AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: One veteran’s connection with the crowd isn’t being featured, a rising young star has earned his chance to move up the card

Welcome everyone!

Are you an early adopter of AEW? If you were, then I am sure last week was rough one for you as well. It’s nice to know we have a wrestling company like AEW who knows how to pay tribute to people. It was an emotional week, like I said, but I was reminded again why I support AEW.

I am just going to look back like I normally do on my column. This week was not storyline heavy so maybe some different people landed on my list.

Let’s get to it.

One last thing.

Rest in peace “Riff Master” Andy “The Butcher” Williams. You touched people like me through this crazy world of pro wrestling. You touched even more people, like my wife, through your music with Every Time I Die. Thank you, slick.

RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

NICK WAYNE

Nick Wayne is finally on this side of my column. I believe he has been on the fading side half a dozen times. Not for anything he did specifically, but how he was not being featured on television. We seem to, finally, be at a point where he is going to be regularly featured.

Nick has been a guy I have wanted AEW to get behind for a few reasons. First, his look is on point as he has grown up. Nick has continued to put on weight, which helps that. Second, he has improved more and more on the mic over his time with AEW. Third, Nick plays a jerk very well, having been next to Christian Cage for a time.

Right now is the perfect time for Nick to start his ascent up the card. Why? The likes of Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, and of course Will Ospreay are all poised to be full time main event guys. You need guys like Nick moving up the undercard to take over an open spot. Which is why his current feud can only go one way.

Nick has to come out of this Chris Jericho stuff as the winner. If Jericho sneaks a win on the first match and then Nick wins the feud that’s would be okay but not ideal. Honestly, I’d rather Nick wrestle Jericho twice and beat him handily both times. Jericho can absorb the loss.

Plus, how great would it be for Christian’s understudy to be overbearingly braggadocios about beating a former AEW World Champion for the next year or two? It would also start to build his resume, which already has him being the youngest champion in AEW history. I’m here for it.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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FADING STAR OF THE WEEK

“SPEEDBALL” MIKE BAILEY

The lovable Speedball has been, mostly, gone from Dynamite since the first Dynamite in June. Bailey lost to Kevin Night on that episode of Dynamite and since has only made four appearances on the main show. Bailey has not won a singles match on Dynamite since May, which was a squash.

We all knew Kevin Knight would take precedence when JetSpeed broke up but I don’t think anyone thought Bailey would just be on the B show going forward. He still gets a reaction when he comes out and during his matches, which makes the fact that he’s been regulated to Collision even more strange.

I will be curious to see if Speedball can get back to regular television time. He has the connection to the crowd to get there but there are a lot more guys who have just as strong or a stronger connection.