John Silver has become the breakout star on Being The Elite in recent months, stealing the episode every time he's on-screen with The Dark Order.
Silver and his tag team partner Alex Reynolds were the first recruits of Evil Uno and Stu Grayson in the Dark Order, joining the group in December. Though Dark Order has received lacked some cohesion since the debut of Uno and Grayson, the reveal of Brodie Lee as The Exalted One and his TNT Championship reign brought some stability to the group.
"I never knew that was expected or wanted from me, especially being in The Dark Order gimmick. You think of creepy cult guys that are brainwashed to be in this group basically, so I just did this look consistently, 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 '(expletive), 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 said Living The Gimmick podcast when discussing how Dark Order has changed over the past year.
On the subject of Brodie, Silver said, "Once we started doing these bits, it was like natural chemistry, especially on camera. 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 (expletive), the strong muscle (expletive) 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."
Silver went on to say that many ideas on BTE are a collaboration between everyone and off the top of the head. Since Silver and Dark Order have become regulars on BTE, fans have started to see more of his BTE character on Dynamite.
When discussing the relationship between the two shows, Silver said, "The main thing about Dynamite is it's only two hours. And we have such a large roster. 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. 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 the 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."
Silver is set to compete in the finals of the BTE Championship tournament against Matt Jackson and Trent on next week's episode. On the last episode of AEW Dynamite, Silver and Reynolds failed in their bid to become number one contenders to the AEW Tag Team Titles, losing a fatal four-way bout to The Young Bucks.
Thanks to Jon Alba for passing along the quotes above. Please credit him with a link to Living The Gimmick podcast if you use any quotes in the article.
