10 Things AEW MUST Achieve Over The Next Five Years
7. Phasing Out The Elite
It's not a particularly nice thought.
Kenny Omega is the best wrestler on the planet, for your writer's money. No one performer best fuses the exhilarating thrills of the modern hybrid style with such attentive narrative depth. And it's no wonder he and the Young Bucks were drawn together; Matt and Nick Jackson best apply this dual philosophy to a tag team scene they have spent several years preserving and, arguably, perfecting.
But it's a necessary one.
Every pro wrestler thinks they'll be the one to get out before time humiliates them. Really, only CM Punk got out in time to retain his iconoclastic aura.
Hangman Page and Nick Jackson are 29 and 31, respectively. The final chapters of the Elite saga should be penned to elevate them as the key singles players of the promotion in the years to come. Omega should settle into a role not unlike that played by Hiroshi Tanahashi in NJPW presently: the undying Ace legend against whom a big win will always matter, regardless of when he last held the IWGP Title.
It's a pick 'em, who the Elite ultimately decide to put all the way over: MJF, Jungle Boy, Wardlow. AEW has only existed for two years, and they boast several talents who have proved themselves capable of being handed that ball.
But it's crucial that they do; AEW, to preserve its future and break the trend of wrestling ageing out of itself, must have its EVPs set a new standard for a veteran's twilight years.