AEW might have only existed since 2019, but in the near seven years that the company has been around, some of the most engaging and exciting stories have been told.
Thanks to the fact that the stars of AEW don't have to rely too much on scripted promos or the fact that their target audience is families with small children, they have the creative freedom to dive a little deeper into more mature topics and touch on things that aren't suitable for other companies. We've seen feuds and rivalries where characters have battled with their own personal demons, the insecure need to be accepted by their heroes, and the desire to not only destroy someone else's life piece by piece, but essentially take that person's entire life for themselves.
All Elite Wrestling does have a reputation amongst certain circles of the internet for being a company that is incapable of telling a coherent story. "Moves over moments" is something that has been thrown at AEW since the very beginning as the company focuses more on the in-ring product compared to their biggest competition, WWE, being a company that has at times phased the in-ring action out of a storyline entirely to focus more on the drama between characters. While wrestling is subjective and everyone has their own tastes, AEW has told its fair share of top quality stories in between the ropes without the reliance of a promo segment to lay everything out for the viewer, allowing the fans to fill in some of the gaps that have been left for them.
That is what we're here to talk about today. The feuds and rivalries that have taken place within the confines of All Elite Wrestling over the past few years that even though the company is still in single digits in terms of age, it's a company that has produced some of the greatest storylines of the modern era. So sit back, relax, and join us on a journey through the AEW history books as we look back at five of the greatest and most legendary feuds in the short history of All Elite Wrestling.
Arguably the story that carried AEW through its first three years, and played a part in the company's first real boom period in 2021.
Hangman Adam Page has been regarded as the "main character" of AEW by fans for so many years now that the term has leaked into certain promos on AEW TV in recent years, and for good reason. When the company was first formed, Page was positioned as the man who AEW was going to be built around. At the first public rally that AEW ever held in 2019, Page told the world that he would be the AEW World Champion, and from there, the next three years of programming was set as it was simply a case of when the "Anxious Millennial Cowboy" was going to be the top guy in AEW.
It took a while to get there as Page would have problems with his friends in The Elite, with Kenny Omega trying to play peacemaker between Page and The Young Bucks. However, after prioritizing his own love of alcohol over his partnership with Omega, Page cost himself and Omega the AEW World Tag Team Championships at AEW All Out 2020, and Omega couldn't stand by Page's side any longer. Omega knew he could take AEW by the scruff of its neck and carry it to the top of the wrestling world, a job that was supposed to be for Page in the beginning. Omega proved this by beating Page in the final of the 2020 AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament, which he would use to win the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley at the end of that year with the help of Don Callis.
While Omega linked up with Callis to begin his quest for world domination that would ultimately lead The Young Bucks to revamp The Elite with Omega as the figurehead, Page found solace in The Dark Order, who accepted Page for who he was, mistakes and all. They helped Page realize that he could still be the man everyone knew he could be, while enjoying a little drink every now and again, and over time The Dark Order built Page back up into a man who knew he was ready to take AEW by storm, even if he had to go through his old friends in The Elite to do so.
The Elite would try and guilt trip and gaslight Page into making him think he wasn't good enough and that the group originally fell apart because of him, but Page remained strong. After earning a shot at the AEW World Championship in October 2021, Page was finally going to get his shot at Omega, who had ruled AEW for nearly a year at that point. Page dethroned Omega to become the champion in one of the biggest feel-good moments in AEW history, capping off the first truly epic story in the company's history, and solidifying Page's "main character" status for many years to come.
While Hangman Page vowed to become the AEW World Champion before the company had even held its first show, The Young Bucks had a different goal; make tag team wrestling great again.
It was no secret by 2019 that tag team wrestling in companies like WWE was an afterthought, and that all of the money to be made in professional wrestling was in the big singles matches that could headline pay-per-views. Matt and Nick Jackson wanted to change that and prove to the world that tag team wrestling could not only be better than ever, but that it could also be a main event attraction. The problem the Jackson brothers had was that in order to achieve their goal, they would need a team that was on their level to get the ball rolling, and fortunately for them, another pair of brothers had the exact same mindset.
The Lucha Brothers first crossed paths with The Young Bucks at a PWG event in 2016, and right away the fans who saw that first meeting on day three of the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles weekend knew that they were witnessing two teams who were destined to be rivals for life. The two teams would meet in companies like The Crash and AAA, the latter of whom had a partnership with AEW when the company first started, hence why the inaugural AEW pay-per-view, Double or Nothing 2019, saw the AAA World Tag Team Championships on the line in the match between The Young Bucks and The Lucha Brothers.
Getting the chance to strut their stuff on a major stage did wonders for both teams as Penta and Rey Fenix, who some fans were already familiar with thanks to Lucha Underground, showed the world that there was in fact a team that were as good as Matt and Nick Jackson. Throughout 2019 in both AEW and AAA, the two teams traded the AAA World Tag Team Championships back-and-forth, culminating in a ladder match at the inaugural All Out pay-per-view that needs to be seen to be believed.
The two teams would occasionally cross paths once "AEW Dynamite" started, but the feud picked back up in 2021 when even the likes of PAC and Eddie Kingston couldn't help out Penta and Fenix. In the end, The Lucha Brothers would earn their shot at The Young Bucks' AEW World Tag Team Championships inside a Steel Cage at All Out 2021 in what some consider to be the greatest cage match of all time. Penta and Fenix would pick up the win on that night, but their war with the Jackson's wasn't done as 2022 saw another classic on "AEW Rampage," and a best-of-seven series over the AEW World Trios Championships where Kenny Omega and PAC were both involved. Now with Penta and Fenix in WWE, this rivalry looks to be over for good, but when these four men crossed paths, tag team wrestling was truly at its best.
The old saying of "Never meet your heroes" has never been more relevant than when CM Punk got to AEW in 2021. Why? Because when he felt like he was fully settled into the company, he was met with someone who he inadvertently had a hand in creating; Maxwell Jacob Friedman, MJF.
By the end of 2021, MJF was already one of the most detestable men in AEW. He would insult anyone and everyone he came into contact with and there was no line, professional or personal, that he wouldn't cross. However, when he met Punk, something was different. He was still making fun of Punk for failing in the UFC and referencing his original run in WWE, but something changed in MJF, he was fueled by something much different, he was fueled by hatred. When Punk walked away from wrestling in 2014, MJF was one of the many people who felt let down by Punk, but instead of wishing he'd return, he vowed to never be like him and be the antithesis of what he thought Punk represented; someone who would quit.
On the opposite side of things, Punk was less angry and MJF and more confused as to why someone he had never met before hated him so much, and even attempted to find the "why" in MJF's reasoning. Why did MJF have such a burning hatred for him when he didn't even think about him at all? Over time, everyone would come to learn the truth about MJF in that he was a huge fan of Punk growing up, but felt abandoned by the one person he admired the most at a time where he was being bullied in school for his religion and only had wrestling to turn to for an escape.
All of this groundwork led to two matches between the two men. The first took place in Punk's hometown where MJF cheated not once, but twice to get the victory in a way where Friedman could legitimately say that he had beaten "The Second City Saint"twice in one night. However, this unlocked something in Punk that MJF thought he wanted, but in reality, he simply wasn't ready for; the old CM Punk. The CM Punk who left pieces of himself in Ring of Honor, bled across the world and carved out a path that no one else has been able to carve since. This all led to the Dog Collar match.
AEW Revolution 2022 saw Punk and MJF engage in one of the most vicious Dog Collar matches of all time, with Punk getting the all important win thanks to a little help from MJF's right-hand man Wardlow, who had also grown tired of "The Salt of the Earth." Had Punk not had his meltdown after the 2022 All Out pay-per-view, this story was going to have at least one more chapter. However, for what we got, it's still one of the best told stories in modern wrestling history.
One of the biggest criticisms that has been thrown at AEW and its CEO Tony Khan is that the women's division never gets the spotlight that it deserves for how deep and talented the roster is. There are infinite possibilities for the women in AEW, but for whatever reason, they simply aren't given the same amount of love or attention that their male counterparts get. With that in mind, it really is an achievement that of the greatest feuds in AEW history, Mariah May vs. Toni Storm is always one of the first to be brought up.
Directly influenced by the 1950 movie "All About Eve," Storm had become both "Timeless" and the second-ever three-time AEW Women's World Champion by the end of 2023. At the same time, May had debuted for AEW after a successful run in STARDOM in Japan and professed her love for Storm, stating that she modeled her entire career on what Storm had done and wanted to not only learn from her, but be just like her. At first, Storm was indifferent to May, but liked having an extra pair of hands to help her out when things weren't going according to plan. Over time, Storm would see a lot of herself in May and grow very fond of her, so much so that when May earned a shot at the her title by winning the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, Storm was over the moon for May, but that was all part of the plan.
Much like in "All About Eve," May wanted to take everything Storm had for herself and viciously attacked her idol with her own shoe, leaving her in a pool of her own blood. Storm would snap and declare that she would be willing to die before May completed her plan, but it was no use as May dethroned Storm at AEW All In London 2024, and Storm was gone from the company for several months. In December 2024, Storm would return in her former gimmick of a rocker, claiming to be a rookie who just wanted an opportunity at greatness, but after winning her own shot the title now held by May, Storm showed her true colors and proclaimed that she was still timeless and vowed to end May once and for all.
Storm dethroned May at AEW Grand Slam Australia in February 2025, but that wasn't the end of the story as May wanted her true "Hollywood Ending" at Revolution the following month. She allowed Storm to make the rules, with Storm making it a Falls Count Anywhere match that would quickly turn into the most violent match in the history of the AEW women's division, as well as one of the greatest women's matches of all time. Storm got the win, and as the two women laid on the entrance ramp, battered, bloody, and broken, the end credits rolled on the single greatest rivalry in the history of the AEW women's division.
How far is too far? How much blood must be spilled in order for a thirst to be quenched? How much hate do you have to have for another human being that burning their house down seems like a justifiable action? All of these questions were asked when Hangman Page came into contact with Swerve Strickland.
Two years after his triumph over Kenny Omega, Page had slipped back down the card in AEW and was no longer seen as the "main character," but was still given opportunities to be the man everyone knew he could be. This prompted Strickland to confront Page by saying that if he was given the same chances Page had been given, he would be the first black AEW World Champion, urging Page to try and find that spark he had in 2021. When Strickland beat Page in their initial meeting, that didn't satisfy Strickland enough and felt like he needed to get in Page's head, or more specifically, his home.
Strickland broke into Page's home while he was wrestling and showed the footage on "AEW Dynamite," and from there, the gloves were off. The happy-go-lucky cowboy that everyone had loved had gone to the darkest part of his soul and had one objective; make Strickland's life miserable. Nothing was off limits, especially in their Texas Death Match at Full Gear 2023 where Page stapled his son's drawings to Strickland's face and drank his blood, but his blind rage was his own undoing and Strickland choked Page unconscious by hanging him from the ring post.
Then an even bigger problem arose as Page realized that despite Strickland legitimately impacting his life for the worse outside the ring, the fan support for Strickland was growing, causing Page's hatred of Strickland to grow with it. No longer was the AEW World Championship a goal for Page, he cared less about holding the title and more about Strickland not holding it, but when he had to step away from AEW for personal reasons, Strickland reached the promise land and became the first-ever African American AEW World Champion.
When Page returned, his mission of making sure Strickland didn't hold the title was the same, and even after failing to earn a title shot by winning the 2024 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, he would attempt to get involved in the main event of AEW All In London 2024, which Strickland would eventually lose to Bryan Danielson. However, after a challenge for a Steel Cage match was made for All Out 2024, Page finally brought Strickland to his level of hatred by burning down Strickland's childhood home that was gifted to him as part of his new contract. Their cage match turned into a grizzly horror show that ended with Page knocking Strickland unconscious by drugging him and giving him a vicious unprotected chair shot to the head. Page got revenge on Strickland for ruining his life, but he lost every part of himself to do it.
