10 WWE & AEW Wrestlers Who Have Benefitted From The Empty Arena Era
Those talents who have made lemonade out of pandemic lemons.
The Empty Arena Era has taken a great deal from WWE, AEW and the greater wrestling world. All wrestling companies have had to think fast to ensure their product kept going, and for AEW especially, they’d barely got going before they had to shift up their programming altogether.
It’s stolen a lot from the performers of both brands. Long-awaited title wins have taken place to complete silence, and legendary wrestlers have retired without the chance to say goodbye to the fans. For many members of these rosters, these past 14 months have been impossibly difficult, a period to forget.
Others, though, have made lemonade out of pandemic lemons. They’ve seen this as an opportunity to rejig their character, kept things moving through sheer force of personality, or proved their enduring worth in a time when the company needed someone to step up.
Everyone will agree that the sooner fans can (safely) return, the better, but credit must be given to these ten WWE and AEW athletes who have not just kept their respective brands going, but shown just how great they are in the process.
10. MVP
MVP returned at the 2020 Royal Rumble, and while it was cool to see him back, the subsequent shock return of Edge and Drew McIntyre’s ultimate Rumble win somewhat overshadowed the veteran. A year and change later and Montel Vontavious Porter is, appropriately enough, pretty much the most important part of Monday Night Raw.
It’s worth caveating that WWE’s flagship show hasn’t exactly been great, but what has worked as mostly come via the golden mic skills of MVP. Originally intended to work primarily behind the scenes, Porter instead became the leader of The Hurt Business, the much missed stable that included Cedric Alexander, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley.
It’s MVP’s work with the latter that has been particularly noteworthy. While Lashley always had bags of potential, it’s only in this run teamed with real life pal MVP that the Almighty One has seemed like a true major player, and he continues to prove himself a worthy WWE Champion.
A lot of credit must go to MVP, whose mic work and charisma is simply invaluable to WWE. Breaking up The Hurt Business was crazy, but as long as MVP keeps giving us the goods, Raw will still have something of worth.