouTube show, All In was a resounding success, selling all 10K tickets in 29 minutes and proving that there was a market for a true WWE alternative in the American wrestling landscape.
Billionaire and lifelong wrestling superfan Tony Khan was following their success and approached them one day with the idea of a new wrestling promotion, that would become All Elite Wrestling. Kenny, Cody, Nick and Matt all signed on as both on-screen talents and Executive Vice Presidents of the company. After acquiring big, well-known stars such as Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley, as well as a lot of young, unknown talent of the future such as Darby Allin, MJF and Jungle Boy, AEW was off to the races and ushered in a new era of pro-wrestling.
SHOWS
AEW programming consists of 2 weekly TV shows, 2 weekly YouTube shows and 4 yearly PPVs.
Pay-Per-View shows include Revolution, Double or Nothing, All Out and Full Gear. These are usually their biggest cards of the year and the events that their weekly shows build towards.
AEW Dynamite: Company’s 2-hour flagship show, every Wednesday night on TNT. The bread and butter of AEW programming, sometimes features bigger matches than even their PPVs. They also regularly do special edition episodes such as “Winter is Coming”, “Fyter Fest”, “Fight for the Fallen”, “Road Rager”,… which often feel like mini PPV’s that you get for free. Dynamite is the show you want to primarily focus on if you’re a new fan.
AEW Rampage: Their brand new 1-hour show, every Friday night on TNT. Promoted as the “third hour of Dynamite”, Rampage offers a more compact wrestling show with more focus on in-ring action and less talking segments. Still a new show so we’ll have to wait and see how important Rampage is going to be in relation to Dynamite.
AEW Dark and AEW Dark:Elevation: AEW’s free YouTube shows every Tuesday and Monday respectively. These shows usually feature a few bigger acts being paired against lower card talent and unsigned talent that is being prepared/tested for TV. Mostly serves as AEW’s developmental system. Fun, easy to watch but not required viewing.
Bonus: Being The Elite : The vlog/comedy show that is credited with turning The Elite into such stars and connecting them to their fans. Weekly episodes feature behind-the-scenes footage, comedy sketches and from time to time advance some AEW storylines and characters (usually in comedic ways). Not required viewing but a fun watch.
TL;DR: Focus on Dynamite and Rampage, you can watch the YouTube shows but don’t have to.
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Championships in AEW can be tricky to understand for new fans because of their partnerships with other promotions. These partnerships are jokingly referred to as the “Forbidden Door”, through which companies share talent between their shows. AEW works together with Impact Wrestling, NWA, NJPW, AAA, among others. It is not necessary to know or follow these promotions to keep up AEW programming, just know that at times you will see their talent and titles on AEW shows.
AEW themselves have only 4 official championships, and these are the only ones you need to follow:
AEW World Championship: Top prize in the company, one every wrestler dreams of holding. Very protected, defended rarely and only on the biggest shows and in the main events. Current holder: Kenny Omega.
AEW Women’s World Championship: Same thing but for women. Current holder: Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.
AEW World Tag Team Championships: Top prize for tag teams in AEW, defended on TV fairly regularly. Current holders: The Young Bucks.
TNT Championship: Secondary title for men, and resident “TV” title, defended constantly on television. The inaugural champion Cody Rhodes established it as an “Open Challenge” championship, where everyone can challenge for it, regardless of their rankings. Current holder: ”The Redeemer” Miro
Bonus: FTW Championship: Not an officially recognized title, but rather something that is exclusive to the Team Taz faction and usually signifies the “star” of the group. Current holder is “Absolute” Ricky Starks, a cocky show-off who gets off on being a quasi-champion.
Outside of these championships you will also at times see the titles from other promotions being featured. A big reason for these titles being brought in is the current AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, who has been on a Thanos-like “Collector” run, journeying to other promotions and winning their world championships to become draped in gold.
Impact World Championship: Title brought in by Kenny Omega, which he recently lost to Christian Cage on the debut episode of Rampage.
Impact Tag Team Championships: Held by Omega’s henchmen The Good Brothers.
NWA Women’s Championship: The “forbidden door” of the women’s division, featured so frequently on AEW television that it’s basically seen the secondary AEW Women’s title.
AAA Mega Championship: Main title of Mexican promotion AAA, part of Omega’s collection, not really featured much in AEW.
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: US-based title of the legendary Japanese promotion NJPW, a place where a lot of the biggest AEW stars made their name, formerly held and defended by Jon Moxley and Lance Archer.
FACTIONS
AEW is a very faction-oriented promotion, drawing influence from Japanese style of booking, where most wrestlers are put together into groups for storytelling purposes. AEW features a lot of these groups, that all have their distinct identities and members. Not all wrestlers are in factions, a lot of them are unaffiliated loners and maybe only loosely paired with one or two friends to even the numbers if necessary (examples: Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston, Darby Allin and Sting). Here is a quick rundown of all the factions in AEW:
The Elite
The group that is credited with jump starting the entire company, it is lead by the iconic trio of Kenny Omega and Nick & Matt Jackson (The Young Bucks). Don’t let their cartoony, over-the-top personalities fool you, they are some of the best wrestlers in the world. They started out as the triumphant “founding fathers” of the company, but turned heel as time went on, in large part due to being corrupted by Don Callis, a piece of shit carny manager and the pimple on the ass of professional wrestling.
The Elite is often accompanied by a parade of henchmen who cheat for them in matches, which include Micheal Nakazawa, Brandon Cutler and the Good Brothers (Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows).
Inner Circle
Introduced on the debut episode of Dynamite and led by the legend Chris Jericho, the Inner Circle was the top heel faction in the beginnings of AEW. As the then “Le Champion”, Chris needed a close group of friends he could trust to help him hold on to his title. The group includes the spectacular high-flyer and Jericho’s protege Sammy Guevara, violent and charismatic tag team Proud and Powerful (Santana and Ortiz) and Jake Hager, former WWE wrestler and current MMA fighter, who serves as the silent muscle of the group.
As a closely-knit group with a great mutual chemistry, the Inner Circle is inseparable. After manipulating Chris Jericho, MJF infiltrated the group in 2020 to try and destroy them from the inside. He could not separate them, so he instead created his own faction, The Pinnacle, and betrayed them by mercilessly beating them down. Inner Circle got a lot of sympathy from the fans for this, cementing them as a now babyface team, as they would engage in a bloody war with the Pinnacle for months.
The Pinnacle
As previously mentioned, Pinnacle is a fairly new heel faction lead by Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF), which includes his personal bodyguard and mountain of a man Wardlow, deranged psychopath “The Chairman” Shawn Spears who has a fetish for knocking out his opponents with chair shots, and an old-school tag team FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) who are accompanied by their manager Tully Blanchard.
Team Taz
Taz is a veteran wrestler-turned-manager who is most known for his work in ECW in the late 90’s. He formed an alliance with a newcomer “The Machine” Brian Cage in 2020, and soon after with another newcomer, the super charismatic Ricky Starks, to officially form a heel group called “Team Taz”. Over time, the group would expand, adding blue-chipper Powerhouse Hobbs and Taz’s own son, the future greatest wrestler ever — HOOK. Taz even created his own title, the FTW championship, and awarded it to Cage.
Due to Ricky’s cockiness and constant jabs towards Cage, the tension between them kept rising. To settle this, Taz decided that they should face each other for the FTW title, as “brothers sometimes have to fight it out”. In a shocking twist, Team Taz would betray Cage, kicking him out of the group, and handing Ricky the title. Starks is now drunk with power over his new “quasi-championship”, and Cage is coming back for blood.
Death Triangle
Trio of “The Bastard” PAC, atheltic freak of nature who is allergic to joy and happiness, and the “Lucha Brothers” Penta and Rey Fenix, two of the best luchadors in the world right now. Went through different iterations due to PAC long absence, where he was replaced by Eddie Kingston. Now back in their original form, they are feuding with new AEW signee “The Face of the Latinos” Andrade El Idolo and his manager Chavo Guerrero, who believe that the Lucha Bros should be working with them, not PAC. They are the true “tweeners” of AEW, often alternating between face and heel depending on their opponents.
The Dark Order
The story of the Dark Order is probably the most complicated and emotional journey in AEW history, filled with the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. I’ve noticed that for the new fans, this group is usually the hardest to understand so I’ll try to give a more detailed backstory.
Originally starting as a creepy tag team of indie wrestlers Evil Uno and Stu Grayson, they were usually accompanied to the ring by a group of masked, faceless men. Even though Stu and Uno are very talented wrestlers, the gimmick was NOT a success, and they legitimately feared they would get fired for how bad it was. With time, however, Dark Order kept adding new members, as a cult that preyed on wrestlers who were losing frequently, and needed “guidance”. They started teasing their mysterious off-screen leader, referred to as “The Exalted One”, who would later be revealed to be Mr. Brodie Lee.
This started a new era for the Dark Order, as now they had the dominant, charismatic leader they needed to be taken seriously. The group started expanding in size rapidly, with Brodie brainwashing lower card wrestlers with promises of grandeur. Out of the ring, the Dark Order were growing HUGE in popularity because of their hilarious sketches on Being The Elite, which were usually spearheaded by member John Silver. They were on top of the world, perfectly blending Brodie’s terrifying presence and the group’s natural comedy, to create one of the best acts on the whole show.
Then, on December 26th, 2020, Mr. Brodie Lee (real name Jon Huber) tragically passed away from a sudden illness at age 41. Furthest thing from his on-screen character, Brodie was one of the nicest and most beloved people around and this was a sad day for wrestling as a whole. Following this, the Dark Order naturally became the most beloved babyfaces on the show, honoring the memory of their dear friend and mentor.
They found comfort in a new friend, “Hangman” Adam Page, who was abandoned by his friends in the Elite, and was struggling mentally and emotionally. As a group of once losers and outcasts, they perfectly understood what Adam was going through and wanted for him to find his confidence through the power of friendship. They were unsuccessful in defeating the Elite, after which Hangman told them they maybe shouldn’t be trying to help him anymore. This caused disagreements within the Dark Order, as some of them believe that they should always stand by Adam, while others believe that they should honor what he told them to do.
The group consists of: Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, Preston “10” Vance, John Silver, Alex Reynolds, Colt Cabana, Alan “5” Angels, Anna Jay and “Negative 1”, Brodie Lee’s 9 year-old son, who serves as the new leader of the group, but only if he does his homework on time.
Best Friends
Originally a tag team consisting of Chuck Taylor and Trent? (yes, his name is spelled and pronounced as a question), the Best Friends were exactly that, the biggest of bros. Eventually they expanded into a fully fledged babyface faction, bringing in the meme-turned-senstation Orange Cassidy, rookie newcomer Wheeler Yuta and Kris Statlander, a female powerhouse and currently the only alien signed to All Elite Wrestling.
Hardy Family Office
Led by “Big Money” Matt Hardy, the HFO is a group of money-hungry midcard heel mercenaries which include the trio of The Butcher, The Blade and The Bunny and the high-flying tag teams TH2 (Jack Evans and Angelico) and Private Party (Marq Quen and Issiah Kassidy).
The Nightmare Family
Cody Rhodes’ group of friends, family, mentors and students, who usually accompany him to the ring for big matches. Includes Cody’s brother and veteran wrestler Dustin Rhodes, Cody’s wife Brandi, mentor Arn Anderson and promising young rookies “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson and Brock Anderson. Used to include QT Marshall, who eventually got tired of being in Cody’s shadow and broke away with a new faction call “The Factory”, that feuded with The Nightmare Family for a while.
The Factory
Behind the scenes, QT Marshall is best known as a trainer for the next generation of AEW stars, working for The Nightmare Factory wrestling school. After breaking away from Cody, QT banded together with some of his students to create “The Factory”. The group includes the former boxer Anthony Ogogo, and trainees Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto.
STARS
The AEW roster is massive so in order to maintain my sanity, here I’m going to give you the summary of only the bigger and more important names, and you can discover the others as you watch on your own. Their alignments and the factions they are a part of are included in the picture captions.
Kenny Omega
The current AEW World Champion, Kenny Omega set the wrestling world on fire in 2016–2018, putting on some of the best matches in history for New Japan Pro Wrestling. As the most sought-after free agent in the world, in 2019 Kenny decided to jump on-board the AEW train, becoming one of the “founding fathers” of the company. Known for his high-impact, explosive in-ring style, Omega’s big matches never disappoint.
After a rough string of losses in the AEW beginnings, he eventually found his stride in a tag team with “Hangman” Adam Page as a hot babyface duo. However, as time went on, their relationship became more complicated and Kenny started exhibiting villainous tendencies.
After the downfall of the team, Kenny completed his full-on heel turn the night he defeated Jon Moxley for the World title, his mind poisoned by the carny piece of shit Don Callis. Obsessed with gold, Kenny soon appeared in Impact Wrestling to claim their world title, too. With his big group of cronies cheating for him in every match, Kenny might hold on to his AEW title forever… unless a certain cowboy has something to say about it.
”Hangman” Adam Page
If AEW was an anime, Adam Page would be the protagonist. He really is the heart and soul of the entire promotion, and one of the most developed and beloved characters in wrestling today. You could write an entire book about the Anxious Millennial Cowboy and his AEW story so far, but I’m gonna try to keep it short.
As one of the members of the Elite, Hangman has been here since day one. Seen as mostly a young blue-chipper at the time, Hangman surprised everybody when he earned his spot in the inaugural match for the AEW World Championship against Chris Jericho, over more established stars such as Kenny Omega and PAC. He would be unsuccessful in his attempt to become the first ever AEW champion, and that would be the loss that he was never able to get over.
In a business where wrestlers attempt to be seen as larger-than-life superstars, Hangman stands out as a very relatable character who struggles with his own insecurities and anxieties which define his character. Hurt and defeated, Hangman would reluctantly form a tag team with his fellow Elite member Kenny, who was also going through a rough patch at the time. Even though both of them are primarily singles wrestlers, they proved to be a formidable duo, winning the AEW Tag titles. This would lead to tension within the group, as Young Bucks were seen as the star tag team among them. Over time, Adam had developed a drinking habit to deal with his insecurities, which would become the catalyst for The Elite turning his back on him. Young Bucks would eventually kick out Hangman from the group, and after losing the tag titles, Kenny would abandon him, too.
At the lowest point of his career, Adam hesitantly found new friends in the Dark Order. A team of once brainwashed cultists turned lovable goofs, they truly love and believe in Hangman, and want to help him find his confidence and claim the World title from Kenny.
This all culminated in a big 5v5 elimination match between The Elite and Dark Order, which ended with Hangman having to face Kenny and The Bucks in a 1v3 battle. Outnumbered and outcheated, The Elite would defeat Adam, once again crushing his dreams and giving him a viscous beatdown the week later which would take him out of commission for a while. He told the Dark Order that he would need a break from the group to do some soul-serching on his own, but don’t worry, our favorite cowboy will ride once more.
Bonus: I highly recommending reading this Twitter thread from Chris Brosnahan if you’re interested, who covers Hangman’s story in much more detail.
Chris Jericho
Wrestling legend Chris Jericho was the first truly huge signing for AEW, that established them as a formidable force in pro-wrestling. A 30-year veteran, Jericho has traveled the world ten times over, becoming a star pretty much everywhere he went. After a long stint in WWE, Jericho wanted to try something different. This led him to the door of New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he would face Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome in one of the most surreal matches in recent memory, that proved huge for NJPW’s business and brought a ton of attention to non-WWE wrestling. Jericho enjoyed the newfound freedom and different environment, and when AEW was announced, he took the risk and jumped onboard.
Jericho would main-event the inaugural AEW show, in a rematch against Kenny Omega. On the very next PPV he won the AEW World title, and on the debut show of Dynamite he would introduce his new faction called the Inner Circle. As the experienced, charismatic “Le Champion”, he carried the company through their early growing pains while they were still finding their footing on national television, finally dropping the title to Jon Moxley. His title reign also gave us one of the greatest video packages in the history of wrestling.
Since then he would be involved in big rivalries with the Elite, Orange Cassidy and, most importantly, MJF. MJF joined the Inner Circle to try to destroy them from the inside. This lead to a long, storied blood feud between the two in which Chris was able to keep the Inner Circle together but could never get the better of MJF.
Jon Moxley
Formerly known as Dean Ambrose from WWE, Jon made his shocking debut on the first ever AEW show, instantly setting his sights on Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho. Mox is known for his bloody, brutal matches and his incredible talking abilities. After defeating Omega in an iconic “Lights Out” match, Mox would soon also claim the AEW World title from Chris Jericho, taking on Chris’ entire group on his own, and coming out the victor. Mox went on to carry the whole company on his back through much of the pandemic era of wrestling, becoming the best wrestler of the year according to PWI.
Mox lost his title to Kenny Omega in the winter of 2020, which led to yet another long and bloody feud between the two. He would fail to reclaim the title but in the process rehabilitated his friendship with Eddie Kingston, a long-time friend who had become a bitter foe the year prior. Mox splits his time between AEW and NJPW, and is seen as the “key to the Forbidden Door”. He has been calling out a lot of Japanese wrestlers recently so expect him to run into them fairly soon on AEW programming.
Darby Allin
Probably the man who has raised his stock the most since AEW started, Darby came in as a true unknown and quickly established himself as the most exciting new star in wrestling today and a legitimate drawing card. A big fan-favorite, Darby is beloved for his rabid, reckless wrestling style, and his inhuman tolerance for pain.
Before AEW, Darby was a homeless skateboarder barely getting by. As a child he was involved in a horrifying car crash, in which his drunk uncle who was behind the wheel lost his life. This event would forever change Darby, leading him to a straight edge path in life, and inspiring his facepaint look which he is known for.
In his debut match, Darby surprised everybody when he went to a time limit draw with one of the biggest stars of AEW, Cody Rhodes. From there on, Darby’s and Cody’s AEW careers became closely linked, as Darby was relentless in his pursuit to defeat Cody and prove himself as one of the biggest stars. He would finally achieve that goal and take Cody’s TNT title, eventually going on to become the longest reigning TNT champion ever. Fans weren’t the only ones to see something special in Darby, wrestling icon Sting took him under his wing as his protege, forming an incredible alliance.
After months of grueling title defenses, he would finally succumb to the monstrous Miro, but it didn’t matter, Darby had already made his name as one of the best in the world and was moving on to bigger and better things. Also, the guy really puts the “suicide” in suicide dive.
“The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes has a very complicated relationship with the fanbase. Seen as either the triumphant babyface and the face of AEW, or as a self-absorbed egomaniac with too much control, one thing is sure, everybody has an opinion on Cody. The son of a legendary wrestler “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Cody’s main goal in life is carrying his family legacy. Cody has a very unique position in AEW in that he cannot challenge for the AEW World title. He promised that if he lost to Chris Jericho at Full Gear 2019, he would never challenge for the title again… and he lost. This means that Cody has to focus on other prizes, which led him to the TNT title that he established and carried as the first ever champion.
Cody is known for his extravagant entrances, fiery babyface promos, old-school wrestling style and his awful, awful neck tattoo. After a crushing loss to a debuting Malakai Black, Cody is currently taking some time off, unsure about his future. He will probably be back soon to exact his revenge, and Malakai will be waiting.
“The Bastard” PAC
One of the most athletic wrestlers in the business today, PAC has been a force to be reckoned with since the very start of AEW. Known for being always in character, and always in his ring gear, PAC is as talented as he is ruthless. He was announced to face Hangman on the inaugural AEW show, but the match eventually fell through. Soon after that he made his official debut, replacing an injured Jon Moxley in a match against Kenny Omega, which he would go on to win. Later he reignited a new feud with Hangman, which he would win as well.
He formed an alliance with the “Lucha Brothers” Penta & Rey Fenix, calling themselves the “Death Triangle”. However, in 2020 he would be forced to sit out 8 months at home, as the pandemic would make him unable to travel between UK and the US. Since then he has returned, reunited with the Lucha Bros after defeating Eddie Kingston. Now he is involved in a feud with a new signee, Andrade El Idolo, who believes the Lucha Bros should be working for him.
MJF
Maxwell Jacob Friedman, or MJF for short, is quite possibly the most hated man in AEW today. A young up-and-comer when AEW started, Max chose to make his name by committing despicable acts to his fellow wrestlers, and showing nothing but disdain for the AEW fanbase. Originally acting as Cody’s friend, he was the one who cost him the title match against Jericho, and made him unable to challenge for the title ever again. This led to a intense feud between the two, which MJF would win.
Now accompanied by his bodyguard Wardlow, he’d go on to win many more matches in a row, resulting in him getting a title shot at Jon Moxley. Moxley would defeat Max, giving him his first singles loss in AEW. After that, MJF aimed his sights at Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle. He won Chris over by acting as his friend and infiltrated his group to destroy them from the inside. Sammy Guevara was the only member to see through Max’s facade, and exposed him for the liar he is. MJF secretly formed his own faction in the meantime, The Pinnacle, which he debuted by viciously beating down the Inner Circle.
Pinnacle vs. Inner Circle would go on for many more months after that, culminating in Max forcing Jericho to go through his grueling labors in order to earn a match with him. Jericho completed his labors and got the match with Max, but exhausted and injured from the carnage he had been put through, could not conquer MJF.
Malakai Black
One of the newest members of the roster, Malakai joined AEW in July and instantly made a massive impression on everyone. He emerged from the darkness, knocking out Cody Rhodes and his mentor Arn Anderson, and sending a clear message as to who would be his first opponent. As their mutual hatred ramped up in intensity, it all culminated in a big match on Dynamite: Homecoming.
In an epic debut, fans got to witness something special as Malakai knocked Cody the fuck out in 4 minutes, establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with. Formerly known as Tommy End, Malakai is still at times referred to Tommy in AEW, which along with his evolving facepaint, alludes to Malakai not being his true self but rather Tommy’s dark alter-ego. His mysterious character has a lot of ambiguity by design, as Malakai is very focused on subtle storytelling with intricately crafted and detailed social media posts and character promos.
He has been recently teasing a new “House of Black” faction, so be on the lookout for that.
“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy
Cassidy is certainly one of the most… uhmm… unique wrestlers in AEW. Orange is a man of few words, wears exclusively denim and sunglasses and is the innovator of the laziest style of wrestling in history. Making his name on the independent scene as a comedy wrestling sensation, he never moves an inch more than necessary, doesn’t care about showmanship or interacting with the crowd and frequently wrestles with hands in his pockets.
Originally debuting as more of a guest character than a full time wrestler, he became a fan favorite with his random cameos in matches and backstage segments. Fans were eager to see him actually wrestle a match, and he made his singles debut against one of the best in the world, PAC, at Revolution 2020. There he shocked the world by actually TRYING, and not only did he just try, but he took PAC to the limit, impressing everyone.
Don’t let his nonchalant, comedic demeanor fool you, he is a formidable foe to anyone in the company and is frequently seen near the top of the world title rankings. He could probably be champion if he actually put in the effort, but… whatever.
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.
Britt was the very first female wrestler AEW ever signed, and went on to become the biggest star in the division. Her doctor moniker is not a gimmick, she is an actual practicing dentist who moonlights as a wrestling champion. After a rocky start as a happy babyface at the start of her tenure, Baker would find her stride after a personality change, as an arrogant, delusional “role model”.
Her career would later become defined by a bloody, intense rivalry with Thunder Rosa, that would turn both women into two of the hottest stars in the company, regardless of gender. They would become the first women to ever main event Dynamite, in a historic “Lights Out” war which Rosa would eventually win. Immortalized by a now iconic picture of her crimson face with bload-soaked eyes, Britt was forever made that night.
She would go on to later win the Women’s title from Hikaru Shida, and become the face of the women’s division… but her story with Thunder Rosa is still far from over.
Thunder Rosa
Every great story needs a hero and a villain. Thunder Rosa considers Britt the “Joker to her Batman”, and they are destined to clash once more. Originally an NWA wreslter, Rosa appeared in AEW as part of their talent sharing partnership, leading to an inter-promotional match where Rosa would challenge AEW Women’s champion Hikaru Shida in a losing effort. Rosa would continue appearing for AEW, eventually crossing paths with Baker in a feud that would elevate her to the next level.
Fans quickly fell in love with Rosa for her fiery offense and natural charisma, but she was still not an official AEW wrestler, as her contract with NWA was preventing her from signing with AEW. She would finally become #AllElite on her birthday in 2021, taking the next big step in her career. Outside of AEW, Rosa is a trainer who runs her own all-women wrestling promotion called Mission Pro Wrestling, and she is very dedicated to showcasing and growing the women’s wrestling scene as a whole.
“The Redeemer” Miro
Miro, the former WWE’s Rusev, debuted in 2020 as Kip Sabian’s best man for his wedding with Penelope Ford. He was portrayed as a fun, cheerful gamer at first, but in his matches he showed a much more menacing, psychopathic persona. A terrifying behemoth, Miro destroys his opponents with sheer power, before choking them out with his “Game Over” submission.
After teaming with Kip and losing the “Arcade Anarchy” match to the Best Friends, he finally snapped, brutalizing Sabian and taking him out for good. Now filled with rage, he challenged Darby Allin for the TNT Championship and won the title from him. Since then, he has had a stark character change as “The Redeemer”, a man who “offers forgiveness” to his title challengers (read: “kills them”), and talks about his love for the vengeful God and his hot double-jointed wife.
Eddie Kingston
In a true rags-to-riches story, Eddie Kingston went being practically broke in July to main-eventing a PPV for the World title in November. A 20-year veteran, Eddie had been waiting for his big break in wrestling for his whole career. He was contemplating giving up on wrestling entirely, but in 2020 he was brought in for a one time match against Cody on an episode of Dynamite. Instead of walking out to an entrance music, Eddie chose to enter with a mic in his hand, cutting a scathing promo on Cody. In minutes, he turned everyone watching at home from “who the fuck is this guy” to “sign this guy right now”.
And AEW did sign him, and he would have a massive rise through the ranks in a few months, culminating in a title match with his old friend, turned foe Jon Moxley. With an unparalleled gift of gab, Eddie could sell sand to a camel. He is as “real” and believable as you can get in wrestling, and fans love him for that. He would eventually hash out his differences with Mox, becoming a beloved babyface in the process.
“Muderhawk Monster” Lance Archer
Lance is a big motherfucker who likes to beat the shit out of people. He beats them up during matches, before matches, after matches, backstage, on the way to the ring, you name it. There’s not much more to say than that. Started out as a monster heel, eventually turned into a badass babyface. Managed by legend Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
Christian Cage
Often seen as one of the most underrated wrestlers of his time, former WWE and TNA wrestler Christian Cage debuted for AEW in 2020. Christian came back from retirement after a 7 year absence, with what was thought to be a career ending injury, and is now trying to make up for lost time and show that he still has what it takes.
Known for his comedic charisma and smooth wrestling style, he would go undefeated in singles matches until finally reaching the #1 spot and challenging Kenny Omega for his title. First, he beat him for his Impact titles at the debut episode of Rampage and is now aiming to take away his AEW title as well. Partnered with Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus.
“Spanish God” Sammy Guevara
Sammy is often referred to as one of the “Four Pillars of AEW”, a group of four young AEW Originals who will carry the company one day (along with Darby Allin, MJF and Jungle Boy). He started his AEW career as Chris Jericho’s protege and part of his Inner Circle. An exciting high-flyer with a ton of charisma, his entertaining heel antics would eventually start winning fans over.
After the whole Inner Circle turned babyface following the betrayal by MJF, Sammy rose as a big new fan-favorite, always impressing in his matches with crazy stunts. Don’t let his nickname fool you, the man does not speak a word of Spanish.
The Young Bucks
Considered by many to be the best and most influential tag team of the generation, Nick and Matt Jackson truly changed the game. Not only did they bring importance back to tag team wrestling in America, but as the most successful independent wrestlers of all time, they proved you could make a great living in this business without the WWE machine behind you. Growing up in the rough streets of Rancho Cucamonga, Nick and Matt are true wrestling hustlers and marketing geniuses. They created their empire from scratch, getting their name out there as arrogant show-offs who were breaking all the rules of pro-wrestling, “disrespecting” the legends and selling unfathomable amounts of merchandise.
As two of the founding fathers of both the Elite and AEW, the Bucks were beloved by their fans for not only the changing the wrestling landscape for the better, but for their long track-record of ground-breaking fast-paced wrestling matches, which were influencing the whole generation of new wrestlers. As time went on however, Young Bucks along with Kenny Omega would revert to their old villainous selves, reaching unprecedented levels of cockiness and heelish behavior.
Jungle Boy
Son of famous actor Luke Perry, “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry is considered by many to be the future of the company. Armed with his dashing good looks, amazing entrance song and his big dinasur friend Luchasaurus, he has improved tremendously since AEW started and has become a threat to even the biggest stars. One half of the tag team Jurassic Express, he is currently trying to claim the AEW Tag Team titles from The Young Bucks.
Andrade El Idolo
Big Mexican star Andrade El Idolo made his AEW debut recently, joining forces with the legendary Guerrero wrestling family, and declaring himself “The Face of the Latinos”. In an effort to expand his crew, Andrade has been attempting to recruit the Lucha Brothers Penta and Rey Fenix, but will have to go through PAC first in order to do that.
Jade Cargill
Made her debut teaming with Shaq (yes, that Shaq) to take on Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet in AEW’s first ever intergender match, in which she scored the winning pin on Velvet. Jade is an absolute fitness freak, built like something you would read about in the Greek mythology. She is still fairly new to wrestling but is developing very quickly, and is pretty much certainly a future Women’s champion. Managed by her lawyer, “Smart” Mark Sterling.
Hikaru Shida
The longest reigning AEW Women’s champion ever, Shida was one of the pillars that held AEW during the pandemic era of wrestling, and helped establish and build up the women’s division when it was at it’s weakest. Eventually lost her title to Dr. Britt Baker.
Tay Conti
Taynara came to America as a Judo black belt who participated in the trials for the Brazilian olympic team, eventually getting eliminated by a future gold medalist. After an unsuccessful stint in WWE’s developmental system, Tay arrived in AEW where she finally found her stride as a cheerful, lovable babyface who lights up the room with her smile right before kicking someone’s head off. Frequently tags with her best friend Anna Jay.
CONCLUSION
As this article is already getting much longer than I planned, I’m gonna end it here. I didn’t want to overload the reader with too much information, so I hope I’ve covered enough for you to understand what is going on. I haven’t covered all the great wrestlers and interesting characters, so you’re gonna have to find out about them on your own, which is really the beuaty of discovering new wrestling shows.
If you’re wondering what is the best place to start, the answer is almost always “next Dynamite”. Wrestling is not a medium that is meant to be binge-watched episode by episode from the beginning, you just kinda have to pick a starting point and go from there. You can however look up great matches and moments from the past, and watch them to get more context for the current characters and storylines.
A great resource, outside of AEW’s official YouTube page of course, is the YouTube channel Tranquilo Club, which features detailed video essay’s covering AEW’s past storylines and matches, I highly recommend it.
If you somehow made it to the end of this thing, thank you for reading!
