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Sometimes in wrestling, what happens outside of the ring can affect the storylines told within it. Performers get injured, flights get canceled, and worldwide pandemics make it impossible for champions to step foot in the country a promotion calls home. This, unfortunately, is the situation AEW finds itself in heading into Wednesday's edition of Dynamite, as Jeff Hardy, one-half of the Hardy Brothers tag team who was supposed to challenge for the Tag Team Championship belt in a ladder match that was also set to feature Jurassic Express and the Young Bucks, has been arrested with three counts including a DUI.
Now granted, it's still possible that the Hardys could show up at the event, wrestle a big-time match, and maybe even fly home with a few pounds of gold in their checked bags; Hardy has a court date on Tuesday morning, according to ESPN, and the wrestling world will know more about his immediate future when the judge adjourns his proceedings.
But unless Hardy is somehow cleared of any wrongdoing, it's sort of hard to imagine “The Charismatic Enigma” making it back onto AEW TV two days after being cuffed for his third DUI in five years. So, unless Tony Khan wants to simply make his ladder match into a two-way bout for championship gold, he'll need to pick a third tag team to take part in the title match. Here are three options that could fit the bill.
These three tag teams could produce a compelling ladder match with the Bucks and the Jurassic Express.
3. The Lucha Brothers
Of all the tag teams on the AEW roster, none make more sense to be inserted into the match more than the Lucha Brothers.
As AEW OGs who took part in a ladder match at the original All Out versus the Young Bucks, the two-thirds of Death Triangle have been incredible stewards of the match initially made famous by the Hardy Boyz/Brothers back in WWE and have used their incredible athletics to elevate the stipulation to pure art form.
After taking on the Young Bucks in an absolute barnburner just outside of Rancho Cucamonga at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California, the beef between the Bucks and the Bros is on the upswing, and their insertion into the match as the chocolate to Matt and Nick's peanut butter could make for some great spots, some great crowd reactions, and some much-needed development for multiple storylines across the promotion.
Factor in that it was Jurassic Express who took the titles from the Lucha Brothers in the first place, and their insertion into the match just feels right.
2. FTR
FTR, though currently feuding with the United Empire of New Japan Pro Wrestling, are still the number one contenders for the AEW championship and thus, deserve a spot in the match if the number three team in the rankings, the Hardys, have to vacate their spot in the match.
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Like the Lucha Brothers, FTR has extensive experience wrestling both teams in the match right now, as they are 1-1 versus the Young Bucks in championship matches, including a loss of the AEW Tag Team Championship belts and a retaining victory of the ROH Tag Team Championship belts, and have defeated the Jurassic Express in all five of the matches the two teams have taken part in together. If Tony Khan wants to put as many top guys in title matches to elevate the prestige of each championship, who better than the “Top Guys” to accomplish that feat?
Even if it isn't the cleanest fit from a storyline standpoint, a Jurassic Express-FTR-Young Bucks bout could be a Mach of the Year candidate; now with ladders.
1. Team Taz
Back to the power rankings, if Khan wants to keep things on the straight and narrow, it should be the Blackpool Combat Club who are inserted into the match if FTR can't go for one reason or another, but considering the rankings have a tendency to change depending on the needs of any week's show – see Jon Moxley leapfrogging Wardlow to become the top contender for the AEW World Championship – there's a chance the soon-to-be AEW Interim World Champion's team may bow out of tag team competition, at least until they're finished with the Jericho Appreciation Society at Blood and Guts.
If that's the case and the Hardys are out too for obvious reasons, then the fourth team in the power rankings, Team Taz, could bump up a few spots and enter into a match against their most recent Pay-Per-View opponents.
At Double or Nothing, in the aforementioned three-way match for the AEW Tag Team Championship, it was Swerve Strickland, not Powerhouse Hobbs or Ricky Starks, who took the pin, leaving a very logical reason for Team Taz to want another shot at the titles they didn't personally win or lose. Both Hobbs and Starks were in the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match earlier this year, and while neither won the match, both turned in fantastic efforts as single competitors in the same faction.
Now that the duo have formed more of a cohesive team, their insertion into the match, and thus the championship picture, could create quite a bit of intrigue and more than a few jaw-dropping big man spots between Hobbs and Luchasaurus.
