Since MVP didn’t want Lashley and Benjamin losing their titles to Bailey and Kevin Knight, this should have opened the door for a whole host of tag teams to step up and become top challengers. However, that hasn’t happened either as The Hurt Syndicate are reportedly not too keen on playing ball with other teams.

Fightful noted that there have been a number of creative pitches for The Hurt Syndicate in recent months, although it’s unclear how far some of those pitches actually went, but one pitch was for FTR to dethrone Lashley and Benjamin at AEW All In Texas on July 12. The idea was for FTR to begin something of a redemption story that would lead them back to being babyface champions, but the claim internally is that The Hurt Syndicate said no to losing to FTR at All In, as well as Forbidden Door which hasn’t even happened yet. In response, FTR were also pitched to face Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay, but those plans have been shelved due to Ospreay’s recent injury diagnosis, and their story with Cope and Christian Cage was halted due to Cage wanting to conclude his story with Nick Wayne and The Patriarchy.

If FTR and JetSpeed are out of the question, then what teams are The Hurt Syndicate comfortable losing to? According to sources in AEW, MVP would rather have a younger team beat Lashley and Benjamin, with his personal preferences being the likes of the Gates of Agony, Private Party, or The Outrunners. With that said, the problem with those three teams is that The Hurt Syndicate have already beaten them all convincingly, and while Strickland and Ospreay were once again mentioned in this discussion, any plans involving the two teams were scrapped due to Ospreay being hurt.

Overall, there’s currently no indication that any member of The Hurt Syndicate will be leaving AEW as they are all under multi-year deals that were signed less than a year ago, but the frustration from the locker room about the trio being heels that beat up everyone, but also do cool moves and are friendly with the fans, makes it difficult to see where any team could come in and realistically challenge them, especially if they aren’t fond of losing to certain individuals.