According to an AEW (All Elite Wrestling) announcement, Awesome Kong was injured during this week’s AEW Dark show and they don’t know how long she’ll be out. This has other ramifications as well as rumors that they’re scraping the Nightmare Collective Storyline and moving Kong into a backstage role.
She already held a position as a coach backstage, and depending on what direction she wants to take with her career, she could move into other avenues as well like producing, booking, and so on. Of course, she could just as easily return to the ring and the rest of the conjecture goes up in smoke.
While injuries are serious and shouldn’t be taken lightly, this smacks of being a work, especially given the wording on AEW’s tweet announcing the injury.
Awesome Kong Medical Update: on this week’s episode of #AEWDark Kong suffered serious injuries at the hands of Mel & Luther. We do not know when or if she will return to action. pic.twitter.com/3lELXkbrOK
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) February 5, 2020
Shifting gears
Assuming Awesome Kong isn’t injured, this could be a way for AEW to shift away from one of their least popular storylines, if we go by fan comments online.
Honestly, what better way to end a faction or storyline than the muscle behind the Nightmare Collective can’t perform for a couple of months? This gives them the chance to alter things to a more fan-friendly setting without losing face or having to admit they were wrong.
It’s not the first time injuries have been faked for reasons that benefited a show. It also allows the fans to keep their suspension of disbelief. When selling a product, whether it’s inside the ring or outside, it’s important to keep that connection with fans. Otherwise, we tend to lose interest and wait to see if something more entertaining is around the corner or another station.
How’d it go down?
During this week’s AEW Dark (About 27 minutes in), Awesome Kong interfered in Mel and Hikaru Shida’s match, which resulted in Mel, fellow member of the Nightmare Collective, to lose. Instead of accepting the result, they reacted as you’d expect heels to and attacked Kong, leaving her injured.
Here’s another reason to suspect this may be work.
Injuring opponents in storylines is as old as time itself. IN the 1980s, King Kong Bundy “injured” Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, which resulted in the WWE using the wounded warrior storyline for them to come back and face Bundy. Of course, the WWE went to great lengths in claiming Hogan was injured while he was off in Hollywood.
Because of that, and other instances, this smacks of the same type of storyline. This would push Kong out of the Nightmare Collective and make her their most dangerous adversary.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that this is legitimate, and it’s easier than expected to be injured during extra curriculars like those. If she is, I hope she has a fast recovery and is back in the ring soon. If she’s not, AEW may have hoodwinked all of us, and to that I say, well played.
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