All Elite Wrestling lives by the mantra of being “where the best wrestle”. Since its inception in 2019, Tony Khan’s promotion has prided itself on having a wealth of homegrown talent and bringing in the best talent from the independent scene and a plethora of already established names. That has worked like a charm for the most part, but not everything can work out for every superstar.
Some of AEW’s most notable acquisitions haven’t worked out for either party. Whether things have been doomed from the start or soured over time, been affected by outside sources, or just not fit in with the product’s fanbase and ethos, AEW has seen a whole host of talent join its ranks, only to fall flat on their face.
For some of these wrestlers, they’ve been the victims of bad luck, whereas others have simply not performed to the best of their abilities. Whatever way you slice it, the following talented performers have not contributed to the wider AEW story to the high standards that the company would have expected over the years, being some of the organisation’s biggest flops.
The Hardys heading to AEW after their middling third run in WWE made a lot of sense on paper. Matt and Jeff were both still massive household names, were still only in their 40s, and had plenty of juice left in the tank. All this, and both Matt and Jeff had good runs on the indies when AEW’s EVPs were selling Bullet Club shirts by the truckload, not to mention the Hardys had done stellar work in TNA.
The Hardys in AEW should have worked a charm, but it really, really didn’t.
Matt Hardy arrived in AEW in February 2021, just over a year before his brother. Sadly, none of Matt’s storylines had captured what made him so beloved during his ‘Broken’ days, and this somehow only got worse when Jeff arrived. Jeff was booked strongly in the first Owen Hart tournament, getting through Darby Allin via DQ on the way to being beaten in the semi-finals by eventual winner, Adam Cole, but The Hardys as a team just felt flat compared to AEW’s existing tag team scene.
Their only PPV appearance came in a limp victory over The Young Bucks at Double or Nothing 2022, in a match that felt a little sad compared to the incredible Ladder Match the teams had at ROH Supercard of Honor XI just five years earlier. Unfortunately, Jeff Hardy picked up a DUI charge three months into working with AEW, and things fell apart from there. It also didn’t help that Jeff would regularly complain in public about appearing on Rampage, calling it “the B show”, but neither he nor his brother did anything to justify A-list billing.