AEW: Why Dark Order is better now than last December

On Dynamite, Mr. Brodie Lee said that Dark Order is better than last December. Here’s why he’s right.

Last December, Dark Order was a mess. Let’s face it: they were a mess since their inception. #JoinDarkOrder vignettes aired that gave an air of mystery, but mostly just left viewers wondering WTF? It seemed like a cool concept, but the execution left something to be desired.

Dark Order was taking orders from “The Exalted One” for months. Rumors swirled that it was former Elite member, Marty Scurll. His contract with Ring of Honor was up in December, so fans assumed he’d arrive at Full Gear. When he went to NWA, the most popular guesses were “Broken” Matt Hardy or Luke Harper/Brodie Lee. Hardy arrived, but it wasn’t him either.

Finally on the March 20 episode of Dynamite, fans knew the identity of the person pulling the strings: Mr. Brodie Lee. He delivered a memorable line that simultaneously set the tone while taking a shot at his former boss. Lee told Christopher Daniels (who doubted “The Exalted One’s” existence) that he was “not the first out of touch old man to not believe in me.”

In the coming weeks, Lee continued to set the tone by bulldozing through talent until he earned himself an AEW World Championship shot at Double or Nothing. Lee lost to Moxley in a referee’s decision.

Just five months after his debut, Lee earned himself a championship. In somewhat of a surprise, “The Exalted One” defeated Cody to become the second TNT Champion. Having a title legitimizes the Dark Order.

Besides building himself up in the ring, he bulked up his not stable by recruiting new wrestlers. His biggest recruit to his cult was Colt Cabana. Lee courted Cabana for weeks to join. He has been very careful not to let Cabana see the evil side of his group. He works tirelessly to keep up appearances.

On the other hand, he has not hidden anything from Anna Jay. He has been very transparent about who the Dark Order is. Jay has already been included in devious deeds. After winning the TNT Championship, he was joined by the Dark Order (except for Cabana). They began to beat up The Natural Nightmares and Cody. Brandi came to protect Cody and Lee had Jay attack her, earning her the nickname “Queen Slayer”.

Jay successfully got Tay Conti to also join the group. They were tag team partners in the AEW Women’s Tag Team Tournament: The Deadly Draw. The pair bonded immediately and Jay easily got Conti to say yes.

Other than Lee, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson have helped legitimize Dark Order. We’ve been able to see just how formidable of a team they are, especially against Young Bucks. They’re currently 8-2 and ranked 5th in the official AEW Tag Team rankings.

The Dark Order has a comedic side. They frequently appear on Being the Elite. Jon Silver and Alex Reynolds spend most of their time failing at recruiting new members. They try to get people to “drink the Kool-Aid”; Reynolds carries around a container of grape Kool-Aid. They have tried and failed to recruit Jungle Boy, Griff Garrison (who they thought was Jungle Boy), Hangman Page, Nyla Rose and they might have briefly recruited Trent’s mom, Sue.

Lee hates Silver. He constantly calls him a child, says [expletive] you and has Evil Uno hit him with rolled up papers. It seems as through these segments are solely to make Silver corpse and he does every single time.

In another bit that has carried over to TV is the lawn mowers. Back on episode 212 of BTE, The Elite had the opportunity to do the new jingle for Chili’s. They would’ve been paid $1 million. With his share, Page said he’d buy a lawnmower. Matt Jackson wouldn’t sign the contract and they lost the deal.

A couple of episodes later, Dark Order signed the contract to sing the jingle. In episode 218 while celebrating Lee’s big win, he asks them what they spent their money on. At the end, Lee says that even though his hard has no grass or trees, he bought six riding lawn mowers. The segment concluded with Dark Order chanting “[expletive] Hangman Page!”

With Lee’s championship win, three solid recruits, Grayson and Uno climbing the tag team rankings and a popular BTE segment, Dark Order is much better now than they were in December.

Dark Order will only get stronger and more powerful. Imagine if they held more titles? They could become AEW’s most dominant faction.

Join Dark Order; they’re always looking for new recruits.