Report: The Hurt Syndicate Weren't Originally Planned To Become AEW World Tag Team Champions

The Hurt Syndicate are your new AEW World Tag Team Champions after a victory over Private Party, but reports suggest Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin weren’t originally planned to win the belts.

Per Fightful Select, the ‘internal claim’ from within AEW suggests that the team were not planned to win the titles ‘a couple of months ago’, but as always in professional wrestling plans changed.

There’s no word on what caused AEW management to change plans, but it can only be assumed they paid attention to the reception the group has gotten since debuting in late 2024, with the trio of Benjamin, Lashley, and MVP getting loud cheers every week, with AEW fans chanting ‘We Hurt People’ to the team’s theme music.

The win on January 22 marked only the second time in AEW that Lashley and Benjamin had competed as a tag team, with their previous outing coming with a win over The Acclaimed at Fight for the Fallen at the start of January. The full Hurt Syndicate have only wrestled together in AEW on one occasion, with MVP working a rare match at Dynamite Maximum Carnage as the three picked up a trios victory over Private Party and Mark Briscoe.

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