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Full Gear has wrapped up and while the blood dries on Orange Cassidy and Moxley files an insurance claim on his truck, we're looking at the factions of AEW and how they compare to each other. We did more clearing out of tag teams and groups that have atrophied so November features one of the smaller pools we're looking at.
Groups to watch
STP- A ROH faction but the merger with the Infantry should be noted.
MxM- With Johnny TV joining, or at least flirting with the idea, MxM should be watched as they could be a group of the future.
Hurt Syndicate- Needs more members and/or matches. Looks like they may poach a talent from another faction which would be a classic move from the Art of War, make your enemies weaker while you gain strength. Possible members look to be Lio Rush (Top Flight) or Max Caster (Acclaimed).
Outrunners- I counted them as a faction in an earlier installment, but we're still waiting on Erica Leigh to have her second match in AEW. Until that happens, Outrunners are just a tag team.
Triple J- Satnam Singh is working mostly dark matches at the moment and I'm not sure what's going on with Jay Lethal. Lack of TV time is keeping this group off the list. Glad Jarrett was having a good time at the All In ticket release party down in Texas though.
The Rankings
#14 Iron Savages (Up 3 spots)- The upward movement is only due to other factions being taken out from the rankings. Still no wins in 2024 and they've only got one more month to go.
Strength: 0%
#13 Premier Athletes (Up 3 spots)- Wrestling companies need groups like Premier Athletes to take the losses for up and coming babyfaces. They're very good in this role, from Mark Sterling's antagonistic crowd work to the egotistical posing of Tony Nesse.
Strength: 5.1%
#12 Dark Order (Up 3 spots)- It's been nice to see Dark Order valiantly standing up to the Death Riders in defense of AEW. Will this lead anywhere for one of the longest running AEW factions? It remains to be seen.
Strength: 8.3%
#11 Top Flight (Up 1 spot)- Lio Rush and Action Andretti both may not be long for this group. By the end of the year, it may just be the Martin brothers once again.
Strength: 26.4%
#10 LFI (Up 1 spot)- I'm falling into the same rut with LFI that I was in with the previous version of this group. That spot being optimism for them doing something, only for the group to take a handful of losses and sputter out. I hope I'm wrong.
Strength: 46.8%
#9 The Patriarchy (Down 2 spots)- Kip Sabian joined and the group's strength dropped by 6%. Christian Cage continues teasing his cash in on the world title but nothing's happened yet. Nick Wayne looked good in his match against AR Fox a few weeks back.
Strength: 50.0%
#8 Undisputed Kingdom (Up 1 spot)- I may need a side article tracking the shifting memberships, betrayals, and returns to this group. It's downright confusing at times.
Strength: 51.1%
#7 The Conglomeration (Down 4 spots)-Losing the ROH World title really hurt the group. Will Ishii reclaim the title? Could Kyle O'Reilly be looking to go back to his old running buddies in the Undisputed Kingdom?
Strength: 63.7%
#6 Learning Tree (Up 2 spots)- Been pretty quiet lately outside of the looming Ishii/Jericho ROH Title match. We'll see if either Big Bill or Bryan Keith get any ring time (maybe in the C2?)
Strength: 47.1%
Championships: ROH World (Chris Jericho)
#5 House of Black (Up 1 spot)- Julia Hart is set to return to action soon. Buddy Matthews got a great reaction at Full Gear and I'd expect there's something lined up for him as AEW prepares for its Australia debut next February.
Strength: 67.0%
#4 Bang Bang Gang (No Change)- Been a couple of months since the Gunn Brothers have had a match. Hopefully this changes before the end of the year, otherwise BBG is out of the rankings. This despite the gains that Jay White is making in solo matches.
Strength: 70.6%
#3 The Elite (Down 1 spot) Losing championships (both the Tag and the TNT belts) and running away to "work from home" are contributing factors for dropping the Elite to third place. With the Continental Classic wrapping up the year, it's a good chance that the Elite will have no gold by the time we roll into 2025.
Strength: 64.9%
Championships: Continental Crown (Okada)
#2 Callis Family (Up 3 spots)- Things have never looked better for the Don Callis Family than right now. They let Will Hobbs leave the group, but then added the team of Lance Archer and Brian Cage. Kyle Fletcher got the biggest win of his AEW career with a win over Ospreay, and Takeshita continues to roll as International Champion. The Callis Family are not only the #2 heel group in AEW, they're the #2 group period.
Strength: 54.1%
Championships: AEW International (Takeshita), ROH TV (Brian Cage)
#1 Death Riders (No Change)- After a successful rebranding into the current Death Riders, they've been running rampant over AEW. Claudio got a dominant win over Darby, Moxley retained his world championship at Full Gear, the only weak link is Wheeler Yuta who frequently loses if he doesn't have his stable mates in matches with him. I would like to see Marina Shafir get more ring time, at least let her squash someone on a Zero Hour or something.
Strength: 75.7%
Championships: AEW World (Moxley), AEW Trios (Claudio, PAC, Yuta)
Strength Scores- 2024
The gap in the Death Riders line is the rebranding phase as the Blackpool Combat Club expired (along with with Bryan Danielson). Nothing really surprising, there's a space right around the 40% mark that serves as a barrier and teams aren't going to pass it before the end of the year. There's not enough time for Top Flight to pick up enough wins, and likewise the Patriarchy isn't going to go on a sudden loosing streak to drop below it. When we look at this chart next month, I imagine it will look very similar.
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