AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: MJF has found a sweet spot for his heel character, AEW announcing needs an overhaul, Sammy Guevara still doesn’t get it, Brody King

Welcome, everyone! I write this at the beginning of every column I write and I wanted to say it’s not just something I write down. No, I truly mean it. In a world of divisions, we need more inclusion. We are all human beings just trying to make it in this crazy world.

So I do really mean it: Welcome, everyone!

On to some AEW, which had a wonky episode of Dynamite. You can see and hear my opinion on last week’s Wade Keller Post-show following AEW Dynamite.

Then on Collision, I don’t know what to say. I just don’t like the residency arena they are in right now. It feels very TNA/NXT/OG ROH, which is not a compliment for the the no. 2 promotion in the States.

Feels like I’m loading up for a negative column. Let’s see how it shakes out.

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RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

MJF

The AEW World Champion appears to be maturing right in front of our eyes. Some people are thrown off by the new hair style but its fine. We have all tried different hair styles over the years. I didn’t always have this, as my wife calls it, mane of a hairdo. Then you add to it, outside of his first promo back, this has been a much more reserved MJF on the mic. This week was no different.

MJF was only on screen for about 5 minutes but in true MJF fashion he stole the show. The way he built himself up and put Bandido down was done in a clever way. Not the old MJF way of being over-the-top looking for cheap heat from the crowd.

A few of his lines had me smiling while shaking my head, you know in that “what a dick” way. My boss, who is also a friend of mine, gets that same reaction from me because he can also be such a dick. What’s up, Anthony?

The line of the night that got me the most was delivered so well I had to legitimately laugh out loud. “Hey, I’ll pull Tony Khan aside and I’ll put you over kid… I’ll tell him I will wrestle you live on PPV… in say 5 or 10 years from now. That’s a  good deal!” Without putting down the crowd or even Bandido, this was a great line from a heel like MJF.

A couple of other great quotes from the same segment from MJF:

• “You’re one heck of a talented little luchador.”
• “No offense, with all due respect, I’m bigger star in Mexico than you will ever be.”

MJF did what he was supposed to do here; he made you want to see him get us butt kicked next week, which is all MJF has to do as champion. The nice cherry on the top was it also put Bandido over more, which is what a good heel is suppose to do.

1st Runner Up – Brody King

I think you can tell that Tony Khan knows he has something in Brody King after the Brodido run. He didn’t just lose the title and fade away. Instead, he has been around every week since.

This week we got a nice little video where Brody got to show off his band a little and talk himself up. It was less than 60 seconds, but I thought it was perfect. Thst was followed by a squash match on Collision and as long as he continues to progress, I’m happy with where Brody is after his AEW Tag Team Title run

I’m still curious if we get a heel King in 2026. Though it might be hard considering we all know his feelings about what’s going on in the world. “Abolish ICE” – I could not agree anymore.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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FADING STAR OF THE WEEK

Sammy Guevara

I know this is an interesting choice considering Sammy just had his first match on Dynamite this past week since 2024. Then again, I think it makes him the perfect candidate for this spot. Why, you ask? Let me explain.

Sammy was in the first-ever match on AEW Dynamite back in 2019, in a losing effort to Cody Rhodes. This was the giving time of Cody as he definitely tried his hardest to get three-fourths of the original AEW Pillars over. Darby Allin’s first match in AEW was prior to the first Dynamite at Fight for the Fallen and Darby went to a draw with Cody.  Then Cody was giving here with Sammy before Cody moved on to help get MJF over. Man, I miss early days AEW for all the fresh faces on television.

After the match with Cody, Sammy stood by as Chris Jericho viciously attacked Cody. This was foreshadowing Sammy joining the Inner Circle at the end of the first Dynamite. It all started Sammy on the best run of his career over the next few years.

Then came the AEW Rampage match against Jeff Hardy in 2023. In the match, Sammy accidentally broke Hardy’s nose, but both finished the match. After this, Sammy was suspended because he didn’t follow concussion protocol and for the most part has not been on AEW, proper, television since. Having just a couple of matches outside of his new brand ROH.

This is why Sammy is here. A guy who looked like he could be the next Eddie Guerrero type (Jim Ross’s words, not mine) has just become a footnote in the early ears of Dynamite. Not to mention, it doesn’t feel like he’s learned anything during his time away from Dynamite.

Sammy, like others in his generation, do not see the reasons behind changing your in-ring style when you are a face or a heel. So what you get is this guy who looks like a heel, talks like a heel, and acts like a heel, but does all the graceful moves of a babyface. In a video game, if you took out signature moves, I don’t know you could tell the difference between a guy like Sammy and a guy like Bandido.

All that said, Sammy is 32 and that is still the middle of the prime for pro wrestlers these days. And maybe as he gets older he will learn what he needs to learn to progress in this sport. What does he need to learn you ask? Let me explain.

Going forward, Sammy really needs to adjust his in ring work to match the character he’s trying to portray. Tease the big spots, but then flip off the crowd before doing a basic wrestling move as a heel. It’s easy to do and would get over with the crowd. I’m begging any guy with his type of move set to switch it up if they to heel. It will work for you, especially with the AEW audience. I think as a whole they would love to hate it.

1st Runner Up – AEW Announcing

First. This is not about Jim Ross. It was great to see and hear him this week. The man is a legend and the “Voice of Pro Wrestling” to a few generations. My apologies, but I just wanted to put that out there.

Something that stood out to me this past week having J.R. back was how little Excalibur has progressed in the no. 1 announcer role. Excalibur can not express a serious moment without coming across as disingenuous. It comes across like an actor being told “we need you serious here” so Excalibur turns on somber voice.

Then Excalibur will drop the somber voice and go right into pitch man. After that, in the following segment he’s “ho ho ho”-ing it because he saw a big move. He is too all over the place and not professional enough for the role he is in. It’s time for AEW to start trying out a new lead play-by-play guy. Stick him or her, Renee Paquette, anyone, on Collision and let the audience get use to him or her.

I know someone new taking over Collision means Tony Schivone loses his play-by-play job and he probably should. For everything that made Tony great when he came back it’s now turned 180 degrees and it’s almost all bad. Tony can be a great in-ring interviewer who is a company man, the new Mean Gene, but him calling matches these days does not work. Everything is the greatest move ever, in the greatest match ever, on the greatest Collision, Dynamite, or PPV ever.

I’m sorry, Tony, but it’s time to move on from you even if it might be really tough for Tony Khan to hear. Again, Schiavone can be the AEW hype guy. He can be the one reading the cities AEW is coming to or the new thing on AEWshop.com. He just doesn’t need to be the main play-by-play guy on any show.

Nigel McGuiness is okay. He seems to have two modes and I’m not sure either are great. He’s just normal Nigel talking or he drops his voice and goes into announcer Nigel mode. I would rather just an authentic all-around mode for him, but I don’t know that anyone is directing the announcers at all right now. (I wrote “mode” way too much, I know)

I might be writing all of this to say that I miss Taz on the announce team, a lot. Taz brings a realism to everything he does while also seeming like he’s enjoying the product. Both are good things. Hopefully he’s back soon. Taz is also sneaky funny, which I enjoy more than 97 percent of comedy AEW tries to do.

J.R. will be good to add gravitas to a big match but he doesn’t seem to be up on all the product and, at his age, can you blame him? Trying to keep up with four-plus hours and all the side content is hard enough for a guy like myself who works a 40-plus hour a week job. At J.R.’s age, I’m sure he has better things he’d like to do.

Ultimately, I think bringing in a professional announcer who has an interest in pro wrestling is what AEW needs, someone new to the national scene and not a retread. Someone like a Walker Stewart from New Japan.