The history of AEW is quite short with under six years of existence, but they have created a lot of moments with three weekly television shows. Some may say AEW trying to grow too fast is what caused their progression to slow down, but it allowed more talents to get jobs. Factions and tag teams have been aplenty in AEW with the deep roster of names.
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Some of the best instances like the Death Riders, FTR, and the Lucha Brothers had cool names to help them established their names. However, not everyone was afforded the same luxury with some names either not fitting or just being downright bad. The following stables and tag team names were dumb enough for fans to still laugh at.
8 Jericho Appreciation Society
Silly Name Was Intentionally Meant To Appeal To Jericho's Ego
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2022-2023
Chris Jericho
Blackpool Combat Club
AEW had no idea what to do with Chris Jericho when his babyface run struggled during a strange feud with Eddie Kingston. Fans clearly preferring Kingston more in the face vs face story led to Jericho turning heel again to start a new group after the Inner Circle ended.
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Jake Hager stayed with Daniel Garcia, Angelo Parker, Matt Mernard, and Anna Jay joining the group. Sammy Guevara regressed back to being Jericho's sidekick, and his wife Tay Melo joined as well. The Jericho Appreciation Society found success as a heel act in the early stages, but it jumped the shark quickly with fans still laughing at the name.
7 Proud & Powerful
Santana & Ortiz Never Having An Official Tag Team Name Hurt Them
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2019-2023
None
Young Bucks
The duo of Santana and Ortiz first got over in TNA playing the new version of LAX. AEW signed them in the early stages to debut at the PPV right before Dynamite became a weekly show. Both wrestlers worked well as a team and fit into Chris Jericho's Inner Circle faction as the top heel act.
Santana and Ortiz didn't have an official tag name in the early stages before the name Proud and Powerful was unofficially used. The name did little to help them stand out and saw fans confused if that was the official name since they were still ring announced as Santana and Ortiz.
6 The Factory
QT Marshall's Groups Always Struggled With Fan Connection
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2021-2023
QT Marshall
Cody Rhodes
AEW has used QT Marshall in a few different roles since he has a natural heel personality that can add to the show. Unfortunately, Marshall's faction acts never worked out and some struggled to even form an identity within the name.
The Factory was a group with Marshall leading his proteges and students against Cody Rhodes and other AEW faces. Aaron Solo, Cole Carter, Lee Johnson, Nick Comoroto, and Anthony Ogogo failed to get over behind Marshall with such a bland referencing QT's training.
5 SCU
The Group Jumped The Shark With California Gimmick
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2019-2021
Christopher Daniels
Young Bucks
Darby Allin has used the term "California kids" to insult some of the California wrestlers to get hired thanks to the Young Bucks like Jack Perry, Luchasaurus, and Brandon Cutler. SCU was the original trio to have that follow them as close friends of the Young Bucks getting early contracts to leave ROH.
Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky were all veterans, so they received an instant push. Sky and Kazarian made history as the first AEW Tag Team Champions, but they quickly grew stale. SoCal Uncensored aka SCU was a limiting name that worked easier in a smaller pond like ROH than a bigger stage of AEW.
4 The Nightmare Collective
Brandi's Version Of Extending Cody's Group Backfired
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2019-2020
Brandi Rhodes
Allie
Cody Rhodes tried to make the Nightmare Family group an official act, but it didn't always have the same appeal. Brandi Rhodes initially split her time in between managing Cody and leading her own women's faction known as the Nightmare Collective.
Awesome Kong signing with AEW made her the top member who had a legendary past. Other members like Mel and Dr. Luther tried to make it work with Kong appearing part-time. Unfortunately, the poorly named group relied on Brandi carrying everything, and she wasn't able to make that work.
3 Better Than You Bay Bay
Names Combining Catch Phrases Are Always Odd
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2023
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Each other while teaming
AEW benefited from the feud between Adam Cole and MJF creating a buddy comedy story of them becoming unlikely friends. MJF and Cole started teaming more regularly and used the name Better Than You Bay Bay to represent both of their popular catchphrases.
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The concept clearly worked in the short-term to sell a lot of merchandise and main event the historic All In 2023 as the main event. However, it grew stale, and fans now mock the name as Cole and MJF try to get past the terrible ending to their Devil payoff in 2023.
2 Hardy Family Office
Matt Hardy Had A Few Flops In AEW
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2021-2022
Matt Hardy
Sting & Darby Allin
Tony Khan was reportedly never a fan of the Broken version of Matt Hardy to warrant changing things up. Hardy's "Big Money Matt" persona saw him playing a heel invested in making money at all costs. The Hardy Family Office saw him leading a group of random wrestlers under his leadership.
The Butcher, The Blade, The Bunny, Private Party, Angelico, and Jack Evans followed Hardy as a heel group clashing with many babyface mid-carders. AEW fans couldn't take the name seriously, and it further hurt Matt's name value after coming over with some hype.
1 Men Of The Year
Underrated Heel Team Couldn't Escape Bad Name
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2023-2024
Dan Lambert
Sammy Guevara
AEW placed Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page in a tag team together with MMA expert Dan Lambert managing them. Men of the Year was the generic heel team name for the duo, but they rarely got to show their full personality with Lambert doing the talking.
Sky received more opportunities than Page, but fate would show the latter having more potential once moving to NXT. Men of the Year felt like placement heels to get cheap heat in promos and lose all their important matches to the more significant babyfaces defeating them.