NXT Vs. AEW: Head To Head

10. Men’s Roster

Adam Cole is a TV star perfectly equipped to lead the transition: handsome, charismatic, and a great modern pro wrestler, his connection with the crowd is iron-forged. Outside of the Barclays Center on Friday night of WrestleMania Weekend, his fans volleyed cries of ‘BAY-BAY’ across the Brooklyn air. He is super over.

Matt Riddle is a total joy to watch, wrestling a legitimate style with a potency free of WWE’s usual tinkering. Johnny Gargano is so good, at his best, that he is capable of connecting with crowds that have cooled on him over the course of 35 pulsating, dramatic minutes. Velveteen Dream is a very good worker, and his sheer star power compensates for the lingering fact that he isn’t great.

Kenny Omega is great. He is the greatest pro wrestler on the planet, arguably, fusing theatre and physicality with a genius sense of building a match. Chris Jericho is a master of evolution; never the most believable of pro wrestlers in his prime, he has adapted to become a stiff sh*t-kicking brawler. Cody wrestles—and is close to perfecting—a very different, traditional style. Jon Moxley, over the course of the G1 Climax tournament, didn’t so much reinvent himself as reinvent himself every night, transforming from crazed violent brawler to an expert limb work strategist.

The undercard settles this round in AEW’s favour. There are several fairly uninteresting hosses in NXT, in addition to the very good but not outstanding talents that emerged—just about—from the Breakout tournament.

In AEW, the superb heels (MJF), unique babyfaces (Darby Allin) and unprecedented meta sensations (Orange Cassidy) are far more interesting.

NXT 0 - 1 AEW