On AEW Fright Night Dynamite last night, Private Party defeated The Young Bucks to become the AEW World Tag Team Champions.
To get the title shot, Private Party put their tag team on the line. If they lost? They were done forever. It convinced the Bucks to give them the shot as they once did this with SCU and forced Scorpio Sky, Frankie Kazarian, and Christopher Daniels to split up forever.
Going into the match it was hard to imagine what would happen in this. Having Stokely Hathaway in the mix pushing the idea of the two breaking up because Isiah Kassidy was the true star it felt like that would be the plan going forward. A repeat essentially of the Statlander/Nightingale program. Tony Khan has been susceptible to repeating his own storylines in short time. This time he used it as a diversion.
The match was laid out brilliantly. This was a five year plan from The Young Bucks. From the first time they had Private Party beat them on Dynamite back in 2019 to this match in 2024 it has all been about eventually doing this. The Young Bucks can lift their heads high and say they absolutely made Private Party in this match. The crowd wasn’t that behind Private Party early on but midway through the match it was clear they believed in them.
Credit as well to Private Party. It is exactly two months to the day I wrote Tag In The Outrunners which was my breakdown of the issues with the AEW Tag Team division.
If you don’t want to jump to reading it, I broke down the tag division in four tiers:
Tier 1: Young Bucks and FTR
Tier 2A: The Acclaimed
Tier 2B: Factions forming tag teams (Blackpool Combat Club, Learning Tree, Conglomeration, Don Callis Family, etc.)
Tier 3: Everyone else
I explained that nobody was on the Bucks and FTR level, and the only team that used to be was the Lucha Brothers. That many of the Tier 2A teams had broken up like Jurassic Express, Best Friends, Santana and Ortiz, reDragon, and the Hardy’s. I considered Grizzled Young Vets to have potential to be a Tier 2A team but mere weeks later FTR pushed them right down to Tier 3.
In the everyone else was Private Party, the fifth tag team I named in that Tier 3. Here’s Private Party up to August 31:
– January Dynamite win against Top Flight
– January Rampage loss to Top Flight
– February Collision win against Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal
– February Rampage loss to Top Flight in a three way with Bryan Keith and Komander
– March Dynamite loss to Young Bucks in the Tag Team Tournament (a match forgotten it seems)
– June Rampage loss to Gates of Agony
– June Rampage win against Komander and Metalik
– June Collision loss to Learning Tree
– Forbidden Door Zero Hour Four Way match loss to Kings of the Black Throne also including The Conglomeration and Gabe Kidd/Roderick Strong
– July Rampage loss to Don Callis Family
– July Rampage loss to Lucha Brothers (their final match in AEW)
– July Rampage Four Way match loss to Don Callis Family also including The Outrunners and The Righteous
– July Rampage loss to MxM Collection
– August Rampage win against Dawson Brothers
– August Rampage loss to Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett in a three way with Undisputed Kingdom
That’s 4 wins and 11 losses. The four wins were against Top Flight (and they went 50/50 with two weeks later), a casual veteran tag team, a lucha tag team in Tier 3, and an enhancement talent tag win. Don’t blame me for not considering them future tag team champions at that point especially with most of their matches on Rampage. You’ll also notice a lot of those losses were to Tier 2B teams like House of Black, Don Callis Family, and Learning Tree.
Private Party didn’t even wrestle a tag team match in September, opting instead for trios competition. One of those trios matches was with Katsuyori Shibata against The Elite, where they’d win in beating The Bucks for the first time in a long time. That re-ignited the flame of the feud.
In October they got a win against Iron Savages on Dynamite’s 5 Year Anniversary, with Iron Savages essentially at the ground level of Tier 3 tag teams. But it was on Dynamite, and Private Party last won a tag match on Dynamite in January against Top Flight. Prior to that? Their last Dynamite win was in 2020 against Ortiz and Santana. They won a match on TNA Impact Wrestling more recently until 2024.
That win on the 5th Anniversary of Dynamite was the kickstart to taking Private Party serious as contenders. They would win an AEW World Tag Team contenders three way against Kings of the Black Throne and Top Flight on Collision. They would lose to the Young Bucks at WrestleDream but after a win against MxM Collection, they’d once again beat the Bucks in a trios match, this time with Daniel Garcia. That’s what set up the match last night.
When I said this was a plan for the Young Bucks I meant it. The Bucks made sure the focus was on them and Private Party. Was it a full five year story? No. Really it was just a month. But that month of focus was enough to establish Private Party as important enough.
I said earlier that the Young Bucks made Private Party. I’m not saying that Private Party is now a Tier 1 tag team in AEW. They are now a Tier 2A tag team. Unless AEW works hard in ruining their name and reputation, from now on Private Party will be treated as more than just one of many faces in a tag division. The days of being cannon fodder for Tier 2B teams is over.
Private Party’s tag team record (2v2, 2v2v2, 2v2v2v2) now sits at 8 wins and 12 losses in 2024. It’s not even a .500 record. Before Private Party drop the tag titles, whether it’s coming up or far down the road? They need to get wins. They need five wins before the end of the year to end the year out with a winning record. They need some of those matches on Dynamite. They need to prove against some teams that beat them in the past that this is a new Private Party. Don Callis Family, Learning Tree, and Gates of Agony are all good teams to face for credible wins.
There’s also the spectre of Stokely Hathaway, who was only seen at Fright Night Dynamite as graffiti on a tombstone.
Stokely tried to represent Private Party and was rejected. He tried to break the group up. He even got snatched out of the crowd last week on Dynamite. I doubt this is the end of Stokely trying to get at Private Party, and if he can’t lead them to tag team glory? He’s going to try and ruin that tag team glory. Stokely with the Hangman hater energy.
The year started out with Private Party going 50/50 with Top Flight. Even if it isn’t Dante and Darius, you do have Action Andretti and Lio Rush whose frustration over losses has been nearing a boiling point. I’m also doing everything in my power not to once again suggest Powerhouse Hobbs and Wardlow as a tag team. Shoot, did I just do it again? Oops.
Congratulations to Private Party. The Party has just begun.
