What happened to the pillars of All Elite Wrestling?
There was a time, and it wasn’t too long ago, that a group of young talent was promoted as “the pillars of All Elite Wrestling,” another tired trope that Tony Khan wants to borrow from The Wrestling Observer Newsletter since it was the primary source for diehard American fans to read about the stellar run of All Japan Pro Wrestling in the 90s with the actual four pillars, Kobashi, Misawa, Kawada, and Taue. Honorable mention to Jun Akayama, of course.
Regardless of how convoluted the concept was for an American audience in the modern era, the fact remains that four young athletes, with the concept of young athletes evolving the business was supposedly the entire mission statement of AEW, were slated to be the foundation of the organization in the future.
Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, Jack Perry, and MJF were the young lions that the company told the audience would be the elite athletes to take the brand forward. Sure, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega might’ve been the core of the launch, but with a collection of talent at least a decade younger, it told the audience that there was a vision for the future of the business. When Kenny finally hangs up his boots, in theory, someone like Darby or Sammy could take the torch forward.
That’s not just a trivial concept either, if the organization wanted to the fans to invest in the company through ticket sales, merchandise, and pay-per-view orders, they had to be assured that their investment actually was to help spark an industry that was woefully stagnant for years before the kickoff of All Elite Wrestling in 2019.
On the surface, it made sense, as Darby was a wild man with unique charisma, Jack Perry was the fiery baby face that the crowd could rally behind, Sammy was going to be the arrogant aerial grappler that was too good to deny, and Friedman was going to be the one guy that was actually going to be a heel instead of just act like on on television. Remember when that was the entire point of being a heel anyway?
So, why haven’t any of them actually become a cornerstone of the company?
The answer is both simplistic, and as confusing as Tony Khan’s booking philosophy. It was a combination of their own individual ineptitude, despite how talented they legitimately are, and the total lack of ability to build a star from a booking perspective. It’s very rare that someone in AEW ends up in a better spot after a storyline than they were before it started. That should be the rule, not the exception.
Sammy Guevara is a very talented guy and it’s easy to see why he was drafted to AEW when the EVPs were assembling the team. In fact, I actually met him at a convention several years ago and he was very polite so I don’t have anything, but good things to say about him based on my limited interaction. However, his track record in AEW suggests that there has to be some type of issue that prevents him from being a featured performer on Dynamite. As we know, he made some very crude remarks about Mercedes Mone on a podcast several years ago, and when the video resurfaced, he was suspended briefly from the organization. He apologized to Mone and she accepted so it looked as though it was a mistake from when he was younger that he could put behind him. But, then he had two different backstage altercations with Eddie Kingston and Andrade, which happened at a time when the promotion already had a lot of negative press because of the CM Punk backstage brawl.
Granted, it’s not to say that Sammy was totally at fault because only those that were backstage at the arena know exactly what happened, but if two different guys want to punch Guevara in the face on two different occasions, it’s possible that there’s a reason that he’s the common denominator in both situations. Furthermore, Sammy was suspended again last year after a reckless dive from the top rope and a botched landing gave Jeff Hardy a concussion. He has more or less been in Ring Of Honor purgatory since that time, and similar to how there was probably a reason that he was the common thread in the altercations with Kingston and Andrade, there’s also probably a reason that he’s kept off of the AEW radar. On one hand, it’s a shame that someone as talented as he is, doesn’t have a better spot among the AEW landscape, but in this case, he has almost been labeled not worth the hassle.
Jack Perry had the fundamentals, he was another young lion that you’d think had the potential to be someone that a new group could build around as a classic baby face. He can go in the ring and looked to be on track for bigger things in All Elite. Much like Sammy, you can see why Perry was picked for the team. Unfortunately, as time went on, Perry’s mindset proved that he was anything but ready to be given the responsibility as a money-drawing star for a national company. Infamously, Perry wanted to use real glass for a spot on Collision at a time when CM Punk was running the Saturday show. The fact that it’s unwise to put an active wrestler in that role is a different discussion for a different time. Fast forward to Wembley Stadium, the biggest event in AEW history at that point, and Perry decided to make a remark about real glass during a pre-show match with Hook where Perry took a suplex onto the windshield of a car. When Perry got backstage, he was confronted by the real-life Phil Brooks and another physical altercation took place backstage. In one of the most unwise moves in the five-year history of the company, Tony Khan decided to air the security footage of the incident, which showed Perry getting palmed in the face and put into a front face lock. Clearly, Jack Perry isn’t Mickey Gall.
Just like Sammy was at a certain point, Perry was exiled from the All Elite island, working several months in New Japan before he made a relatively brief return to AEW. He hasn’t been seen in the organization since he dropped the TNT title to Daniel Garcia last November. A few years ago, Perry made an appearance at a convention in England, and during the Q&A session, he seemed completely aloof about the sport. If Perry doesn’t care about his career, why should the fans? The biggest takeaway from his nearly six-month absence from All Elite Wrestling is, nobody asked where he was or even seemed to take notice, which is the absolute opposite of a star that can draw money.
Darby Allin’s lack of progress in All Elite Wrestling is more of a simplistic answer than the other pillars, he’s just too narrow-minded to actually understand the point of the industry and thus will never truly be a valuable commodity. For an undersized guy that might’ve been completely overlooked in a previous era, Darby is getting paid by a billionaire to be a wrestler on national television. What does he do with that opportunity? He took his in-ring ability and unique charisma, and decided to climb Mt. Everest instead. How many tickets are for sale to see Darby wrestle on Mt. Everest? Almost as ridiculous as the notion to attempt to make the legitimately dangerous journey is the fact that Tony Khan is willing to allow Allin to do it while still under contract to his company. How much money is Darby Allin going to draw at the next stadium show if he’s frozen somewhere on Mt. Everest? The fact that Darby will take nonsensical bumps without any use of psychology just for the “shock” factor that will undoubtedly shorten his career seems secondary compared to the risk of being stuck in an avalanche.
Perhaps the most disappointing, or at least the most underwhelming of the promoted four pillars is Maxwell Jacob Friedman, a competitor that many thought would be a top-tier main eventer that would draw money as one of the few that could get legitimate heat in the modern era. Instead, a botched title reign with the devil mask reveal, which was potentially the most underwhelming angle in All Elite history, and using cheap heat as substitute for compelling mic skills, Friedman has fallen woefully short of his original expectations. I never understood how anyone made the comparison of MJF on the mic to Roddy Piper, considering that Friedman had to use suicide and CTE references to try to get heat from the crowd. Make no mistake about it, Friedman can go bell-to-bell, but since the “bidding war of 2024” never happened and he got a lucrative deal from Tony to stay with the company, Friedman has been stuck in neutral as a performer without either the motivation or the opportunity to get into second gear.
Maybe Friedman is smart enough to realize that Tony’s vanity project has a ceiling so he will get paid as much as possible for as long as possible with a limited schedule. If that’s his view point,you can’t blame him for it since there’s very little of substance that matters within the grand scheme of AEW anyway. But, if you want an example of how underutilized, underwhelming, or both MJF has been since the new contract was signed, his current standing in the organization proves it. The Dynasty pay-per-view took place earlier this month, but was MJF on the card to try to sell PPVs? No, he made a brief cameo in the second match on the card of a four and a half hour show. Is he being booked to have a run as a major heel? No, he was made to look like a dork on television when he was rejected by The Hurt Syndicate last week.
At the Double or Nothing pay-per-view two years ago, the main event was a four-way match between the “four pillars of AEW” and when you take into account that none of them would be considered legitimate main event stars for a pay-per-view now, it explains everything about how underwhelming the entire situation was for the company.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
