Major Heel Turn on AEW Rampage

An AEW big man has changed his allegiances. Following months of failed recruitment attempts, Dark Order's Preston "10" Vance finally joined forces with Rush on Friday's AEW Rampage. Vance was scheduled to tag with Dark Order teammates John Silver and Alex Reynolds in a trios bout against Rush, The Butcher and The Blade, but was nowhere to be found when the bell rang. Silver and Reynolds were forced to work the match at a two-on-three disadvantage until Vance arrived, attacking Silver and handing an easy pinfall victory to Rush.

After the betrayal, Vance attacked Evil Uno, unmasking the Dark Order leader before putting Reynolds through a table. -1, the late Brodie Lee's son, watched the events unfold from the entrance ramp. After laying out the Dark Order, Vance confronted -1, unmasking himself and leaving his former face covering at the young Dark Order member's feet.

Vance's allegiance with Rush has been in the works for a while. Andrade El Idolo first attempted to gain the services of Vance earlier this fall. The two were set to have a culminating match on an October edition of AEW Rampage, which would have seen Vance put his mask on the line against Andrade's career. That match was called off after Andrade got into a backstage fight with Sammy Guevara. That altercation reportedly resulted in the former NXT Champion being suspended from AEW, as he has not been seen on television since.

Vance had been with the Dark Order for over two years, as he first joined the faction in April 2020.

"When I got signed, I hated the mask, absolutely hated it. I didn't understand the character, but I wasn't going to say no, obviously," Vance reflected on his AEW debut in 2021. "I didn't understand. On the indies, I never wore a mask, and I wasn't this dark creepy person. That's just not me. I'm like, 'What the hell am I doing?' Now, I absolutely love it. It's such another element to your image. Now you're not just a body guy. Whether you're a heel or babyface, you look like a real-life superhero or a real-life villain. It's really cool."

Vance has been quietly penned as one of AEW's biggest future stars for years. The 30-year-old wrestler is close with former AEW star Cody Rhodes, as he is the first male graduate from Rhodes's Nightmare Factory training school to sign an AEW contract.