AEW: Will ‘Powerhouse’ Hobbs on Team Taz is great… for now

Will ‘Powerhouse’ Hobbs recently joined Team Taz. What does this mean for his role in AEW moving forward?

Over the past few weeks of AEW programming, one thing has been clear: AEW is all in on Will Hobbs (now known as Powerhouse Hobbs), and for good reason.

Hobbs has been a great example of a wrestler who has progressed from appearing in losing bouts on Dark to being a Dynamite regular. It’s been quite the treat to see Hobbs go from continually impressing on those Dark matches, to getting on Saturday night Dynamite and All Out’s Casino Battle Royale, to winning his first Dark match before finally signing with the company on September 17th, 2020.

If you aren’t sold on how much potential AEW sees in Hobbs yet, check out current champion Jon Moxley go out of his way to put him over in this promo. It’s seriously amazing mic work from Moxley, and a pretty genius way to get people even more excited for Hobbs becoming a regular on Dynamite. Unfortunately, the corresponding three-on-three match was canceled, leaving Hobbs in more of a supportive role for a while in Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin’s feud with Team Taz.

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But on the November 18th episode of Dynamite, Hobbs finally made his big move in the form of a swerve, as he betrayed Cody and Darby and joined Team Taz.

At the time, it was a pretty great surprise. There always was – and largely still is – an air of mystique to Hobbs. Sure, he was down to help Moxley and gave the impression that he was willing to help Cody and Darby, but a lot of his allegiances were left ambiguous. It was very well played and showed that he is more than willing to betray people to get what he wants.

But now that the surprise has worn off, and after an impressive squash against Lee Johnson with Taz providing commentary on the most recent episode of Dynamite, is Powerhouse Hobbs joining Team Taz a good idea for the wrestler?

Absolutely… for now at least.

Powerhouse Hobbs in Team Taz is a great step in his career, but not a destination.

There are certainly positives to joining Taz, Brian Cage, and Ricky Starks. For starters, Taz can be great at drumming up excitement for his clients. It’s certainly never a boring experience when Taz is on the mic, even if there are only so many ways to say that your wrestler is intimidating and will definitely win. It also makes plenty of sense from a story standpoint for Hobbs to learn from the more experienced Taz and Cage.

Team Taz is also gearing up for a war against the Nightmare Family, meaning that there will be plenty of potential future matches, and it is all but guaranteed that Hobbs will be involved and shine in them.

That being said, there is admittedly a tendency for Taz to take the spotlight a little too much compared to the wrestlers he manages. Just look at the most recent Powerhouse Hobbs match, which was overtaken and overshadowed by an admittedly fantastic Taz promo and confrontation with Cody Rhodes. Hobbs, unlike teammate Ricky Starks, hasn’t really established a vocal presence in AEW yet, and his opportunities to express himself as a character could be limited by the loud presence of his manager.

This is why I said his recruitment into Team Taz is great for now.

There’s plenty of completely justified potential for Team Taz in the near future, and it’ll be great to see Will Hobbs be involved with the matches and antics. However, it doesn’t seem like Hobbs is looking for a longterm brotherhood in AEW.

If you listen to Hobbs during his match against Lee Johnson, you can hear him say multiple times, “It’s just business”. While this is surely a reference to the two apparently being friends in the past, it also provides some insight into Hobbs’ motivations in AEW. He’s in it for success, and right now he feels that being in Team Taz will bring him success.

Could it be that Hobbs will feel that Taz’s services are no longer needed, and that he doesn’t need to share the spotlight?

While this probably isn’t some sort of MJF-esque long con, doublecrosses are something Hobbs is absolutely capable of, would be a really interesting development to his character, and his potential exists far beyond just being the new addition in a faction.

Above all else, it’s exciting to see Powerhouse Hobbs in a prominent AEW role, and that the promotion understands how big of a talent they have. Here’s hoping that his tenure with Team Taz will be as great as expected.