All Elite Wrestling has one of the deepest tag team divisions in the history of the pro wrestling industry. While other promotions throughout the annals of history may have had bigger stars, AEW’s roster contains over 15 tag teams that could main event in any promotion in the world. Lost amongst the likes of The Young Bucks, FTR, Santana & Ortiz, and The Lucha Brothers, are the tandem of John Silver & Alex Reynolds. While they’ve been featured heavily on the Young Bucks’ Being The Elite series, the duo is often seen more as a comedic foil in the Dark Order, with the charter tandem of Evil Uno & Stu Grayson being the primary tag team unit for Mr. Brodie Lee‘s stable. But following this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, many AEW fans bore witness to the talents that Silver & Reynolds possess together as a tag team unit, taking the team of Cody Rhodes & Matt Cardona (formerly Zack Ryder) to the limit, utilizing effortless chemistry and dazzling display of tag team combinations to nearly pull off the win in Cardona’s AEW in-ring debut.
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Both hailing from Long Island, New York – Silvers from Wantagh and Reynolds from Southampton – they began their careers in the tough-nosed New York City indie scene as students of former ECW World Champion Mikey Whipwreck. They both broke in with NYC’s New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) in 2007, where Reynolds became an instant star, capturing the NYWC Hi-Fi Championship that July. That October at NYWC Shocktober, Reynolds and Silver would share the ring for the first time, but in singles action as opponents, with Reynolds scoring the win. Reynolds would hold the NYWC Hi-Fi title for a whopping 526-days. Over the next few years, both men would become top players in NYWC, with Reynolds becoming NYWC Interstate, Fusion, and Heavyweight Champion, while Silver would add a reign as NYWC Heavyweight and Fusion Champion himself. But in 2011, the two began competing as a tag team, initially called The Slophunters, winning NYWC Tag Team titles in 2012.
They also began working for Pro Wrestling Syndicate (PWS) in New Jersey, where they continued to win gold – Silvers won tag team gold with Pat Buck in The Lone Rangers, while Reynolds became PWS Heavyweight and PWS Tri-State Champion. But by 2013, there was denying the tag team magic these two created together and after rebranding as The Beaver Boys, their presence in the US indies became undeniable.
Over the next few years, they honed their tag team capabilities with EVOLVE Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), ICW New York (now ICW NHB), CHIKARA, Beyond Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), House of Glory (HOG) – the list goes on. They even worked several TV tapings for Ring of Honor.
As their tenure together continued, they would win CZW and PWG World Tag Team Championships, and in 2019, the strangest thing happened. During the first season of Beyond Wrestling’s Uncharted Territory, The Beaver Boys seemingly disbanded after eight years together as a tag team. And then the majors came calling. In September of 2019, they were reunited to face Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker) on WWE SmackDown, performing at wrestling’s true mecca, Madison Square Garden, in their hometown NYC.
A month later, they appeared on AEW Dynamite, facing The Inner Circle‘s latest members, former 4x IMPACT World Tag Team Champions Santana & Ortiz. They would make several more appearances, in losses to Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent) and Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt). But by year’s end, the duo became indoctrinated into the Dark Order under Brodie Lee, becoming the latest soldiers to join the stable that also featured Evil Uno and Stu Grayson.
While 2020 hasn’t been as successful for Silvers & Reynolds as they’d like, they finally got their AEW debut win a 6-man tag match in early July (amongst side Five) on AEW DARK, and continue to be a huge presence on Being the Elite as Dark Order’s prime recruitment unit. Although they’ve failed to get anyone to drink their kool-aid so far, they’ve found a regular spot on the cast of BTE. And while they’re still used as a comedic foil, their in-ring work has increased to showcase their unbelievable talents, as individuals and as a unit, culminating in a fantastic match against Cody and Cardona.
While AEW’s tag team division remains a tough division to rise in, given so many stellar tandems and names to work with, Silvers and Reynolds are seeing themselves rise within it, while showing they have the diversity to put themselves in any situation, be it behind the scenes in vignettes or in the ring with the company’s top stars.
Stay tuned to 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 Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TNT and AEW DARK Tuesday nights at 7 PM ET on YouTube.
