Alan Angels Explains The Downward Spiral Of AEW's Dark Order

Alan Angels of Impact Wrestling is most well known for his time in AEW as part of the Dark Order. However, in 2022 Angels walked away due to feeling he didn't have room "to grow in AEW." Part of that could be because Angels was in the Dark Order while the group was trying to find its footing after the sudden and tragic passing of Brodie Lee. On "Busted Open Radio," Angels described the downward turn the group took.

"I would like to not call it a drop-off because all those guys are extremely talented and it really kind of hurt when Brodie Lee did pass because we, as a group, were building so much momentum, and we were in the main event scene with Brodie as our leader and he was challenging for the belt," he said. "We were doing some really cool stuff, and then unfortunately once he died we were — not only did we not really have our main event guy anymore — we were almost forced to turn babyface," explained Angels.

After the passing of Lee in late 2020, a lot of the group's focus would turn toward being involved with Adam Page as faces. A babyface turn for the Dark Order on its face wouldn't seem to be an issue, but Angels broke down why the turn hurt the group at the time.

"I think that kind of hurt just because I think the company at the time needed some more heels. We had all of these babyfaces and now we're just one of many babyfaces if that makes sense. Then with all of BTE skits that we did and stuff, we were also doing a lot of comedy, which is great, and I loved doing it and all of those BTE skits were awesome, but we just kind of had our place, I think, on the card," he said. Angels elaborated saying, "all those guys in that group are ultra talented, and every time they're on TV I'm watching and I'm very glad that they get to do what they're doing."