10 Wrestlers Who Overdelivered In 2023

Barring injury or some boneheaded stubbornness, Swerve Strickland will become AEW World Champion in 2024. Over the latter half of 2023 especially, he has built himself from an underutilised talent to the heir apparent, and he’s done it all through logical storytelling, character work, and some amazing matches.

Strickland is the best kind of heel - a wrestling villain who makes sense. You might not like his methods (i.e traumatising infants) but when he tells Adam Page that the former champ has squandered every opportunity he’s had, every word hits home. His promos bristle with intensity without ever resorting to shouting and screaming - his descent into evil feels remarkably grounded.

Then there’s the matches. The column inches will go to the Texas Death Match, and rightly so, but his bout with Bryan Danielson was one of the best on TV, and he’s already doing great things in the Continental Classic.

Props should go to Prince Nana, also, whose chalk and cheese partnership with Strickland somehow just works, but few wrestlers can lay claim to the past few months more than Swerve. It’s always been clear he had the stuff - now, he’s truly delivering.