10 Wrestlers AEW Stole From Under WWE's Nose

5. Daniel Garcia

Jamie Hayter
WWE

As "Dany Garcia" and "Dante Rios", the Jericho Appreciation Society man worked twice on TV for WWE via 205 Live and NXT during his formative years, but the prodigious young star never earned a permanent deal with the market leader.

Not uncommon, but as with Dr Britt Baker and others on this list, the relatively short time between Garcia's last WWE appearance and first one on the other channel is remarkable. With the Rios moniker, Garcia lost to Tyler Rust on the January 21st 2021 edition of NXT. He was working Dark: Elevation by May and Dynamite by August. The critical acclaim existed long before the debut too - Garcia had earned kudos for his work on the indies as scenes recovered from the pandemic, but the professional wrestler lurking under the Sports Entertainer facade obviously wasn't what WWE wanted at the time.

The market leader's loss was the challenger brand's gain - Garcia's spent almost all of his television time in significant storylines, and appears to be one of the few wrestlers on a loaded roster that can survive periods of being overlooked.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 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. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, 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