10 Awesome WWE & AEW Wrestlers We Can't Wait To See Live Again
Roman Reigns, MJF, Orange Cassidy, and more wrestlers who've missed the roar of the crowd.
While professional wrestling is for all of us a passion, in purely economic terms it is a business, for which we are the customers.
Whether we buy the merch, attend live shows (when able to), or just allow our WWE Network subscription to renew for another month, cash keeps the McMahon enterprise afloat, even if the company has managed to secure a lucrative safety net in selling their streaming rights to Peacock for $1 billion. This isn’t great for the ability of fan reaction to sway the corporate giant, particularly with the vast majority of WWE's revenue now coming from business-to-business transactions rather than consumers.
However, even with corporate deals, entertainment, as any product, needs customers. No matter how deep the McMahon and Khan pockets are, fans are essential. Their worth has never been starker than during the pandemic.
Aside from financial reasons, fans imbue wrestling shows with atmosphere and energy. Their response is essential to get promos over and impacts greatly on the athlete’s performances and morale.
As lockdown lifts, we all have a wish list of wrestlers we can’t wait to see live. Here are a handful of ours...
10. Miro
As Rusev, the now Miro, entered WWE’s main roster with dream booking. He was the foreign monster heel done right and rampaged through the locker room. Then John Cena happened.
Yet fans saw something in the ‘Bulgarian Brute’ and weren’t willing to give up on him. Rusev had an impressive 126-day reign with the United States Championship, followed by the majorly over, and profitable for the company, ‘Rusev Day’ Gimmick.
Despite his worth, Rusev landed in Vince McMahon’s bad books, with the chairman overreacting to broken kayfabe like it was the ‘80s – because we all believed the nonsense contained in the Rusev-Lana-Summer-Ziggler love square. When he was let go during cost-cutting measures, fans were perplexed and furious, though the man himself claimed he “was happy the day [he] got fired”.
Fans were delighted when Miro signed with AEW. This quickly faded when he was given the ‘Best Man’ gimmick in reference to him playing that role in the wedding of Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford. Fortunately, just in time for crowds, Miro has returned to his dominant monster best. After his journey, Miro deserves the backing of live fans as he restores his legacy.