10 Wrestlers AEW Plucked From Complete Obscurity

9. Powerhouse Hobbs

Britt Baker Wardlow
AEW

Powerhouse Hobbs had been at this a fair old time when he finally got his break in AEW, but a debut match in 2009 doesn't really tell the whole story of his long trip to the big time.

With less than 200 documented matches total, a lack of frequency was surely one of the only things holding this multi-tool player back from industry supremacy and the spotlight he's since managed to grab in AEW.

Carefully protected up to this point, Hobbs was established as a babyface just long enough to ensure his heel turn resonate when he joined Team Taz in 2020, but just about every move he's made since has been in service of the day the group split and he goes it alone.

With a wicked (and narratively malleable) contemporary power game and the all-important magnetic physical charisma, it's genuinely hard to imagine Powerhouse as anything more than a top guy before his All Elite Wrestling run concludes.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett