Evil Uno & Stu Grayson Recall Dark Order’s ‘Bad Punches’ Debacle, How That Led To the Exalted One

It was rough going for the Dark Order early on as they were marred by a now-infamous segment involving some awful punches, and Evil Uno & Stu Grayson recalled how that led into the arrival of the Exalted One. Uno and Grayson appeared on a recent episode of AEW Unrestricted and discussed the segment from the December 18th, 2019 episode of Dynamite in which one of the Order’s “Creepers” was caught right on camera delivering some horrid-looking punches to Dustin Rhodes. The segment became a lightning rod for criticism against the group and even saw Randy Orton and Jim Ross talk about how bad it was.

Talking with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards, Uno and Grayson talked about how that segment went wrong and how it ultimately led to a leader being integrated, which of course became the Exalted One in Brodie Lee. You can check out highlights and the audio below:

Grayson on the bad punches thrown during the brawl: “No [they weren’t their students], those were just random extras we had on the show … we would have posted their face. ‘Hey guys, remember that guy who sucks? It was this guy!’ [laughs] But now, that day it was — there were so many bodies. And every time we have extras, so we would take the time to teach them the throne [Uno] would sit on. And, ‘If you can’t do this, don’t do it. You can’t just stand there or choke someone with your foot. You don’t have to throw punches. If there’s something you can’t do, don’t.’ And then like, this whole segment was a catastrophe from beginning to end.”

Uno on the segment leading to the Exalted One: “So because of that segment, we had a discussion with Tony about integrating a leader character. And so it kind of took a new direction. But to be entirely honest, we genuinely didn’t know who it was for several months. I think — I mean, we personally didn’t know who it was until like three weeks before.”

Uno on the names they’d heard potentially tied to the Exalted One: “There was some names floated around, and obviously Brodie was in there but we still didn’t know. Matt Hardy was floated around. I mean, this was going around, but Dr. Luther was floated around originally. There were other people that weren’t directly told to us that I that were floated around as ideas, but it landed on Mr. Brodie Lee, and honestly, that was the best thing that could have happened for us.”

Grayson on bringing in Alex Reynolds & John Silver: “Well, the idea was that when we started recruiting, we knew we wouldn’t be able to recruit like — when we said we approached Marko and Jungle Boy, we knew we couldn’t get them right now. Because they were starting their own gimmick, their own storyline. So we knew we would have to approach people that are on the show, but are ultimately like, useless at the moment. So they would bring them over, John and Alex, and they would make them job and job, and they had no purpose. So we said, ‘Hey, we know they can go. We wrestled them once years ago.”’

Uno on pitching to get Reynolds and SIlver: “We wrestled on the same promotions, and so we know of them and we had befriended [them] previously. On the first few shows though, they were losing within seconds to Moxley or losing within seconds to LAX. And so to us as a story beat, if we were going to make winners out of losers, your first few shows you’ve already told people these people are the losers. And we know they’re very talented so when we did our Scientology pitch, they’re the first people I suggested. I said, ‘We can make these guys at least last more than a minute on these shows.’ And honestly, they’re just — they’re very entertaining on their own. And once you give them the platform, here they are today.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.