5 AEW Wrestlers At Risk Of Being Forgotten

AEW’s roster is evolving into one of the most impressing line-ups of professional wrestlers of all time. With aspiring youngsters mixing it up with some of the industry’s greats, there’s no division that’s suffering from a lack of star power. However, with all that talent comes the issue of making sure every single one of those wrestlers are looking like the stars they deserve to be.

Whether they’ve come from other promotions or are simply too good to ignore, everyone is fighting for the spotlight, and even with three shows to showcase all this talent, there’s naturally going to be a few that get lost in the shuffle. It’s the exact same pitfall that promotions like TNA and WCW have fallen into in the past: when there’s simply too big of a traffic jam, someone’s going to be forgotten about.

Let’s look through five of AEW’s biggest acquisitions and suggest why they’re at risk of being those unfortunate stars that are at a greater risk of being held up in this ever-increasing roster. Of course this isn’t to say that they won’t eventually get their time in the spotlight, but for now at least they’re simply just there.

 

1. Andrade El Idolo

Andrade debuted for AEW to some pretty big fanfare, being accompanied by Vickie Guerrero and proclaiming that he’ll be a big time player within All Elite Wrestling in no time. Unfortunately for Andrade though, things seem to have hit a bit of a speed bump in recent weeks, mostly stemming from his AAA Championship loss to Kenny Omega at TripleMania.

According to Meltzer-fuelled rumours, Andrade was originally set to win the AAA Mega Championship from Omega at their biggest show of the year, though things took a bit of a turn when AEW officials stepped in, not wanting Omega to lose two championships in the space of a few days. Andrade, in the meantime, took a pretty big defeat and was subjected to being a means of having Ric Flair make the show.

In AEW, Andrade is embroiled in a newfound feud with ‘The Bastard’ PAC, which will likely culminate at All Out in September. This should be an amazing match, without doubt, but is it really where Andrade needs to be to start making headway towards the AEW Championship? Tony Khan may indeed have plans for Andrade El Idolo in the near future, but for now, things don’t seem to be going in the direction we all expected.

Could this mean Andrade just becomes another lucha guy on the roster? Time will tell.

 

2. Jungle Boy

Jungle Boy and the Jurassic Express started off looking like one of AEW’s top acts, being featured heavily on the initial run of AEW pay-per-views, and then made out to be a top contender for the AEW Championship and potentially their first home-grown champion.

Perry hasn’t exactly taken any major losses as of late, and is set to compete for the AEW Tag Team Championships alongside his pet dinosaur in the coming weeks. However, something has been lost along the way for Jungle Boy, and perhaps it’s now that he’s reduced to a perennial yag/mid-card guy that will forever be scratching his way to the main event scene.

Jungle Boy could make for a really exciting ‘Daniel Bryan-esque’ underdog story when he eventually does challenge for the AEW Championship down the line. But for now, it seems like he’s just a simple babyface that’s prepping guys like Christian Cage for higher-profile matches than he.

 

3. The Dark Order

Bit of a cheat here as Dark Order counts for about a hundred members of the AEW roster at this point, but needless to say, since Brodie’s unfortunate passing, they’ve struggled to maintain their momentum from last year. Fans are still in love with the faction, there’s no doubting that, but even with the alignment with ‘Hangman’ Adam Page, things are still a tad rocky for the cult boys.

An argument could be made for some of the Dark Order members having a genuinely good shot at becoming singles stars: John Silver, Evil Uno and even -1 are all showing potential to become fan favourites amongst the AEW fanbase. However, a  string of losses continues to force the Dark Order further down the pecking order, and with the tandem of Uno and Grayson losing to the Good Brothers on AEW Dynamite, it’s hard to see them making it back to their previous stature.

Dark Order will soon become the glorified enhancement talent among the AEW roster, which is a real shame considering how much fun they seem to have together as a group, as well as with the fans as part of BTE. Hopefully AEW do the Dark Order justice and put them back on the pedestal they were given last year.

 

4. Orange Cassidy

The man that took the wrestling world by storm this past year, Orange Cassidy became one of AEW’s top merch pushers and featured acts within their debut year. It was pretty huge to watch as a relatively unknown talent became the guy that was dealing out clean victories over the likes of Chris Jericho and PAC. Cassidy was a surefire bet to become at least a TNT Champion within the year, yet that hasn’t quite come to pass.

Granted, Cassidy was featured in the AEW Championship triple threat at Double or Nothing, which is a huge credit to his name. But since then, ‘Freshly Squeezed’ hasn’t really achieved much in the way of impressive victories or stand-out moments. Cassidy has been tied down to the Best Friends faction, which, aside from Kris Statlander, hasn’t really been up to much.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Orange Cassidy might have already been lost in the mix of all these fresh stars making waves in AEW, and with potentially more to come in Chicago, who knows what this might mean for his future.

 

5. Christian Cage

Seems a little odd writing about how Christian is at risk of being forgotten about when he not only defeated Kenny Omega for the Impact World Championship, but is also set to compete in the main event of All Out. Nevertheless, don’t you think that his recent win on the premiere episode of Rampage is a sign of things to come?

What I mean by that is, considering AEW were quick to hand him the win over Omega for the TNA/Impact titles, I highly doubt this means that he’ll also walk away with the AEW Championship come September. Cage has been given his big win, and what a win that was for the man that hadn’t held the TNA Championship in over 14 years, but that now gives them a reason to have Christian do the honours for Kenny at All Out.

So what would be next for Cage? He’s proven everything he has to, he’s competed in the main event for the biggest title in the promotion — is there much left for Christian to achieve? Maybe a TNT Championship run? A couple of dream matches here and there to put over young talent? Ultimately, Christian Cage will be lost in amongst the depths of the roster and perhaps reduced to episodes of Dark and Elevation.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a natural next step for the veteran, who has now fulfilled his post-retirement promises and returned looking better than ever, competing at the highest level that he can for a wrestler of his calibre. It would be wrong for him to carry on taking up the spotlight after wrapping things up with Omega, but maybe it’d be a little too soon for him to be totally forgotten about.

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