Death Riders

[2.0] "I'm not apologizing for having an opinion that goes against the current trend. I still don't see much value in this group. The depths they dragged the main event scene down to for a 4-6 month period was awful. Daniel Garcia has also regressed big time since joining. His ring works is still fine but the shorts look indieriffic."

[10.0] "Death Riders apology forms will still be accepted into the 2026 New Year. The best faction in AEW and probably in the entire west, most of the members have come into their own, in particular Jon Moxley is on a WOTY run at the moment. I think the low rating is one part bad booking and the other part is that people genuinely disliked the Death Riders for their actions or just generally got worked. I think that the post Jon Moxley Death Riders are in danger of falling into irrelevancy if the Claudio singles run doesn't begin sooner or later, Tony PLEASE do not let them get back to being awful."

[10.0] "They Are....PROBABLY The Best Stable Of AEW. 2025, I Was Struggling With Anxiety [it was chronic] and depression outside of wrestling and twitter, [x.com/eviesonicfan124 for finding out], But Watching Them In AEW Made Me Feel Better That I Have To Keep Watching Every Week Back In January 2025. They Are The Best Heels And Most Successful Auras Ever. You Have PAC, A Good Addition To The Stable And The Concect Of Putting The Title In A Briefcase Was Not Bad At All. And Plus, I Hate It In Fakeness, But I Really Loved It As They Started To Gain Heat From It As They Put The Title In A Bag. The Story Was So Lit From Hobbs To White To Cope [was ass] To Strickland To Anarchy In The Arena To The Opps To The Bucks To Ospreay To Adam Page To End The Corruption Of The Wrestling Story."

[6.0] "If you asked me to rate this stable in January-March, I genuinely would have given them a 1 or a 2. That stretch of booking had to be some of the worst and most nonsensical booking AEW has ever done, and w waste of some fucking amazing wrestlers. However, since then, and especially since Mox lost the title in July, they have locked the fuck in, and become the most interesting part of weekly programming. Moxley has completed his turn into a spiralling and desperate man who is running on borrowed time, with PAC and Claudio playing the part of the ruthless henchmen vying to take the mantle. The tension of seeing whether this will be the day they expel Moxley from the group has been lowkey some of the best character work of the year. A horrid start, but they have turned it around. However, it remains to be seen what this group will become after the inevitable removal of Mox."

[10.0] "Honestly they're 6 or 7 at january to march but after all in texas this stable is just the best and the top notch stable of all the whole professional wrestling moxley the first ever anti villain of all of the professional wrestling his storyline really did it's job literally lifted and elevated the company for it's one of it's highest level again everyone literally in this faction benefited and gained a huge push from this faction claudio and pac and even yuta as literally overheated and overhated from the fans which is an amazing thing overall this faction if the split gone well will be remembered as one of the best factions in history"

[9.0] "The Death Riders era of AEW is going to be looked back on very fondly as a whole, I truly believe that. But man, December 2024 through March 2025 was ROUGH and I can't blame people for being so down on them, especially since it took a few months for them to really kick it into high gear from there. That said, everybody in the group is doing some of their best AEW work if not career-best work while in the Death Riders: Mox since around May has been absolutely incredible as this oddly vulnerable hypocrite blowhard, Claudio is a cold and calculated machine, Yuta & Garcia are tapping into something great as a heel team, PAC is PAC, and Marina Shafir went from written off as a lost cause to a lynchpin of the product on both the men's & women's side. There's still so much gas left in the tank of this group, especially with the ticking time bomb of them turning on Mox, that I think we're going to have at least another 18+ months of it, and I'll be happy to see it. Those ~4 months of weak output from them (mostly being centered on the Cope feud) are going to be like a blip on the radar."

[9.0] "Overhated group, in my opinion they are a net positive for AEW. Yes there were ups and downs, the Cope feud in particular was pretty bad. However I do believe they did what they set out to do, Moxley and the Death Riders were the final chapter in the rehabilitation of Hangman's character since Brawl Out and man did they nail it. They are a classic heel stable that gets heat and makes you desperate to see them lose. It seems there is a story going now with them and DG, I would like to see if the Death Riders can get something interesting out of him."

[10.0] "This group is good. Serves its purpose, led by a completely crazy Jon Moxley. AEW main-storylines all revolve around them, putting over many people (both babyfaces and heels). In some ways, yeah, the road has been rough. But it is culminating at All In, making it all work out at the end. Update, some months later: yeah they are awesome. Made so many stars, both babyfaces and heels, inside and outside the group."

[10.0] "I understand completely why the overall rating for these guys is so low, especially from Jan-April 2025 when the TV being put out by the Death Riders was actively bad (sorry, love you Cope but Jesus Christ). However, with the benefit of hindsight, with Moxley's reign having come to an end in the most glorious way possible, one cannot deny that the Death Riders accomplished what they set out to do. AEW is in one of the best positions it's ever been, with a crop of main event babyfaces that are stratospherically over, and the DR's importance in setting this stage cannot possibly be underestimated or ignored. Add onto that a genuinely great beginning and a phenomenal last couple months of the story, and I'd chalk the DR's up as a good success for AEW. Update (11/30/25) yeah nah they gotta be a 10, this stretch of the last 6 months is one of the best I've ever seen a faction have in wrestling history. Absolutely smashed it."

[10.0] "After a rocky start, the Death Riders have become a fantastic faction. They're consistently some of the best recent parts of AEW shows, and their storytelling is fantastic. They're easy to dislike as heels, bring a true sense of danger to big matches, and are ruthless in character, and everything done when they're on screen adds up in a fantastic manner. Currently, Jon Moxley is the leader, but we'll see how 2025 closes after his string of submission losses, and Claudio racking up wins and now the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship as well."

[10.0] "If I'm being honest I wasn't that big on them at first. Weird and overly cryptic promos, subpar matches and boring ass booking led me to believe this shit wasn't going anywhere. Well, no. The moment their leader got choked out by Joe is when it really clicked for me. That night, the so called king's armor began to crack. And Moxley knew exactly how to tap into that, which made for some really good matches, be it single or multi-man. Though, to say this is all on him would be foolish. Wheeler Yuta and Marina Shafir have both done solid work whilst becoming heat magnets. Claudio? Looking stronger than ever. You could argue every member looks better now than they did a year ago (not Gabe Kidd lol that dude blows). Sure, they've been rolling for a year now. But I still think there's more juice to this story. Whole world knows the breakup is gonna happen at any moment now. Perhaps Castagnoli takes over? Wouldn't mind that. Mox redemption arc w/ Kingston? Cool. There's a number of ways they could book this going forward and I'm looking forward to it. Long live the Death Riders."

[10.0] "true heels that make you feel genuine hatred for them, amazing matches and segments every single week. i wasn't a fan at first ngl, but everything changed during the months leading up to the all in texas, those segments with the hangman and all the hype surrounding the main event, in addition to the riders' excellent performance during the event it changed everything. moxley has become one of my all-time favorite wrestlers and made the death riders my favorite stable of recent years. all-timer stable."

[10.0] "Stables that truly succeed for more than a few months are very rare these days, especially when all the pieces are in balance, solidifying and improving. Death Riders had a difficult start, it's fair to say, but will probably end up as the best stable in the United States since Dangerous Alliance at its peak. I hate the way modern heels try to look cool, striking poses to attract the audience to their side, it all ends up being about aura moments and "cinema." Death Riders goes against that, and that's incredible! It's 2025, and a stable has managed to establish three young talents, rekindle the flame of AEW which seemed to be on its last legs after two difficult years, and without any fear or shame of being booed, they made any babyface get applause (even if some didn't deserve it). A big part of pro wrestling that WWE made the audience think is terrible are the DQ or count-out finishes, but damn, that's great for story progression and for the match itself when done well. Jon Moxley isn't afraid of being the one who gets booed, none of them are. They know their role, when the heels win, there are boos, not an audience pointing fingers or singing a theme song."

[9.0] "The Death Riders are a great heel group who where slandered because of a bad fued with Edge but in reality they're a great heel group who feel like a threat when they show up. Mox and Marina are the biggest highlight for me as a duo."

[8.0] "Right i think this is a group you could write a whole thesis on there is that much out there to prove both sides arguments. From their debut to the show before worlds end i would of given the group a 7/10. They set up shop by murdering Bryan which gave them instant credibility and made them the most threating group in the company then the feud between Orange and Moxley was really enjoyable and they had a great main event at full gear then up to worlds end i thought when Hanger (very important in the long run) and Jay got involved as you could see if the 3 of them could put their egos aside they might of been able to win the title back for AEW. My criticisms of this part of the faction was it felt a bit of a less serious threat from post wrestledream to full gear as other than Orange no other main stars were involved which made it a bit weak (i love the dark order but they made it feel cheap). Also the actual match at world's end was pretty meh the first example of bad card place for a Moxley title match. We then had the January 1st dynamite to Dynasty part of the story which i would rate a solid 2/10 to the point it made me want to fuck tear my eyes out. Everything between Mox and Cope was fucking awful the matches, the segments all fucking terrible. That reached its peak shitness at Revolution were it ruined the end to what could of been one of the greatest PPV's of all time with them going on last instead of the Hollywood ending. I will say the part with Swerve was a slight bit better and gets this part of the faction the 2 points, as it got people like the Bucks, Hangman, Ospreay, Omega and the OPPS involved which added to the story and i will give more of a pass to the match at Dynasty as it made me want to see someone murder Mox at All In. Then we have the Post Dynasty to now of the story which i would say has been an easy 9/10. Mox started having good matches again which helped it gave us three amazing PPV main events in a row and gave us one of my favourite ever moments in wrestling of Hangman lifting the belt out of the Briefcase at the end of All in. Since Darby has got involved again post All in i think it signals the start of end of the Death riders and it has been good and i assume Darby and Mox will deliver some amazing fucked up shit at All Out and i liked how Mox sees they are up against the wall so is trying to turn people like Statlander and Garcia to their side. Overall it has definitely been a mixed run but i feel people focus to much on the cope part of the story when they rate the Death Riders because i think if you take the whole year of them as a faction starting with Mox's amazing cryptic promo to now there has been more good then bad and this was a case of people not letting the story run its course before jumping to an opinion. As they were something we had not had in a long time a heel group with nothing to like about them that made it feel like there was no hope and all they would do is kill our favourite faces. That was necessary so we got the pure elation the moment when Moxely taped and then when Hangman opened the case and held up the belt, it is also needed to give the satisfaction Darby beats Mox to end the Group and if the end goes well i could easily change to an 8/10. Edit: So coming back to this over 2 months later post All out, Wresltedream and B&G. All 3 of these were done perfectly and built the group even more we also had the Garcia turn which was intersting for like 2 weeks which was cool and Stat turning them down which was so well done. Post B&G i think we are in the last knocking of at least the Mox lead version of the group as i feel he is getting jumped on next week Dynamite also this group as made Marina fucking sick and she showed out in B&G so we are up to an 8/10 from me if they stick the landing it could be a 9/10 probably the bumpiest road to a 9 ever but who cares the last 7 months post Dynasty have been godly"

[10.0] "The Death Riders bring a raw, dangerous energy that feels completely authentic. Moxley's presence gives the group instant credibility, and their mix of brutality, technique, and attitude makes every match feel intense and unpredictable. They carry the spirit of strong-style and blend it with AEW's chaotic edge, creating a faction that feels earned, not manufactured. Whenever they show up, the atmosphere shifts--they make everything around them feel bigger, tougher, and more important."

[10.0] "TANANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM! To the sound of the theme song, I start explaining why this stable is the definition of a 10/10 group in wrestling. The Death Riders arrived in AEW with the goal of turning it into chaos, making it something hated while building new heroes for the company and taking down the false ones (Bryan, OC, Jay White, Samoa Joe, etc.). Their ease in being truly evil, no matter the cost, running over everyone in their way, was incredible. The shift from the Blackpool Combat Club to the Death Riders -- and how that elevated every member without exception -- showed once and for all how much of a wildcard Jon Moxley is, and how he has that Midas-like ability to touch something and turn it into gold. Lately, I tune into AEW just to see what the magnificent creation of the best former Shield member is doing, and then I turn it off right after. Thank you for saving wrestling, Mox. As the Brazilian philosopher Lorenzo Romano once said: you may judge my actions, but you will applaud their results."

[10.0] "One of the greatest heels of the modern era, they are not clean, they are contraditory, they are true classic heels that make you hate them and wanting to watch the show just to see the babyfaces getting a major win, something that was missing in current pro wrestling. Amazing matches and title defenses, with the leader, Jon Moxley, being the frontrunner for WOTY 2025. Best run of his career by the way!"

[10.0] "I don't rate factions here but I feel I need to try to stop this huge injustice right here. Because, at the moment, THE VISION has a higher rating than the stable whose thematic PPV matches were ALL 5-stars from WON. Yes, Dave isn't God, I disagree with him all the time. For example, I only have 21 5-star matches ever, but the Cagematch ratings (which I disagree all the time too lol) are fantastic, the reviews on the social media platforms are great and - most importantly - they all fucking rock. The DR story gave us the best AEW match of all time (Mox vs Hangman) which may also be the first ever 5* of the company in my method, they are the best heat generators in USA and they single handedly gave new life to the DQ and Count-Out finishes. An absolute success and the best stable in history of AEW. I'm 100% dropping the show when they're gone lol."

[10.0] "The rating is so low because people aren't used to proper heels anymore and when a group like the Death Riders come along and do everything they possibly can to make even the most in tune die hard fans of AEW or of wrestling as a whole genuinely hate to see them. Heavily influenced by old Japanese heels amongst other influences with a modern unique innovative modern take to a throwback "real" heel sadistic and dominating unit that been able to do something rare in modern wrestling and make even those understanding or in on the idea early on absolutely hate them. Weakest point as of writing was the stuff with Edge/Copeland which while it did manage to speed up people genuinely hate them I did find they had not quite found the right grove/limit of pissing everyone off but not be so overbearing and not keeping matches intriguing enough in a company known for in ring action that it gets annoying, however after this feud I really noticed they fixed a lot of this even though people didn't seem to pick up on that (still haven't really heard people notice that) and have a much better mix. The story has been very good even though since the beginning it's gone over a lot of people's heads and even now I think people who have warmed up to understanding the role Death Riders play in AEW still miss a lot of story that Moxley has been telling. Moxley has done really really good at outright telling people the story since the beginning and telling everyone where it was leading and still managing to be very subtle and great at subverting the expectations people have of him or just matches/storytelling in general, an example being the Darby/Mox I Quit match where people felt disappointed and underwhelmed especially by the ending in part due to not fully grasping the story being told as to why in that match it seemed like Moxley quit so easily (yes the build prior felt like it was building to something more insane that couldn't be done due to state regulations but there is much more subtle story being told that more than makes up for and explains the "disappointing" match and finish)"

[8.0] "The Death Riders are a great faction that have been through a lot to get there. I thought they were good at the beginning, then they went downhill during the Cope fued, which ruined the perception of them for many. Over the last few months, Mox, Claudio and even Yuta have done a lot to make sure that the Death Riders look like a threat, mainly starting with the Anarchy In The Arena match, then the perfect All In main event, and a number of great matches since then."

[9.0] "Preposterous rating. Deathriders are a GREAT heel faction, yeah it was not perfect at the start but now they're very good and have been for months. The look and presentation of the group is great, they always have a ton of heat, awesome entrance, good matches, make all the babyfaces loook good... I mean what do you want more ? And most importantly they are TRUE HEELS that people really hate and really want to see lose which is a very rare thing in modern wrestling... I guess this terrible rating is just further proof of that"

[7.0] "To me the Death Riders are everything that HOT is trying to be. One of the main things going for it is that the Death Riders actually put people over, Darby, Hangman, the Opps, even Swerve are more over than they were since before this group started. It's also pretty clear that their last match will be at Blood and Guts vs the Conglomeration and Darby and if they stick the landing on that then they may be even higher. I also for one was never super anti Death Riders. Revolution was the first sign of issues for me personally but I thought the Swerve build was good and everything after that has really worked for me."

[10.0] "Despite their rough starting out period, The Death Riders started to really find their footing as Hangman Adam Page won the Owen Hart Cup and have been going on a tear since. With the recruitment of Daniel Garcia after God-knows however long of when they first started teasing him being in the Blackpool Combat Club, I find myself enjoying AEW programming more and more when it's Jon Moxley who's continuing to lead the pack."

[0.0] "You know it's bad when even the sickos don't like this. A worst version of the Four Horsemen and BCC that keeps getting worse. They killed Swerve to keep Moxley champion and he still hasn't recovered to this day. Every time people tell Tony to end the story, Tony keeps doubling down on it by involving people that are not over like Daniel Garcia. Nothing good about this and we lost Danielson for this."

[7.0] "Not sure why everyone hates these guys for, i find them interesting and love watching Mox be a psycho. Not a fan of Yuta or Shafir at all but i guess every stable needs a pin fall guy for the tag matches"

[7.0] "The Death Riders have salvaged themselves from eternal mediocrity. They finally let them be a heel faction who just wants to spread chaos and be evil. Moxley has stepped up his game in the match department as it's shyed away from constant interference and more brutal affairs. Claudio & PAC are nice additions to the faction but feel overshadowed by other members for various reasons. PAC just returned with a whole new look and physique so we'll see how that goes. Shafir and Yuta are just there and Garcia is probably one of the most compelling characters in the faction next to Moxley. [***.5]"

[4.0] "Started out strong by turning on Danielson, which made it very personal, then became yet another group looking to restore the feeling or save the soul of AEW or some such crap and I quickly lost interest. It certainly didn't help that the last takeover story (the Elite) hadn't even ended when this began. Unfortunately the Death Riders story line can't be ignored that easily because Mox is world champion again and is holding the main event scene hostage with this shite. How can putting the world title on the only man to already hold it three times be called a reset? Anyway, it has somehow got much, much worse as it has gone on with hokey bullshit like kidnapping 70 year old men, attempted murders in front of a bunch of witnesses, involving TK's favourite 50 something year olds, and promos that contradict the last promo that came out of Mox's mouth. This is easily the worst thing going in AEW now and the worst thing Mox has done since Dean Ambrose was wearing a gas mask and berating WWE audiences for all the germs they were carrying. Can't wait for it to end. [EDIT]: The Death Riders were sucking the life out of AEW's programming back in January when I first rated them and that continued until after the stinker Mox and Copeland put on in the main event of Revolution. Swerve got involved for Dynasty and although it massively pissed me off that Mox won that match at least the story they were telling improved dramatically and they got rid of most of the ridiculous bullshit that was dragging everything down. Anarchy In The Arena and the All In main event with Hangman offered some redemption for this group, those were great matches and Mox's reign of wtf ended in the most satisfying way possible. They're now pretty much just the BCC again, and that's ok, so I've bumped them up to a 4 from 0. Still can't overlook how horrible they were."

[9.0] "Since DoN, DeathRiders are one of the most interesting things in AEW. Started really low and without a clear direction, now the faction has become the most effecting heel stable in AEW history. Adding Daniel Garcia, working with Statlander and Willow and probably others to come, they also helping the future of AEW. Jon Moxley is once again the ace of the company, helping young talents and establishing maineventers like Hangman"

[9.0] "Blackpool Combat Club 2.0, but now they are using their combined powers to take over the company. I love where they are going with this. Anything that makes Marina Shafir look like a badass will get a 10. (EDIT: 10 to 6) This got boring really quick. I feel like its run its course but its just repeats of the same thing every week, the mox promos (theyre good, but very repetitive) the interferences, the post match attack, it got old quick. I cant rate it lower because of the sheer talent in this group, but now im just counting the days til we get a new champion. EDIT: (6 to 4) just remembered that claudio yuta and pac are the trios champions and they havent defended their titles in over 11 weeks. What are we doing. (4 to 2) please get rid of this. Im done with the post match beatdowns and babyface saves. Please stop. (2 to 1) the only reason its not zero is because i like all these guys as singles wrestlers. Outside of this stable. I tried really hard to not change the rating after that mox vs cope match, but now after his match with swerve, this is disgusting. (1 to 9) they did it. They won me over. Post-All In death riders is on a crazy run."

[8.0] "They have improved so much since last year and with the addition of DG and return of PAC, they are now truly a fearsome faction with talented members each serving their own unique purpose. They are engaged in intriguing stories and feuds and I hope that they get the best out of their momentum."

[10.0] "After a very low start, the Deathriders are finally becoming my favorite thing in AEW weekly television. The way Mox and his gang managed to get Hangman Adam Page over was unelievable, even for a guy that's organically over. This new Daniel Garcia arc should be gold and I'm really looking forward to see what the future regards for him. My only issue is probably Yuta, since he hasn't evolved at all in the faction, but I think they can still pull it out,"

[10.0] "My current favorite faction in AEW. Partly because Jon Moxley is my all time favorite wrestler but also because of the visceral emotions it pulls out of me. The opening notes of their theme, the walkout through the crowd, the crowd jeering them and their nonchalant was. It all works to paint a picture of a group of roughneck guys okay with being hated. Their Mission is actually noble, that being to better the AEW roster as a whole, but they go through it in a sick and twisted way. DG and Kris Statlander feel like they're on the precipice of a breakthrough because of them and Claudio has gone from a BCC guy to one of the most utterly hated wrestlers in the world. Wheeler Yuta gets screamed at everywhere he goes and Marina Shafir.... Fuck"

[2.0] "This faction is terrible it's peak lol Aew with Mox not trying most of the time during his reign. That last great Hangman vs Moxley match aside. The rest was ether uninteresting fueds or frustrating matches."

[3.0] "When Moxley turned on Danielson, I was extremely excited like I hadn't been excited for anything AEW-related in years. Unfortunately, the net result of AEW's most intriguing angle in years wound up being Jon Moxley's Sega 32X upgrade to his previously amazing Sega Genesis, the Blackpool Combat Club. Good god, as soon as this upgrade was made, Moxley's promos started going down the shitter in both the delivery & content. It's been a year or so now, & Moxley's promo game is still on that trip to Myanmar & hasn't really returned. I understood that BCC was perhaps growing a tad tired, but instantly transmorphing into The World's Most Generic Heel Stable was not the way to go with this. Yuta is impossible to take seriously at ringside as the intimidating heel interferer, & the addition of Marina Shafir firmly nets this into the "bad oLd-ScHoOl stable with an uncharismatic valet" thing to a tee. They used the faction as an excuse to give Moxley the belt in a very heatless reign and now, they've adopted Daniel Garcia, because apparently, having one worker that's impossible to take seriously isn't enough. This is the pits. Please put PAC & Cesaro into something worth my time."

[9.0] "After a sloppiness in their storyline at january with adam copeland we found now that this faction was one of the best things that happened in Aew making wheeler yuta so heated from the crowds making marina shafir relevant pac and claudio castagnoli as enforcers and of course a reign of terror for jon moxley which gave us an unimaginable and unforgettable moment with hangman adam page at all in texas and instead of dissolving the faction after all in it still continues and getting more and more interesting"

[8.0] "If you asked me to rate this faction 6 months ago, I would've given it a 2 maybe, but since then, Moxley and the Death Riders have been on a roll, and now I think they are really good. The faction does have some weak points still, but overall it is really solid and a great addition to weekly AEW TV."

[3.0] "[0.6 on 4/8/25] The only reason this is not a full 0.0 is because of their incredibly hot start and because everyone involved is good in singles. The start with them murdering Bryan Danielson was absolutely sick, and they had the foundation for something amazing with Mox making himself the ultimate villain to force the younger generation to step up, but everything went off the rails so fast and so hard. You have PAC and Claudio, who are both still fantastic, reduced to beat down guys, you have Wheeler Yuta constantly edging a face turn that at this point I'm convinced is never coming, and Marina Shafir actually doing decent as a heater for Moxley while he's doing far and away the worst work of his career since he left WWE. No matter how much I like everyone involved, it is not enough to excuse how genuinely abysmal everything involving this faction has been. Heatless matches for an ice-cold Mox title reign where he absolutely refuses to play to his strengths in favor of being a Roman clone, all to build to Darby Allin, who fucked off to go climb Everest 2 months into this storyline that is going to go 11 months if not more, being the one to dethrone him when at this point I think you could have fucking Griff Garrison dethrone Mox and people would be happy. AEW continues to attempt these company-wide, 'battle for the soul of AEW' type storylines and they just do not work. You can make an argument that BCC vs JAS was that and it kind of worked, sure, but every other time they have *intentionally* done this has not worked. First with The Elite vs Team AEW, and now the Death Riders. They have killed any interest I have in AEW's main event scene. That never happened during the pandemic, that did not happen during the CM Punk saga, that did not happen during the second half of MJF's reign. I am genuinely at the point where I want everyone involved in this storyline gone from wrestling for like a year when they finally, mercifully kill this storyline. Let me forget that they exist and then forget that this godawful drain on the company ever existed. [EDIT 8/26/25: 3.4] In retrospect, I was way too hard on these guys. Not very good but not completely irredeemable. Going from the Cope stuff which undeniably was the worst state the World Championship had been in since the back half of the MJF reign, if not ever, to Swerve when everyone just wanted them to pivot probably just put emotions running high. Things did pick up for them more after that, the feud with Hangman was genuinely fantastic and they've been alright since. That said, i'm not sure the admittedly incredible highs from this storyline justified the insane low points, so 3.4 it is. Could've been utterly fantastic but just not."

[7.0] "I hated the early stretch and the Cope stuff, but now that its main arc ended, I think it served its purpose. I crashed out when Mox retained against Swerve, but it made me want to buy the PPV for Hangman, and they did a great match. The faction itself also can go in the ring (though I miss PAC) overall, think they're good enough as a heel group."

[8.0] "Not as bad as people make them out to be, except from the Cope stuff the DeathRiders storyline was great and it served it's purpose. Now I'm not saying it was perfect but imo it was really good. And on top of that it's going to get Darby elevated now once he destroys the DeathRiders."

[9.0] "A cautionary tale to fans to not judge a story based on the first act alone. Because now the dust has settled after All In, it is frankly amazing how the Death Riders of July stack up against the Death Riders of January as far as public perception works. And I hate to say this, but I've got to say it: you all got worked. For thirty years, ever since Scott Hall put a toothpick between his teeth and said "hey, yo", promotions have been terrified of having heels with no redeeming character qualities at all. D-X, the NWO, and Bullet Club have all done the "cool rebel" trope successfully (and Aces & Eights, less so). The Shield, Evolution, the Bloodline and even Fortune all managed to cultivate respect through a mixture of dominance and unmatched aura. But nobody has tried to make that old-school classic heel faction that you just want to see your heroic babyface pummel into the ground again and again, until now. Yes, the early days were rough, and the less said about the Cope match, the better, but they were a means to an end, and they always were. It's like Newton's third law: for there to be a conquering hero, there needs to be an unstoppable villain to take down. Hangman needed the Death Riders, and the Death Riders needed Hangman. And it ended up a success, no matter how you look at it. Audiences are coming back to the product, both in person and at home, almost arresting the decline in cable TV entirely; Morale in the locker room is high. Fan excitement is high. And Hangman is the hero we want and deserve. The future is bright for AEW, and Mox definitely deserves his flowers for giving the product the medicine of purpose."

[7.0] "I was one of the many who initially hated the Death Riders storyline and Jon Moxley holding the World Championship hostage, but after finally losing the belt, it's impossible for me to deny how effective this stable are as heels. The Death Riders aren't cool heels, they aren't entertaining heels, they aren't funny heels, and they aren't work rate heels putting on 5-star classics. Instead, they're heels who do the traditional thing heels are supposed to do: get heat. They are genuinely hated, which makes the crowd get 100% behind the babyfaces in every match. For the past two decades, we've seen a lot of cool heels who get cheered, and split 50/50 crowds where the audience is cheering both the face and the heel. Death Riders take us back to a time when the heels were vociferously despised, and the crowd wanted nothing more than for the beloved babyface to get the win. This led to some truly memorable moments in 2025, like Hangman Page's triumphant World title win, and The Opps winning the Trios Titles. This is classic wrestling 101, and although I wasn't able to see it at first, the Death Riders performed as well as possible in their roles."

[9.0] "After a rocky start, the Death Riders have finally hit their stride as ruthless no bullshit heels, taking down the babyfaces and not letting anyone breathe, they're exactly what I want out of heels, no cool heel bullshit, no 2kool4skool bullshit, just mean down and dirty motherfuckers who'll do anything to win at the end of the day, Moxley's sheer domination in matches are great to watch, Claudio and Pac's bullying in tag and trios matches are fantastic, Wheeler's cowardly bullshit is great as a snot nose little punk, and while Marina is obviously the weakest part, her "aura farming" and general mean demeanor is still great, if she could actually have good matches I would rate this stable a 10."

[0.0] "Easily one of the worst wrestling factions of all time. They are a complete dud, including all of them. Their beginning was definitely intriguing with Moxley coming out post All In and cutting a cryptic promo about this wasn't Tony's company anymore. And then he kept doing that riddled nonsense again and again and again. He killed Danielson and then Danielson went on to fight Nigel instead of Moxley. Amazing booking lol. Mox has never made his intentions clear. He keeps talking in circles and says nothing. Why the hell did he recruit Marina Shafir? In kayfabe she was a jobber on Dynamite and there were far better talents for Moxley to recruit. Why is PAC in this group? Never been made clear. Claudio is irrelevant. He has no mic skills. He is a total bore. Some of the worst AEW shows happened under Moxley and Deathriders. The tv ratings have taken a huge dip. The last time they did 700k before their recent Arena Mexico CMLL show was when Mox beat Darby and took his no. 1 contendership for the world title. Tells you what you need to know. You could often hear the silence when they enter the ring and sometimes people groan whenever Mox wins. I was furious after he beat Swerve that I stopped watching these shows and just kept up with the results online. Now that Hangman is onto winning and taking the title back, people have started deluding themselves that this reign was fine even though it was not. Everyone was complaining about Moxley until the last Owen Hart final when Page won it... P. S. Wheeler Yuta fucking sucks. No matter how much Tony Khan tries this guy is not going to happen in million years."

[7.0] "Far from being as bad as some say. A solid clan filled with incredible talent. There were some good stories with them, Swerve, Orange Cassidy, Darby, Private Party or the writing to get to Double Or Nothing. Unfortunately the clan also suffered from less interesting stories like Cope for example. The biggest problem with the clan comes mainly from the fact that there was most certainly an initial plan planned (Shane? ) but which simply could not be done for behind-the-scenes reasons which I will be honest do not concern us. So they had to fly blind for a while especially at the time of the rivalry against Cope, trying to offer WWE-style PPV matches where AEW fans do not expect that especially for the world title. A lot of potential in this clan, very cool ideas like the belt held hostage or the positioning of Marina Shafir alongside Moxley. Not a bad clan at all but a clan that clearly suffered from creative problems that could not be done."

[5.0] "The Death Riders had promise when they first formed but ever since then, it's been a rocky road. Their first few weeks were pretty interesting but it seemed like AEW weren't fully committed to the whole hostile takeover storyline. After that, the group massively fell off a cliff in terms of performances from everyone involved, resulting in some of the worst TV and PPV matches in recent AEW history. They have turned it around slightly in recent months, becoming a decently enjoyable part of TV and having a few great matches as a group. They're still not a great faction though, and everyone involved in it doesn't really feel like they're performing at the level that they can, Moxley especially."

[3.0] "The fallout from the Blackpool Combat Club. Now instead of Bryan as a major player, this is essentially all Moxley, all the time. He's dominated the top of the card for so long now & his matches & programs have all become very tired. The AEW Title is [supposedly] in a briefcase, which I guess is meant to be a major plot point. But honestly, who cares? If it's in there, I can't see much of a point. If it's not, again, what's really the point? And with Tony's booking, you know exactly when a title change is coming from a mile away. So everything has been spinning its wheels since this group took off. I like Claudio as much as the next guy, but it feels like he's being wasted here. Wheeler has largely been shoved down fans' throats. I'll be happy when this goes away"

[4.0] "Remember the excitement when the Death Riders formed? Remember fantasy booking how great it could be? What we got was just turgid shit that has felt like it is going nowhere fast."

[0.0] "The Death Riders are the one reason I cannot enjoy AEW the same way I used to at the moment. When the main stable of this company, the group that features the world champ, induced headaches whenever I see them, that is not a good sign. When their segments start, I am excited for them to end. When they take too long, I start feeling severe pain. They have ruined the last two PPV main events because the booking decisions are bafflingly bad and I want to see the damn World Title - it is so devalued, it is just sad to see. Please let this suffering end soon, I can not take it anymore."

[0.0] "My original rating here was a four, but man, every passing week this stable gets worse and worse. Bad matches, completely erasing the trios title from people's minds. It's actively dragging down the main event scene of AEW, which is a shame. Killing the heat of more over babyface acts just to prop up a beyond washed-up Moxley. And worse, Claudio has turned into a silent henchman, instead of the awesome wrestler he normally is. And Yuta being eternally in "almost gonna turn babyface" mode is just exhausting at this point."