AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: Andrade is back and looks ready to make a main event impact, Julia Hart has been descending from her 2024 peak, plus praise for Taz

Welcome everyone!

First, how amazing was it to have Taz – and a heel Taz- back on commentary this week. If that’s how he is going to be going forward, I won’t mind the three-person announce desk with Excalibur, Taz, and Bryan Danielson.

On the other side of it, I felt like Paul Wight was awful on Collision. Just watch the ProShita vs. Austin Gunn & Papa Gunn match; Papa was Wight’s name for Billy Gunn. He then proceeded to try to put Gunn over more than two main event guys in Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita. It was just terrible.

Let’s get to my list. It’s going to be a short one this week.

RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

ANDRADE

If you heard me on my last Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-Show after AEW Dynamite with Wade Keller, then you might know how I feel about Andrade. First, he looks like a star. He carries himself like a star, above his push in recent years. In the ring he can also go. The disconnect, to me, was his lack of connection with the audience. He took some big steps this past weekend and should get boo’ed heavily against Swerve Strickland.

On Collision, Andrade faced and defeated CMLL star Magnus and I will have to say that at first I was worried. Andrade started the match in a T-shirt and pants doing typical Andrade things. Too much playing to the crowd for my liking, but that’s a big part of the Lucha Libre world. As Andrade went on, the match he looked better and better to me.

Andrade felt more vicious in some of his offense, which I loved. Then he took the shirt off to show the amazing shape he’s in. In such good shape he even took the pants off and was in your classic wrestling trunks, knee pads, and boots. He also appeared to get a young woman’s phone number in the front row after taking a selfie with her. All very heel-ish and I loved it.

After the match we finally heard from Andrade for the first time since he came back. He told us that he’s going for the AEW World Title and his next opponent is just in his way.

His next opponent is Swerve Strickland. That’s right, the franchise player (what he calls himself in his new song) against a guy who has a point to prove. We all know Swerve came into AEW with a chip on his shoulder and he was able to ride that into an AEW World Title run. Can Andrade be the next guy to do that? Time will tell.

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FADING STAR OF THE WEEK

JULIA HART

Julia Hart’s peak in AEW happened in 2024 when she won the TBS Title but only held it for 35 days. After that, it feels like she has regressed. While a part of House of Black and then Hounds of Hell, Hart use to get some big reactions when she came out. Now it feels like it’s quiet.

Part of that is because it felt like she could be a leader or co-leader of House of Black and/or Hounds of Hell. After both groups broke up, she just became the third member of a Thekla run group. Hart just faded to the back of that group so easily – not something I thought was possible 2 years ago.

Going forward, if AEW still wants Hart to be a part of the future, she needs to be more protected. She is just 24 and has lots of time left in her career and you don’t want to just bury her in the group. There is no reason Hart and Skye Blue shouldn’t be a total thorn in the side of the Babes of Wrath. Then next year when Hart finally turns face her feud with Thekla, if Thekla is over then and not buried, should reignite the fanbases love of Hart. Or maybe she’s just too small and got her shot at the winning the TBS Title because of he roster was less than at the time. Like I said before, only time will tell.