10 WWE Wrestlers Who Must Also Join AEW

6. Timothy Thatcher

Kofi Kingston AEW
WWE

Did Timothy Thatcher wrestle in WCW or something?

That can be the only possible explanation for a bizarre normalisation on NXT that has seen him go from feigning interest in fun and games and surviving the fury of a Fight Pit into tapping out to Dexter Lumis and falling short in every big match ever since.

WWE are obsessed with "protecting" wrestlers in defeat and its warped wins and losses forever. There is a way to lose clean and recover, and NXT used to have as tight a hold on that as AEW do now. Sami Zayn and Bayley couldn't buy wins at various points, but lost in such a way that the eventual win only mattered more. Thatcher's gradually growing into a flat track bully - the sort of sh*thouse that attacks his students with his favourite submissions because he's never good enough to secure them on real wrestlers.

Could he become AEW Champion if he was on Dynamite every week? Perhaps not, but there's enough precedent to assume he could absorb a few losses without having his aura punctured.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett