John Silver Says Recently Released WWE Star Will Not Lead Dark Order

In early 2020, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson of the Dark Order began teasing the arrival of The Exhaulted One, the man that would assume leadership of the faction. Everyone from Marty Scurll to Matt Hardy were rumored to fill the position before he was eventually revealed as the late Brodie Lee.

Since Brodie's passing in December 2020, the Dark Order has been without a clear leader. Considering the build to the group's first leader reveal, fans have cast just about every active wrestling free agent in the role. Speaking to Barstool Rasslin', Dark Order's John Silver emphasized that he is not a proponent of the relentless leader speculation.

"I hate that so much. We get tweets like that all the time," Silver said. "For a while, it was like anyone that got released from WWE was going to be the next leader, so I would just make tweets like, 'Oh, I guess Adam Cole's the next leader of the Dark Order!' Anyone that doesn't make sense. 'Oh, it's going to be Bray [Wyatt] right?' No, it's not."

Since The Exalted One reveal in March 2020, the Dark Order has undergone a significant shift. What began as a spooky group slowly transformed into a comedic stable thanks to their bits on Being The Elite.

"It doesn't even make sense really. This wouldn't happen I think anywhere else," Silver said. "It was supposed to be just a me and a Brodie thing, but obviously we didn't really get to do that at all. They would see me and Brodie being funny, so they'd have to bring it out too. Stu has his thing, Uno has his thing, Ten, Five, all that. I don't even know. It was just like a switch. Because BTE is so popular with the fans, we couldn't be spooky anymore. The crowd's going to cheer us. We have to go in a different direction."

Before the Dark Order went in that different direction, Silver noted that he and partner Alex Reynolds felt like they were walking on eggshells backstage at AEW.

"The evolution has been really crazy because me and Alex [Reynolds] thought we were getting fired like all the time," Silver said. "[We stopped thinking that] when we started doing BTE, and especially when Brodie came in too. Brodie came, we're a group now, we're established now.

"I didn't do BTE right off the bat because I thought I was supposed to be an evil, possessed background guy. If I was silly on BTE, I thought I was going to get fired, so I just never did that."

Silver's comedy skits on BTE quickly caught attention, including that of AEW President Tony Khan.

"Someone came up to me and was like, 'Tony wants to talk to you.' And I'm like, 'That doesn't sound great,'" Silver said. "Tony goes up to me and says, 'Where do you get off?' I'm just shocked. He continues, 'You got all this personality and charisma, and you just do it on BTE? You don't do it on TV?' I didn't know I was supposed to! He's like, 'Let's start doing it on TV.'"

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Barstool Rasslin' with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.