#OneYearDON is a look back at All Elite Wrestling’s debut event with match by match retrospectives on how talent has fared in the year since the event as well as other profiles looking at how some performers have progressed from one DON to the next. Our first piece looks back at STRONGHEARTS vs SCU
The first Trios match to be shown on Double or Nothing, STRONGHEARTS vs SCU, showed off the partnership between All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (OWE). The match was one of the earlier ones set up as the team of SoCal Uncensored challenged CIMA to find two partners for their match. Those partners ended up being El Lindaman and T-Hawk, the team most people know as #STRONGHEARTS.
It was a safe, but strange choice to go with the usual STRONGHEARTS members. The highflying athleticism that had caught the eyes of fans was absent. In their place were two with more experienced but power and technical based styles. If fans were disappointed, it was quickly forgotten. By the time the match went forward, it was fast-paced action. In the end, SCU picked up the win with the Best Meltzer Ever. So maybe they were saving the people that brought attention to OWE for later, once they could pick up a win or show off their skills more.
Or perhaps something else was at play.
According to an article in the South China Morning Post, there were supposed to be appearances by four different OWE talents, but had visa issues. They would attempt to obtain the proper visas time for All Out but that did not go through for one reason or another. There were various attempts to keep the OWE and AEW connection strong after that including the ill-fated OWE UK, but ever since the beginning of Dynamite, it’s been quiet.
Where does that leave the people who competed in this very match? SCU would end up winning a tournament to crown the first-ever AEW Tag Champions beating the Lucha Bros in the finals. Scorpio Sky would get an AEW title match. After a lengthy reign, SCU began feuding with the Dark Order, establishing themselves as one of the staple names of the AEW roster.
In the meanwhile, #STRONGHEARTS would have a stranger road.
After losing this match, CIMA would have a couple of singles matches. From there, he and his STRONGHEARTS partners would wrestle mainly on AEW Dark. They had more visibility in promotions such as Wrestle-1 and Dramatic Dream Team (DDT). Most notably, T-Hawk and El Lindaman are the current holders of the KO-D six-man Tag Titles with Tetsuya Endo as part of the #DAMNHEARTS stable.
So when looking back at this match, it’s an interesting watch. It’s clear that AEW had some big plans coming in for this, but due to one thing or other, the plans ended up falling through. While one team would go on to be visible nearly every week on the show, the other would fall back and end up with an ambassador type role with other promotions.
Keep Up With All Our #OneYearDON coverage here
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite every Wednesday night at 8:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Pacific on TNT and internationally on AEW Plus on Fite TV.
