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Being halfway through 2024, now feels like a good time to clean up the rankings a bit. There are groups that haven't been featured on AEW main programming in a while and it just doesn't make sense to me to include them in the rankings anymore. In order to rejoin the rankings, it's going to take more than a guest appearance. We're going to need a substantial program or chasing an AEW title to be back on the main list. It's doubtful that this happens for some of these teams before the year is out. I hate to sound pessimistic but there is is a real sense of malaise looking at some of the talent in AEW. The feeling that upward movement on the card is only for a select few, everyone else just stays on their rung.
On Hold/Out of Contention
The Righteous- They could be an interesting team that could challenge for the Trios belts but they've been portrayed as less than credible threats as of late. It's a shame really.
Iron Savages- With only one AEW match from Jacked Jameson, I'm waiting to see if this trios makes any more appearance before ranking them.
Dark Order- Living up to their name, the trios of Reynolds, Silver and Uno have been primarily featured on preshow dark matches for AEW. I don't count dark matches in my rankings and I got tired of looking at the same, unchanging win loss record over the past few months.
The Conglomeration- Look, I love all three guys (Orange Cassidy, Kyle O'Reilly, and Mark Briscoe). I think they're tremendously entertaining. I just need to see more from them together before i put them in the official rankings. We'll revisit this triumvirate in July and see if they're still together.
The Rankings
#18 Triple J (Down 1 spot)- Satnam Singh is getting his team wins, one squash at a time. Which makes it all the stranger that he's been moved to the "announce" team section of the AEW roster page. Jarrett has his biggest match of the year coming up this week at the Beach Break episode of Dynamite and he has all the pathos going into his Owen Heart tournament qualifier.
Strength: 12.5%
#17 The Infantry (Down 4 spots)- An appearance on Rampage at the 11th hour keeps the Infantry on the list. They dropped a good distance in the rankings. This was due more to the addition of several groups this month, and not necessarily any fault on the Infantry's behalf.
Strength: 15.4%
#16 The Outcasts (Down 1 spot)- Anna Jay joining the group is a good addition in theory, if we're looking at the groups overall strength score her 2-12 record for the year doesn't really help things.
Strength: 16.0%
#15 Shane Taylor Productions (Up 1 spot)- STP are teetering on the edge of falling into the "On Hold" section. We'll see if anything changes in July for them.
Strength: 17.9%
#14 Top Flight (Down 2 spots)- It looks like Action Andretti is still having fun. That's good since he has no wins in 2024. It's healthy to keep a positive attitude.
Strength: 22.5%
#13 Premier Athletes (NEW)- Quite a debut for these ab crunch enthusiasts. They don't have many AEW matches this year so their strength score is slightly inflated, I expect it to go down if they continue to have matches. They are a rare case of a group moving up from ROH into AEW proper, if feels like the reverse is often the case.
Strength: 28.6%
#12 Cage of Agony (Down 2 spots)- Despite some high profile matches the team of Cage, Kaun, and Liona have come up winless in said matches. They've been champions before but it would take a good win streak before they are credible contenders again.
Strength: 41.9%
Last month I said that it felt very clear where the haves and have nots were in the rankings. There is an invisible barrier where teams don't cross in either direction and nothing has changed.
#11 Death Triangle (Down 3 spots)- Doesn't feel like they're much of a group after their loss at Double or Nothing. They all went off to do solo programs. It was strange when Abrahantas referred to a Death Triangle match on the Forbidden Door Zero hour, and PAC was nowhere to be seen (Mistico is the third man for that one). If they don't show some form of unity soon, they're off the list.
Strength: 57.1%
#10 The Patriarchy (Down 1 spot)- I'm digging the evil version of Jurassic Express with Nick Wayne teaming with Killswitch (only for Christian to get the winning pinfalls). They still have a good cohesion score, despite the way Killswitch has been treated. He's internalized the clear frustration and disappointment, but that's going to boil over at some point.
Strength: 55.5%
#9 The Learning Tree (NEW)- Well look who debuts in the upper half of the rankings. As long as Jericho has the "For the World" Championship they'll remain in the upper half of the rankings, despite their strength score.
Strength: 48.7 %
Championship: FTW Champion (Jericho)
#8 The Acclaimed (Down 2 Spots)- If you haven't seen the piece that AEW did on Anthony Bowens for their new "AEW Represents" series, it's a good watch. For a long time fan like myself, the ability for wrestling fans to progress and move away from derogatory stereotypes is pretty amazing.
Strength: 68.8%
#7 House of Black (No Change)- Let's just take a moment to congratulate Buddy Matthews and Rhea Ripley on their recent marriage! Any show business relationship can have a high difficulty curve so nothing but best wishes to the young couple. As for House of Black, my campaign for a Brody King singles title run continues.
Strength: 71.4%
#6 JoeGun Warriors (NEW)- I stole this name off Twitter for the team of Samoa Joe, Hook, and Shibata. Wouldn't be surprised if this trio were the next Trios Champions. With the titles shared with ROH, all three of these guys would fit in well (both Joe and Shibata are ROH Champion alumni).
Strength: 72.3%
#5 Undisputed Kingdom (No Change)- Without the tag gold that Taven and Bennett posses, this team would be at least three spots lower. Still waiting on Wardlow to do something, dude hasn't had a match since March.
Strength: 64.1%
Championship: ROH Tag Team (Taven and Bennett)
#4 The Don Callis Family (No Change)- Cracks starting to show in the family as Ospreay ignored Callis's request to use the screwdriver in the AEW Championship match, while at the same time pulling the attention of Kyle Fletcher. Probably the most volatile group in AEW who could fall apart any given week.
Strength: 57.5%
Championship: AEW International (Will Ospreay)
#3 Blackpool Combat Club (No Change)- The faction with the most draws to their record is the BCC (they have four). These might as well be losses as they don't do anything to help the overall strength score. Cohesion comes into question as Claudio and Danielson don't seem to be entirely on the same page of late. Moxley losing the IWGP Title hurts attainment score.
Strength: 78.1%
Championship: ROH Pure Title (Wheeler Yuta)
#2 Bang Bang Gang (Down 1 spot)- Slipping out of the top spot for the first time this year, the BBG lost their position not because they slipped up in a match or in cohesion, just a fraction of a percentage in strength. It may be a sign that other teams are going to be hungry and challenging for trios gold before long.
Strength: 83.8%
Championship: Unified AEW/ROH Trios titles (Bang Bang Gang)
#1 The Elite (Up 1 spot)- The "Extremely Violent People" of AEW came out of Forbidden Door looking stronger than ever heading into Blood & Guts. They've got an elite amount of gold and an elite amount of power. It's good to be kings.
Strength: 84.4%
Championship: AEW Tag (Young Bucks), AEW Continental Crown (Okada), TNT Championship (Jack Perry)
Lots of groups in the lower half of the rankings started to move up, while a pair of top teams (Blackpool Combat Club and Bang Bang Gang) are trending down. Could just be the averages at this time of year evening out, or maybe a sign of things to come for the second half of 2024. We will see. I like that Jarrett's team finally got above 0% (thanks to Satnam Singh's solo wins). The lines for Dark Order and Righeous stop as they've been taken out of the rankings, we'll see if they return.