Mid 20th Century
86-506: The Dark Order is a professional wrestling stable currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The stable consists of Evil Uno , John Silver , Alex Reynolds , and Brodie Lee Jr . The stable previously utilized masked henchmen dubbed "creepers" who, when the group was being portrayed as villainous , would join them in beatdowns and other disruptive acts. The group debuted with Uno and Stu Grayson as its first members in May 2019, during
172-519: A 10-man tag team elimination match , where if Page and the Dark Order won, they would receive matches for the world and tag team championships, respectively. Page and the Dark Order were defeated, with Page being the last man eliminated on his team. On the June 15, 2023, episode of ROH TV , where The Dark Order had been appearing most frequently in 2023, John Silver confirmed that Stu Grayson had left
258-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in
344-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance
430-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
516-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
602-532: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
688-519: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
774-585: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
860-447: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . AEW Dark AEW Dark , or simply Dark , is an American professional wrestling streaming television program that
946-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling
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#17327978187171032-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
1118-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
1204-799: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
1290-523: A month, recording four shows per taping with each show lasting about 90 minutes. During the weeks that Rampage or Battle of the Belts aired live , AEW taped Dark in conjunction with that program. AEW had also occasionally taped Dark in conjunction with Elevation , notably in December 2021. Dark aired its last episode on April 25, 2023. Both Dark and Elevation were canceled in preparation for
1376-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise
1462-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
1548-402: A new member of the Dark Order under the moniker of 5. He would later debut on the June 9, 2020, episode of AEW Dark . In May, Colt Cabana began a losing streak as Brodie Lee tried to recruit him into The Dark Order. On the June 10 episode of Dynamite , after Cabana lost to Sammy Guevara , Lee came out to help Cabana to his feet and once again offer him a spot in the Dark Order. Later on in
1634-503: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
1720-586: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
1806-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which
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#17327978187171892-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
1978-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has
2064-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to
2150-624: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
2236-678: The Super Smash Brothers and were known primarily for their work in Chikara and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). Reynolds and Silver previously teamed together as the Beaver Boys , and were known for their work in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). Both tag teams were one-time PWG World Tag Team Champions . Uno and Grayson were first shown at the end of a Being The Elite episode, when The Young Bucks teased
2322-557: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including
2408-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on
2494-645: The 10pm ET slot on Fridays, it replaced Dark as the go-home show for pay-per-views. On August 27, 2021, it was revealed that Dark would begin being taped at its own set within Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida at Soundstage 21 —the same studio which previously hosted weekly episodes of TNA Impact! —while Elevation would continue to be taped in conjunction with Dynamite . The first set of tapings for Dark at Universal Studios occurred on September 11, 2021. AEW taped Dark episodes about once
2580-584: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
2666-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
The Dark Order - Misplaced Pages Continue
2752-509: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
2838-653: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
2924-592: The Dark Order as he was slowly recruited into the group over time. Anna Jay would later make her first appearance alongside the Dark Order on the July 29 episode of Dynamite . On the August 22 edition of Dynamite , Brodie Lee defeated Cody for the AEW TNT Championship and later gave him back the shattered pieces of the prototype TNT title. On the following episode of Dynamite , after a victory celebration,
3010-645: The Dark Order extended an invitation to Tay Conti to join the group. At All Out on September 5, Lee, Cabana, Evil Uno and Grayson were defeated by Matt Cardona , Scorpio Sky , Dustin Rhodes and Q. T. Marshall in an eight-man tag team match . Lee lost the TNT Championship back to Cody on the October 7 episode of Dynamite . The Dark Order would then more heavily pursue the recruitment of Hangman Page , whom they had made advances towards previously. In
3096-666: The Fallen , they made their AEW in-ring debut in a three-way tag team match defeating Angélico, Evans and Jurassic Express ( Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus ), advancing to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament. On August 31, at All Out, they defeated Best Friends to receive a first round buy-in for the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament. They were unsuccessful in
3182-505: The March 18, 2020, episode of Dynamite , Mr. Brodie Lee made his AEW debut and was revealed as The Exalted One and the leader of The Dark Order, beating up Daniels and Kazarian. Then, Lee would have several squashes against other wrestlers. Also, on the April 22, 2020, episode of Dynamite , Preston Vance joined the stable as 10. On June 5, it was revealed that Alan Angels had been recruited as
3268-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
3354-488: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
3440-531: The Super Smash Brothers. They defeated Best Friends ( Chuck Taylor and Trent ) by disqualification, when Trent hit a low blow in retaliation for the Dark Order doing the same when the referee was down. On August 7, at an Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (OWE) show in Toronto , they defeated Strong Hearts ( El Lindaman and T-Hawk ). The next day, they appeared at a Progress Wrestling show in
3526-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
The Dark Order - Misplaced Pages Continue
3612-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
3698-561: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
3784-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
3870-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
3956-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
4042-461: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
4128-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
4214-675: The days prior to Brodie Lee's death on December 26, 2020, his older son, Brodie Jr. , nicknamed "Negative 1", was signed to All Elite Wrestling and became a member of his father's faction at the age of 8, with AEW stating that he can start to perform for the company when he becomes an adult if he so wishes. The December 30 episode of AEW Dynamite , known as the " Brodie Lee Celebration of Life ", featured Dark Order members winning every match. Following this, Dark Order transitioned into babyfaces as they continued their storyline involving Hangman Page where Silver and Reynolds teamed with Page on several occasions while also still trying to recruit him into
4300-537: The early days of the stable, Dark Order received a bad reception after a "cold debut" and a "disastrous main-event angle that saw one of The Dark Order's "minions" go viral for throwing blatantly fake punches." Evil Uno and Stu Grayson agreed that the incident hurt their image until Brodie Lee was revealed as the leader of the faction. Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )
4386-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
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#17327978187174472-422: The event, there were four dark matches , two before and two after the live broadcast. During the media scrum following this event, AEW President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Khan stated that the dark matches would become available to view on video in some form. On October 5, then-AEW Executive Vice President and wrestler Cody Rhodes announced a sister program to Dynamite called AEW Dark , which would be
4558-603: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
4644-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
4730-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
4816-460: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
4902-405: The group and joined a rival faction, The Righteous with Vinny Marseglia . Following Double or Nothing, Uno and Grayson were booked for some independent shows, usually against AEW contracted wrestlers, before the premiere of AEW Dynamite in October 2019. This began at Pro Wrestling Guerilla 's Sixteen, on July 26, marking their first appearance in the company since 2013, when they were known as
4988-565: The group. However, on the January 20, 2021, episode of Dynamite , Page would politely rebuff their offer, as he felt that he did not work well in groups. At the Revolution event on March 7, Page defeated Matt Hardy ; the Dark Order subsequently came down to the ring to celebrate with him. At Fight for the Fallen , Page teamed with the Dark Order to face Omega, the Young Bucks and The Good Brothers ( Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson ) in
5074-479: The home of AEW's dark matches. On October 8, the program began airing on Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern Time (ET) on AEW's YouTube channel. During the week of a pay-per-view (PPV), however, Dark would air on Friday as the go-home show; this continued until May 2021 for that year's Double or Nothing PPV. Unlike the dark matches of other wrestling promotions, which generally do not affect storylines, these matches on Dark were part of AEW's storylines and counted towards
5160-681: The inaugural Double or Nothing pay-per-view. In March 2020, Mr. Brodie Lee made his AEW debut and was revealed as the leader (and "exalted one") of the stable. Several wrestlers were added to the group during this period, and Lee would ultimately win the TNT Championship in August 2020. However, when he died four months later, AEW hosted the Brodie Lee Celebration of Life ; this saw the group turn into heroic characters and name Lee's eight-year-old son their honorary new leader. Uno and Grayson previously teamed together as
5246-526: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
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#17327978187175332-480: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
5418-496: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
5504-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
5590-436: The night, Cabana was seen heading into Lee's office. The following week, Cabana was handed an envelope by Lee that stated they will team together against Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss. At the same time, Brodie Lee extended a hand to Anna Jay after her loss to Abadon . Cabana and Lee would defeat Janela and Kiss after Cabana got the pin on Janela. Over the next few weeks, Cabana would begin a winning streak teaming with members of
5676-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as
5762-717: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
5848-411: The same city, but were defeated by Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis), in a three-way match, also involving The Butcher and The Blade (Andy Williams and Pepper Parks ). Stu Grayson described The Dark Order as a Scientology -like cult. As part of the gimmick, the stable has tried to recruit people from outside of professional wrestling. The stable also has a website, joindarkorder.com. During
5934-576: The show from the past year. On February 24, 2021, AEW announced that a new spinoff of Dark would premiere on Monday, March 15 titled Dark: Elevation . This was the promotion's third program, after Dynamite and Dark , and aired on Monday nights at 7pm ET, also on AEW's YouTube channel. With the premiere of Rampage in August 2021, Khan said that Dynamite and Rampage would be AEW's core properties, while their YouTube shows, Dark and Elevation , would be their peripheral properties, essentially their developmental shows. With Rampage airing in
6020-424: The signing of the Super Smash Brothers. On May 25, 2019, at Double or Nothing , Uno and Grayson were repackaged and made their surprise debut as The Dark Order. After Best Friends ( Chuck Taylor and Trent ) defeated Angélico and Jack Evans , Uno and Grayson appeared ringside after the lights went out, and attacked everyone alongside their masked henchmen (referred to as "creepers"). On July 13, at Fight for
6106-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
6192-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
6278-428: The tournament, losing to eventual winners SoCal Uncensored on the October 23 episode of Dynamite . On November 20, the first of a series of Dark Order vignettes began airing, and in doing so, introduced the spokesman for the stable, who communicated to Alex Reynolds through a hotel television. Then, John Silver and Alex Reynolds joined the Dark Order. On the January 1, 2020, episode of Dynamite , "The Exalted One"
6364-519: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
6450-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
6536-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
6622-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
6708-570: The wrestlers' match statistics. During the November 5 episode, Tony Schiavone announced AEW Spanish commentator Dasha Gonzalez would be his co-host going forward. Schiavone and Gonzalez hosted segments on Dark from the "AEW Control Center," highlighting matches and storylines within AEW. On December 31, AEW aired a special episode called AEW Dark – 2019 Year in Review , featuring highlights of
6794-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
6880-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
6966-650: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
7052-567: Was produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), running from October 8, 2019, to April 25, 2023, on AEW's YouTube channel. The program featured matches taped either before or after the preceding episode of Rampage (if it was live), a pay-per-view , or at Soundstage 21 in Universal Studios Florida , which served as the main location for the tapings of Dark ' s weekly episodes. Prior to this, it
7138-458: Was revealed as the title of the Dark Order's mysterious off-screen leader. The stable's first feud was with SoCal Uncensored, and saw the Order try to recruit Christopher Daniels following his loss to Sammy Guevara . During the following weeks, The Dark Order faced SoCal Uncensored including a victory at Revolution , where Uno and Grayson defeated Kazarian and Scorpio Sky in a tag team match. On
7224-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
7310-551: Was taped before and after the preceding episode of AEW's flagship program, Dynamite , and had featured segments highlighting the previous week's Dynamite and interviews with AEW personalities. The show was originally hosted by Tony Schiavone and Dasha Gonzalez in a studio called the "AEW Control Center". Both Dark and its spin-off, Elevation , were canceled due to the addition of AEW's television program, Collision . On October 2, 2019, All Elite Wrestling 's (AEW) flagship program, Dynamite , premiered on TNT . During
7396-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
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