10 AEW Wrestlers Who Are Almost Unrecognisable Since Debuting
Four years is forever in wrestling, especially for some of AEW's biggest stars...
The quickest way to see how some of AEW's central characters look completely different from when they first started with the company is to fire up Fight Forever.
The game's an awful lot of fun, but is so rooted in the past that it's a wonder that an empty Daily's Place isn't the default location for your matches. Loading up the roster around its 2023 release to find some of 2021's best and brightest was an unfortunate byproduct of the many delays the game experienced, and does hamper the experience somewhat if the goal is to pick up and play a version of your favourite recent All Elite Wrestling feud.
It's a reality the wrestling and gaming industries have collided with for years, such is the speed of a product that airs new live content the bulk of 52 weeks a year. Change and evolution are crucial to longevity per Chris Jericho and others like him, but those that do just that make the passage of time all the more shocking.
Remember Le Champion? That was 50 years ago. Or that's what those memes would have you believe anyway. Time's arrow neither stands still nor reverses. It merely marches forward. Want proof?
10. Kris Statlander
For a performer that had fans pining for her return and unanimous support behind her being the one to dethrone former TBS Champion Jade Cargill, the awesome and affable Kris Statlander most definitely wasn't for everyone when AEW first launched.
Or, perhaps more reasonably, the alien Kris Statlander wasn't for everybody.
The gimmick was a difficult circle to square in a company that rewarded expression or at very least attempted to encourage it. A sporting framework underpinned by wins and losses wasn't going to be destroyed by one character believing herself to be from another planet, but the nature of her potential powers stood in the way of what the majority of AEW hardcores seemingly wanted. Her giving various friends and broadcasters the "Boop" was used as a stick to beat her with too.
It was only ever inoffensive at its absolute worst, but that was enough for the bad faith voices to get louder the more the gimmick didn't exactly take off. Two devastating injury breaks came with the hidden positive of having an organic opportunity to scale things back until she became a more convincing comeback story than she ever was extra-terrestrial being.