10 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Were HUGELY Influential
1. Roman Reigns
It's important to point out that this current version of Roman Reigns is a bonafide megastar who has starred as the tippy-top guy leading WWE into an unfathomable boom period in defiance of wider cable TV trends.
It's equally important to point out that AEW was launched as as collaborative effort. Cody Rhodes possessed the vision, the boldness, the expert marketing rhetoric (he was also savvy enough to evolve into a more timeless wrestler, knowing that was an untapped market). The Young Bucks explored new narrative terrain with Being The Elite, proving that a long-running episodic TV show was viable. To an only slightly lesser extent than Kenny Omega, they redefined what a great match looked like. Chris Jericho timed his career revival perfectly, lending AEW mainstream-adjacent credibility, and Tony Khan was sufficiently clever (and rich) to put the pieces together.
The thing is, there was only ever a market for AEW because WWE, in the late 2010s, was so utterly pathetic and antagonistic and out-of-touch. AEW needed WWE to slowly fail in order to launch and succeed - there's a reason the early challenger brand marketing was barely subtext for "WWE is sh*t now, we'll give you what they won't" - and Roman Reigns was key to WWE's failure.
The viewership drop-off became a haemorrhage after the 2015 Royal Rumble. This wasn't personal - the vast majority of wrestling fans knew that Roman would excel in the heel role - but the relentless babyface push created an enormous number of jaded, and then lapsed, fans. Reigns, actually an awesome working babyface, was symbolic of WWE's attitude towards a despairing babyface.
In the mid-to-late 2010s, hardcore WWE fans had two wishes: for Triple H to take over the main roster, and for Roman Reigns to turn heel.
Does AEW even happen if those two events occur first?