00:00Tony Khan has unshackled his wrestlers' creativity by not hiring writers, shunning
00:04heavy scripting, and largely letting the workers decide what they want to do character-wise.
00:10As a result, he has cultivated a roster comprised mostly of three-dimensional personalities.
00:16Eddie Kingston, Jon Loxley, Jade Cargill, Bryan Danielson, and many more are performers,
00:22but their character work rarely registers as a performance.
00:25But that doesn't mean that every character in AEW is perfect.
00:30Indeed, the people I'm going to talk about today are held back by their current personas
00:35and crying out for something new.
00:37I'm Andy from WhatCulture, and here are 10 AEW stars who desperately need new gimmicks.
00:4410.
00:45Kip Sabian
00:46The best thing about Kip Sabian being on this list is that he is getting a new gimmick.
00:51Maybe you've seen him in the crowd with a box on his head, or perhaps you've noticed
00:55him calling himself The Forgotten One on Twitter.
00:58Either way, Kip, who we haven't seen on screen since last May, is gearing up for something
01:04new.
01:05Here's hoping that he breaks through the creative ceiling when he eventually returns
01:08from injury.
01:109.
01:11JD Drake
01:12JD Drake is incredible.
01:14Well, you might not know it from what he does in AEW.
01:18Look, I like the wingmen.
01:20I think they're fun.
01:21But there's a chasm between those wacky jobber characters and what Drake does best.
01:27Namely, bringing his Arn Anderson influences out and caving people's chests in with big,
01:33meaty chops.
01:34AEW audiences have only seen flashes of the violence this bruiser inflicts on the indies.
01:41Repackaged as his hard-nosed, blue-collar badass self, JD would open many an eye in AEW.
01:48Or, better yet, bring in the excellent, underrated Anthony Henry, run the work Horseman in AEW,
01:54and let one of the best independent tag teams of the decade do their thing.
01:58It would be a lot better than being in the wingmen.
02:028.
02:03Chris Statlander
02:04This is gonna sound a little bit weird, but, I mean, it's true, so I'm gonna say it anyway.
02:09The galaxy's greatest alien is not a supernatural gimmick.
02:13Chris Statlander doesn't hang out with little green men, teleport, or pilot a UFO.
02:18She boops noses and hails from the Andromeda Galaxy.
02:22That's pretty much it.
02:24Nose boops and other quirks are only gonna take her so far.
02:27And now, having become one of the best and most reliable wrestlers in her division, she
02:31is indeed changing gimmick.
02:33A new character to match her tremendous in-ring skills is exactly what was needed.
02:397.
02:40Tony Nese
02:41You sign Tony Nese because he's gonna do a very good professional job every single time
02:45he's in the ring.
02:47He's a fantastic athlete with a diverse, exciting style, but the issue is that those adjectives
02:52can't yet be applied to what he does outside the ring.
02:56Mark Henry was right when he claimed that the premier athlete doesn't leap off the page
03:00on the microphone.
03:01So, whether that means pairing him up with a mouthpiece or coming up with something different
03:05entirely, it would be good to see a little bit of work going in to helping Tony Nese
03:09find his voice.
03:106.
03:11Wheeler Yuta
03:13Introducing Wheeler Yuta as a best friend was a really good idea, given his connections to
03:17Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor.
03:19But the 25-year-old hasn't yet demonstrated whatever it is that's gonna make him stand
03:23out on the character front.
03:25So maybe, after getting smacked in the mouth by William Regal, it's time to finally do that.
03:31Yuta is a long-term project whose young age gives AEW plenty of time for tweaks.
03:36There's no express need to package him with an immediately marketable gimmick just yet,
03:41but it would be a shame to see the fantastic Regal interaction going to waste.
03:465.
03:47Varsity Blondes
03:48With Julia Hart in the midst of a Malachi in black-induced transformation via toxic mist
03:53becoming increasingly aloof and detached from Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison in the
03:58process, now would be a good time to give the Varsity Blondes something new.
04:02Whether they're gonna progress as a tag team or maybe even go their separate ways, it
04:06would be a good idea for both men to get rid of the Varsity jackets and the hair metal soundtrack,
04:11even if it's probably gonna be a while before they are seriously pushed.
04:154.
04:16The Men of the Year
04:17Scorpio Sky is the TNT Champion at the moment.
04:20Fair play, he's a talented guy and an AEW original.
04:24But he and Ethan Page aren't getting much in the way of crowd reactions at the moment,
04:28and when you consider how over the other people who held the TNT title were, that's not great.
04:35The current Men of the Year presentation is a little overcooked.
04:38Goofy rather than hateable, forced rather than natural, they need to find something that's
04:43a little less, well, WWE Raw.
04:45AEW should at least try to give Scorpio Sky TNT Champion a chance to get over.
04:52But, at this moment, they're kind of swimming against the tide.
04:56Course correction begins with a better, more focused character that isn't so reliant on
05:01over the top mannerisms and worn out tropes.
05:043.
05:05Jungle Boy
05:06Maybe today isn't the day.
05:08Maybe it won't be tomorrow or even a month or two from now.
05:11But one day, Jungle Boy is gonna need to shed the more gimmicky aspects of his AEW presentation
05:17if he's ever going to emerge as the company-carrying babyface his pillar status demands.
05:23At some stage, the fantastic 24-year-old is gonna need to lose the little booties and other Tarzan mannerisms.
05:30He's already pretty damn great, but at some point, the boy needs to become a man.
05:36Jim Ross's insistence on referring to Jungle Boy by his real name, Jack Perry, may end up serving as inadvertent future-proofing.
05:45The light reboot will eventually prove critical to long-term success.
05:492.
05:50Penta Oscuro and Alex Abrahantes
05:54Oh boy.
05:55It pains me to do this one, because I love Penta and I love Death Triangle, but Penta Oscuro has been such a flop that it's already unsalvageable.
06:05We are supposed to receive this darker gimmick as an imposing nightmare, yet he looks like a bloody cartoon character.
06:12The prop shovel and headstone are fiend-like in that they almost make the gimmick slapstick.
06:17Alex Abrahantes, meanwhile, is a great guy by all accounts, but he resembles a villain more fit for a kid's Halloween party than a dark priest or whatever he's supposed to be.
06:28Penta is too much of a cartoon pack, has nothing to chew on, Alex is better suited in other roles, and yeah, we need to rethink this Death Triangle thing.
06:39AEW might as well rip it up and start again whenever Rey Fenix gets back.
06:441.
06:45Most of the Dark Order
06:47They're a lovable group, the Dark Order, and each of them has plenty to offer on screen and off.
06:52But the group has lost much of its purpose since Hangman Adam Page became AEW world champion, and now they require a few tweaks here and there.
07:00Evil Uno and Stu Grayson haven't wrestled a traditional two-on-two tag team match since August 2021 on TNT or TBS.
07:07Alan Angels recently lost his mask, but hasn't been developed beyond that.
07:12John Silver, meanwhile, remains a blistering in-ring dynamo, but the Johnny Hungy bit is now a bit irritating instead of being endearing,
07:21and Ten, for all his brawn, doesn't really do anything beyond standing in the background and looking gigantic.
07:27For what they have come to represent in the wake of Brodie Lee's tragic passing, the Dark Order should always have a place in AEW.
07:34They come off as a lively group of genuine friends on this roster, but so few of the stable genuinely stand out these days,
07:41suggesting that the gimmick needs work, even if the changes are minor rather than major.
07:47So that's our list.
07:48But what do you guys think?
07:49Let us know down in the comments section below.
07:52After that, don't forget to like, share, subscribe and ring the bell for notifications.
07:56Then you can follow us on Twitter at WhatCultureWWE and myself at AndyHMurray where you can tell me how wrong I am.
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