{"id":210773,"date":"2026-01-21T13:39:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=210773"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:39:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:39:01","slug":"editorial-with-hobbs-headed-to-wwe-a-case-for-a-top-wwe-star-who-would-benefit-from-a-change-of-scenery-to-aew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/01\/21\/editorial-with-hobbs-headed-to-wwe-a-case-for-a-top-wwe-star-who-would-benefit-from-a-change-of-scenery-to-aew\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL: With Hobbs headed to WWE, a case for a top WWE star who would benefit from a change of scenery to AEW"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-786739491\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>I used to be a big spoiler guy when it came to wrestling. I loved hearing about all the spoilers leaking from backstage on who was going to win the Royal Rumble, whose contracts are expiring and who is planning to go over in the big matches. Over the last few years though, I\u2019ve tried to stay away from all of that as much as I can now, so that I can just live in the moment when I\u2019m watching the shows.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve tried to do this in my personal life as well. I try to just live in the moment. I was lucky enough to attend the last two Patriots playoff games, and all around me there were people with their phones out filming the game. Put your phone down and watch the game! You are never going to watch those videos back again, but you\u2019ll always remember the excitement of being at the game, so just put your phone down and soak it all in.<\/p>\n<p>The reason I brought this up is because I was shocked when the Powerhouse Hobbs news broke that his contract had expired and he was gone. I totally get it, though. He has most likely reached his ceiling in AEW, and he might well have the same ceiling in WWE, but you have to go there to at least see what you can do.<\/p>\n<p>Wade Keller and Rich Fann had a conversation on their \u201cEverything with Rich and Wade\u201d VIP podcast last week, and Rich talked about who he thought could benefit most from going to AEW to WWE. He had Powerhouse Hobbs at the top of his list (Great call, Rich!). I really enjoyed the discussion, but I kept having one name pop into my head on who could really benefit from a jump from WWE to AEW: Seth Rollins.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Raw: C<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/wwe-raw-post-show-1-19-keller-barbati-could-styles-s-career-end-at-the-rumble-could-punk-vs-roman-be-wrestlemania-main-event-more--69513944\">LICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cwade Keller\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE RAW POST-SHOW (1\/19): Keller &amp; Barbati: Could Styles's career end at the Rumble? Could Punk vs. Roman be WrestleMania main event? More\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=69513944&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Now listen, I know that Seth is a WWE lifer, but if you talk about ceilings at a company, I believe Seth has hit his and I\u2019m not sure what is left for him to do in WWE. I can say with confidence that he is never going to be a night two main eventer at WrestleMania. He has accomplished everything in WWE except that and I\u2019m sad to say I don\u2019t think it ever happens unless he leaves.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve seen him and Roman Reigns, we\u2019ve seen him and Drew McIntyre, we\u2019ve seen him and C.M. Punk. Every few years, he\u2019s the leader of a new faction that really isn\u2019t that cool and he just kind of cuts the same type of promo week after week. Why not jump to AEW. Imagine Seth (or Tyler Black) vs. Will Ospreay, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, MJF, Swerve Strickland, Kazuchika Okada, Kyle Fletcher, and I could go on. It would immediately make him more interesting.<\/p>\n<p>The Seth Rollins character has been stale for a long time. Yes, the Summerslam moment was cool, but that was the most interesting Seth had been in a while. He was the fourth wheel in a Mania feud The Rock, Roman, and Cody Rhodes, and his pairing with Paul Heyman was not working. I found the Vision to be just another faction he was the leader of that was just \u201ceh\u201d. It will probably never happen just because of the business and family implications for him, but I thought it was a name that cold jump that could really shake up the industry.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-996989670\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Alright, enough of my pie in the sky ideas.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Taylor Halley authors the AEW Best Matches of the Week and AEW Best Promos of the Week columns here at PWTorch.com.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (1\/14) - AEW Dynamite w\/Keller &amp; Lilly\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UrldE8DhWgo?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3045055761\"><div id=\"pwtor-50905515\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>I used to be a big spoiler guy when it came to wrestling. I loved hearing about all the spoilers leaking from backstage on who was going to win the Royal Rumble, whose contracts are <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/01\/21\/editorial-with-hobbs-headed-to-wwe-a-case-for-a-top-wwe-star-who-would-benefit-from-a-change-of-scenery-to-aew\/\" title=\"EDITORIAL: With Hobbs headed to WWE, a case for a top WWE star who would benefit from a change of scenery to AEW\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,61,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-guesteditorials","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-29-at-6.25.58\u202fPM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210774,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210773\/revisions\/210774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}