10 Wrestlers Who Still Have Something To Prove In AEW
Signing for AEW is one thing, actually proving yourself to be Elite is something else...
For many, trapped in a thankless WWE system, or eternally trapped outside of it, AEW must seem like a promised land. A wrestling buffet where every kind of wrestler can thrive regardless of size, shape or style. A creative Utopia where people write their own promos, design their own gear and never have to change their name to Slapjack.
Sadly however there isn’t room in this paradise for everyone. With only four pay per views a year and two hours of TV a week, screen time is at a premium. Not everyone can be the star and while the likes of MJF, Sammy Guevara and Orange Cassidy have leaped from relative obscurity to being made men, others haven’t shone quite as hard.
The likes of Hangman Page and The Dark Order prove things can be turned around in this relative meritocracy. The brass rings really do exist here but these ten acts still need to reach out and grab one.
A quick note: this list is almost exclusively men. The women haven’t been ignored or forgotten, it’s just that at this point AEW still has more to prove to its talented, under-utilised women’s roster than the other way around.
10. Miro
Miro was a divisive figure amongst AEW fans before he even signed with the company. Many fans singled him out as the obvious pick from WWE’s crop of lockdown releases but after the successes of Jon Moxley, Brodie Lee and FTR, some saw the former Rusev as a WWE guy too far.
Unlike the others, Miro didn’t have indie pedigree, he was a Sports Entertainer largely built from the ground up in the Performance Center and trained in the WWE style. As much as AEW viewers expect a wrestling buffet, this was still one dish that left some fans cold.
We all know Miro is great on his day. His phenomenal t-shirt, not to mention calendar, sales attest to how far over Ru Ru was with WWE fans and no, Vince, none of us were laughing at him. But so far in AEW, he’s underwhelmed.
His debut match was a mess and his most recent effort saw him looking gassed after just ten minutes in the ring. The “Best Man” gimmick has bags of potential but he’d best start fulfilling it fairly promptly.
His supposed star presence has done nothing to elevate another struggling colleague...