AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: Why Will Ospreay’s story with Jon Moxley is turning into a best case scenario, but Owen Hart Tournament is not

Welcome everyone!

My apologies about my column being late last week. You didn’t notice? Well never mind then!

Another week of AEW television is in the books and AEW World Champion Darby Allin had two more brutal title defenses. This run has really been amazing to watch. While the star power of his matches has been questionable, Sammy Guevara and Speedball Mike Bailey I’m looking at you, each match has shown how hard Darby works when he is inside the ring. I also feel like Darby wanted his title reign to be memorable and not feel like a token title reign. For me it’s worked.

So let’s look back at this last week and how I felt things turned out. Remember, I do not put the AEW World Champion on my list because they are not rising at that point. They are atop the mountain. Here we go!

RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

WILL OSPREAY

What a story they are telling with Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley. From bitter enemies, to respected fighters, to now friends? While it hasn’t been a smooth story I think where they have landed, after last week, is best case scenario.

We are just over 2 months since Ospreay came back from injury. He returned at AEW’s Revolution in March and immediately attacked the Death Riders. Ospreay then lost his match against Mox at Dynasty. This was followed by a loss on Dynamite to Mark Davis and Ospreay was, what we thought, abducted by Mox and the Death Riders.

Since then we have watched as Mox has tried to help Ospreay go back to being a “bird of prey” in the ring. We have had good vignettes showing the growing relationship between Ospreay and Mox.

Then we got the “new” Ospreay in the ring as he had a match against Ace Austin. During the match Ospreay did Ospreay things but one change was how he went after Acela arm with repeated kicks. This felt very Mox influenced. Then Ospreay won the match with a submission. Again, this felt very Mox influenced.

After the match The Opps came out, acting like the boys who didn’t get picked to be Ospreay prom date. They threatened to attack Ospreay for not joining them before the Death Riders came out. In the end not a lot happened post match. What I watched was Mox during this. He was looking at Ospreay like a proud father watching his son grow.

We all know the story hasn’t been perfect but I do like where they have landed. Plus there feels like a lot of stories they can tell as Mox transforms Ospreay. One big one is how will the rest of the Death Riders feel as Ospreay becomes Mox’s favorite. Should be fun.

Now, I like this story but, I am going to contradict myself a little bit with my fading part of this column.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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FADING STAR OF THE WEEK

MEN’S OWEN HART TOURNAMENT

I will start by saying, I love tournaments in wrestling. They have been used as great storytelling tools since I was a kid. I grew up during the beginning of the WWF King of the Ring tournaments. This was how, my favorite wrestler growing up, Bret Hart started to become a main event guy. Winning KOR in 1991 and his first WWF World Title a year later. WWF then used a tournament a decade and change later to get Chris Jericho into the main event scene in the early 2000’s.  So I see what they can do.

Here is one issue with this years Mens Owen Hart tournament and it’s the star power. Last years final four in the Owen was Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, Will Ospreay, and the winner Hangman Adam Page. That is a really big foursome.

Looking at the brackets, my guess would be, the final four could be Will Ospreay, Mark Davis, Swerve Strickland, and Brody King. That’s a step down for the semi finals. Davis has had a great year but he is not Fletcher, Takeshita, or Page. Brody has also been portrayed in a better way but he’s more of a gatekeeper type than a true main event guy. Swerve just feels like the obvious other finalist.

This year just has, what looks like, a clear cut winner in Ospreay. Will there still be good matches? Of course, but that’s not all that matters. Last year felt like there were more stakes in the tournament. This year it feels like low level minor league baseball. Where most are paid to play because 1-2 guys on the team might be good enough to make it to the majors. Everyone else is just there so the top talent can develop. Everyone else is in this tournament so Will Ospreay has someone to beat on his way to All In.

Maybe I’m wrong and we will get a surprise at the end, like last year but I don’t think so. Sadly, with who is in the tournament, outside of Swerve, who would feel big enough to be in the main event at All In?

AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: