John Silver And Alex Reynolds Admit They Thought They "Were Getting Fired" From AEW
The Dark Order's John Silver and Alex Reynolds were on a recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast where they discussed signing with AEW and some troubles they went through along the way. Silver talked about first joining AEW and AEW EVP Matt Jackson casually mentioning to them that they would join Dark Order.
"We got hit up our first show, and we got excited because they're like, 'Hey, we want you guys to be on the show.' It's the third show in Philly," Silver recalled. "So we're like, 'Oh, my God. It's our big shot, our big opportunity.' And then we get there and it doesn't even say our names on the board, it says 'local talent', [and it said '90 seconds']. I guess this is the one, and then I think– Matt Jackson came up to us after. We're used to how wrestling is, and Matt Jackson's like, 'Hey, I have an idea. Maybe you just kind of come back and you're the local talent everywhere, and you just always lose.' Okay.
"I think it's two or three weeks later, we did the West Virginia show. It's the way Matt Jackson said it where it doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen, but it always happens. He's like, 'Hey, maybe just kind of put you guys in Dark Order or something.' Okay, cool, and then he just kind of walks away. We don't really think it's going to happen, but that's eventually what happens."
Brodie Lee was revealed as "The Exalted One" earlier this year after many people speculated that Matt Hardy would be revealed as the leader of Dark Order. Silver and Reynolds discussed when they knew that Lee would be "The Exalted One".
"I think the first person we heard of being 'The Exalted One' was Matt Hardy, which we thought was awesome. Broken Matt? This is gonna be perfect, and doing stuff at the Hardy Compound," Reynolds said. "This is gonna be awesome, and then, I think maybe a month before, it was like, it might be Brodie, might be Matt, still not sure. It may have been a week before; it wasn't that long in advance that we knew for sure it was Brodie.
"I think we knew somewhat beforehand because he knows Stu [Grayson] and [Evil] Uno," Silver noted. "Stu and Uno knew, and then once they knew, they told us. So it wasn't a week before. It definitely was for a while. We weren't exactly sure, but we also teased 'The Exalted One' kind of early, I think. Probably at least a month, I think, beforehand."
Some of Lee's most iconic segments during the start of his AEW run were his Vince McMahon references, especially during the steak dinner scene. Reynolds had some behind-the-scenes details from the scene.
"His first night, right after we filmed a pre-tape at Morton's a week after, we had never met Brodie and never really heard him talk," Reynolds admitted. "So he cut that badass promo on his debut, and then we're just in this pre-tape. He's just going off, eating steak. He literally ate two steaks. Mind you, John and I are just sitting there. We weren't allowed to eat, so we're just sitting there for about an hour, staring at our food while Brodie's pounding steaks, two porterhouses just right away."
Silver and Reynolds also admitted that they felt they were going to be replaced when 5 and 10 were brought into the group. However, BTE helped assure that they still had a role in AEW.
"We had gotten to a point where we were almost just bummed out because we weren't doing a lot," Reynolds admitted. "Stu and Uno were away in Canada for a while, and then they brought in 10 and then they brought in 5, and they're winning matches. We couldn't even get matches on Dark, so we thought we were being replaced.
"We thought we were getting fired," Silver added. "I actually asked Matt Jackson – I'm like, 'Hey, are we getting kicked out of Dark Order?' He's like, 'No, no, no you're not,' because when we finally came back, those two guys got added. They were squashing people on Dark, and then we were there. We did nothing. We thought, 'Okay, I guess we're being replaced. Hopefully we still keep our jobs,' but right after that was when we started doing BTE and then took off."
AEW President Tony Khan revealed that he ribbed Silver about his antics on BTE that he does not employ on Dynamite. Silver recalled what Khan said to him about not showing more of his personality on Dynamite.
"I feel like he always likes to do little ribs at me. Because he's the boss, I'm always nervous," Silver admitted. "Everyone was telling me beforehand, 'Tony loves your stuff on BTE.' So, I'm like, 'Cool, that's awesome.' And then I see Tony, and I'm expecting him to be like, 'Oh, hey, I saw your stuff. I like it,' but he was like, 'What the hell, man? Where do you get off? Where do you get off? You have all this personality in BTE but you don't want to do it for us on TV?' I'm like, 'I didn't know I was supposed to.' And he's like, 'Well, you're gonna do it now, okay?' 'Okay.'"
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.