10 AEW Stars Who Have Gone AWOL
8. Anthony Ogogo
The Guv'nor represented a flaw in what is sadly now the old rankings system in AEW. He won a lot, but there couldn't be a payoff.
He's still a bit green, but as he demonstrated in a promising feud with Cody Rhodes - before it fell apart with a weird nationalistic bent - he holds immense potential.
A good talker, who can take the piss without undermining his latent menace, he is built like a brick sh*thouse, radiates presence, and boasts one of the most legitimate finishers in the game. As a shoot Olympic bronze medallist, his punch is as credible as anything in this emulated pseudo sport.
The issue Tony Khan faces is that, to maximise a performer like Ogogo, he really can't lose often if at all. He can't waste that in-built legitimacy. He also can't win too often yet, because as good as he is already, he's not close to the stratospheric main event standard. Book him to win too often, and it makes no sense to put him in a spot for which he isn't ready.
It's a trap from which Ogogo, developing experience on the British indie circuit as part of an excursion at present, cannot escape.