This will likely flip right into a semi-regular column as I experiment with a number of completely different concepts when it comes to written content material.
Listed below are simply 10 ideas I’ve about some issues in wrestling.
1. It bothers me that neither Darius or Dante Martin are in nice bodily form.
Their our bodies don’t look TV-ready, and it’s a small factor, however I don’t suppose it’s an amazing signal. I do know there have been damage points previously, however I don’t get how two nice athletes of their early 20s aren’t tremendous lower. Furthermore, take a look at the highest excessive flyers in that firm–Ospreay, Ricochet, PAC, and many others. and take a look at the sort of form they’re in. That must be the usual for what guys just like the Martin brothers are aspiring to be. They’re younger and hopefully they be taught.
This doesn’t apply to operating mate Motion Andretti, who’s in nice beauty form.
2. Shelton Benjamin has carried out means above expectations since signing in AEW.
I wasn’t an enormous fan of bringing him in, just because a 49-year-old ex-WWE expertise didn’t appear to be what AEW wants for the time being. Nevertheless, Benjamin has proven by way of his work thus far that he has rather a lot left within the tank, and I truly suppose he’s proven greater than he has in a really very long time.
I like that he’s billed at 260 lbs, which he seems each little bit of. It is a actually massive man, and he’s in nice form, and simply comes throughout as a legit badass. I’m glad he received into the Continental Traditional and he isn’t going for use as a loss publish to guard Lashley. His match in opposition to Kyle Fletcher was actually good, with Benjamin imposing his bodily will on Fletcher, who needed to cheat to eek out a win. The time for Shelton Benjamin to get a major occasion push might be previous, however he’s capitalized on an amazing probability to complete his profession strongly and in memorable vogue.
3. Hangman Adam Web page has been the very best promo in wrestling for the previous six months, and continues to be probably the most compelling persona in wrestling.
His interactions, particularly in backstage interviews are must-see, and in contrast to quite a lot of different promo guys, he doesn’t want a number of minutes to get his character throughout, it could occur in simply 30 seconds. His interplay with Christopher Daniels throughout Collision on Dec. 1 was improbable.
4. YAMATO has had I feel the very best title run in all of wrestling since capturing the Open the Dream Gate Championship again in July.
After Dragongate has spent the previous couple of years pushing youthful wrestlers into the world title image, YAMATO has mainly wrested management again into his succesful, veteran fingers. The story is sort of a much less antagonistic model of Jon Moxley’s run as AEW World Champion, with YAMATO difficult the youthful wrestlers to rise to his degree. The angle has helped place a agency id behind the Open the Dream Gate Championship, and whoever finally ends up successful the title from him could have gained a large increase.
5. Talking of which, Dragon Dia is YAMATO’s subsequent challenger, as he received the King of Gate match on Dec. 3.
Dia has had an excellent yr, impressing within the King of Gate match, in addition to getting a run in NJPW within the Tremendous Junior Tag League. Dia is an attention-grabbing option to win King of Gate, he’s a fairly primary chicken babyface, and he lacks the hardness that one would conventionally suppose can be essential to dethrone YAMATO. YAMATO has already turned again extra bodily wrestlers in Madoka Kikuta and ISHIN, so will probably be attention-grabbing to see if Dragongate opts to have a very completely different wrestler in Dia beat YAMATO.
6. Bron Breakker has proven actual growth since being known as up the WWE major roster.
I feel his general star expertise, primarily his bell-to-bell charisma and promos, are a piece in progress, however he’s gotten extra well-rounded within the ring and I feel WWE has been sensible to convey him alongside slowly within the mid-card, versus rocket strapping him to the highest and pushing him just like the second coming of Roman Reigns. Will probably be attention-grabbing to see how arduous he’s pushed in 2025–I feel the neatest factor to do can be to present him a serious world title shot, like at SummerSlam, have him lose, after which rebuild him for the most important first title win at WrestleMania in 2026.
7. Tony Schiavone has grown on me because the lead play-by-play announcer for AEW Collision.
At first, I believed the motion was shifting too quick for him and he was a nasty match for the fashionable product when it comes to being the principle man. Nevertheless, I’ve come to benefit from the slower tempo he brings because the lead announcer, and the chemistry between him and Nigel because the heel is paying homage to Gorilla and Bobby Heenan in a great way. There may be an ease to his commentary, even when he misses some stuff, that could be a refreshing change and makes Collision really feel completely different than the opposite AEW exhibits with Excalibur because the lead man.
8. I want we had extra wrestlers as we speak like Takeshi Morishima.
Morishima’s run in Ring of Honor and through his peak in NOAH was so pleasurable, and I don’t really feel like his type is especially arduous to copy when you have the precise athlete. We must always have a bunch of Takeshi Morishima clones operating round as of late, however sadly it’s virtually like his bodily, brawling type is outdated. I feel the closest present wrestler might be Brody King, or possibly Daisuke Sekimoto from a number of years in the past. It’s a disgrace the WWE Efficiency Middle is so awful–they’ve all these heavyweight wrestlers and former offensive linemen, they need to actually have a military of Morishimas at this level.
9. In my eyes, Willow Nightingale is the very best girls’s wrestler in America, from a complete bundle perspective.
She is likely to be probably the most charismatic girls’s wrestler on the scene and has greater than held up her finish of the cut price within the ring when requested. I’d construct your entire AEW girls’s division round her, but it surely looks like this yr she has been sitting behind the expensive signing of Mercedes Mone, and the concentrate on Toni Storm and now Mariah Could. Willow can wait her flip, however I really feel prefer it’s a missed alternative to not push her tremendous arduous when it looks like her potential as a breakout star is so evident.
10. I feel Ricochet in AEW has been simply effective.
I feel he’s been subjected to unreasonable expectations in some regards as a result of earlier than he signed with WWE, he was broadly considered as an equal to Will Ospreay. That lent itself to individuals pondering Ricochet was Ospreay’s equal as we speak–however the main distinction is that Ospreay spent the previous couple of years bettering enormously and dealing major occasions all world wide, whereas Ricochet went right into a stasis chamber in WWE. Ricochet is 2018 Will Ospreay’s equal, which remains to be a wonderful wrestler, however one not but in most “Finest Wrestler within the World” conversations. That sort of wrestler remains to be extraordinarily good and a worthy signing by AEW, however anticipated him to return in and be on the degree of Ospreay, or Konosuke Takeshita, is misplaced.
Hearken to Jesse Collings’ podcast: The Gents’s Wrestling Podcast!
Powered by RedCircle