10 WWE & AEW Wrestlers Who DESPERATELY Need A New Direction

The above photo depicts Wardlow trying to work out the logic in being on the losing end of his feud with Samoa Joe, only for the latter to be humbled by Darby Allin less than a week later.

Don't get us wrong - Darby Allin absolutely deserves his day in the sun. He's a genuinely unique talent, and the only one of AEW's original four pillars whose veneer hasn't been tarnished by backstage bullsh*t/poor booking. But having Darby vanquish Samoa Joe just one week after the latter cut Wardlow's hair - a deadly insult in the wrestling world - did Wardlow absolutely no favours.

Baffling as this decision was, it is unfortunately emblematic of the downward spiral Wardlow has been on since besting MJF in the first half of 2022. That feud turned Wardlow into the hottest act in AEW, but the past six months have seen his fire doused on by a slurry of poor booking, spotlight-sharing and a complete absence of the attitude that made him a star against MJF.

There's still time for Wardlow to recover from this latest setback, but for now he's another victim of the "two steps forward, three steps back" booking that has dogged so many of AEW's talent (See: Kingston, Eddie and Black, House of for other example).