Last week gave away that this AEW Original is pretty much finished, but Joe shined and Statlander has momentum – AEW RISING AND FADING STARS

Welcome everyone!

Another week of AEW is in the books. Darby Allin was in the main event on Dynamite and I love that.

Despite what I’ve said about his use of fire, Darby has been my favorite overall character in AEW the first six years. “Hangman” Adam Page may have overtaken that. but that was more because Darby wasn’t around than me losing love for Darby.

Darby has been so compelling since the first time you saw him wrestle for AEW., which was a time limit draw with one of the WWE World Champion’s Cody Rhodes through all the teaming with Sting and now his war with Jon Moxley.

Anyways, with a quick turn around for Title Tuesday, let’s get to this weeks list!

Rising Star of the Week

Kris Statlander

• AEW Wonen’s World Champion
• One of the first women signed to AEW

Either Stat is rising up to look like a main event player or the people around her this week are helping maker her look like one. Which one is it? I’m not sure, but does it matter which it is? Not at all.

Statlander’s promo on Dynamite was not the best, but the follow-up was. The mixed tag match main event of Stat & Darby vs. Wheeler Yuta & Mirina Shafir was really good. Stat looked dominant over both Shafir and Yuta. The highlight was her slamming Shafir’s bare feet into thumbtacks brought out by Yuta.

Then on Collision, she looked like she belonged in the same ring with Toni Storm during an in-ring segment. It was a weird promo, but most of Storm’s promos are on the weird side and Stat isn’t exactly normal. Isn’t she an alien or something? Anyways, I’m glad they went with a playful but serious promo. I love that they played up the fact that they have both been in AEW for years now, Stat is an AEW OG and Storm has been around since spring 2022, but this will be their first one-on-one encounter.

The two opponents at WrestleDream will now team up this coming week at Daily’s Place against a common enemy in The Triangle of Madness. The Triangle came out and attacked Storm and Stat with Thekla reminding both of them that they have never beaten her. Then Thekla challenged them for a match. Will they be able to work together?

1st Runner Up: Samoa Joe

• Former AEW World Champion
• ROH Hall of Fame Inductee ‘22
• 3x Champion in AEW(World, TNT, and Trios titles

Let me give you my word-for-word reaction to when “Hangman” Adam Page “disrespected” Samoa Joe. Are you ready? “Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT! Hangman just pissed off Joe!!!! Holy shit here we go!!”

That was all it took to get me invested in the two of them wrestling. Something so small and do you know why? Because Joe is that believable because of his years and years in the business. It took 30 seconds to take a guy who has been mainly in tag or trios matches and ramp him up into a World Title contender.

That is not something you can do with just about anyone on the roster but with Joe it works. I’m hooked to see where he and Hangman go from here.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the “All Elite Conversation Club” with Joel Dehnel and Gregg Kanner, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “pwtorch” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

Fading Star of the Week

Chris Jericho

• AEW Original
• AEW’s 1st World Champion
• Staple of AEW shows for 5 years

Well you knew he was going to end up on this list eventually. The lack of anything Jericho on the 6th anniversary show felt, at the very least, weird. Yeah, there were quick clips of him in the one highlight package, but that’s not enough. In my opinion, if AEW had plans or a want to bring him back, this was a chance to do that.

How and why do you bring him back, you ask? It’s easy to me. Your AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page lost his first chance to win the AEW World Title against who? That’s right, Chris Jericho.

I am all for the Samoa Joe and Hangman match; frankly, it will be a better match. That said, Having Jericho put over someone, potentially, on his way out is what should happen. It doesn’t need to be Hangman, but that story would have worked.

So have we seen the last of Jericho in AEW forever? Honestly, it feels like we may have despite there being ways he could be used on his way out. Then having watched Jericho for over 30 years, I doubt he would care about putting guys over on the way out. So maybe we haven’t seen the last of him.