Since starting up in 2019, All Elite Wrestling has featured a number of factions, but these days one of the most prominent ones is The Blackpool Combat Club. Founded in 2019, The BCC is a group of belligerent (mostly) ex-WWE stars who value the violent spectacle of pro wrestling, seeking to inflict pain upon their opponents.
Formed in 2022, The BCC has worked both babyface and heel, and have only boasted a handful of members — one of whom doesn’t even work for AEW anymore. Despite the small lineup, it’s still worth evaluating every member and ranking them. They’re all pretty great, but let’s take a look at how great they are (or were) within the context of the Blackpool Combat Club.
5 Wheeler Yuta
In general, AEW does a solid job grouping younger wrestlers with veteran talent, creating opportunities for lesser-known talent to get a spotlight by virtue of being associated with stars — for example, Darby Allin and Sting. This is also true of the Blackpool Combat Club, who have their own devoted rookie in Wheeler Yuta. Originally over as an underdog babyface affiliated with Best Friends, he defected to Blackpool Combat Club shortly after its formation.
As part of the BCC, Yuta’s shown off more of a killer instinct than fans have seen of him before, especially once the faction turned heel. However, because he’s still basically Blackpool’s resident rookie, Wheeler Yuta often serves as the fall guy in tag team matches — including in 2023’s standout Blood & Guts match, where his being strangled led Jon Moxley to surrender on behalf of the team. For many fans, Yuta likely isn’t as big a draw as his stablemates, but he also still needs time to really grow into the wrestler he’ll become.
4 William Regal
Lest anyone forget, William Regal is the one who started it all. After his ill-advised release from WWE in 2022, Regal made his AEW debut at Revolution a couple of months later, intervening in a confrontation between Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, both of whom he mentored in WWE. Soon enough, the BCC was formed, with Regal as the group’s manager and mouthpiece. Out of all of the BCC members, Regal is probably the most crucial, as his presence not only gave the group its philosophical drive, but also its name, as Blackpool, England is where William Regal is billed from.
As important as he is, Regal’s run with the group was all too short, as a management change at WWE resulted in the retired legend being asked back to the company. As a result, Regal — following a shocking betrayal of Jon Moxley in favor of MJF — was quickly dispatched by the latter and sent to the hospital as a way to write him off of the show.
While he was in AEW, however, Regal was an absolute joy, able to work heel in promos while also being a joy on guest commentary.
3 Bryan Danielson
One of the founding members of the Blackpool Combat Club, Bryan Danielson needs no introduction for most wrestling fans. He’s a multi-time world champion on the indies and in WWE who became a major underdog favorite during his 2013-2014 quest to win the WWE Championship despite the evil authority figures standing in his way — all while being hailed by fans as the best wrestler in the world. Arriving in AEW in fall 2021, by spring 2022 Danielson was part of a storyline with Jon Moxley where he was trying to convince Mox that the two of them should start taking younger AEW talent under their collective wing. In other words, Danielson was the one who sowed the seeds for the BCC’s founding.
Despite that, Danielson’s participation in the BCC is often understated. It’s not uncommon to see Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, and Wheeler Yuta team up in matches while Danielson is off doing his own thing — or, in some cases, out with an injury. Hilariously, despite his reputation, Bryan Danielson is also the only one of the veteran wrestlers in the group who has yet to be successful in AEW as far as holding a championship.
2 Claudio Castagnoli
Formerly known as Cesaro in WWE, Claudio Castagnoli made his AEW debut at the inaugural Forbidden Door pay-per-view in 2022 against Zack Sabre Jr. in a strong technical effort that established himself the perfect new member of Blackpool Combat Club. Since then, he’s pretty much supplanted Bryan Danielson as one of the more prominent members of the group, as alluded to above.
As part of the BCC, Castagnoli has arguably been the most consistently successful in terms of capturing titles — aside from maybe Wheeler Yuta, who held the Ring of Honor Pure Title. In July 2022, Claudio defeated Jonathan Gresham to capture the ROH World Championship for the first time ever, and to date is a two-time champion, with his most recent reign being 262 days and counting.
1 Jon Moxley
When it comes to the BCC, the group generally marries two different sensibilities: Bryan Danielson’s vicious technical expertise and Jon Moxley’s insatiable thirst for violence. The Blackpool Combat Club has most often indulged in the latter, making Mox the highest-ranking member. To date, the BCC has taken part in several chaotic, violent, and bloody matches including Anarchy in the Arena, two editions of Blood & Guts, and most recently the Stadium Stampede at All In 2023.
Out of all the BCC, however, Jon Moxley is the only member to reach the top of AEW by holding the AEW World Championship. Already a former champion, during his time in the group Mox was able to capture the World Title two more times as well as winning the Interim World Championship.