10 Wrestlers You Never Thought Would Get Over On TV
2. Riho
Not so much 'Thought You Would Never Get Over' - but there's an element of that, given her slender frame, lack of fluent English promo skills and a level of buzz removed from her contemporaries - but 'You Can't Remember Got Over', Riho very much did get over.
This isn't to wave away justifiable criticisms of AEW's Women's division in 2019, which as a whole - match quality, episodic direction, time allocation - was uneven to, at times, poor. But Riho, when she was there, was fantastic.
She performed in a way that just felt so admirable. She was a great worker in the old definition; she was absolutely incredible at making every match feel like a plight, a struggle. Arguably, there are none better in the mainstream than making it seem real. She deliberately landed weak forearms before the cutoff, and laid them right the f*ck in at the crest of the comeback, encouraging the audience to get behind her like she really needed them to.
She stole the first Dynamite - from Kenny Omega, Cody, PAC, the Young Bucks, everybody - and was, even in segments blasted online, a big draw amongst the teenage girl demo.