AEW has found many uses for the wrestling legends on its roster. Stars from the '80s, like Jake Roberts and Arn Anderson, have found roles as managers. Monday night wars veterans, like Chris Jericho and Dustin Rhodes, are still going strong as in ring talents. There have even been cameo appearances from veterans like Diamond Dallas Page and Virgil.
Somewhere between his '90s peers Jericho and DDP stands Billy, who has worked for the company as a wrestler and behind the scenes producer since it was formed in January of 2019.
The WWE Hall of Famer recently dropped his long time ring surname of Gunn, reportedly due to litigation by WWE. His tag team with son Austin is still called the Gunn Club, since AEW is taking advantage of the same loophole that allows it to announce one of its power couples as Cody and Brandi Rhodes. The Gunns primarily wrestle on AEW's supplementary YouTube show, AEW Dark. Outside of battle royals, where the elder Gunn dwarfs most of the competitors, their appearances on Dynamite have mostly been in the crowd.
Tony Schiavone tried to interview the Gunns from their usual front row seats on the June 10 episode of Dynamite, but was rudely interrupted by MJF. He used the closest available microphone to tout his winning streak and call out his enemies in AEW -- who would be practically everyone in the company outside his faithful bodyguard Wardlow (at least for now).
Billy took offense to MJF calling himself "a great white shark swimming in a sea of minnows." He took further offense when MJF called his son an untalented "scumbag." Wardlow intervened before things could get physical, but a match between the two was booked for the following week.
Billy put up a good fight, but wasn't able to hand MJF his first loss in AEW. MJF used a combination of ring psychology and good old fashioned cheating to overcome the larger man. First, MJF weakened Billy's leg enough to limit his offense. When he started making a comeback, MJF took advantage of a Wardlow distraction to use his Dynamite Diamond Ring to knock him out.
MJF's focus shifted away from the Gunn Club post match. He and Wardlow got in a pull-apart brawl with the Jurassic Express, complete with Marko Stunt jumping the rail and wailing on Wardlow's back. That set up a Lumberjack Match between Wardlow on Luchasaurus on the following week's Dynamite. It also looks like it will also set up a Double or Nothing rematch between MJF and Jungle Boy down the line.
It's odd to see someone of Billy's stature, both literally and figuratively, just get brushed aside like that. But it's also absolutely the right call. WWE has a tendency to go too far the other way in its nostalgia-driven use of stars from the past. AEW is clearly run by people who love and respect wrestling history. They certainly remember it. But there's also hope that they're smart enough not to repeat its worst mistakes.
Billy certainly has name value. He was a member of D-Generation X at the height of their popularity during the Attitude Era. He's a highly decorated tag team specialist in a company that values its tag division in a way that hasn't been seen in decades. He also had some success as a singles wrestler, winning the 1999 King of the Ring tournament and holding the Intercontinental Championship in 2000.
AEW isn't the only company outside of WWE to use Billy's name value to its advantage. New Japan Pro Wrestling had Billy challenge one of its standard bearers, Hiroshi Tanahashi, for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at its first set independently promoted shows in the United States. Tanahashi won, to no one's surprise, earning a win over someone who's held the other Intercontinental Title. The founders of AEW also competed on that show, with Kenny Omega becoming NJPW's first United States Champion in the main event.
Most of AEW's established are doing a good job of trying to elevate the talent around them. That features some big gestures, like Cody's open challenges for the TNT Title, and Omega working in the tag division. It also includes smaller things, like Jericho making a jobber a known commodity on television. Gunn putting over a main eventer in the making like MJF fits that team effort well, while finally getting him off AEW Dark and onto Dynamite in a bigger role.