John Silver On The Creative Structure In AEW, His Character's Success On BTE

Since joining the Dark Order last December, John Silver has been a mainstay of both AEW Dynamite and Being The Elite. He and Dark Order stablemate, Alex Reynolds, have grown their popularity on BTE with their comedic skits on the YouTube show. Speaking with Living The Gimmick, Silver revealed most of the Dark Order BTE concepts come from the members themselves.

"Usually we'll just have an idea," Silver said. "A lot of times, I've had a lot of ideas, Alex has had a lot of ideas. But once in a while, Brodie, or Uno, or Stu will have an idea. But that's it – it's just an idea, and then we just do it."

It's no secret that AEW is very relaxed when it comes to scripted segments, as many wrestlers within the promotion have praised the company for letting them improvise. According to Silver, the stuff they do with BTE follows the same structure.

"It's just off the top of the head, most of it is," Silver said. "Or sometimes, when we're talking about it, we're like, 'Okay, this is the idea.' And something might pop in my head as we're kind of just talking about the idea. Like, 'Oh, I could say this', or, 'You could come in and say that.' But a lot of it's just like, we're kind of spit-balling."

Silver first popped up in All Elite Wrestling back in October 2019, tagging with Alex Reynolds in a losing effort to Santana and Ortiz. Silver and Reynolds would make sporadic AEW appearances for the rest of 2019, mostly being used as enhancement talent on AEW Dynamite and AEW Dark. After joining the Dark Order at the end of 2019, Silver became a regular on AEW programming. While Silver never anticipated joining the group, he says he enjoys being in the Dark Order because it allows him to bring out a more vicious side of himself in the ring.

"I never knew that was expected or wanted from me, especially being in The Dark Order gimmick," Silver said. "You think of creepy cult guys that are brainwashed to be in this group basically, so, I just did this look consistently, and just tried to act vicious when I was in the ring. But then when I started doing the BTE, they were like, 'why aren't you doing this on TV?' I was like 'How was I supposed to know?' So now, it's like almost a challenge to be even more out there, and ridiculous, and outrageous now. It's like, okay, now I can just be me. Now you're seeing John Silver be actual John Silver."

Silver joined forces with the sinister faction when they were still under Evil Uno's leadership. Since then, Brodie Lee has taken the reigns of the group. Despite being new to the Dark Order when he joined in March, Silver says he and The Exalted One clicked instantly both inside and outside the ring.

"Once we started doing these bits, it was like natural chemistry, especially on camera," Silver said. "In real life too, but on camera you can clearly see it when something just clicks. But even backstage, we joke around and he's been great. He kind of helped us have more of an identity, especially on TV, where it's like, okay, he is the leader, he is the big guy, he is the s–t, the strong muscle, f–king top dog, and we're like his corporation almost. So, it kind of made us feel like we knew more of our direction, too, just having that."

While not everyone makes it onto AEW Dynamite each week, Being The Elite allows for underutilized AEW stars to stay spotlighted; however, the two do not always cross over. The YouTube show has many unique elements that do not always make it to AEW TV. While Silver says he'd like to see more BTE characters make their way to TNT, he understands how limited AEW Dynamite's runtime is.

"The main thing about Dynamite is it's only two hours, and we have such a large roster," Silver said. "We have really a lot of people. So ideally, of course, and ideally for everyone – not just ideally for us, but you want to be able to explain everything and show this, show that, have this vignette, have this promo. But you just can't get it all in. Especially like, these people are in a big feud, these people are going for the title. You're fighting for two hours of time and every minute is huge. So, it's just a time thing right now.

"I really hope we get an opportunity to have another show eventually, just so that we can show off this stuff a little bit more. But I think, now, you're seeing John Silver on TV that is John Silver on BTE. Maybe not 100% the same, maybe it's a little bit, tiny bit toned down. But at least, okay, now they kind of get what I am now. I guess."