Few factions in AEW have been established as well as Undisputed Kingdom. The seeds of what is known as The Undisputed Kingdom were set in place during the highly entertaining Devil storyline that started with a feud between MJF and Adam Cole in June of 2023 and concluded with the full reveal of the Devil at World’s End in December of 2023. With the full reveal of the Undisputed Kingdom Faction to take place at the first Dynamite of 2024 in Newark, NJ.
On paper the new faction had the makings of a true wrestling supergroup!
Matt Taven – Main evented ROH for over 5 years and even picked up the IWGP Tag belts with
Mike Bennett – Part of the original Kingdom stable in ROH and a solid veteran wrestler with 10 years of experience across ROH, NJPW and WWE.
Roderick Strong – A 13 year ROH veteran and held multiple titles in NXT in one of the most classic periods of that company between 2016 and 2018 along side
Adam Cole – A goddamn force of nature in NXT who is still the longest reigning NXT champion of ALL TIME and who also has a track record of fronting successful factions such as the original kingdom In ROH and the Undisputed Era in NXT.
Rounding out the group is Wardlow, who should have benefitted from sitting under the learn tree of the other members so to speak. But much like those who have been sucked into the Jericho vortex I’m not so sure he came out the other side better off.
Who knows what would have happened had Adam Cole not injured himself at Grand Slam, but I can tell you, the expectation was high. If you know the history here you would have been expecting a showdown between the undisputed kingdom and some kind of other super group in a big war games match at blood and guts.
Instead it seems like the faction has been dissolved, with Wardlow out of action, Adam Cole dispatched in 5 seconds by MJF at Double Or Nothing this year.
Matt Taven and Mike Bennett have faired the best as they continue to be featured well in Ring Of Honor PPVs, seriously go watch those matches, any of the Kingdom matches on the recent ROH PPVs are easily up there with the best matches of the night, those guy ALWAYS kill it.
Roderick Strong not only lost his recently obtained International Championship to Will Ospreay but he also went on to lose a title shot at Swerve Strickland on a recent episode of Dynamite.
Undisputed Kingdom still exists, but it seems like all the potential it had to be a top faction in AEW has been diminished both by injuries and due to a influx of new top stars entering the company at the start of the year. I still have hopes that they will pick up momentum again, but only time will tell if the kingdom will truly ever be undisputed.