10 AEW Stars Who Have Gone AWOL
Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and Colt Cabana are back. These names seem unlikely to follow...
Tony Khan books his mammoth roster on a rotating basis.
This is still mostly true, even if, faced with shock departures and dramatic headlines, he has made sure to book two of the Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley/Chris Jericho trifecta on every Dynamite in the wake of All Out. It was an astute move; it made the show feel more stable, and the ratings in turn stabilised.
Otherwise, Khan recognises the value of making stars feel elusive. It is extraordinarily easy for wrestling to feel normal - which should be wrong, since wrestling is insane - because it never ends ever. It is a medium that over-saturates itself, and Khan is savvy and indeed bold enough to grasp that, by reserving an attraction on an every-three-weeks basis or so, their matches feel more like an event worth the anticipation.
It isn't always savvy, mind.
He has recruited much too bloated a roster and is afraid of beating name talent too often, and as a result, the dream roster can feel pointless. So many names aren't booked regularly because Khan isn't ready for them to win - that would mean they would advance up a card that is already full - but he doesn't want them to simply lose, either.
This delicate balance has all but disappeared the names underneath the names that aren't the tippy-top names...
10. Angelico
Last sighted on the September 2 edition of AEW Dark in a losing effort against Matt Hardy, it would appear that Tony Khan has few if any plans for Angelico.
A versatile and talented wrestler with a far stronger support than you might think, Angelico is nonetheless not so over or exceptional that his not appearing regularly on television registers as promotional malpractice. Others certainly indict Tony Khan's ability as a booker, but not Angelico. He's a skilled performer on a roster so extravagantly brilliant that being really good isn't good enough.
Still, given his prowess of llave, surely, he could weave magic in a televised outing with Bryan Danielson. That would be such an unusual and compelling match - one that you'd expect Danielson would love to challenge himself with, and one that would work nicely to further remind people just how incredible he is.
The likelihood of it happening however is remote; by this point, Angelico has been stigmatised as a nobody, and the match wouldn't be taken seriously even in AEW, wherein most matches, while at a minimum good, are predictable.