Trivia / The Dark Order

• Acting for Two: To pad the members count before it gained a full roster, the group had several tag matches on Dark being represented by 8 and 9 in mid 2020. These were played by Alan Angels and Preston Vance (with the latter played by Brandon Cutler on the 8/5/20 episode of Dynamite).
• Corpsing: With how over the top some of the group's BTE segments can get, this becomes a common occurrence. Reynolds nearly fell into this and Mr. Brodie turned it around by asking him if he was going to cry. Silver nearly always has a smile on his face during the segments as if he is trying to hold himself back from laughing. Even Mr. Brodie had an instance of this when Trent's real mother spectacularly failed to throw papers at Silver.
• Costume Backlash: Preston Vance revealed in his appearance on the AEW Unrestricted podcast in May 2023 that he never liked wearing the masks he wore during his tenure with the Dark Order, citing difficulties connecting with the audience as he had to rely on body language to convey emotion. He added that when Andrade El Ídolo approached Vance about joining Lá Faccion Ingobernable, he was on board with the idea partially because he would no longer have to wear a mask.
• Died During Production: Brodie Lee unexpectedly passed away on December 26, 2020, following losing the TNT title to Cody on October 7 as well as an elongated absence from AEW altogether.
• Fandom Nod: Preston Vance outright admits to basing his gear off of fan art of 10, specifically mentioning his masks as originating in fan art.
• Romance on the Set: Since 2021, Anna Jay has been in a relationship with fellow AEW wrestler Jungle Boy.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The identity of the Exalted One wasn't fully decided on when the angle started. Evil Uno and Stu Grayson have mentioned that aside from Brodie Lee, Matt Hardy (who made his debut on the same episode as Brodie, and who was also a common fan pick for the role) and Dr. Luther were both considered for the role.
  • Brodie's death cut short a number of storylines that had been brewing before the group made a collective Heel–Face Turn. In late 2020, the Dark Order had been planting the seeds for a feud with Dustin Rhodes by trying to recruit him into the faction. There were also hints that Evil Uno's support for the Dark Order had been wavering after all the abuse Brodie had put him through, while Anna Jay was trying to recruit her friend Tay Conti despite her reluctance over Anna's heelish actions. The Dustin Rhodes and Evil Uno angles were both rendered Aborted Arcs, and Anna Jay's was quickly wrapped up by making Tay Conti fully supportive of the Dark Order after teaming with Anna at Brodie's Celebration of Life show.
  • There's also the "Hangman" Adam Page situation. In a 10-man tag-team match with FTR and The Elite vs. The Dark Order, Brodie Lee pinned Hangman to win, which was notably the only pinfall loss Hangman took in 2020 outside of a title match. Hangman teamed with Reynolds and Silver at the Celebration of Life show, which led into a storyline involving him contemplating joining the Dark Order, and deciding not to but receiving the faction's support regardless during his subsequent Matt Hardy feud. Were it not for Brodie's death, it appears the original storyline would've seen a more aggressive Dark Order try to recruit him, leading to a big match with Brodie down the line.
  • Additionally, Colt Cabana revealed that following him joining the Dark Order to get back on to a winning streak, that he and Brodie were going to have a feud after Brodie's defeat against Jon Moxley, with Colt even having the manuscript written. But with Brodie getting the TNT title then losing it before Brodie died, the plans were incapable of being completed, and Colt is currently still with the Dark Order.
  • There was also the storyline through the Dark Order segments on Being the Elite involving Stu Grayson and Anna Jay. After she joined the group, Anna Jay was shown comically lording over Stu, but after Anna was forced to take a leave of absence from the group due to an injury, Stu began seeing her at various places, which at various times was written off as either Stu hallucinating about her or Anna actually being there, while the rest of the Dark Order acted as if they never had a female member, much to Stu's frustration. The way Stu was concerned about seeing her implied that it was building up towards a Relationship Upgrade between the two, but it was dropped out without a trace after it was revealed that Anna Jay was dating fellow AEW wrestler Jungle Boy in real life (in fact, the news about the relationship came the day after the last Being the Elite episode featuring the storyline).
• You Look Familiar: Months before signing with AEW, Alan Angels had a very brief role with the company as the audience plant who threw a drink at MJF at Revolution 2020.