All Elite Wrestling: The names you need to know

As AEW is a new wrestling promotion, there are a lot of talent on the roster that you may not be familiar with. There are also a surprising number of folks you may be familiar with, especially if you’ve watched WWE at any point in the past 10+ years. Let’s take a look at the All Elite. 

People You May Know From WWE

Cody

“The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, son of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, brother of Dustin “Goldust” Rhodes, and very good friend of “The Green Arrow” Stephen Amell. As strong of a statement as it is, without Cody, All Elite Wrestling most likely wouldn’t even exist. After all, it all sort of snowballed from Cody’s tweet about how he could ensure that Ring of Honor (ROH) — the promotion he and his AEW buddies were working at at the time — could sell out a 10,000+ seat arena. The show ended up unofficially being the first AEW show (as the show didn’t end up being an ROH show, specifically, but AEW didn’t exist yet), All In. Billed as "The Biggest Independent Wrestling Show Ever," with an attendance figure of 11,263 people, All In was the first non-WWE/WCW event in the United States since 1993 to sell 10,000 tickets. Now, Cody is one of AEW’s Executive Vice Presidents, as well as #1 Contender to the AEW World Championship. (Also, watch that promo above. That’s one hell of a promo. How does a guy who can cut that good of a promo — unscripted — not be your top guy?) 

Brandi Rhodes 

To WWE-only fans, Brandi — wife of Cody — Rhodes is most likely best known as former SmackDown ring announcer (from 2013-2016) Eden Stiles. Her time as a ring announcer was also most notable for how she would say Kevin Owens’s name. In May 2016, when Cody was granted his release from the company, Brandi followed suit. Since following her husband out of the company and along on his wrestling journey since then, Brandi has also embarked on a wrestling journey of her own, training and wrestling in addition to accompanying Cody during his matches. Like Cody, she serves both an onscreen and behind the scenes role for AEW. Behind the scenes, Brandi is AEW’s Chief Brand Officer. Onscreen, she’s a manipulative queen who has women like Awesome Kong do her bidding so she doesn’t have to get her hands dirty in the ring. And now she seems to have turned to the dark arts, something her husband hasn’t noticed because he’s been too preoccupied with Chris Jericho. 

Dustin Rhodes 

If you know Cody — or even if you don’t — you know Dustin Rhodes. Dusty Rhodes’ other son, Goldust himself. When Goldust first returned to WWE back in 2013 — in easily the best shape of his career, now clean and sober — he received plenty of “YOU STILL GOT IT” chants but not many opportunities to really show how much of “it” he still has. With AEW, he’s gotten to prove just how far (and how well) he can go, even though he’s clearly winding down in his career and not exactly center stage here in his brother’s promotion. At Double or Nothing, he and Cody had a bloody one-on-one epic, the match everyone had hoped for — and still knew could happen, if given the time and attention — back when WWE barely did Goldust vs. Cody’s Stardust.  

Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho isn’t The Rock or “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in terms of casual wrestling audience name recognition, but he’s still pretty high up there. And unlike his two contemporaries, he’s still going in the ring. Not in a sad, “Randy the Ram” way either: In fact, the past three years or so of Jericho both inside and outside of a WWE ring have been some of the most entertaining of his career. Even when he’s dressed like “A Clockwork Orange Mid-life Crisis Dad.” Actually, especially when he’s dressed like that. All of this is to say, Chris Jericho being the inaugural AEW World Champion was the perfect choice, and surprisingly, the fact that he was previously considered a WWE lifer (post-WCW, of course) is actually somewhere at the bottom of the list as to why it was such the perfect choice. Sure, he lost the title at a Longhorn Steakhouse immediately after winning it — after a little bit too much of the bubbly… and probably some “Yeah Boys!” — but that doesn’t change the fact that he is Le Champion, the leader of the Inner Circle, and [insert every other Jericho nickname here]. 

Jon Moxley

The name may not be familiar, but you sure as hell know him if you’ve watch WWE in the past five years at least. Renee Young’s husband and the man formerly known as “The Lunatic Fringe” and one-third of The Shield, Dean Ambrose, decided to leave WWE after his contract ran out at the end of April 2019. Since then, he’s gotten back to his roots — both hardcore and technical — in a way he hadn’t gotten to in years on WWE’s main roster. Since he made his surprise debut at AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view (its first official pay-per-view), Moxley has made enemies with pretty much everyone he’s encountered in the company, but he’s especially been laser-focused on Kenny Omega. The two men were supposed to face-off against each other at AEW’s All Out pay-per-view, but Moxley ended up not being medically cleared for the match, due to an MRSA staph infection in his elbow. At Full Gear, Moxley and Omega will finally meet one-on-one in a Lights Out match, an unsanctioned match where anything goes. 

PAC

Another case of a different name in WWE, back in the other company, “The Bastard” PAC was known as “The King of the Cruiserweights” Neville. (He’ll still always be “The Man That Gravity Forgot” though, regardless of ring name.) In WWE, Neville was seemingly held down by a glass ceiling in the form of the Cruiserweight Division and walked out of the company in the fall of 2017. He was eventually released in August the following year, and then two months later (and about a year after he first walked out of WWE), he returned to the Dragon Gate promotion in Japan as PAC, his ring name on the indy circuit prior to signing with WWE in 2012. In January 2019, it was announced that PAC (pronounced "pack") was All Elite, a member of the AEW roster, but after being booked for AEW Double or Nothing against “Hangman” Adam Page, the match was canceled. (However, the match still happen, technically —  in the UK about a week before Double or Nothing — and it provided reasoning for why it would not happen at Double or Nothing. AEW even uploaded the match to their official YouTube channel.) PAC ended up making his official AEW debut at the All Out pay-per-view back in August, filling in for Jon Moxley in singles match against Kenny Omega, which PAC won. He then defeated Page once again on the premiere episode of AEW’s weekly TV show, AEW Dynamite, and will face off against him at Full Gear. 

Shawn Spears

If there’s one wrestler Cody Rhodes would always speak highly of during his time both in and out of WWE, it was Shawn Spears. As “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger in WWE it seemed that, as good as he was, he’d always remain in WWE developmental. His first stint in WWE developmental (OVW) was as Shawn Spears from 2006-2008 before he had his brief moment in WWE ECW (as Gavin Spears from 2008-2009) and subsequent release, and then he returned to WWE development (NXT) in 2013 as Tye Dillinger, where he finally developed the catchy “The Perfect 10” character. In 2017, Dillinger was finally called up to the main roster but requested and received his release in February 2019. In a statement he posted on Twitter after requesting his release, Spears noted, “I wish to continue to grow as a performer and offer those paying hard-earned money to watch a show I'm performing on, a little more of myself.” That may, he made his AEW debut at Double or Nothing in a pre-show battle royal. However, at the following pay-per-view — Fyter Fest — Spears turned on his good friend Cody, hitting him with a chairshot to the the head after Cody’s match against Darby Allin. From that point on, Spears has called himself “The Chairman of AEW,” set to prove to Cody and everyone watching AEW that he’s more than just “a good hand” (something he’d been considered through all his time in WWE). With WWE Hall of Famer and Four Horseman Tully Blanchard by his side, he’ll be taking off Joey Janela at Full Gear. 

Jake Hager

You may have known him as “The All-American American” Jack Swagger — and for his xenophobic “Real American” gimmick, with the catchphrase “We the People” — in WWE, but here in AEW, Jake Hager is Chris Jericho’s (thankfully) silent muscle in his Inner Circle. The most interesting thing (at least, that’s depicted onscreen) about Hager in AEW is that Jericho, the metal head that he is, pronounces his last name “Hagar.” As in Sammy. 

People Who Were Wrestling Stars Outside of WWE  

The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

When Cody got to work on All Out, he did so with the help of The Young Bucks, arguably the top tag team in the world (outside of WWE and possibly even if you still include WWE for comparison). All three men were in ROH at the time, as well as New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and now all three are also Executive Vice Presidents in AEW. From getting over (with duelling chants of “LET’S GO YOUNG BUCKS / F**K THE YOUNG BUCKS”) in SoCal’s super indy Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) to their baffling time as Generation Me (who at least had great matches with the Motor City Machine Guns) to becoming part of wrestling’s Mount Rushmore to to joining the Bullet Club to becoming the glue in well-oiled trios (with men like Kevin Owens nee Steen, AJ Styles, Adam Cole, and Kenny Omega), The Young Bucks are either responsible for changing the business or killing the business, depending on who you ask. As part of NJPW’s Bullet Club, the Bucks ushered in a new era for both the Japanese wrestling company’s popularity in America and its “too sweet” faction (as well as ROH, which really took a hit after they and other AEW talent left), leading to a lucrative t-shirt deal with Hot Topic… on top of their already lucrative t-shirt sales courtesy of ProWrestlingTees.com. (One of the biggest criticisms of AEW before the official announcement and premiere of its weekly show, Dynamite, was that it’s “just a t-shirt company.” Again, a fairly lucrative t-shirt company but still.) While one would assume they’d be the odds on favorite to become the inaugural AEW Word Tag Team Champions, the Bucks actually fell to the darkhorse team Private Party in the quarterfinals of the championship tournament. At Full Gear, they’ll be taking on members of Jericho’s Inner Circle, Proud-N-Powerful. 

Kenny Omega

His win-loss record in AEW wouldn’t suggest it, but Kenny Omega is actually considered — in a lot of circles — the best wrestler in the world. He cemented that legacy during his tenure in NJPW, particularly his four epic matches against Kazuchika Okada (his competition for the best in the world title) centered around the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. So after creating that legacy in Japan, the Canadian Omega — from Winnipeg, Manitoba, just like Chris Jericho — has taken quite the leap in jumping to AEW (where he is also an Executive Vice President).    

“Hangman” Adam Page

The clear ingenue of AEW, “Hangman” Adam Page is much more than his hunky, long-haired Stephen Amell looks. Page signed with ROH back in 2011 and was thrust pretty quickly into a major profile feud (and them team-up) with the gatekeeping faction The Decade. But it wasn’t until 2016 that he became a star, technically over night, when he joined Bullet Club, became the “Hangman,” and got to wrestle in NJPW for the first time ever (which allowed him to finally wrestle full-time, having worked a day job as a high school teacher). The following year, he won his first title in ROH — the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, with The Young Bucks — and around that time, he also had a gimmick all about his penis. (It’s a whole… thing. Watch All In and “Being The Elite.” See, there is more than one “dick wrestler” in wrestling. Again, a whole thing.) Now in AEW, Page promises to do “cowboy shit,” after failing to defeat Jericho in the match to crown the inaugural AEW World Champion. Specifically against PAC at Full Gear — which is actually named after a “Being The Elite” bit about Page — after how PAC tried to take him out back in their match in the UK.

The Lucha Brothers

Lucha Underground (R.I.P.) gave us a lot of great things — other than Jake Strong — but two of the greatest things it gave us were Pentagon and Fenix. And Lucha Underground never even acknowledged (or need to acknowledge) in its four season-run that these two titans were real-life brothers. But that has been acknowledged everywhere outside of Lucha Underground that these two larger-than-life — for very different reasons — characters are, in fact, lucha brothers. The hard-hitting Pentagon and the high-flying Fenix are a sibling duo who can truly give The Young Bucks a run for their money — and have, at All Out — and were the other favorites to become inaugural AEW World Tag Team Champions. Since that didn’t work out, they’re going to have to try all over again at Full Gear, when they face champions SCU and Private Party in a three-way match for the title.  

Best Friends (Trent? and Chuck Taylor)

Technically, you remember know Trent? from WWE, but that’s only if you were either really into the Dude Busters or really into original recipe game show-turned-“Lost” island NXT (R.I.P. NXT Redemption) and WWE Superstars circa 2010-2013. You probably weren’t. But since then Trent? (or Trent… or Baretta… or Beretta… or Trent Beretta… or Greg) has been proving he’s actually really good at professional wrestling, on the indies and especially in NJPW. In 2015, Trent started teaming with Rocky Romero in NJPW as Roppongi Vice, and together, they became four-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, as well as 2016 Super Jr. Tag Tournament winners. However, Trent’s tag team heart truly belonged to another, Chuck Taylor. Billed as the Best Friends, Trent and Chuck were actually a tag team first, forming in PWG in 2013 and winning PWG’s DDT4 (an, at the time, annual tag team tournament) in 2014. (That win guaranteed a title shot against PWG’s Tag Team Champions at the time, The Young Bucks.” They lost.) As for Chuck Taylor, “The Kentucky Gentleman” — a talented wrestler with a strong propensity for comedic wrestling — has made a career out of being self-deprecating about the fact that no major company wanted to sign him. In fact, he had an entire farewell retirement tour in 2015 and even admit that the reason he planned to retire was because “none of the bigger promotions” wanted him. (At this point, Trent was wrestling in NJPW with Rocky as his partner.) However, he ultimately didn’t end up retiring, and in 2017, signed with ROH (which then led the way for him to debut in NJPW) and becoming PWG Champion, where he stayed until 2019, to join AEW. 

Proud-N-Powerful (Santana and Ortiz)

Now part of Jericho’s Inner Circle, Santana and Ortiz were originally known on the indy scene as EYFBO’s Mike Draztik and Angel Ortiz. However, it was signing with Impact Wrestling (fka TNA) in 2017 that put them on the map, when they joined (as Santana and Ortiz) the latest incarnation of the faction LAX. In this version, Santana and Ortiz were the active tag team, with Konnan returning as team manager.  Over the course of their time in Impact, LAX quickly cemented themselves as the tag team to beat and one of the best tag teams in the world, winning the Impact World Tag Team Championship four times and feuding with teams like Sami Callihan’s OVE, The OGz (the original LAX pairing of Homicide and Hernandez), The Lucha Brothers,, and The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander). In August 2019, Santana and Ortiz left Impact, then debuted at the end of the month at AEW’s All Out, attacking both The Lucha Brothers. and The Young Bucks. After teaming with Jericho in the main event of the premiere of AEW Dynamite, he announced them — with their new tag team name, Proud-N-Powerful — as part of The Inner Circle. And now they're going against The Young Bucks at Full Gear. 

SCU (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, & Scorpio Sky)

Between all three members of SCU (aka SoCal Uncensored, like the publication ), they have a combined 64 years of wrestling experience. Put that way, they’re the perfect team to be the promotion’s inaugural tag team champions. All three men have been staples of the Southern California wrestling scene for their entire careers, but the biggest names of the trio are easily “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, also known as “Bad Influence” and “The Addiction,” who had been part of some of the most memorable storylines and feuds in TNA history. Before finally winning the ROH Championship in 2017 — having been with the company on and off since its first show in 2002 — Daniels was considered as the greatest wrestler alive never to capture the big one. After Daniels lost the title to Cody, Scorpio Sky eventually joined ROH and joined forces with Daniels and Kazarian to form SCU. But as for SCU’s character development and catchphrase (“This is the WORST town I’ve ever been in.”), that all came from “Being The Elite.” 

And Now a Word About... 

“Being The Elite”

In discussing the histories of so much of this talent, it’s important to also note how much of a hand the web series “Being The Elite” has had and continues to have in AEW’s existence. What started as The Young Bucks’s weekly travel vlog — with “The Elite” serving as a subset of Bullet Club originally consisting of just the Bucks and Omega, as well as a brand that they and certain Bullet Club members could use outside of the NJPW-owned Bullet Club — eventually became a longform storytelling tool for The Elite, in order to build characters (and catchphrases), move stories along, and promote their merchandise. In fact, during The Elite’s time in ROH, “Being The Elite” essentially did the company’s job for them, as The Elite’s stories and character development came from the web series itself instead of ROH’s weekly wrestling show. (See: Adam Page’s kidnapping.) You still kind of need to watching "Being The Elite" to fully get AEW, but at least the people behind the webseries are also in charge of the wrestling show now. In the fall of 2018, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega officially left Bullet Club. As did Cody, “Hangman” Adam Page, and  “The Villain” Marty Scurll (who is currently still signed to ROH), all officially becoming “The Elite.” 

People Who AEW Will Make Stars 

A Boy and His Dinosaur (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus)

Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus’ gimmicks are pretty much right there in their names, although the mystery kind of goes away when you know that the former is Luke Perry’s son and the latter was on “Big Brother” post-WWE developmental (though he got this particular gimmick from his time as Vibora on Lucha Underground… when everyone in the Temple just chanted “Luchasaurus” at him). But even without the mystique, these are two very talented and hungry young men go a long way back—10 years ago, when 24-year-old Luchasaurus was training to become a wrestler, so was a 12-year-old Jungle Boy. Also, they have this other tag team partner named Marko Stunt. He is somehow one of the most controversial figures in wrestling right now, simply for existing. 

Riho

First of all, outside of AEW, she’s also Kenny Omega’s tag team partner in Japan’s DDT Pro-Wrestling. (If there’s one thing the AEW roster proves, it pays to get in good with The Elite on the ground floor). As the inaugural AEW Women’s Champion, you really better hope AEW makes Riho a star. Her underdog showings on AEW pay-per-view and TV have definitely done the trick so far in getting the audience behind her, but it’s still too soon how long her reign will even last for them to root for her on that end. At Full Gear, she’ll be defending her championship against Japanese women’s wrestling legend Emi Sakura, her mentor and trainer.

Nyla Rose

Nyla Rose has already made history in AEW as the first openly trans woman to sign with a major American wrestling company, but one of the biggest surprises of AEW so far has been that she didn’t defeat Riho to become the inaugural AEW Women’s Champion. Especially considering how much she was a part of the promotion for the promotion and the weekly show leading up to all of it. But with Awesome Kong as a backstage mentor and a number of already impressive showings — even despite big losses — Nyla Rose is clearly in for the long haul with AEW and its women’s division. 

Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen)

One-third of Full Gear’s three-way match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, Private Party has been the most surprising team in all of AEW so far. While the other teams all have enough of a strong resume behind them — including The Hybrid 2 (Jack Evans and Angelico) and The Dark Order (formerly known as Super Smash Brothers, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) — Private Party are still a relatively new team, having made their debut in 2015. Their home promotion pre-AEW was New York indy House of Glory Pro Wrestling, where they faced off against the Bucks this past August. In fact, the Bucks personally hand-picked Private Party to be part of AEW. Since making their AEW debut at Fyter Fest in a three-way against Best Friends and SCU, Private Party have been an instant favorite for AEW fans. Really, all you need to see in Marq Quen’s Shooting Star Press once and you’ll be a fan too. 

Orange Cassidy

What happens when you take Paul Rudd’s character from “Wet Hot American Summer” and turn him into a wrestling gimmick? You get Orange Cassidy, the new third Best Friend and a wrestler who very clearly doesn’t want to wrestle. (Seriously, the reference point is “Wet Hot.” This is Orange Cassidy’s entrance theme on the indies.) Like The Young Bucks, there’s a lot of talk that Cassidy is killing the wrestling business, despite the fact that: 1. He’s easily the most popular wrestler wherever he goes, including AEW. 2. His gimmick clearly takes an incredible amount of skill to actually work, otherwise there would be a lot more Orange Cassidys successfully in the business. 3. Most clips of his work are just that, clips, not the full match. 4. At one point, he was Fire Ant of The Colony (a stable which featured many extremely talented wrestlers under the masks) in CHIKARA. The point is, it’s good to get freshly-squeezed once in awhile. Let Orange Cassidy freshly squeeze his way into your wrestling heart.  

Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.

With just four years as a professional wrestler under her belt, Britt Baker had been making quite the name for herself on the independent scene before signing with AEW. She also managed to become a dentist — a legit dentist, not just a wrestling gimmick — in that time, so now when she’s challenging her opponents, she’s doing so with the intimate knowledge of how to rip their jaws off. Back in July at AEW’s Fight for the Fallen pay-per-view, British wrestler Bea Priestley concussed Baker in the opening moments of this match. Since then, Baker has wanted her revenge and will presumably get it when she and Priestley go one-on-one at the Full Gear pre-show (at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT), The Buy In. 

Darby Allin

Somehow, Darby Allin isn’t on the card for Full Gear, but he’s done nothing but impress since making his AEW debut at Fyter Fest. He wrestled Cody to a time-limit draw, immediately revealing his all-heart and fearless style of wrestling. Later on AEW Dynamite, he challenged Jericho for the AEW World Championship in a Philly Street Fight, only falling to Le Champion after interference from Jake Hager. Technically, Darby Allin was a star in the indy promotion EVOLVE, but he himself has gone on the record a number of times since signing with AEW about how being in EVOLVE and part of World Wrestling Network (WWN) did nothing for getting his name out there, despite all of his hard work.

MJF

MJF has one Burberry scarf he always wears to the ring, which is of course a sign that he’s “Better Than You.” Yes, MJF is yet another rich douche, holier than thou gimmick, but the thing about MJF’s version of it is that he truly commits. Even when it leads to people like Joe Manganiello dunking on him on social media for insulting D&D and everyone judging him for his terrible taste in music. He also has layers, which is why he’s still able to be Cody’s trusted best friend and yet an absolute jerk to everyone (including Cody’s Elite stablemate, “Hangman” Adam Page) from wrestling Hall of Famers like Bret Hart to the entire AEW audience. (Because, inside baseball spoiler alert: It’s never made sense for heels to be only friends with other heels. Plenty of “good” people have asshole friends in real life.) 

Sammy Guevara

The young buck — no pun intended — of the Inner Circle, Sammy Guevara likes to call himself a “Spanish God.” He also vlogs and has the most punchable face in the world and the dumbest hair. He’s going to go far in this company, the little punk.