Ever since Paul “Triple H” Levesque took up the reigns as the creative lead of the WWE Universe, the business, as they say, has changed forever. WWE has gone from the place where creative performers go to die, where high-flying big men get grounded, and where performers who commission Tom “Freakin” Savini of Friday the 13th fame to make them a custom mask to go with their revolutionary new character get released due to “budget cuts.” Suddenly, AEW wasn't the only show in town, and wrestling fans the world over – especially the ones who actually call the sport their occupation – took notice.
Because of this “whole new world philosophy,” plus more opportunities on the independent circuit, some “elite” performers have become increasingly comfortable with voicing their displeasure on the way out the door or even while still under contract – looking at you, Miro – with some going so far as to suggest to Fightful Select that some AEW talents likely would have stayed in the WWE had Levesque been in power when they left the promotion.
Sidebar: Based on the very specific conditions of that reporting, the talent in question is likely either Claudio Castagnoli or Adam Cole.
So, after having to weather the criticism from Joey Janela that AEW Dark is something creative “doesn't care about,” Tony Khan has another minor fire to put out via a former member of the Dark Order, Stu Grayson, who lamented how his time in AEW ended and suggested that performers maybe aren't as enthusiastic to wrestle on YouTube as some might have you believe.
Will AEW rethink its Dark strategy after recent criticism?
During his time in AEW, Stu Grayson was consistently championed for his abilities in the ring. Sure, he wasn't the biggest, fastest, or strongest guy on the roster, but the Victoriaville, Quebec native formerly known as Player Dos had heart, and that drew praise from everyone from Excaliber to his fellow countryman Chris Jericho when they were afforded a chance to call one of his matches.
Unfortunately for Grayson, the Dark Order, and the AEW Galaxy as a whole, that didn't happen all that often, though not for a lack of desire. No, while performers like Kenny Omega wanted to get in the ring with Evil Uno's ex-tag team champion, the opportunity rarely presented itself, as Grayson told SLAM via aggregation from Fightful.
“Kenny Omega has tried to work with me since forever. In 13 years I had like 13 matches—something like that—it’s very hard to show the world how good you are in such a limited amount of time. I would trade in a hundred dark matches for 15 minutes on television.”
“I never wanted to get paid to do nothing. I’d rather make less money and be useful than being useless and make a ton of money. That’s not how I am. I need to be challenged. I would go to the gym and hit a massive leg day so that way I’d feel challenged.”
Yikes, that certainly doesn't paint the AEW Dark system in a good light.
Now granted, every promotion has performers who want to be booked better but have to grapple with their place on the booker's card. Scorpio Sky's TNT Championship run wasn't particularly impressive, nor has any TNT Championship run since probably Miro, really, and even performers like “Hangman” Adam Page, who is about as defined as a fixture of the main event picture as anyone else in the promotion, likely has slightly bitter feelings about losing his strap to CM Punk only to watch his foe suffer a leg injury that has kept him sidelined for the entirety of what was supposed to be the “Summer of Punk.”
And yet, for all of the intriguing aspects of wrestling – the spectacle, the storytelling, the whole nine yards – the *spoiler alert* pre-planned nature of every match/feud makes it so that even the most dedicated performer around can't out-work his fellow wrestlers to become a champion through sheer determination. No, unlike in, say, basketball, where the best player will earn minutes over someone who has either lost a step or has been overrated, the best technical wrestler, the best in-ring storyteller, and even the best talkers can get buried into oblivion – aka catering – if the promoter doesn't want to push them. In 2019, one of the reasons AEW drew so much interest from available talent like Jon Moxley was because of the “freedom” to be themselves and not have to fit into the pre-determined roles provided by a promoter. If, however, AEW loses this reputation, and outside opportunities prove more attractive, then who knows, maybe the next round of free agent wrestler negotiations will look a good bit different.
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