10 Wrestlers Who DESPERATELY Need Something New In 2026
Some wrestlers in WWE or AEW need a heel/face turn or a new character completely to freshen things up
You can't reinvent the wheel, but in professional wrestling, you can at least change the tires when you've got a flat.
There is arguably more talent now in AEW and WWE than ever before, but not everyone is reaching their full potential. Plenty wrestlers are stuck going nowhere, with characters that have grown stale, or they've had a rough patch that has lasted long enough that they are stuck and need something to break the cycle.
Some could use a heel or face turn to freshen things up, like Ricky Saints just had in NXT. Austin Theory being brought into The Vision and Jey Uso returning to a tag team role, or Marina Shafir's growth under The Death Riders are all examples of turning things around for the better.
This isn't about kicking someone when they're down, but calling attention to the people who are worth saving from their downward spiral. Sometimes, a few small tweaks are all it takes. Other times, they might even need to leave the company entirely.
With the new year comes the momentum for big changes, so over the course of 2026, here are some wrestlers who are desperately in need of something new.
10. Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho has made a career out of reinventing himself, having done it numerous times over nearly 40 years.
Not every new gimmick has worked. For every "you've just made the list" catchphrase that gets way more over than anyone would have anticipated, there's a Painmaker that is met more with eye rolls.
In AEW, he's had three versions of the same exact stable with The Inner Circle, The Jericho Appreciation Society, and The Learning Tree. They're all just a group of sycophants (in the first two, mostly the same people, too) who tend not to get anything out of it by the time it ends.
Jericho's last stretch was quite literally just rehashing his "The Ocho" gimmick as ROH world champion, but this time, "The Nueve" instead. Does anyone really want "The Diez" in 2026?
Speculation has revolved around his return to WWE for a retirement run. A change in scenery and the motivation around using up all leftover creative juices for one last run could be what saves Jericho from fully turning into one of the many legends who stuck around longer than they should have.