10 Best Wrestlers Under 30 In The World Today
9. Konosuke Takeshita
AEW fans only saw the briefest glimpse of one of Japan's brightest young starlets in 2021.
How little you saw or felt was unimportant. For now, AEW felt it was imperative to fly Konosuke Takeshita in for a few shots to let him know how much they thought of him. That's how well-regarded the man is.
Tall, muscular and handsome, he looks like a star and works in a way that suits his physique, and is so athletic that he can explode into aerial attacks that look all the more impressive for how he looks to have no right. He never loses sight of his physical gifts. He already knows better than that; he'll withstand an Irish whip attempt using nothing but his brute strength, only hurtling that frame around when it means something in the context of the match. His counters are striking in their creativity; he has the mobility to reverse underhook piledrivers by landing on his feet, and the propulsive acceleration to launch into an immediate flying knee strike.
He still has areas in which he can improve - like too many wrestlers, he's fond of a flying nothing that exists purely to be countered - but when he's creative enough to devise a backdrop driver onto a turnbuckle, it feels like a bad habit he'll soon prove himself above.