Wrestling has always had its fair share of tropes, and tropes are not necessarily a bad thing - especially if used right. The danger of leaning too much into traditional methods of storytelling, however, is that more times than not, an over-reliance on standard tropes will lead to a story that's lackluster or predictable. Fans know what will happen when a wrestler stands with a chair behind his tag team partner, they know what will happen when a hot tag is made, and they know when the new number one contender will be a face if the current champion is a heel.
The 90s saw many old wrestling tropes and traditions being tossed into the gutter, as WCW and WWE both did whatever they could to try to make their products unpredictable and compelling. WCW did away with the "good guys eventually get their hands on the bad guys" trope when the nWo laid waste to most of the faces of Nitro's roster, no matter how many good guys teamed up against them. WWE did away with the 'clean babyface' trope with the rise of anti-heroes like Stone Cold, Undertaker, and Mankind. In recent years, wrestling has once again mostly fell back to relying on old formulas, but the upstart AEW has shown it is more than willing to break a couple of tropes in order to tell a more compelling story. One great example of this is in the current storyline centering on The Elite's implosion.
"Implosion" may not necessarily be the most precise name, as it stems from the expectation that one member of The Elite will turn heel on his friends and break up the team. Such has been the bane of babyface teams for most of wrestling history, with tradition dictating that in any collection of two or more babyfaces, at least one will eventually turn heel and back-stab their partners. This may not be the case with The Elite, however. There's an equal possibility of any of their members defecting from the rest, with none of them demonstrating clear signs of becoming a heel.
From Hangman Page's point of view, he has always been looked down on by the more illustrious members of his clique. Every other member of The Elite is an Executive V.P. at AEW with his own private dressing room, while Hangman still has to dress with the rest of the talent in the general locker room. When Page had one of the most important matches of his life against Chris Jericho for the AEW championship, The Young Bucks refused to second him ringside. After he lost to Jericho, they moved on to bigger and better things without him while Page resorted to drinking to cope with his losses. Just when he finally started to see some success, in the form of the tag team championship, The Young Bucks showed up immediately as the first challengers to attempt to take it away from him. AEW has built up a very relatable protagonist in Hangman who enjoys a ton of fan support, and if Page decided to turn on The Elite, there would be no lack for supporters who'd find that decision justified.
Opposite Page stands The Young Bucks, who want nothing more than to win the tag team championship. They let their egos get ahead of themselves in claiming that they are the best tag team in the world, and now they find themselves fallen behind their own friends in the tag team division. Their ambitions are definitely understandable, as is their frustration with Adam Page. Page has failed to show up to help The Young Bucks on multiple occasions during their brawls with the Inner Circle. While at first, they were sympathetic for him after his loss to Jericho, that sympathy turned to bitterness as Page began drifting further and further away from them. Whenever Page eventually did show up to help them, it was always followed by a middle finger to Matt Jackson. So, when Page tried to leave The Elite, it was understandable why Nick, in the heat of the moment, would say that they were responsible for raising Page from a "jobber" into a star.
Meanwhile, Kenny Omega finds himself stuck in the middle of this drama, reluctant to side with either of his friends while showing signs of losing his patience with both. The final element in the mix is Cody, who remains no stranger to escalating tensions within his own faction for personal gain, as seen in his stint in NJPW as "The American Nightmare" Cody in Bullet Club.
Following the massively well-received tag team championship match at Revolution, both Hangman and the Bucks have teased turning on each other at different points. There was one moment when Omega and The Young Bucks looked like they were setting Page up for a triple superkick, and another where it looked like Page was getting ready to hit his partner Omega with a Buckshot Lariat. In the next episode of Being The Elite, Matt Jackson asked Kenny Omega if he'd noticed Hangman's Buckshot Lariat attempt, which Omega reluctantly affirmed. Elsewhere, Brandon Cutler asks Page if he'd noticed The Young Bucks and Omega setting him up for a triple superkick, to which Hangman uncomfortable said yes.
This could all just be one big misunderstanding on both sides, or this could mean at least one of them is right to suspect his fellow members of The Elite. The whole feud remains mired in shades of grey, which seems to be a deliberate decision on AEW's part. The tag team rivalry between The Young Bucks and Omega/Page has only escalated tensions between the four, making for a turbulent group dynamic heading into a Blood & Guts match against the Inner Circle.
AEW has done feuds with no clear good or bad guys before, such as the battle between Moxley and Omega. But this one goes far beyond, blurring the moral lines to the point where both sides are right and wrong at the same time. At any point, any of them could turn on the other, and everyone's reasons would be justifiable. By muddying the traditional line between face and heel, the decision for which wrestlers should be cheered or booed becomes far more subjective, and this is a very good thing. While not every feud needs to discard the classic heel/face dynamic, AEW's willingness to break outdated conventions has made for a far more compelling storyline with The Elite.