RADICAN’S TAKE: My list of the top 15 male wrestlers AEW booker Tony Khan should prioritize pushing and promoting

PWTorch editor Wade Keller posted an article with a poll today where readers could rank the top 15 male wrestlers that AEW booker and COO Tony Khan should prioritize pushing and promoting. It isn’t an easy exercise, as so many wrestlers on the roster feel like they are in about the same place in the current AEW ecosystem. The top three and bottom two wrestlers were fairly easy for me to rank, but beyond that, it was very difficult to separate the remaining ten wrestlers on the roster in terms of who Khan should prioritize and push.

Here is my top 15 list of AEW wrestlers Khan should prioritize pushing and promoting:

1. MJF
2. Swerve Strickland
3. Will Ospreay
4. “Hangman” Adam Page
5. Jon Moxley
6. Kyle Fletcher
7. Kenny Omega
8. Darby Allin
9. Kevin Knight
10. Andrade
11. Jay White
12. Kazuchika Okada
13. Konosuke Takeshita
14. Brody King
15. Jack Perry

MJF is a no-brainer in the top spot for me. He is the total package on the mic and in the ring and the company should be built around faces chasing him for the title. The second and third spots were a little tricky for me to slot, although I have no doubt both of these men belong in the top 3. Swerve Strickland is one of the best big match performers in AEW. He’s got a great personality, he can talk, he stands out with his look and how he carries himself. He can play face or heel or play a character somewhere in-between.

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Ospreay is such a dynamic performer, but the way his character has been presented makes me question whether or not he’s a true #2. Who is Will Ospreay? Is he the serious wrestlers with an edge that we’ve seen since he started associating with the Death Riders or is he the goofy babyface that is sometimes known to make a lewd comment about his wife that draws the re of a segment of AEW’s fanbase. I’d like the number 2 spot to be more defined as a performer.

I wouldn’t argue with anyone that picks Ospreay as number 2, but in my eyes Strickland has checked all the boxes needed when it comes to being put in the number 2 slot. I don’t have any questions about Strickland right now and his ability to portray a character worthy of the number 2 spot in my rankings. He’s a great storyteller in the ring and the intensity with which he carries himself is worthy of slotting him just under MJF on my list.

The rest of the list was a logjam for me except for the final two names. It was hard to position one wrestler over another in slots 4-13, so I did my best to differentiate them and slot them based on their body of work in AEW.  The only two wrestlers that seemed to be far away from the rest of the pack in terms of who Khan should push and prioritize on the male roster were Brody King and Jack Perry, who finished in the last two spots on my list.

How did you rank AEW’s top 15 male wrestlers that Tony Khan should prioritize pushing and promoting? Let me know at pwtorchsean@gmail.com.

(Sean Radican has been Pro Wrestling Torch for over 23 years. He has covered the independents, ROH, and NJPW in-depth over the years in addition to also watching all the major promotions in the U.S. PWTorch VIP members get access to his weekly Radican Worlwide podcast looking at a variety of news topics from the past week and then an in-depth Go-Home segment with a guest on a big topic of the week. You can contact him at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. You can follow him on X @SR_Torch and on Bluesky @SeanRadican.)