News that AEW originals Private Party, Isaiah Kassidy and Marq Quen, could soon be free agents, and reports also suggesting WWE is interested in the former AEW World Tag Team Champions, creates valid questions. Private Party’s time in AEW has been full of potential that’s never materialised in the way many might have hoped.
Yes, they recently held the tag gold and had a full-circle moment defeating The Young Bucks. Kassidy and Quen defeated the EVPs in a huge upset on the second-ever Dynamite. The time in between saw the pair flung around creatively into different roles, like Bobby Lashley manhandling the pair for nearly six years.
Yet, the principal benefit of a competitive wrestling market is more opportunities for wrestlers. Leverage and options. It’s a contract year for many AEW wrestlers. The next step could change their careers or lives.
We won’t get parasocial or suggest, assume, or say what the tandem should do. That’s arrogant and weird behaviour, and too easy to slip into.
With some fans seeing a pattern of AEW wrestlers choosing to go to WWE, it stirs narratives and falsehoods about both promotions. AEW, a six-year-old company compared to a forty-five-year-old company, isn’t like WWE in its infrastructure and philosophy. Its wrestlers and booking can’t be compared one for one.
I outlined last week that both sides of AEW’s no floaties and more freedom philosophy can expose its wrestlers to greatness and hollowness. AEW wrestlers have the autonomy to sink or swim.
It’s the framework by which wrestlers who compete in AEW should be judged, rather than WWE’s “Entertainment” standards. However, Private Party’s championship reign felt confined to the shallow end.
Flawed Retcon for Private Party
When Private Party chased the AEW World Tag Team Championship, if the intention was a retcon, then prior booking undermined the team. Losing, alongside Kommander, a AEW Trios Championship opportunity proved Jon Moxley’s claim of a locker-room of comfortable, content wrestlers correct.
This thread was never revisited when Private Party became champions. One of many examples of a lack of care during AEW’s creative dip. Another place where an overreliance on great wrestling covering over the storyline potholes
A great series of matches with The Young Bucks highlighted two issues. First, like Rey Fenix and Penta el Zero Miedo, Private Party’s AEW biggest, most successful matches are intertwined with the EVPs. Second, Private Party lacked visible and significant milestones in their development as wrestlers and characters before winning the championship.
Compared with the new TNT Champion and friend, Daniel Garcia, there is a stark difference in care over time. Private Party were not allowed to gamble on themselves. Positioned as transitional and restricted, whereas Garcia was pushed in the Continental Classic.
Two defences. One short feud with CRU on Collision. No Dynamite matches until they lost the championship. It implied a lack of trust.
Their Full Gear championship defence highlighted a long-standing issue of stagnation and thin storylines in the division. Yet, unlike the women’s division, they got more than 8 minutes and 1 second.
In those five years between debuting and completing the kayfabe circle, Private Party did not evolve. AEW deserves its share of blame and responsibility for a lack of care, especially for their title reign. At the same time, within the AEW framework, Private Party had opportunities to make the most of their…
Shots, Shots, Shots in AEW
We can debate the amount and quality of opportunities given to wrestlers like Private Party and whether they were fair chances. The team worked against AEW’s best with their varied styles. Lucha Bros, Best Friends, SCU, FTR, etc. Promise and Private Party were dance partners.
Private Party’s matches with The Young Bucks were strong. Yet, what about the rest of their back catalogue? During that second Dynamite, where they upset The Young Bucks, Private Party had a roughness to their offense that’s remained unpolished.
Additionally, the team also had solo opportunities. Kassidy’s Pandemic match against Chris Jericho helped me buy into the team. Likewise, when Quen was injured, Kassidy continued to compete. Alongside Matt Hardy, Kassidy somehow got a weird mating call over with live audiences.
It’s hard to recall a Private Party storyline that didn’t revolve around someone else owning their contracts. Hardy, Andrade el Idolo, and finally Stokely Hathaway. Their continual acceptance of being “owned” undermined the team, removing their agency and weakening their characters.
Speaking of, what seemed a perfect tandem on paper, pairing The Hardy Boyz-inspired duo with the Hardy known for his creative reinvention and in-ring IQ, somewhat flopped. Sometimes, AEW seems meritocratic.
At other times, underwhelming storylines, like the contract ownership saga, still received valuable airtime on Rampage despite being cold. As characters and in-ring performers, Private Party had time and chances to compete at the Elite level.
Private Party remains almost identical. Dancing on the same spot while others have entered a more exclusive VIP area beyond another velvet rope.
Infrastructure and Comparison, Wants and Needs
The booking failed the character, but within the framework of AEW’s “make your mark” environment, did Private Party do enough? That’s a hazardous parasocial question. None of us knows the men behind the gimmick or clearly understands the AEW backstage environment or its politics.
Various unseen factors and expectations influence the relationship between wrestlers, promotions, and bookers. We’ve seen how misalignments can impact wrestlers and promotions with former WWE wrestlers going to AEW and then back to WWE.
Yet, some fans and pundits will answer it regardless of whether the team decides to go to WWE, stay with AEW, or take a third route. Someone must take the blame and responsibility for the point scoring. Reduced to pawns.
Not individuals with autonomy and personal wants and needs. Ultimately, the potential of Private Party remains unrealised. Although they are not alone.
Half of AEW’s Four Pillars have seen their auras diminished. While Orange Cassidy, MJF, and Darby Allin have carved out niches, The Dark Order, Top Flight, and others remain in place. But this is hardly an AEW-exclusive issue.
How many current or former WWE wrestlers have not fulfilled their potential? That’s whataboutery, but considering WWE’s vast and well-organised infrastructure, including its developmental system, not everyone does/can succeed. Yet in a competitive wrestling market, it gives options.
It took seven years, a company jump, and enduring a chicken excrement gimmick for Steve Austin to become Stone Cold. However, others take risks and fail, ending up worse off. Others stay in their lateral place and don’t seem as bothered about their career trajectory as some fans.
As a fan of Kassidy and Quen, the former I thought could break out as a singles star this year, I want them to call their shot. Do what’s best for them.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – AEW – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on Private Party, AEW, 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 on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content available on their YouTube
