Top 5 Dumpster Fire Characters in AEW

The 411mania Dumpster Fire of the Week

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a special edition of The 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week. I’m Bryan Kristopowitz.

With All Elite Wrestling set to have its first pay-per-view event of 2020 at the end of this month, I thought now would be the perfect time to take a look at the top five Dumpster Fires in AEW at the moment. And I say “at the moment” because the pro wrestling promotion is still fairly new, still growing, still looking for new stars and will likely have a completely different set of Dumpster Fires at the end of 2020. But that’s the future. In the here and now, there is a definite top five.

I’ll admit that I was initially skeptical of the whole AEW thing. It was cool to have a potential viable competitior to the dominant WWE in the pro wrestling world, but I was worried that the promotion would end up being an endless series of insider “inside jokes,” on screen shots at the WWE, and lame ass Attitude Era nostalgia. To a certain extent, that’s what the AEW show on TNT, Dynammite, was when it started in October 2019. But now, almost four months later, AEW is really its own thing, a pro wrestling show that’s all about what’s happening in its own world, not so much about what’s happening anywhere else. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that there are other pro wrestling groups out there, but is it a good thing to constantly hear AEW stars make jokes about Roman Reigns or Vince McMahon? Who cares?

So who are the Top 5 AEW Dumpster Fires?

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Up first, the honorable mentions:

5-Hangman Adam Page: What the heck is going on with Hangman Page right now? He seems to be estranged from his fellow members of The Elite, although he’s AEW Tag Team Campions with Kenny Omega, and no one seems to know why that is. The Young Bucks seem to think that Page has a drinking problem and that could be one of the reasons he’s out of sorts, but I don’t think that’s it. I think that Page is going through some sort of delayed emotional breakdown from losing to Chris Jericho and failing to become the first ever AEW World Champion. I mean, who thought that Page would be in the hunt for the world title so quickly? I know I didn’t. And since then, besides winning the tag titles, what has he done in AEW? Has he been in the hunt again, realistically, for the world title? That’s what I think is going on. I could end up being wrong, though. There could be something going on “off screen” that’s messing him up that just hasn’t been revealed yet. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

4-Britt Baker: Or Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., as she apparently likes to be called. She’s another wrestler who seems to be on a weird, slow decline into a kind of madness, and I’m not sure why that is. The women’s division in AEW is pretty dang competitive, with plenty of great wrestlers vying for a shot at world champion Riho, and Baker is obviously one of the best on the roster. But, at the moment, she isn’t the best. She seems to be hovering around in the top five. Being in the top five would seem to be pretty good. But then Baker keeps losing matches and she will likely drop even further in the rankings. Is she in a slump? Maybe. But so what? If you want to go up in the rankings you just win matches, or find a way to win matches. So why not just do that instead of being a condescending asshole? She’s that way to the fans, she’s that way to Tony Schiavonne, to the other announcers. Is that “sttitude change” really going to help her win matches, go up in the rankings, and get a shot at the belt?

3- Chris Jericho: You would think that a guy like Jericho, when he’s in full on bad guy total douchebag mode, would be the number one Dumpster Fire regardless of the promotion. Amazingly, in the case of AEW, Jericho isn’t the top Dumpster Fire. Oh, he’s just awful, but there are others on the roster who are actually worse than he is. Still, Jericho brings his Dumpster Fire “A” game every week he’s on TV. From his interviews, his promos in the ring, to his matches, to the way he interacts with the fans and the announcers, he’s just an awful human being. He’s funny as hell, yes, but he’s still awful. His top two moments so far in AEW? First, when he started calling himself “Le Champion,” and second, when he got his ass kicked and then started screaming “But I’ve got a ticket!” Jericho also turned that into a T-shirt, which is just a big time Dumpster Fire move.

Man, what is Jericho going to do when the Inner Circle turns on him? Is he going to survive the onslaught of a pissed off Jake Hager?

2-Pac: At the moment, I’m fairly certain that Pac, or “The Bastard Pac,” is the most miserable wrestler on the AEW roster. I guess we’re supposed to assume that his horrendous attitude is just Pac “being all business” in the ring, but he’s that way out of the ring, too. I don’t think he’s had one “light” moment since he arrived in AEW. I’m worried that the guy is going to have a goddamn stroke one of these days. And what the heck is he going to do when his feud with Kenny Omega is over? Who is he going to be miserable about after that? I think Pac needs a manager or an advisor or someone to try to calm him down.

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And the 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week: The AEW Edition top spot goes to:

1-MJF: Ah, yes, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. MJF. This guy doesn’t even need to open his mouth for you to hate his guts. And when he does open his mouth, my God, you just want to see anyone kick his goddamn ass. His ongoing feud with Cody Rhodes is a prime example of just how terrible he is. From the live whipping and the upcoming cage match he’s forcing Cody to have with his henchman Wardlow to the hiring of the Butcher and the Blade and Bunny to be his mercenaries, MJF is being built up to such an annoying point that when Cody finally gets his hands on him it’s going to be so sweet to MJF get destroyed. Well, if that is what eventually happens. MJF is pretty devious, so there’s likely a way for him to get out of all of this.

I saw him a few times when I managed to catch MLW and he was an asshole there, but was he as bad there as he is in AEW? Is he just continuing what he’s always been doing, or is he doing more now than ever?

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