Cancelled PPV matches, backstage chaos, and other things Tony Khan doesn't want you to think about.
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00:00Whether it involved icons performing rather embarrassing bumps, top stars refusing to
00:05play ball, or the organisation not doing what was right on the night, there have been a
00:10number of shocking, awkward or humiliating incidents the AEW presidents would prefer
00:16you to forget ever happened.
00:18But they all very much did, so let's talk about them.
00:21I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture Wrestling and here are 10 Things Tony Khan Wants You
00:26To Forget About AEW.
00:2810.
00:29The Controversial Exits While the likes of Cody Rhodes and Jade Cargill
00:33seemingly left AEW on good terms, the same could not be said for some of the other talents
00:38that ultimately left TK's organisation.
00:41Take Big Swole for example.
00:43In the wake of leaving the company in November 2021, the wrestler claimed on her call-in
00:47show that the reason she didn't re-sign with AEW was down to the fact the promotion
00:52lacked structure or diversity.
00:54And how did the billionaire boss respond?
00:56By defending the company's diversity on Twitter, before bizarrely telling the world
01:01he let go of Swole because he didn't think her wrestling was good enough.
01:05Then you have Ivelisse, who took to social media to accuse a coach of mistreatment and
01:10claim Thunder Rosa.
01:11Her opponent during that infamous September 10th, 2020 Dynamite encounter slandered her
01:16name after her release in April 2021.
01:19And lastly, you have the latest controversial All Elite exit Khan would like to move on
01:24from Sharpish, that being CM Punk's firing in September post All In 2023 backstage madness.
01:31Releases and exits happen in wrestling, but these are just a few of the uglier departures
01:35the AEW president would like his fans to forget about as swiftly as possible.
01:42What should have been a moment that forced the All Elite audience to take this new villainous
01:46Dark Order unit seriously, towards the end of the December 18th, 2019 Dynamite, soon
01:52turned into one of the most embarrassing beatdowns in wrestling history.
01:55And we were only two months into weekly All Elite programming.
01:58Lovely.
01:59After SCU's Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Skyer got the better of the Young Bucks, a
02:04bunch of not-exactly-intimidating creepers surrounded the ring as silly purple lighting
02:09washed over the teams.
02:10The crowd were already pretty unimpressed by the lame and uninspiring attack about 30
02:15seconds in, and not even the arrival of Kenny Omega and Cody and Dustin Rhodes could shoot
02:19some excitement into the flat brawl.
02:22Then it happened.
02:23One of the unknown masked attackers began throwing the sort of dreadful right hand that
02:27accidentally added fuel to the all-amateur's wrestling fires.
02:31The shots missed Dustin by a country mile.
02:34Even four years later, you'll struggle to find a more embarrassing All Elite angle,
02:38or anyone in the company referencing this terrible TV conclusion.
02:42Many a Botched Debut It does seem that for every marvellous All
02:46Elite arrival, Tony Khan finds a way to completely drop the ball with a new face in his company
02:51on night one.
02:52There was that time AEW introduced a brand new giant into the mix in the form of the
02:56massive Satnam Singh, by blacking out the arena and throwing the lights back up to the
03:01sound of cricket as the big lad decks Samoa Joe.
03:04Andrade El Idolo experienced a similarly underwhelming first night on Dynamite back in June 2021,
03:10awkwardly showing up as Vicky Guerrero's new client.
03:13And that lasted long, didn't it?
03:14Remember when Matt Sidell popped up at All In 2020 as the Casino Battle Royale's Joker?
03:19Well, TK probably hopes you don't.
03:21His slipping star-pressed debut was just about overshadowed by another awful fall on the
03:26night.
03:27We'll get there.
03:28Cries of Who Are You as the Butcher and the Blade crawled into the AEW system, and Miro
03:32showing up as a video game-obsessed best man, are also just a few of the other times Tony
03:37got it badly wrong with an AEW newbie.
03:40Now I've got a quick question for you.
03:41What has been your favourite AEW debut of all time?
03:45Let me know in the comments section right down below.
03:477.
03:48MJF Has Left The Building
03:49Admittedly, it does seem like AEW are finally finding a way to fold this real-life drama
03:54into a storyline, with Wardlow finally realising MJF was the person responsible for destroying
03:59all the momentum he'd built up, heading into Double or Nothing 2022.
04:03However, that still doesn't change the fact that the controversial events that set the
04:07stage for Maxwell Jacob Friedman's explosive dynamite pipe bomb and summer hiatus last
04:12year are the sort of awkward moments TK wishes never happened.
04:16Before Maxwell decided to shockingly no-show a meet-and-greet on Double or Nothing weekend,
04:20the star was said to have butted heads with his boss over his contract when compared to
04:24the deals handed to other top stars in the company.
04:27Sure, Khan was ultimately able to convince Friedman to get in the ring at the pay-per-view
04:31and put his former bodyguard over, and he even managed to get a viral work shoot promo
04:36out of the salt of the earth before he eventually made an epic all-out return.
04:40But the fact Maxwell had to no-show a fan event to eventually score himself the raise
04:44he deserved, being put on more than $1 million a year according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling
04:49Observer Newsletter, wasn't the best look.
04:52The Terrible Mattress Bump
04:54This entry isn't taking anything away from the very real physical punishment each and
04:58every performer likely experiences whenever they decide to step in between the ropes,
05:03or enter a cage on this occasion, and a company doing all they can to protect their workers
05:07when they're trying to execute outrageous spots should be saluted.
05:10However, if you can't pull off a jaw-dropping moment safely without it looking like a bloke
05:15simply jumping off his wardrobe and onto his bed, the wise call would probably be to just
05:19move on and try something else.
05:21Or maybe just not film it in close-up.
05:22Sadly though, Chris Jericho, MJF and Tony Khan clearly didn't get those memos.
05:27Feeling they absolutely needed to chuck Le Champion off of the blood-and-guts structure
05:31for the story they were telling back in 2021, the company created a landing area that would
05:36ensure a safe fall for the veteran.
05:38The only problem was that the way the climactic fall was shot made the entire impact zone
05:42look like little more than a crash mat, some empty boxes and a bit of pretend cardboard
05:47steel.
05:48Which is exactly what it was.
05:50The idea was to fool fans into believing Jericho had just been mercilessly sent to his doom.
05:55But the way AEW decided to stupidly film this brave fall completely undermined what had
06:00been a pretty brutal match up to that point.
06:025.
06:03All of the non-punk elite backstage drama
06:05Away from all of the backstage mayhem involving Phil Brooks and the elite in AEW, there have
06:11been a number of other rather regrettable behind-the-scenes incidents that have grabbed
06:15the wrong sort of headlines over the last few years in particular too.
06:19Sammy Guevara's high-profile altercations with Eddie Kingston and Andrade El Idolo last
06:24year definitely rank as two of the more embarrassing examples of TK struggling to keep the drama
06:29in-house.
06:30And for the longest time, the real-life heat between various talented performers within
06:34the all-elite women's roster was actually more intriguing than the stories they were
06:38telling on screen.
06:39For comparison, it's rare to hear of any huge blow-ups going on in the locker room
06:43over in the world of sports entertainment, whereas AEW seemingly couldn't go a week
06:48without a star firing a shot at their colleague before clashing backstage in 2022 alone.
06:53Khan will likely be praying the punkers' collision with Jack Perriott all in 2023 sits
06:58as the last moment of behind-the-curtain madness for some time now.
07:02Or maybe he'll just book Guevara vs. Kingston for the banter in 2024 and invite even more
07:06hilarious chaos.
07:084.
07:09The All Out 2020 Matt Hardy Incident
07:11The fall that took the attention away from Matt Seidel's awkward arrival at All Out
07:152020 is a moment that should have taught the company a rather painful lesson.
07:19As Matt Hardy went to war with Sammy Guevara that night in a broken rules match, the pair
07:24eventually found themselves on top of a scissor lift backstage.
07:28Not quite hitting a spear off the machine in the way they had planned, though, Hardy
07:31ended up being very much broken when the back of his head smacked off the concrete floor.
07:36Hardy was clearly not fit to continue, but instead of calling off a match that fans weren't
07:40exactly desperate to see conclude anyway, the veteran was allowed to complete the contest,
07:44and AEW received a justifiable amount of backlash for their failure to properly intervene.
07:49Luckily, the company did respond quickly when hangman Adam Page was knocked out in his match
07:53against Jon Moxley a few years later, but the poor way they handled the latter's recent
07:58concussion on Dynamite proves that there's still some room for serious improvements when
08:02it comes to wrestler safety in these sort of scary situations.
08:063.
08:07Dan Lambert and Brandi Rhodes' Dreadful Dynamite Promo
08:10The days of Dan Lambert shooting from the hip on the AEW roster feel like a lifetime
08:15ago, and that's probably how Tony Khan would prefer it to stay.
08:18Now, there were a few highlights in there, for sure.
08:20Like that time he took a nasty Lance Archer blackout in the summer of 2021.
08:25However, whoever decided it would be a good idea to throw the American Top Team founder
08:28into a promo battle with Brandi Rhodes should have really been the one on the receiving
08:32end of the Murderhawk Monsters finisher.
08:35Both figures were generating all kinds of go-away heat at the time, with not a single
08:39soul in Chicago wanting to sit through the unlikable pair's shots and kayfabe killing
08:43retorts.
08:44It was uncomfortable to watch, offensive at times, and was all seemingly done to welcome
08:48back a Page Van Zandt who ultimately ended up doing very little of, after the heelish
08:53Lambert mate beat up, er, another heel.
08:55It was yet another low in the consistently ugly Lambert era of All Elite Wrestling, and
09:00a mess the company won't be inviting you to relive on YouTube any time soon.
09:042.
09:05PAC & Adam Page's Cancelled Double or Nothing 2019 Fight
09:08AEW's first ever press conference in early 2019 brought with it the announcement of two
09:13rather exciting new additions to the ever-growing roster.
09:17The Elite's Hangman Adam Page and the Bastard PAC.
09:20The studs ultimately ended up coming face-to-face during that very event, leading to a hotly
09:24anticipated match between the lads being scheduled for the inaugural Double or Nothing pay-per-view.
09:29What should have been one of the first of many mouth-watering All Elite blockbuster
09:32fights, however, soon turned into one of the company's earliest awkward moments.
09:36It also led to a piece of company history TK would no doubt love to erase if given the
09:40chance.
09:41With PAC reportedly not being happy to do the J-O-B for the Hangman, due to him being
09:45the Open the Dreamgate champion for Dragon Gate at the time, the bout was eventually
09:49pulled from AEW's first pay-per-view event.
09:52Those creative differences then resulted in the first official match in All Elite history
09:56actually going down on a WrestleGate Pro show over in the UK, and ending in a DQ.
10:02You'll love to see it.
10:031.
10:04Brawl Out and the Punk Saga that Followed
10:06Watching the punker swing a sledgehammer at his workplace repeatedly during All Out 2022's
10:12infamous press conference was surreal.
10:14But perhaps even crazier was the sight of Tony Khan helplessly sitting on and allowing
10:18the best in the world to shoot from the hip at his EVPs and biggest stars as he munched
10:23muffins with a ripped up triceps.
10:25This was merely the beginning of an AEW-changing evening, however, as the Elite and Punk would
10:29clash backstage not long after, leading to Khan having to suspend all involved and strip
10:34them of their gold.
10:35A terrible situation, one that could have possibly been solved by demanding all involved
10:40sit down in a room and settle their differences, only got more toxic in the months that followed.
10:44Khan's attempts to keep his top star and the lads who helped him start this apparent
10:48revolution happy by keeping them as far away from one another as humanly possible did not
10:53work out, and that failure to take decisive action earlier kept the company under a dark
10:58cloud for much of 2023 before Punk's controversial exit in September.
11:02TK will want his fans to remember 2023 as the year he crammed tens of thousands into
11:07Wembley and debuted another weekly two-hour TV show, not as the year he failed to handle
11:12a Punk saga that threatened to undo all of the Elite work that had come before it.
11:16I've been Gareth from WhatCultureWrestling, cheers for not forgetting to watch this video
11:20today, and hopefully we will see you very, very soon.
11:23Bye bye!