AEW needs to book a “Young Lions” Tournament to showcase new talent

While Tony Khan is having a lot of fun booking big names like Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, and Adam Cole, AEW wasn’t built by them. It was built by a group of so-called Young Lions who popularized the company over the past few years.

This doesn’t refer to the likes of Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, Cody Rhodes, or the Young Bucks. These are the stars who fill out the rosters of AEW Dark and AEW Elevation. And it’s time for them to shine in a tournament all of their own.

The growth of AEW

Much has been said about the booking of AEW since its inception, most of it good and some of it bad. One sore spot for fans early on was the Women’s Division, which had the talent but not the booking. That has certainly changed as it’s firing on all cylinders these days.

Part of AEW’s success has been the fact that they are happy to put a national spotlight on relatively unknown talent. Wrestlers like Fuego Del Sol, Lee Johnson, Will Hobbs, Red Velvet, and KiLynn King have done well enough for themselves to become recognizable.

While they are sometimes treated like jobbers, these wrestlers have still been given opportunities to make impressions on fans. These opportunities have not gone to waste, leading to people like Fuego being signed to the company.

The Young Lions of AEW Dark

These Young Lions have risen to prominence through AEW’s YouTube programming, which is arguably the bread and butter of the company. To be frank, it’s where their Women’s Division flourished before that success made its way to Dynamite.

Shows like Dark and Elevation provided AEW an opportunity to build new talent and hone their characters. This was all done without changing too much of what made them popular in the indies before bringing them on board.

At the same time, there’s more potential in these wrestlers than AEW is putting to use at this point. Some of the best talent on the roster has come out of this building process on YouTube, and it needs to be capitalized on.

A Young Lions Tournament

AEW has a large roster that keeps getting new, highly recognizable wrestlers added to it. As such, trying to stand out is getting harder and harder for younger talent. A Young Lions Tournament would go a long way to fixing that.

Focusing on talent who are primarily highlighted on Dark and Elevation, this event would give these wrestlers a chance to build their names. And the winner could receive a title shot at some point as well as a super keen trophy.

Frankly, you could easily do one for the Men’s Division and one for the Women’s Division quite easily. What matters is that a Young Lions Tournament could be a solid annual event for AEW, one that reaffirms their dedication to cultivating new talent.